Magazine Café

A magazine is a periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content forms. Magazines are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combination of the three. They are categorised by their frequency of publication (i.e., as weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, etc.), their target audiences (e.g., women's and trade magazines), their subjects of focus (e.g., popular science and religious), and their tones or approach (e.g., works of satire or humor). Appearance on the cover of print magazines has historically been understood to convey a place of honor or distinction to an individual or event.

Term origin and definition

Origin

The etymology of the word "magazine" suggests derivation from the Arabic (), the broken plural of () meaning "depot, storehouse" (originally military storehouse); that comes to English via Middle French and Italian . In its original sense, the word "magazine" referred to a storage space or device.

Definitions

In the case of written publication, it refers to a collection of written articles; hence, magazine publications share the moniker with storage units for military equipment such as gunpowder, artillery and firearm magazines, and in French and Russian (adopted from the French, as ), retailers such as department stores.

A distinction can be made between magazines and journals. In the technical sense, a ''journal'' has continuous pagination throughout a volume; thus, ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', which starts each issue anew with page one, is a magazine, but the ''Journal of Business Communication'', which continues the same sequence of pagination throughout the coterminous year, is a journal.

Another distinction regard peer-review, although some professional or trade publications are also peer-reviewed, for example the ''Journal of Accountancy''. Non-peer-reviewed academic or professional publications are generally ''professional magazines''. That a publication calls itself a ''journal'' does not make it a journal in the technical sense; ''The Wall Street Journal'' is actually a newspaper.

Distribution

Print magazines can be distributed through the mail, through sales by newsstands, bookstores, or other vendors, or through free distribution at selected pick-up locations. Electronic distribution methods can include social media, email, news aggregators, and visibility of a publication's website and search engine results. The traditional subscription business models for distribution fall into three main categories.

Paid circulation

In this model, the magazine is sold to readers for a price, either on a per-issue basis or by subscription, where an annual fee or monthly price is paid and issues are sent by post to readers. Paid circulation allows for defined readership statistics.

Non-paid circulation

This means that there is no cover price and issues are given away, for example in street dispensers, on airlines, or included with other products or publications. Because this model involves giving issues away to unspecific populations, the statistics only entail the number of issues distributed, and not who reads them.

Controlled circulation

This is the model used by many trade magazines (industry-based periodicals) distributed only to qualifying readers, often for free and determined by some form of survey. Because of costs (e.g., printing and postage) associated with the medium of print, publishers may not distribute free copies to everyone who requests one (unqualified leads); instead, they operate under controlled circulation, deciding who may receive free subscriptions based on each person's qualification as a member of the trade (and likelihood of buying, for example, likelihood of having corporate purchasing authority, as determined by job title). This allows a high level of certainty that advertisements will be received by the advertiser's target audience, and it avoids wasted printing and distribution expenses. This latter model was widely used before the rise of the World Wide Web and is still employed by some titles. For example, in the United Kingdom, a number of computer-industry magazines use this model, including ''Computer Weekly'' and ''Computing'', and in finance, ''Waters Magazine''. For the global media industry, an example would be ''VideoAge International''.

History

The earliest example of magazines was ''Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen'', a literary and philosophy magazine, which was launched in 1663 in Germany. ''The Gentleman's Magazine'', first published in 1741 in London was the first general-interest magazine. Edward Cave, who edited ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' under the pen name "Sylvanus Urban", was the first to use the term "magazine", on the analogy of a military storehouse, the quote being: "a monthly collection, to treasure up as in a magazine". Founded by Herbert Ingram in 1842, ''The Illustrated London News'' was the first illustrated weekly news magazine.

Britain

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; although its online platform is still updated daily, it has not been published as a printed magazine since 2013, when it ended print publication after 274 years.

France

Under the Ancien Régime, the most prominent magazines were , , founded in 1665 for scientists, and , founded in 1631. Jean Loret was one of France's first journalists. He disseminated the weekly news of music, dance and Parisian society from 1650 until 1665 in verse, in what he called a ''gazette burlesque'', assembled in three volumes of ''La Muse historique'' (1650, 1660, 1665). The French press lagged a generation behind the British, for they catered to the needs of the aristocracy, while the newer British counterparts were oriented toward the middle and working classes.

