When the earliest magazines appeared in America in 1741,
they were very similar to their English counterparts and
were often little more than compilations of articles lifted
from British publications. The first American magazine
publishers—Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Bradford—
were not unlike their readership: members of the colonies’
cultural and intellectual elite. Doctors, lawyers, ministers,
and educators were the original readers of magazines, and it
was this audience that Franklin catered to with The General
Magazine and Historical Chronicle for All the British Plantations in America, a monthly reflecting his personal views
of the issues of the time. The debut of Franklin’s magazine,
however, fell three days short of Bradford’s introduction of
The American Magazine or a Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies, which narrowly won the
honor of being the first American magazine.
In the end, neither magazine flourished—a lack of
advertising and the mechanical difficulties of production
made early publishing a costly and largely recreational
undertaking—but the concept enjoyed a measure of success. With individual publishers handling the writing and
editing responsibilities, periodicals were constantly started
throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century. Though
they rarely lasted more than a few months, they could claim
to be significant and important forums for political and
intellectual discourse. Matthew Carey’s American Museum
published Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and as editor
of The Royal American, Joseph Greenleaf printed the first
important engravings, most done by Paul Revere.
At the close of the eighteenth century, editor Joseph
Dennie’s Port Folio established itself as a leading periodical into the early 1800s. Dennie (1768–1812) was among
the first to resemble a modern editor, soliciting popular contributors like John Quincy Adams and investing in newly
available copper plate engravings. While he was successful in attracting an impressive two thousand subscribers,
he had yet to make financial gains. Port Folio did, however, remain a popular monthly for eight years. For a time
it held violently Federalist views, to the point that Dennie
was indicted on—and later acquitted of—charges of seditious libel.
The Rise of the Commercial Model
It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that periodicals became sources of profit. Two of that century’s most
significant monthlies were McClure’s and Munsey’s. Publisher Samuel Sidney “S.S” McClure was a showman who
worked his way up from a poor Irish background. His sensational magazine contained historical and scientific discourse, as well as profiles of famous personalities. Pages of
eyewitness coverage of the Spanish-American war particularly boosted his readership, as did the heavily used tactic
of exposing political corruption, also known as muckraking. By marketing his publication at the low price of ten
cents, McClure attracted a large audience.
In order to compete, other publications had to lower
their prices as well. Munsey’s popularity increased when
publisher Frank Munsey took its price down to ten cents in
1893. He paid good rates to his contributors and published
quality fiction work, such as Hall Caine’s The Christian in
1896, and later, various works by O. Henry. But what Munsey’s really sold was a Victorian version of sex, a concept
that was quickly spreading its way throughout publications
of the time. Munsey’s pages were full of nude and halfdressed women, spreads that played a significant role in the
periodical’s success.
Along with the continued proliferation of general monthlies, weekly periodicals began to emerge in the nineteenth
century. One of the most notable was the Saturday Evening
Post, which began in 1821 and did not cease publication
until 1969. Charles Alexander and Samuel Coate Atkinson,
two Philadelphia publishers, nurtured the four-page, pictureless magazine through its early years; publisher Cyrus H.K. Curtis and editor George Horace Lorimer would later
make it one of the most successful magazines in America.
Curtis realized that large circulations attracted advertisers,
and consequently kept newsstand and subscription rates at
low prices. With a secured audience of consumers, advertisers were willing to pay, and magazines became dependent
on them for revenue.
Using his understanding of mass marketing, Curtis made
Ladies’ Home Journal, the first modern women’s service
magazine, extremely popular after he acquired it in 1883.
Like McClure’s and Munsey’s, Ladies’ Home Journal maintained a high readership thanks to its low issue price, and
editor Edward William Bok was able to relate to women in
a way that made the publication uniquely accessible. Under
his leadership, Ladies’ Home Journal evolved into a service
magazine by providing advice and feedback to readers, a
formula that has become the norm among magazines.
Curtis’s second major triumph was with the Saturday
Evening Post, which he acquired in 1897 and entrusted to
editor George Horace Lorimer. Though languishing at the
time, the work of Curtis and Lorimer made the magazine
a prominent general weekly across the country by 1909,
reaching an all-time circulation high by 1959 with 6.2 million readers. With the success of magazines such as Ladies’
Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post, other publishers were pushed to design new periodicals to reach everexpanding audiences.
Though publisher William Randolph Hearst (1864–
1951) began his career in newspapers, purchasing the San
Francisco Examiner in 1887, he launched his first magazine, Motor, in 1903. In 1905 he bought Cosmopolitan from
John Brisben Walker; formerly focused on domestic and
foreign affairs, the publication became more sensational
under Hearst’s leadership. He acquired Good Housekeeping in 1911, Harper’s Bazaar in 1912, and Town and Country in 1925. By the time of his death in 1951, Hearst had
established a media empire that continues to flourish. One
of Hearst’s contemporaries, lawyer Condé Nast, first gained
publishing experience as advertising manager of Collier’s.
Nast (1873–1942) bought Vogue in 1909 and quickly made
it an elite fashion publication. A century later, Condé Nast
Publications still proclaims itself a harbinger of style.
