The document provides a timeline and overview of several influential music magazines throughout history. It discusses the founding dates and origins of The NME (1952), the first music magazine, and Billboard (1894), the first magazine published in the US focused on the music industry. It also summarizes the histories of Melody Maker (1926), which started as a jazz magazine before focusing on rock and indie, and Smash Hits (1978), the first magazine launched in the UK focused on pop music aimed at younger audiences. The magazines underwent various ownership and format changes over time and some eventually merged or ceased publication as readership trends shifted.

1. TIMELINE
OF
MAGAZINE
POSTERS
BY MARY LAWSON

2. THE OLDEST CONSUMER MAGAZINE STILL IN PRINT IS THE SCOTS MAGAZINE, WHICH WAS FIRST
PUBLISHED IN 1739, THOUGH MULTIPLE CHANGES IN OWNERSHIP AND GAPS IN PUBLICATION
TOTALLING OVER 90 YEARS WEAKEN THAT CLAIM. LLOYD'S LIST WAS FOUNDED IN EDWARD
LLOYD'S ENGLAND COFFEE SHOP IN 1734; IT IS STILL PUBLISHED AS A DAILY BUSINESS
NEWSPAPER. DESPITE BEING AMONG THE FIRST MASS MEDIA OUTLETS TO VENTURE FROM THE
BIBLE, PERIODICALS STILL REMAINED ROOTED IN THE NATURALIZED CLASS AND GENDER SYSTEM
HELD BY EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SOCIETY.MANUFACTURING OF THE EARLY MAGAZINES WERE
DONE VIA AN ARCHAIC FORM OF THE PRINTING PRESS, USING LARGE HAND ENGRAVED WOOD
BLOCKS FOR PRINTING.WHEN PRODUCTION OF MAGAZINES INCREASED, ENTIRE PRODUCTION
LINES WERE CREATED TO MANUFACTURE THESE WOODEN BLOCKS.
THE FIRST MAGAZINE

3. NME WAS THE FIRST MUSIC MAGAZINE, PRODUCED IN NOVEMBER OF 1952. THE NME MAGAZINE
WAS THE FIRST BRITISH PAPER TO INCLUDE A SINGLES CHART, IN THE EDITION OF 14 NOVEMBER
1952. IN THE 1970S IT BECAME THE BEST-SELLING BRITISH MUSIC NEWSPAPER. DURING THE
PERIOD 1972 TO 1976, IT WAS PARTICULARLY ASSOCIATED WITH GONZO JOURNALISM, THEN
BECAME CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH PUNK ROCK THROUGH THE WRITINGS OF JULIE BURCHILL,
PAUL MORLEY AND TONY PARSONS. IT STARTED AS A MUSIC NEWSPAPER, AND GRADUALLY
MOVED TOWARD A MAGAZINE FORMAT DURING THE 1980S AND 1990S, CHANGING FROM
NEWSPRINT IN 1998.
AN ONLINE VERSION OF NME, NME.COM, WAS LAUNCHED IN 1996. IT BECAME THE WORLD'S
BIGGEST STANDALONE MUSIC SITE, WITH OVER SEVEN MILLION USERS PER MONTH.
THE FIRST MUSIC MAGAZINE

4. BILLBOARD MUSIC
• Originally set up in 1894
• Renamed Billboard Music in 1961
• First Published in the USA
• Billboard music is designed for people in the music industry, looking at music from a
more professional and technical view.
Billboard is an American entertainment media brand owned by the Hollywood Reporter-
Billboard Media Group, a division of Eldridge industries. It published pieces involving
news, video, opinion, reviews, events and style. It is also known for its music charts,
including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular singles and
albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates
several TV shows. Billboard was founded in 1894 by William Donaldson and James
Hennegan as a trade publication for bill posters. Donaldson later acquired Hennegens
interest in 1900 for $500.

5. MELODY MAKER
• Britain's oldest music magazine released first in July 1926.
• Originally a magazine that looked at Jazz music but later moved into the unoccupied
area of rock and indie.
• Was later merged with its long standing rival New Music Express.
In early 1997, Allan Jones left to edit Uncut. He was replaced by Mark Sutherland, formerly of NME and
Smash Hits, who thus “fulfilled his boyhood dream” and stayed on to edit the magazine for nearly
three years. Many long-standing writers left, often moving to Uncut, with Simon Price departing
allegedly because he objected to an edict that coverage of Oasis should be positive. Its sales, which
had already been substantially lower than those of the NME, entered a serious decline.
In 1999, MM launched as a glossy magazine, but the new design did not help. The magazine closed
the following year, merging into IPC Media’s other music magazine, NME, which took on some of its
journalists and music reviewers.

6. SMASH HITS
• Launched 1st September 1978.
• First launched in the UK.
• Last issue 16th February 2006
• Focused on the pop genre and was aimed at a younger audience due to the type of music not
being as popular with elder people.
In the 1990s the magazine's circulation slumped and it was overtaken by the BBC’s spin off magazine
Top of the Pops, Emap’s other biweekly teen magazine of the period Big! Was closed and this celeb
focus was shifted over to Smash Hits, which became less focused on Teen pop and more of an
Entertainment magazine. The magazine also shifted size number of times in subsequent launches
including one format that was as big as an album with song words to be clipped out on the card cover.
Television presenter and journalist Kate Thornton was editor for a short time.