Periodicals were censored by the central government in Paris. They were not totally quiescent politically—often they criticized Church abuses and bureaucratic ineptitude. They supported the monarchy and they played at most a small role in stimulating the revolution. During the Revolution, new periodicals played central roles as propaganda organs for various factions. Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793) was the most prominent editor. His ''L'Ami du peuple'' advocated vigorously for the rights of the lower classes against the enemies of the people Marat hated; it closed when he was assassinated. After 1800 Napoleon reimposed strict censorship.

Magazines flourished after Napoleon left in 1815. Most were based in Paris and most emphasized literature, poetry and stories. They served religious, cultural and political communities. In times of political crisis they expressed and helped shape the views of their readership and thereby were major elements in the changing political culture. For example, there were eight Catholic periodicals in 1830 in Paris. None were officially owned or sponsored by the Church and they reflected a range of opinion among educated Catholics about current issues, such as the 1830 July Revolution that overthrew the Bourbon monarchy. Several were strong supporters of the Bourbon kings, but all eight ultimately urged support for the new government, putting their appeals in terms of preserving civil order. They often discussed the relationship between church and state. Generally, they urged priests to focus on spiritual matters and not engage in politics. Historian M. Patricia Dougherty says this process created a distance between the Church and the new monarch and enabled Catholics to develop a new understanding of church-state relationships and the source of political authority.

Turkey

General

The ''Moniteur Ottoman'' was a gazette written in French language, French and first published in 1831 on the order of Mahmud II. It was the first Government gazette, official gazette of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Alexandre Blacque at the expense of the Sublime Porte. Its name perhaps referred to the French newspaper ''Le Moniteur Universel''. It was issued weekly. ''Takvim-i Vekayi, Takvim-i vekayi'' was published a few months later, intended as a translation of the ''Moniteur'' into Ottoman Turkish language, Ottoman Turkish. After having been edited by former Consul for Denmark "''M. Franceschi''", and later on by "''Hassuna de Ghiez''", it was lastly edited by Lucien Rouet. However, facing the hostility of embassies, it was closed in the 1840s.

Satire

Satirical magazines of Turkey, Satirical magazines of Turkey have a long tradition. One of the earliest satirical magazines was ''Diyojen'' which was launched in 1869. There are around 20 satirical magazines; the leading ones are ''Penguen'' (70,000 weekly circulation), ''LeMan'' (50,000) and ''Uykusuz''. Historical examples include Oğuz Aral's magazine ''Gırgır'' (which reached a circulation of 500,000 in the 1970s) and ''Marko Paşa'' (launched in 1946). Others include ''L-Manyak'' and ''Lombak''.

United States

Colonial America

Publishing was a very expensive industry in colonial times. Paper and printer's ink were taxed imported goods and their quality was inconsistent. Import-Export Clause, Interstate tariffs and a poor road system hindered distribution, even on a regional scale. Many magazines were launched, most failing within a few editions, but publishers kept trying. Benjamin Franklin is said to have envisioned one of the first magazines of the American colonies in 1741, the ''General Magazine and Historical Chronicle''. The ''Pennsylvania Magazine'', edited by Thomas Paine, ran only for a short time but was a very influential publication during the American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War. The final issue containing the text of the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence was published in 1776.

Late 19th century

In the mid-19th century, monthly magazines gained popularity. They were general interest to begin, containing some news, vignettes, poems, history, political events, and social discussion. Unlike newspapers, they were more of a monthly record of current events along with entertaining stories, poems, and pictures. The first periodicals to branch out from news were Harper's Magazine, ''Harper's'' and ''The Atlantic'', which focused on fostering the arts.Biagi, Shirley. Media Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media, 2013 Update. Cengage Publishing, 2013. Both ''Harper's'' and ''The Atlantic'' persist to this day, with ''Harper's'' being a cultural magazine and The Atlantic focusing mainly on world events. Early publications of ''Harper's'' even held famous works such as early publications of Moby-Dick, ''Moby Dick'' or famous events such as the laying of the world's first transatlantic telegraph cable; however, the majority of early content was trickle down from British events.

The development of the magazines stimulated an increase in literary criticism and political debate, moving towards more opinionated pieces from the objective newspapers. The increased time between prints and the greater amount of space to write provided a forum for public arguments by scholars and critical observers.

The early periodical predecessors to magazines started to evolve to modern definition in the late 1800s. Works slowly became more specialized and the general discussion or cultural periodicals were forced to adapt to a consumer market which yearned for more localization of issues and events.

