Magazines

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Magazines
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Magazine launches

• Martha Stewart Living (1991)
• O, The Oprah Magazine (2000)
• McCalls becomes Rosie (2001)
• ? ?

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Early History of Magazines

• magazine from French word magasin, meaning
  storehouse or shop
• Colonial magazines - first in 1741, Philadelphia
• 1776 - about 100 operating

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Early History of Magazines

• North American Review (1815)
• Saturday Evening Post (1821)

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Early History of Magazines

• 1850 - nearly 600 magazines
• Godeys Ladys Book (1850s)

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Early History of Magazines

• The Nation (1865)
• ?
• 1870s - about 1200 magazines
• Postal Act of 1879 postal rates went down

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Early History of Magazines

• Pictorial Pioneers

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Harpers Weekly/Photos around 1890
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Early History of Magazines

• 1905 - more than 6000
• In 1903, Ladies Home Journal reached circulation
  of 1 million.
• ?

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Early History of Magazines

• Magazines help readers to see themselves as part
  of nation

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Social Reform and Muckrakers
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Social Reform and Muckrakers
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Social Reform and Muckrakers
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Social Reform and Muckrakers
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Social Reform and Muckrakers

• President Theodore Roosevelt, 1906 reporters
  willing to crawl through muck of society to
  uncover story.

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Social Reform and Muckrakers

• 1902, McClures Magazine (1893-1933)
• Ida Tarbells book The History of the Standard
  Oil Company on John D. Rockefellers big oil
  monopoly.

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Social Reform and Muckrakers

• Lincoln Steffens Shame of the Cities on urban
  problems.

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Social Reform and Muckrakers

• 1906, Cosmopolitan (1886- ) purchased by Hearst,
  series called The Treason of the Senate

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Social Reform and Muckrakers

• Colliers The Great American
• Fraud series on patent
• medicines. SAMUEL HOPKINS ADAMS

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Social Reform and Muckrakers
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• Upton Sinclairs novel The Jungle and Colliers
  and LHJ muckraking reports, led to the Pure Food
  and Drug Act in 1906.

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Rise of General Interest Magazines

• Saturday Evening Post
• - hits 2 million in 1920s.
• Readers Digest
• - by 1946, most popular magazine,
• hits 9 million circulation.

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Rise of General Interest Magazines

• Time (1923 - ) and national newsweeklies
• 1933

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Rise of General Interest Magazines

• Life (1936) - photojournalism

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The Fall of General Interest Magazines

• Saturday Evening Post folds, 1969
• Look folds, 1971
• Life folds, 1972
• All three in top 10
• Selling for less than cost of production
• Relied on subscriptions, with high mailing rates
• Advertisers migrated to TV to reach general
  audience

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The Fall of General Interest Magazines

• TV Guide (1953) - most newspapers didnt do TV
  program listings. A huge success. Demonstrated
  sales power of supermarket checkout sales.
• Rupert Murdochs News Corp. bought in 1988. Why?
  Sold in 2000.

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The Fall of General Interest Magazines

• People finds success as new general interest
  magazine in 1974. Emerges from Time section.
• ?

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Specialization

• Regional editions - content tailored to different
  geographic regions
• Split-run editions - national magazines that
  tailor ads to different regions
• Demographic editions - ads target different
  consumers by occupation, class and zip code

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Categories

• Magazines are developed for many NICHES
• (Primedia video)
• Currently about 12,000 magazines in U.S.

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Fragmented Marketplace

• Of the 12,000 consumer magazines, only about 90
  have circulation of more than one million
• The largest magazines?

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Fragmented Marketplace

• Of the 12,000 consumer magazines, only about 90
  have circulation of more than one million
• AARP Bulletin (21.5 million)
• AARP The Magazine
• Readers Digest
• TV Guide
• Better Homes and Gardens

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Supermarket Tabloids

• The National Enquirer

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Making magazines

• Editorial Content (about 50-50)
• Advertising and Sales
• 64,000 fullpage ad
• 20,000 1/3 page ad
• Circulation and Distribution
• Evergreens
• Paid circulation

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Major Chains

• Time Warner
• Meredith Publishing
• Hearst Corporation
• Bertelsmann
• Hachette Filipachi
• Advance Publications/Condé Nast

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• Online Magazines
• Salon
• Slate