CHAPTER ESSENTIALS

• The first magazines—collections of articles, stories, and advertisements published on a nondaily cycle in a smaller tabloid style—were influenced by European newspapers of the seventeenth century. As the eighteenth century unfolded, a rising middle class, increased literacy, and advancements in printing technology helped magazines spread to America, where colonial leaders and thinkers used the medium to discuss important issues of the day (pp. 115–117).

• Due to even greater increases in literacy and education, faster printing technology, and improvements in mail delivery, the demand for national (as opposed to local) magazines soared in the mid to late nineteenth century. The advent of illustration in magazines—such as drawings, engravings, and woodcuts—heightened their appeal to readers. These factors helped move magazines toward mass medium status (pp. 117–119).

• As distribution and production costs declined, magazines were able to reach a wider audience, and advertisers began to turn to them to capture consumer attention. The rise in magazine circulation caused the growth of different kinds of newspaper reporting, such as muckraking—inspired by an interest in advocating social reform and exposing wrongdoing (pp. 119–120).

• The growth of the middle class created a market for general-interest magazines, which covered a wide variety of topics aimed at a broad national audience, such as recent developments in government, medicine, or society. A key aspect of these magazines was photojournalism, the use of photographs to augment editorial content. The popularity of these magazines was marked by their high pass-along readership, the total number of readers of a single issue. Four of the most notable general-interest magazines of the twentieth century were the Saturday Evening Post, Reader’s Digest, Time, and Life (pp. 120–122).

• Television’s rising popularity put many general-interest magazines out of business in the 1950s. Some magazines fought back by focusing their content on topics not covered by TV programmers and by featuring short articles heavily illustrated with photos. Two early examples include TV Guide and People (pp. 122–123).

• General-interest magazines have now given way to highly specialized magazines appealing to narrower audiences and niche markets. Some areas of specialization include men’s and women’s magazines; entertainment, leisure, and sports magazines; age-specific magazines; elite magazines; minority magazines; trade magazines; and alternative magazines (pp. 126–130).

• Another type of magazine, the supermarket tabloid, features a more sensationalistic brand of story, which might include celebrity gossip or claims of UFO sightings (pp. 130–131).

• Recently, the Internet has become a place where specialized magazines can extend their reach to target audiences. Some magazines are published in both print and online versions; others have moved to online-only formats. Still others, Webzines, started up online and have remained there (pp. 131–132).

• Magazine publishers make money through advertisers. As a result, many magazines have developed different editions to target specific audiences and guarantee advertising revenue. For example, regional editions are national magazines whose content is tailored to the interests of different geographic areas; split-run editions contain the same editorial content, but the magazines have a few pages of ads purchased by local or regional companies; demographic editions target particular groups of consumers (pp. 132–133, 136).

• Magazine publishers also take in revenue from newsstand and subscription sales. One subscription strategy, the evergreen subscription, automatically renews a consumer’s subscription on a credit card unless the subscriber requests that the automatic renewal be stopped (p. 136).

• Magazine publishers spend money on the development of content, production (such as desktop publishing, which enables the publisher-editor to write, design, lay out, and print the publication or post it online), sales and marketing, and distribution (pp. 136–138).

• To survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace, many magazines have merged into large chains often backed by media conglomerates. This strategy provides more funding for magazines and enables them to lower their costs by centralizing basic functions. Many large publishers have also generated revenue by producing limited-distribution publications—magalogs—that combine glossy magazines with the sales pitch of re-tail catalogues (pp. 138–139).

• Early magazines had a powerful national voice and united separate communities around significant political and social issues. Magazines provided an important venue for muckrakers in the early 1900s: Reporters investigated social problems, and their stories often led to much-needed reforms (p. 139).

• Today, with so much specialization, magazines no longer foster a strong sense of national identity, though they continue to have a strong influence on society (p. 139).

1. Question 4.1

   How did magazines become national in scope?

2. Question 4.2

   What role did magazines play in social reform at the turn of the twentieth century?

3. Question 4.3

   What triggered the move toward magazine specialization?

4. Question 4.4

   How have the Internet and convergence changed the magazine industry?

5. Question 4.5

   How do magazines serve a democratic society?

• DESCRIBE the magazines by charting the placement and kinds of ads that appear in the magazines as well as the magazines’ editorial content, including stories, photographs, and other features.

• ANALYZE the information by looking for patterns: How similar are the ads and editorial content in style and subject matter? Are ads placed in proximity to content on related subjects (e.g., sunglasses advertised next to an article on beach vacations)? Are there ads at odds with the content (e.g., cigarette ads in youth-oriented magazines)?

• INTERPRET what these patterns mean. Is there a clear firewall between editorial and business content, or do the ads seem to influence magazine content?

• EVALUATE your findings, and consider whether there can be a desirable balance between ads and editorial content.

• ENGAGE with the magazine industry by writing letters to the editors of magazines that seem to shape editorial copy for advertisers or ignore important issues that might offend advertisers.