3. Origin of magazines
The first magazines were the ‘Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen’ which was launched in 1663
in Germany. However, The Gentleman's Magazine first published in 1731 in London is considered
to have been the first general-interest magazine. Edward Cave the creator of The Gentlemen's
Magazine managed to keep it running for 200 years until 1922.
Cave's innovation was to create a monthly digest of news and commentary on any topic the
educated public might be interested in. It had story's from a stable of regular contributors, as
well as extensive quotations and extracts from books. Cave, who edited The Gentleman's
Magazine under the pen name "Sylvanus Urban", was the first to use the term magazine
(meaning "storehouse")
