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The television age spawned not only TV Guide but also a number of specialized entertainment, leisure, and sports magazines. These periodicals’ executives have developed multiple magazines for fans of everything from soap operas, running, tennis, golf, and hunting, to quilting, antiquing, surfing, and gaming. Within categories, magazines specialize further, targeting (for instance) older or younger runners, men or women golfers, duck hunters or bird-watchers, and midwestern or southern antique collectors.

The most popular sports and leisure magazine is Sports Illustrated, which took its name from a failed 1935 publication. Launched in 1954 by Henry Luce’s Time Inc., Sports Illustrated’s circulation rose to more than 3.2 million by 2010. It is now the most successful general sports magazine in history.

Another popular magazine type that fits loosely into the leisure category includes magazines devoted to music—everything from the Source (hip-hop) to Country Weekly. The all-time circulation champ in this category is Rolling Stone, started in 1967. Once considered an alternative magazine, by 1982 Rolling Stone had become mainstream with a circulation approaching 800,000. By 2010, that number had expanded to more than 1.4 million.

National Geographic is another successful publication in this category. Founded in 1888, it promoted “humanized geography” and began featuring color photography in 1910. National Geographic’s circulation reached 1 million in 1935 and 10 million in the 1970s. Starting in the late 1990s, its circulation of paid subscriptions began slipping somewhat. Still, many of National Geographic’s televised nature and culture specials, which began airing back in 1965, rank among the most popular programs in the history of public TV.