Magazines

The First Magazines

• Magazines didn't look like that until
after World War II. The first magazines,
in the 1700s, looked like....books.
• Magazines began as genteel soapboxes
from which literate men expounded
their points of view, in essay or satire.
Daniel Defoe started the first English
magazine, The Review, during or just
after his imprisonment for criticizing the
Church of England. His purpose: a
statesman or man of letters offers his
comment, criticism and satire to
• Joseph Addison, a high bred moralist and social critic,
followed the form in his essays for his friend Richard
Steele's Tatler. When the Tatler folded Addison created The
Spectator, the most famous of the early British journals. It
looked just like newspapers of the time: a daily 8 x 12-
1/2" one-page paper, printed on both sides. Again tiny
print, again no illustrations, and maybe half a column of
classified ads. Historians consider it a magazine because
instead of news, it printed comment. Each issue was written
by entirely by Addison or Steele; occasionally by a friend.
• Addison introduced the short informal essay and the short
fiction story to English literature in his magazine. The
Spectator lasted three years, but hundreds of others
appeared to replace it. Colonial Americans established their
magazines in the same style. Since Addison, prominent
literary/art personalities use magazines as one of the most
accessible vehicles of their point of view. They magazines
they create are usually not popular, but can be influential.
 History
• England
• 1741: Philadelphia’s American
Magazine
• 1741 – 1
• 1794: 45 new magazines (3/same
time)
• 1821: Saturday Evening Post (148
years)
• 1850: Harper’s
 Factors for Early Success
• Cheaper Printing (tech)
• Growing Literacy (edu)
• Spread of social Movements (Cult)
– Abolitionism; labor reform, women’s
rights
• Catering to U.S. readers (content)
• Magazine set itself apart from
other media like books and
newspapers
Mass Circulation

1879 Postal
Act
 Mass Circulation
• 1879 Postal Act:
– Cheap second-class postage rates
• Spread of railroad:
– Carried magazines from East to West
• Competition & advertising:
– Reduced price from 35 cents to 10 cents
– Industrialization: increased income &
leisure
 Increased Mass Circulation
1900: 200,000
1945: 32,000,000

• Dominant Advertising Medium w/ large

readership

• Special interest magazines:

– Women: Good Housekeeping
– Pictorial: Life
– Quick Variety: Reader’s Digest
 Loosing Ground
• The coming of Television
– Free Distribution
– TV medium audio-visual characteristics
– Continuous availability

• Post WWII Cultural change:

– Mobile life
– Product-consumerism
– Special interest
 Magazine Audience
• 94% subscribe to at least One
magazine
– Education: College
– Income >$40,000/year
– Careers: Professional/Managerial
• Typical reader:
– High School
– Married
– Owns House
– ≤ $40,000/ year income
 Kinds of Magazines
1. Trade, professional, business:
– Professional careers
2. Industrial, company, sponsored:
– Produced for employees, stockholders,
members
3. Consumer
– Subscription & newsstands for general
public
 Content & Target Audience
• Content is based on audience wants,
needs, interest & desire
– Business: Money
– Computer: PC World, Mac World
– Fashion: Elle, Vogue
– Men: Playboy, GQ
– News: Time, Newsweek
 Advertising
• Specialized readership
• Segmented target audience
• Split-runs: several versions for
specific demographics
• 2005: 243,305 ad pages in 224 mags
= $23 bil
 Circulation
• Subscription: avg. 85%
• It is an assured, ongoing readership,
sold under cover price, postage paid.
• Single –copy: unreliable, sold at full
price.
• Controlled Circulation: low cost
advertising, free to narrow target
meeting a criteria. Ex, airline
magazines.
• Custom Circulation: Individual
company reaching very narrow
target. EX, WebMD
• Two Kinds:
• Brand Magazine: readers usually do
business with. Ex., Cisco’s iQ
 Convergence
• Online magazines: Webzines
– Offer special interactive features
– Hard copy and/or Web presence
– http://www.time.com/time/
– Free access issue
• Custom Magazines
• Internationalization:
– Technology advances makes global
distribution cost-effective and easy
– Different languages editions
– Welling of subscriber’s lists to advertisers
 Advertorials
• Advertorials are ads that appear in
magazines and take on the
appearance of genuine editorial
content.
• It boosts the value of magazines as
an advertising medium
• Goal: place commercial content in
front of readers
• Issue: Blurs the line? Is it journalism
or advertising?
 Advertising Pressure
• Influence on Content
• Satisfying advertisers & readers
• Ad placement in relation to content
articles.
– Airline ads away from airplane crash stories
– Cigarette ads away from health stories
• Self Censorship:
• Ad-pull policy:
– review content
– threat to pull ad if unpleased with content
 Power of Graphics
• Media literacy is essential to understand
techniques