Magazines

Mass Medium Specializes

The First Magazines

• Since the 1740s, magazines have played a key role in social and cultural lives

• The first magazines probably developed in seventeenth-century France as catalogue extensions of the book-publishing industry.– The word magazine derives from the French word magasin

meaning “store house”• They looked like newspapers of the time but appeared less

frequently until later when the magazine became based on being specialized

• Today, more than 20,000 magazines are published in the United States

The First Magazines

• By the 1740s magazines began to show up in the colonies

• The first magazines were unsuccessful due to the slow developing of literacy and technology in the US

• However due to the Postal Act of 1879, rates to deliver magazines and print them lowered to cause a thrive in distribution as well as how advertising began to use them

U.S. Magazines in the Nineteenth Century• Specialized magazines emerged

such as: Religious, literary, and professional

• The first noted general-interest magazine, a magazine aimed at everyone, was the Saturday Evening Post– Developed in 1820– Longest-running magazine in US

history– Early Post included some original

essay but “borrowed” from other sources

– Eventually would print poems, essays, play reviews and more

– Noted for publishing Nathaniel Hawthorne

– First to appeal directly to women with it’s column “Lady’s Friend”

Social Reform and the Muckrakers• Rise in circulation coincided with

rapid social changes.– Magazines allowed journalists to

write in depth about issues.

• Muckrackers: First used negatively but then with praise– Many magazines also engaged in

Yellow Journalism (crusading for social change)

– Investigative journalists– Raised awareness in the medicine

and food industry, leading to the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Meat Inspection Act (due to The Jungle by Upton Sinclair as well)

The Rise of General-Interest Magazines

• Prominent after WWI through the 1950s

• Combined investigative journalism with broad national topics

• Began to highlight photojournalism (the use of photos to document the rhythms of daily life). High quality photos gave general-interest magazines a visual advantage over radio

The First General-Interest Magazines

• Most Widely Circulated• Started in Greenwich

Village basement• Championed: printing

condensed versions of selected articles from other magazines

• Major commercial success

• Developed brand of interpretive journalism, assigning reporter-researcher teams to cover stories while an editor would rewrite it in a narrative view

• Really symbolized the general-interest genre

• Oversized pictorial weeklies

• Developed an effective strategy for competing with radio (photojournalism)

• Pioneers the first woman war correspondent and first African American director

The Fall of General-Interest Magazines

• People– Launched in 1974– First successful magazine of its kind in decades– Some charge that People is too specialized to be mass market, with its

focus on celebrities, music, and pop culture.• Magazines embrace digital content.

– Webzines: Online-only magazines such as Salon and Slate pioneered the Webzine format, making the Internet a legitimate source for news as well as discussion of culture and politics.

– Magazines move online.– Magazine companion Web sites ideal for increasing reach of

consumer magazines– Feature original content

Webzines

The Domination of Specialization• Magazines grouped by two important characteristics

– Advertiser type• Consumer• Business or trade• Farm

– Target demographics• Gender, age, or ethnic group• Audience interest area (sports, literature, tabloids)

• Magazines are also broken down by target audience.– Men and women– Sports, entertainment, and leisure– Age-group specific– Elite magazines aimed at cultural minorities– Minorities– Supermarket tabloids

Specialized Magazines

Magazine Departments and Duties

• Editorial– Publisher, editor-in-chief,

managing editors, and subeditors

– Subeditors oversee photography, illustrations, reporting and writing, copyediting, layout, and print and multimedia design

• Production and technology– Maintains computer and

printing hardware

• Advertising and sales– Secures clients, arranges

promotions, and places ads– Rate cards indicate ad

sizes/prices

• Circulation and distribution– Monitors single-copy and

subscription sales– Subscriptions may be paid,

evergreen, controlled, or digital