MagazinesChapter 5

Post-ApocalypticAre we entering a “post-apocalyptic media

world… in which Canadian trees are left standing and broadcast towers aren’t?” - Bob Garfield Advertising Age (2007)

Living trees mean dead magazines.

Data is still mixed on the success of Web-only magazines Slate Salon

Considered the first and the best (both of them)

Salon & Slate

• Revenue from Internet advertising surpassed magazines for the first time in 2006.

• SO? Will the tactile quality/experience of the magazine be enough to keep it alive?

A Short HistoryFavorite medium of the British elite by mid-

1700’s

American colonialists hoped to duplicate the success Lack of organized postal system at that time

made distribution difficult. Between 1741 and 1794 – 45 new magazines

appeared (no more than three were published at the same time.

Even after the Revolutionary War, U.S. magazines remained clones of the British publications.

Early in the IndustryThe Saturday Evening Post

Printed for 148 years, launched in 1821.

Early in the IndustrySpecialized, niche writing

Success also fueled by the spread of social movements like abolitionism and labor reform. Provided compelling content and a boom period

began in magazine publishing. 1825 – 100 magazines and just 25 years later, in

1850 there were 600. Began to look less like British copycats and more

like a unique product.

Advertising and Circulation

Post-Civil War era saw popular magazines begin to prosper. By 1885 there were 3,300 magazines

Women and MagazinesCrucial to the expansion were women’s

magazines

Suffrage was the social movement that occupied magazine pages

Content also contained a lot of “how to” for homemakers

Advertisers were eager to appear in new women’s magazines “hawking their wares” Ladies Home Journal and Good Housekeeping

Why such phenomenal growth?

Five main reasons Widespread literacy Postal Act of 1879 (cheap second-class

postage) boosted circulation Spread of the railroad (carried people and

publications West) Cost reduction (circulation wars caused prices

to drop/more advertising on pages) Industrialization (less time working because of

machines = more leisure time and more personal income)

MagazinesTruly America’s first national mass medium

Force in social change

Muckrackers used the page space to work for change, like Robin Hood they worked to agitate the powerful with money and help the poor.

Magazines helped unify the nation. Mass market Mass circulation Affordable and national

Magazines, continuedDominant advertising medium at this time

Primary source for nationally distributed news

Preeminent provider of visual or photo journalism

By 1945 – 32 million families subscribed to one or more magazines.

Dubbed “the television of their time” and were eventually knocked out of the number one spot after World War II by the widespread acceptance of television.

Magazines vs. TVTelevision was timely – Magazines were weekly.

TV was a novelty to early adopters

Magazines worked to capture their fragmented audience by specializing

Noted as the “harbingers of change” – they worked to capture a fragmented audience in the 50s like media of today is working to capture a newly fragmented audience

AdvertisingMore people have a positive view of magazine

advertising

It is unobtrusive and does not interfere with the reader’s enjoyment of the magazine

Advertorials

Number one item advertised in magazines: Drugs and remedies

Advertorial

Types of MagazinesTrade/professional and business magazines

(American Medical News, Progressive Farmer)

Consumer magazines (New Yorker, Road & Track, Entertaiment Weekly)

Public Relations magazines (Colors)

Media Literacy & Magazines

The infamous OJ Simpson cover image in Time (1994) where OJ’s facial tones were altered.