Magazines have a long history dating back to the 1700s in Britain and faced many challenges establishing in the US due to lack of infrastructure. Their growth exploded in the late 1800s due to increased literacy, postal reforms, railroads, falling prices, and more leisure time. Women's magazines in particular saw great success. By the mid-1900s, magazines had become America's dominant mass medium and advertising platform but began declining with the rise of television in the postwar era. Today, magazines face new challenges from digital media but some have found online success through websites like Slate and Salon.

1. Magazines Chapter 5

2. Post-Apocalyptic Are we entering a “post-apocalyptic media world… in which Canadian trees are left standing and broadcast towers aren’t?” - Bob Garfield Advertising Age (2007)Living trees mean dead magazines. Data is still mixed on the success of Web-only magazinesSlateSalonConsidered the first and the best (both of them)

3. Salon & Slate Revenue from Internet advertising surpassed magazines for the first time in 2006.

4. SO? Will the tactile quality/experience of the magazine be enough to keep it alive? A Short HistoryFavorite medium of the British elite by mid-1700’sAmerican colonialists hoped to duplicate the successLack of organized postal system at that time made distribution difficult. Between 1741 and 1794 – 45 new magazines appeared (no more than three were published at the same time. Even after the Revolutionary War, U.S. magazines remained clones of the British publications.

5. Early in the IndustryThe Saturday Evening PostPrinted for 148 years, launched in 1821.

6. Early in the Industry Specialized, niche writingSuccess also fueled by the spread of social movements like abolitionism and labor reform. Provided compelling content and a boom period began in magazine publishing. 1825 – 100 magazines and just 25 years later, in 1850 there were 600. Began to look less like British copycats and more like a unique product.

7. Advertising and Circulation Post-Civil War era saw popular magazines begin to prosper. By 1885 there were 3,300 magazines

8. Women and MagazinesCrucial to the expansion were women’s magazinesSuffrage was the social movement that occupied magazine pagesContent also contained a lot of “how to” for homemakersAdvertisers were eager to appear in new women’s magazines “hawking their wares” Ladies Home Journal and Good Housekeeping

9. Why such phenomenal growth?Five main reasonsWidespread literacyPostal Act of 1879 (cheap second-class postage) boosted circulationSpread of the railroad (carried people and publications West)Cost reduction (circulation wars caused prices to drop/more advertising on pages)Industrialization (less time working because of machines = more leisure time and more personal income)

10. Magazines Truly America’s first national mass mediumForce in social changeMuckrackers used the page space to work for change, like Robin Hood they worked to agitate the powerful with money and help the poor.Magazines helped unify the nation. Mass marketMass circulationAffordable and national

11. Magazines, continuedDominant advertising medium at this timePrimary source for nationally distributed newsPreeminent provider of visual or photo journalismBy 1945 – 32 million families subscribed to one or more magazines.Dubbed “the television of their time” and were eventually knocked out of the number one spot after World War II by the widespread acceptance of television.

12. Magazines vs. TV Television was timely – Magazines were weekly.TV was a novelty to early adoptersMagazines worked to capture their fragmented audience by specializingNoted as the “harbingers of change” – they worked to capture a fragmented audience in the 50s like media of today is working to capture a newly fragmented audience

13. Advertising More people have a positive view of magazine advertisingIt is unobtrusive and does not interfere with the reader’s enjoyment of the magazineAdvertorialsNumber one item advertised in magazines: Drugs and remedies

14. Advertorial

15. Types of MagazinesTrade/professional and business magazines (American Medical News, Progressive Farmer)Consumer magazines (New Yorker, Road & Track, Entertaiment Weekly)Public Relations magazines (Colors)

16. Media Literacy & MagazinesThe infamous OJ Simpson cover image in Time (1994) where OJ’s facial tones were altered.