The Penny Magazine
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''The Penny Magazine'' was an illustrated British magazine aimed at the
working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
, published every Saturday from 31 March 1832 to 31 October 1845. Charles Knight created it for the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) was founded in London in 1826, mainly at the instigation of Whig MP Henry Brougham, with the object of publishing information to people who were unable to obtain formal teaching or who pr ...
in response to ''
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal ''Chambers's Edinburgh Journal'' was a weekly 16-page magazine started by William Chambers in 1832. The first edition was dated 4 February 1832, and priced at one penny. Topics included history, religion, language, and science. William was soo ...
'', which started two months earlier. Sold for only a penny and illustrated with wood-engravings, it was an expensive enterprise that could only be supported by very large circulation. Though initially very successful—with a circulation of 200,000 in the first year—it proved too dry and too
Whiggish Whig history (or Whig historiography) is an approach to historiography that presents history as a journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a "glorious present". The present described is generally one with modern forms of liberal democracy ...
to appeal to the
working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...
audience it needed to be financially viable. Its competitor—which included a weekly short story—grew more slowly, but lasted much longer.


Early success

During the first few years of publication ''The Penny Magazine'' was highly successful in building an audience selling over 200,000 copies in 1832 with an estimation of nearly one million readers that year and easily outselling other
periodicals A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a Academic journal, journal ...
such as the ''Edinburgh Journal'' and '' The Saturday Magazine''.


Price

There were several contributing factors behind this early success for ''The Penny Magazine''. Firstly the price, as being sold for 1''d.'' made it a financially viable option for the working-class audience it was intended for. Thus based on price alone there were few direct competitors for the periodical to be challenged by. The only direct competitor in this price range in 1832 was the ''Edinburgh Journa''l.


Use of non-radical information

Another aspect of its success as suggested by historians
Rosemary Mitchell Rosemary Ann Mitchell (9 June 1967 – 20 September 2021) was a British historian. A Victorianist, she was Professor of Victorian Studies at Leeds Trinity University and, following retirement from this role, an ordained Anglican deacon. Ear ...
and A.L. Austin was the role of ‘non-radical information’. Austin states that the timing of the publication of the periodical in the same year as the
Reform Act of 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...
was significant as this meant that “the working classes expected parliamentary authority to consider the laboring community’s complaints” and that such questioning of authority led to a “public shift toward rational inquiry” which could be found within the pages of ''The Penny Magazine''. This outlook has been supported by Mitchell who also feels that the lack of controversial material was significant “in the ''Penny Magazine''’s appeal to a mass audience.”


Illustrations

An additional factor in the early success of the magazine was the consistent use of
illustrations An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...
throughout its years of publication. The publisher Charles Knight favoured using the new reproductive medium of
wood-engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and ...
, which was cheaper and speedier than the steel-engraving alternative, to attract readers to his publication. Knight also had an advantage, due to being based inside London, he had access to a number of skilled engravers such as
William Harvey William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and proper ...
,
John Orrin Smith John Orrin Smith (1799 – 15 October 1843 London) was a British wood-engraver. Life Born in Colchester, Smith went to London about 1818, and spent a short time training as an architect. Coming of age in 1821, he inherited some money, and bou ...
and
Edmund Evans Edmund Evans (23 February 1826 – 21 August 1905) was an English wood-engraver and colour printer during the Victorian era. He specialized in full-colour printing, a technique which, in part because of his work, became popular in the mid-19th c ...
among others. It was through his association with inventor
Edward Cowper Edward Shickle Cowper (1790–1852) was an English printing engineer, inventor, and academic. Life Cowper went into partnership as a printer with his brother-in-law, Augustus Applegath, around 1813, when their employer William Cornish died. A pr ...
, as well as the timing of the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, that enabled him to take advantage of the steam printing press to produce more illustrations for ''The Penny Magazine''. The use of pictures was also advantageous with the magazine’s target market as over 75% of school children were illiterate and another 300,000 did not attend school in 1832, the first year of publication. Similarly, in 1841 over 30% of males and nearly 50% of females were still illiterate, therefore using illustrations Knight was able to appeal to an audience with limited reading skills, while also enabling self-education. The illustrations became highly popular with Knight’s target audience as shown by the fact 1,887 illustrated articles were published in ''The Penny Magazine'' between the years of 1832 and 1845. The significant commercial value of illustrations for ''The Penny Magazine'' resulted in a whole front page being dedicated to a single picture. These images would often vary between machinery and animals. The popularity of illustrations and Knight’s desire for sales resulted in certain covers becoming scientifically inaccurate, for example an illustration of "The Boa Constrictor" (October 27, 1832) showed the creature attacking its prey with fangs drawn even though the reptile suffocates its prey. Austin argues that the idea of the snake striking at its prey was more likely to stir the reader’s emotions and entice them into purchasing the magazine. Ultimately it would be these illustrations, so vital to ''The Penny Magazine''’s early success, which would lead to financial problems. Despite the production of an accompanying encyclopedia, '' The Penny Cyclopedia'', the growing periodicals market caused Knight to lose significant market share whilst simultaneously having to pay more for illustrations to compete with other publishers. By 1833 Knight was paying over £20,000 per annum, forcing him to raise the price of the magazine to 4''d''. and as a result he could not maintain his early commercial success.


The New Penny Magazine

In 1898
Cassell & Co Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company. In 1995, Cassell & Co acquired Pinter Publishers. In December 1998, Cassell & ...
, began publication of a new weekly magazine. It ran from 1898 to 1903 as The New Penny Magazine, from 1903 to January 1925 as The Penny Magazine and from February 1925 to August 1925, as Cassell's Popular Magazine. There were numerous illustrations and each volume, when sold as a bound book, contained the issues for three months. It was initially called ''The New Penny Magazine'' to avoid confusion with the earlier, The Penny Magazine.Antiqbook: Fine Books - Fair Prices.
Accessed 8 October 2019.


References


External links


History of Information Online: Charles Knight & The Penny Magazine''Penny Magazine'', complete 14 volumes 1832-45 at Internet Archive.org.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penny Magazine, The 1832 establishments in the United Kingdom 1845 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1832 Magazines disestablished in 1845 Science and technology magazines published in the United Kingdom