a timeline stretching from the 1700s in the releases of the magazines and changes in the industry

1. Magazine history timeline
Magazines are regularly published store
houses of information
http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/Courses/Resourc
esForCourses/MagazinesHistory.html
http://www.magforum.com/time.htm

2. 1586- 1734
• 1586 Josse Amman, a Swiss painter, publishes plates on the
fashions of the day, with the title Gynasceum, sive Theatrum
Mulierum ... (The Gynasceum or Theatre of Women, in which are
reproduced by engraving the female costumes of all the nations of
Europe). Published in Frankfort in Latin; regarded as the first fashion
magazine
• 1693 The Ladies Mercury published by John Dunton, at first monthly
and then fortnightly. It concerned 'All the nice and curious
questions concerning love, marriage, behaviour, dress and humour
in the female sex, whether virgins, wives or widows'. It also carried
an 'Answers to Correspondents' section
• 1731 The first modern general-interest magazine, The Gentleman's
Magazine, is published in England as entertainment with essays,
stories, poems and political commentary. Intended to entertain
with essays, stories, poems and political commentary. Closed 1914
• 1734 Lloyd’s list, the shipping trade title is founded, and is still in
print today

4. 1739- 1835
• 1739 The Scots Magazine begins and today remains the oldest consumer
magazine in print.
• 1741 American Magazine, first US magazine.
• 1742 Benjamin Franklin General Magazine prints first US magazine
advertisements.
• 1755 Samuel Johnson's Dictionary credits Edward Cave with coining
'magazine' (a storehouse or arsenal) in its modern sense: 'Of late this word
has signified a miscellaneous pamphlet, from a periodical miscellany
named the Gentleman's Magazine, by Edward Cave'
• 1770 The first women's magazine, The Lady's Magazine, starts with
literary and fashion content plus embroidery patterns.
• 1796 German Alois Senefelder develops lithography to produce high-
quality printed images.
• 1828 Modern Spectator founded
• 1835 Railway Gazette founded

6. 1835- 1848
• 1839 Fox Talbot produces photographs from negatives
• 1841 Punch launched in London; inspired by French magazine
Charivari
• 1842 Herbert Ingram launches The Illustrated London News with 32
woodcuts on 16 pages. It cost 6d.
• 1843 The Economist begins examining news, politics, business,
science and the arts.
• 1848 First WH Smith railway bookstall. The company had been
founded in 1792 by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in Little
Grosvenor Street, London - as HW Smith. It reversed the initials in
1846 to become WH Smith & Son because Henry's son was William
Henry - and his son had the same name. - Illustrated London News
publisher Herbert Ingram starts a daily newspaper, The London
Telegraph

8. 1852-1874
• 1852 Mills in Germany begin producing wood pulp for paper making,
replacing rag-based paper for newspaper and magazine printing
• 1853 The Field launched (now the oldest title in IPC's stable)
• 1855 Illustrated London News published Christmas special with colour
cover produced using coloured wood blocks. Selling 130,000 copies a
week - 10 times the daily sale of The Times
• Colored News is first paper to use colour: closes after a month
• 1870 Learning to read and write compulsory in Victorian England under
free schools system
• 1871 Newspapers start to print pictures (using halftone).
• 1873 Hermann Vogel in Berlin produces colour using silver halide
solutions, the basis of photographic process until the advent of digital
cameras
• 1873 The Goal: The Chronicle of Football launched
• 1874 Funny Folks comic paper launched for adults (closed 1894)

10. 1875-1895
• 1875 UK Trade Marks Registration Act
• 1879 Life in London uses halftones regularly, starting with a drawing of
Lillie Langtry. These were made in Paris
• 1881 Harper's Monthly accepts advertising
• 1882 Photos sent by wire
• 1891 The Strand magazine launched as a monthly in UK and US by George
Newnes. Based in Burleigh St, on the north side of the Strand opposite the
Savoy. Magazine used super-calendered paper, wood
engravings, photographic line blocks and half-tones. Colour covers in the
US. Publishes Sherlock Holmes story, 'A Scandal in Bohemia' in July 1891
issue
• 1893 20,000 readers cancel their subscriptions to Strand Magazine when
Sherlock Holmes is killed off in 'The Final Problem'. Conan Doyle relented
only in 1902 bringing the detective hero back in 'The Adventure of the
Empty House'
• 1895 Collier's weekly magazine starts and is published until 1957