Not all of the twentieth century publications were
focused around specific topics. The first issue of Reader’s
Digest, published in 1922 by DeWitt and Lila Bell Wallace,
compiled previously printed articles, much like the first
magazines in the eighteenth century. Wallace intended his
magazine to promote an influential America, and carefully
selected and edited pieces to convey a can-do tone of optimism. Since this attitude echoed middle class sentiment of
the time, Reader’s Digest was hugely successful.
Recognizing the allure of condensed information,
Henry Luce and his partner Briton Hadden (February 18,
1898–February 27, 1929) both Yale graduates with some
journalism experience, published the first issue of Time in
1923. Again appealing to a mass market of readers, Time
presented the weekly news in convenient subdivisions that
were entertaining and accessible. Luce also started Fortune
in February 1930, successfully targeting entrepreneurial
readers amidst the economic chaos of the Great Depression. Luce then introduced Life in 1936, which depicted
America though abundant photography that became known
worldwide. Life, along with its competitor, Look, epitomized the nationally marketed general interest publications
of the early twentieth century. Sports Illustrated, launched
by Luce in 1954, grasped the importance of sports in the
national consciousness.
Specialization and the Future of Magazines
In the years following World War II, general interest magazines gave way to the rise of special interest publications.
With Americans prospering financially, they had more time
to devote to hobbies, and a consequent interest in reading
about their leisure activities. From a publisher’s perspective, competition with the new medium of television made
it increasingly difficult to guarantee advertisers that readers would see their pages. (One exception was TV Guide,
first published in 1953 by Walter Annenberg and uniquely
positioned to garner television’s readership). Special interest magazines were an ideal solution—advertisers could
be sure that narrowly defined target audiences would be
reached. Also, because it was becoming cheaper and easier
to produce magazines, special interest publications with
smaller circulations could still profit. Ziff-Davis Publishing
took advantage of this idea. In the 1960s, in an attempt to
target recreational activities, Ziff-Davis launched titles like
Car and Driver, Boating, Skiing, and Popular Photography.
Capitalizing on the benefits of the loyal readerships and satisfied advertisers of special interest publications, Ziff-Davis
later published titles such as PC Magazine and Electronic
Gaming Monthly.
Special interest magazines continued to flourish in
the 1970s, with an emphasis on self-awareness and selfimprovement. Psychology Today was founded in 1967 by
Nicholas Charne, and Ms. was founded by Gloria Steinem
in 1971. A feminist woman’s magazine that rejected superficial components common in women’s service journalism,
Ms. exemplified the continued diversification and specialization of the publishing industry. Niche magazines remain
the standard today, with some nine hundred new titles being
created each year, though few become smash hits. One such
hit is Maxim, which came to the United Sates in 1997 after
publisher Felix Denis founded it in London. In less than two
years, Maxim became the leading men’s magazine, focusing on topics like sex, sports and beer—and effectively capturing a young male audience.
In addition to understanding target readership, what can
aid publishing success is a demonstrated understanding
of the changing functionality of the magazine. No longer
purely a print medium, magazines are expanding their niche
identities through unique websites for their publications.
For example, Rodale publishing has a home site linking
readers to sites specially designed for each of its nine special interest publications like Men’s Health, Prevention,
Organic Style, and Runner’s World. These web pages serve as an extension of their printed counterparts, and allow for
increased reader interaction as well as additional advertising space. In some cases, a publication’s web page can take
on a life of its own. O, the Oprah Magazine, founded and
based completely around the titled celebrity, utilizes its web
space as a forum where readers can sign up for activities in
their local communities as well as participate in nationally
orchestrated campaigns.
This kind of international accessibility that embraces the
individual nature of readers will undoubtedly increase the
importance of online publishing, particularly as an extension
of print publications. Additionally, as titles become everspecialized and increase in number, the quantity of publishers decreases with ongoing conglomeration. Ziff-Davis
and Time Mirror are just two of the publishers absorbed by
larger corporate entities in recent years, and major publishers such as Hearst, Time, and Condé Nast act as publishing
empires within a larger net of company affiliations.
With the advent of the World Wide Web, many magazine publishers have seen opportunities to move beyond the
traditional print form to serve their audiences better with
more information, in more timely fashion, and often in an
interactive mode. Still in its early stages of development,
the early results have led to optimism. With the special loyalty that many magazine readers feel for “their” publications, the future of the magazine publishing as an industry
is regarded by most observers as a very promising one.
Further Reading
Abrahamson, David. Magazine-made America: The Cultural
Transformation of the Postwar Periodical. NJ: Hampton
Press, Inc., 1996.
Compaine, Benjamin M. The Business of Consumer Magazines.
White Plains, NY: Knowledge Industry Publications, 1982.
Elson, Robert T., Curtis Prendergast and Geoffrey Colvin. The
world of Time, Inc: The Intimate History of a Publishing
Enterprise, 1923–1980 (vols. 1–3). New York: Atheneum,
1986.
Janello, Amy, and Brennon Jones. The American Magazine. New
York: Harry Abrams, 1991.
Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines (vols. 1–5).
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938.
Peterson, Theodore. Magazines in the Twentieth Century. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1956.
Richardson, Lyon N. A History of Early American Magazines,
1741–1789. New York: Nelson and Sons, 1931.
Tebbel, John W. The American Magazine: A Compact History.
New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1969.
Tebbel, John W. and Mary Ellen Zuckerman. The Magazine in
America, 1941–1990. New York: Oxford University Press,
1991.
David Abrahamson
Christina Bryza