Magazines Flashcards
First Two Magazines in the Colonies
Both originated in Philadelphia in 1741:
Ben Franklin’s General Magazine and Historical Chronicle
William Bradford’s American Magazine
(The former lasted 6 months, the latter 3months.)
There were several other short-lived attempts up to the revolution.
(too few readers and writers as well as high cost of publishing and distribution beyond a local market.)
It took till the end of the 1780’s for any to become financially successfully.
limited by relatively low literacy rates and the cost.
Potential subscribers were spread far and wide across the entire territory of the new republic.
Postal rates gave no break to magazines until 1794.
Copyright Act of 1790
Copyright Act of 1790 helped to stimulate the publishing industry.
Gave authors and publishers exclusive right to their publications for 14 years (renewable for 14 more).
Anyone else wishing to use protected material had to pay a royalty fee.
During this period, American magazines were aimed at
the better educated, wealthy and the small numbers of nascent the “middle class.”
In the early 1800’s the new trend was toward literary magazines…
popularizing emerging early American literature… particularly serialization of novels.
Saturday Evening Post
An early and long lasting example of this style magazine was the Saturday Evening Post (1821-1969) Covering weekly events Politics Art Reviews Travelogues Short stories Serialized fiction
First national magazines were politically oriented:
Port Folio organ of the Federalist featuring Hamilton’s Federalist Papers and the argument for a strong central government.
Opposed to this and a voice of the anti-federalist was the National Magazine of Richmond.
Magazines began to move their attention from
the elites to a wider and now more sustainable and growing mass audience.
Civil War Era
Magazines began to have a greater impact in the USA.
Harpers Weekly (started 1857) still alive and popular to this day.
It began as an illustrated weekly (in the fashion of today’s Newsweek, Time, and US News and World Report
Distinguishing Magazine and Newspapers in that Era
Newspapers were published daily
Emphasis on headlines
Daily events
Magazines published weekly or monthly
Offered more illustrations (then photos),
In depth coverage and analysis…
longer stories, investigative reporting.
Focus on trends rather than daily events.
Specialized Magazines began to Appear
Late 1800’s Women became the first successfully targeted audience.
Ladies Home Journal,
Good Housekeeping
McCall’s.
Stimulation to the Magazine Publishing Industry
Postal Act of 1879.
Magazines were awarded special mailing rates…
Subsidy still enjoyed today.
3rd class rates yet treated as 1st class mail.
Trends Affecting 20th Century Magazines
Population shifts from agricultural to industrial society.
Increased literacy
More leisure time
Concomitant increased interest in civic affairs
Increased desire to pursue learning
Publishers Provided More Choices
To an increasing variety of interest groups. Investigative mags,
digests,
news and
pictures
By the early 1900’s mags overtook newspapers as the conduit for investigative reporting and crusades for business and social reform.
Nationally circulated and inexpensive mags reached millions of readers and had a great impact on public opinion.
Muckraking moves to Magazines
Controversial content tended to draw larger and larger audiences.
Allowing Reporters to be freer than ever before to look into and expose unpleasant aspects of public life.
1902 McClures Magazine exposed practices of Standard Oil
Genre is still evidenced today by The Nation and Mother Jones
Magazines of the 20thCenturyAdapted to Change or Died
Advent of Radio &TV as mass media eroded circulation and ad revenue base.
Scribner, Century did not adapt to the new mass audience and disappeared.
Harper’s and Atlantic Monthly still hang on.
Magazines Illustrate the thesis of the development cycle of Mass Media
Elite Stage: Only for the richest and best educated
Popular Stage: The media truly commands mass Audience.
Specialization Stage: The medium becomes
Specialized and de-massified.
Early Targeted Magazines
The New Yorker was one of the first successful target audience magazines. Audience was upper class, educated, literate and sophisticated.
The New Republic Politics, current affairs, and intellectual trends from a liberal prospective…specially targeted audience composed of politicians, intellectuals, some business leaders, and college professors; groups that advertisers wanted to reach.
News Magazines
Weekly formula became fully developed in the early 20th Century: Newsweek and Time with US News and World Report following
Gather and summarized weekly events plus provided viewpoints as to context.
Large Format Picture Magazines
Life 1936 illustrated photojournalism with captions and short news analysis.
innovated a visual style that later fed into TV News
Prompted newspapers to include more pictures
With the rise of Television
Life lost audience and more importantly ad revenue. It did not survive as a weekly.
Newsweek and Time have survived in the era of TV dominance because
they balanced photos with more in-depth news and analysis
Visual appeal and visually displayed reporting are still critical to magazines.
BUT now they are targeted to very specialized and segmented niche audiences.
Specialization Continues
Name the interest group and they probably have a magazine devoted to them.
magazines for age groups & gender,
Vocation, Hobby, Interest, ….
A Few General Interest Magazines Still Surviving
TV Guide
People
Reader’s Digest
Any more?
1990’s Desktop Publishing
lowered the cost for entrance in magazine industry
but much turmoil and shakeout.
Many print magazines have turned to the web.
Also many web only zines have sprung up.
All have had great difficulty turning a profit because segmentation and specialization have gone to extremes that are economically unsupportable.
Economics of Magazine Publishing Today
Although audiences are targeted, to be profitable publishers must still strive for the largest audiences possible and follow economies of scale.
Those that thrive are most often gobbled up by conglomerates via acquisition or take over.
Revenue Sources
As with newspapers revenue comes from a mixture of sales as well as advertising.
As of 2000, consumer mags get lion share of sales revenue from subscriptions
Less than 20% from single issue sales.
But the largest share of Revenue comes from Advertising Sales 1998 the 225 consumer mags tracked by PIB ran more than 225,000 pages of advertising.
Industry Consolidation
1960’s more than 750 new mags appeared.
1985-89 1200 new mags. Of them less than 35% have survived.
Ziff Davis Group grew an empire during this time with interest in PC’s growth…PC Week, PC Magazine, MacWeek. Road the crest for almost 2 decades then came the internet.
People interested in the topic turn directly to the web for this targeted information… after decline ZiffDavis was bought out by CNET.
AOL Time Warner Group:
Time Life Fortune Sports Illustrated People Money
What are the largest circulating magazines today?
those that come as supplements to Sunday News Papers (Parade and USA Weekend)AARP’s Modern Maturity
Niche Magazines
Highly specific magazines and technical journals rely even more heavily on ad revenue.
Trade journals are often given away to professionals…
Advertisers are anxious to get to those audiences and are willing to pay to reach an exactly targeted audience.