12. 1895-1912
• 1895 An American magazine, The Bookman, lists "Books in Demand"
originating the idea of a bestseller list.
• 1896 The first pulp fiction magazines are printed on cheap wood pulp
paper with ragged untrimmed edges.
• 1897 The old Saturday Evening Post is revived by Cyrus Curtis to become
the most widely circulated weekly magazine.
• 1899 National Geographic launched in US.
• 1902 McClure's Magazine inaugurates the muckraking era with the article
"Tweed Days in St. Louis" by C.H. Wetmore and Linc1904
• 1904 Optical Lantern and Kinematograph Journal launched. Puck
launched by Harmsworth. First comic to use substantial amount of colour
(closed 1940)
• 1910 William Randolph Hearst buys Pall Mall and Nash in UK - first US
publisher to operate internationally. Founds National Magazine Company
• 1912 Photoplay is the first magazine for movie fans.

14. 1914-1953
• 1914 Rainbow is first British comic aimed at children. Some faltering adult
comics begin to refocus on children. Colour magazine, a glossy
reproducing paintings with unrelated text of fiction, poems and reviews
(closed 1924)
• 1922 Reader's Digest begins publishing.
• 1925 New Yorker magazine arrives.
• 1923 Time, the first U.S. newsmagazine, is started by Henry Luce.
• 1933 Newsweek begins publication.
• 1933 Esquire is the first men's magazine.
• 1936 Life, a weekly photojournalism news magazine, is started by Henry
Luce and continues to 1972.
• 1937 Look, a bi-weekly, general-interest and photojournalism magazine,
starts and continues to 1971.
• 1944 Seventeen is the first magazine devoted to adolescents.
• 1953 Playboy opens with Marilyn Monroe on the cover.

16. 1954-1967
• 1954 Sports Illustrated is started by Time magazine owner Henry Luce. Two
other magazines with that name had been started in the 1930s and 1940s,
but both had failed.
• 1962 The Bolton Evening News is the first UK paper to print colour
advertising. The pages were produced by Martlet Press in London. Sunday
Times Magazine supplement launched by Mark Boxer (Feb 4) as Sunday
Times Colour Section. The magazine was printed by Odhams' Sun Printers
and inserted separately by newsagents. A colour page was priced at £2,700,
compared with £1,800 for monotone. The launch was controversial:
• 1967 Rolling Stone demonstrates the popularity of special-interest
magazines.
• 1967 New York magazine appears as a regional magazine.

17. 1972-1974
• 1969 Three largest magazine publishing houses (Associated-Iliffe Press,
George Newnes and Odhams Press) merge to become IPC Magazines Ltd,
as part of International Publishing Corporation Ltd, owner of the Daily
Mirror, People and Sun newspapers
Andy Warhol's Interview launched with 10.5x16in format
Rupert Murdoch buys News of the World
• 1972 Cosmopolitan UK is first international edition. Under Joyce Hopkirk;
had been reformulated by Helen Gurley Brown (author of Sex and the
Single Girl) in US. Goes on to become world's best-selling woman's
magazine - and best seller in UK until arrival of Glamour in 2002
• 1974 People debuts with Mia Farrow on the cover. UK edition of Rolling
Stone (until 1982)

19. 1976-1993
• 1976 First Apple Computer
• 1988 Spanish Hola! launches as Hello! Marks start of fawning approach to
celebrities, who are paid for their pictures and given veto over them
before publication
• 1990 Entertainment Weekly starts.
• 1993 Wired magazine arrives with a voracious curiosity about everything
under the Sun.