Magazines in the Age of Specialization

Chapter 9

Magazine Specialization

Like radio, magazines specialized to survive television.

– Ex. TV Guide. Also an early example of media convergence

Developed market niches to cope– Appealed to advertisers who wanted specific audiences

Defined by gender, age, race, class, or social and cultural interests

More than 22,000 commercial, alternative, and noncommercial publications and newsletters are published in the U.S. today.

Early History of Magazines

Defoe’s Review, 1704– For elites– Political commentary– Looked like a newspaper

Gentleman’s Magazine, 1731– Samuel Johnson– Alexander Pope

Colonial Magazines

No middle class– Often unaffordable

No widespread literacy Served political, commercial, and cultural

concerns Ben Franklin, in Philadelphia

– General Magazine Ruthlessly suppressed competition Used privileged position as postmaster

By 1776 about 100 magazines in colonies

Saturday Evening Post

Longest-running magazine in U.S. history Started by Alexander and Coate, 1821 First major magazine to appeal directly to

women First important general-interest magazine

aimed at national audience

The National Magazine

Better, cheaper technology Fed growing literacy and education Better distribution and transportation Most aimed at women

– Sara Josepha Hale: Ladies’ Magazine– Godey’s Lady Book

E. L. Godkin’s Nation, 1865– Oldest continuously published magazine

Modern American Magazines

Postal Act of 1879 lowered postage rates.– Equal footing with newspapers delivered by mail

By late 1800s, advertising revenues soared.– Captured customers’ attention and built national

marketplace

The magazine became an instrument of emerging American nationalism.

– Readers no longer maintained only local or regional identities.

Muckrakers

Teddy Roosevelt coins term in 1906. Early form of investigative reporting Journalists discouraged with newspapers sought

out magazines where they could write in depth about broader issues.

Not without personal risk to reporter Famous American muckrakers:

– Ida Tarbell takes on Standard Oil– Lincoln Steffens takes on city hall– Upton Sinclair takes on meatpacking industry

General-Interest Magazines

Popular after WWI from 1920s to 1950s Combined investigative journalism with broad

national topics Rise of photojournalism plays a prominent

role in general-interest magazines.

The General-Interest “Bigs”

Saturday Evening Post– 300+ cover illustrations by Norman Rockwell

Reader’s Digest– Applicability, lasting interest, constructiveness

Time– Interpretive journalism using reporter search teams– Increasingly conservative as became more successful

Life– Oversized pictorial weekly– Pass-along readership of more than 17 million

Modern Challenges to Photojournalism

“Original film has qualities that make it easy to determine whether it has been tampered

with. Digital images, by contrast, can be easily altered.”

—Christopher R. Harris

Decline of General-Interest Magazines

Advertising money shifts to TV.– TV Guide is born.

Paper costs rise in early 1970s– Life– Look– Saturday Evening Post– …all fail

But many women’s magazines survive. People, 1974, is first successful mass market

magazine in decades.

Fragmentation of the Industry

In 2006, the Magazine Publishers of America trade organization listed more than forty special categories of consumer magazines.

Magazine Classifications

Leisure, sports, and music– E.g., Playboy, Soap Opera Digest, Sports Illustrated,

Rolling Stone Travel and geography

– E.g., Smithsonian, Travel & Leisure, National Geographic

Age-group specific– E.g., Highlights for Children, Teen People, AARP The

Magazine Elite magazines and cultural minorities

– E.g., The New Yorker, the New Republic, Ebony, Imagen

Web Magazines

By 2006, the three most popular Internet magazines were Entrepreneur, Forbes, and Sports Illustrated, with entrepreneur.com scoring “6 million unique visitors” in February 2006.

Tabloids

National Enquirer is founded in 1926 by Hearst.

News Corp. launches Star in 1974. In early 1990s tabloid circulation numbers

start to decrease.

“I love talking to witches and Satanists and vampire hunters, and people who have been kidnapped by UFOs — it sure beats covering zoning board meetings.”

—Cliff Linedecker

Magazine Structure

Production– Machines and paper– Layout and design

Editorial– Content, writing quality, publication focus, and mission

Advertising and sales– Manage the income stream from ads

Circulation and distribution– Either “paid” or “controlled”

Chains

Hearst Condé Nast Advance Publications Time, Inc. PRIMEDIA Hachette Filipacchi Rodale Meredith

Media Giant

Contemporary Magazines

Fewer than 90 U.S. magazines sell to more than 1 million readers.

The other nearly 19,000 U.S. magazines struggle to find a niche.