Progressive era: 1890s–1920s

Mass-circulation magazines became much more common after 1900, some with circulations in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Some passed the million-mark in the 1920s. It was an age of mass media. Because of the rapid expansion of national advertising, the cover price fell sharply to about 10 cents. One cause was the heavy coverage of corruption in politics, local government and big business, especially by ''Muckrakers.'' They were journalists who wrote for popular magazines to expose social and political sins and shortcomings. They relied on their own investigative journalism reporting; muckrakers often worked to expose social ills and corporate and Corruption in the United States, political corruption. Muckraking magazines–notably ''McClure's''–took on corporate monopolies and crooked political machines while raising public awareness of chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues such as child labor.

The journalists who specialized in exposing waste, corruption, and scandal operated at the state and local level, like Ray Stannard Baker, George Creel, and Brand Whitlock. Others, including Lincoln Steffens, exposed political corruption in many large cities; Ida Tarbell went after John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Samuel Hopkins Adams in 1905 showed the fraud involved in many patent medicines, Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel ''The Jungle'' gave a horrid portrayal of how meat was packed, and, also in 1906, David Graham Phillips unleashed a blistering indictment of the U.S. Senate. Roosevelt gave these journalists their nickname when he complained that they were not being helpful by raking up all the muck.

1930s–1990s

21st century

According to the Research Department of Statista, closures of magazines outnumbered launches in North America during 2009. Although both figures declined during 2010–2015, launches outnumbered closures in each of those years, sometimes by a 3:1 ratio. Focusing more narrowly, MediaFinder.com found that 93 new magazines were launched during the first six months of 2014, while only 30 closed in that time frame. The category which produced the most new publications was "Regional interest", of which six new magazines were launched, including ''12th & Broad'' and ''Craft Beer & Brewing''. However, two magazines had to change their print schedules. Johnson Publishing Company, Johnson Publishing's ''Jet (magazine), Jet'' stopped printing regular issues, making the transition to digital format, though still printing an annual print edition. ''Ladies' Home Journal'' stopped their monthly schedule and home delivery for subscribers to become a quarterly newsstand-only special interest publication.

According to statistics from the end of 2013, subscription levels for 22 of the top 25 magazines declined from 2012 to 2013, with just ''Time (magazine), Time'', ''Glamour (magazine), Glamour'' and ''ESPN The Magazine'' gaining numbers. However, by 2024, some titles, notably outdoors magazines, appeared to be growing in popularity.

Women's magazines

The "seven sisters" of American women's magazines are ''Ladies' Home Journal'', ''Good Housekeeping'', ''McCall's'', ''Woman's Day'', ''Redbook'', ''Family Circle'', and ''Better Homes and Gardens (magazine), Better Homes and Gardens''. Some magazines, among them ''Godey's Lady's Book'' and ''Harper's Bazaar'', were intended exclusively for a female audience, emphasizing the traditional gender roles of the 19th century. ''Harper's Bazaar'' was the first to focus exclusively on Haute couture, couture fashion, fashion accessories and textiles. The inclusion of didactic content about housekeeping may have increased the appeal of the magazine for a broader audience of women and men concerned about the frivolity of a fashion magazine.

Categories

Based on periodicity

Magazines are often categorised by their frequencies of publication (i.e., as weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, etc.).

Based on target audience and subject

Women's fashion

The first women's magazine targeted toward wives and mothers was published in 1852. In the 1920s, new magazines appealed to young German women with a sensuous image and advertisements for the appropriate clothes and accessories they would want to purchase. The glossy pages of ''Die Dame'' and ''Das Blatt der Hausfrau'' displayed the "Neue Frauen", "New Girl" – what Americans called the flapper. This ideal young woman was chic, financially independent, and an eager consumer of the latest fashions. Magazines kept her up to date on fashion, arts, sports, and modern technology such as automobiles and telephones.

Parenting

Other women's magazines have influenced views of motherhood and child-rearing through the use of advice columns, advertisements, and articles related to parenting. Mass-marketed women's magazines have shaped and transformed cultural values related to parenting practices. As such, magazines targeting women and parenthood have exerted power and influence over ideas about motherhood and child-rearing.

Religion

Religious groups have used magazines for spreading and communicating religious doctrine for over 100 years. For instance, ''The Watchtower'' magazine of the Jehovah's Witnesses was founded by Charles Taze Russell under the title ''Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence'' in July 1879.

Celebrity gossip, human interest

Magazines publishing stories and photos of high-profile individuals and celebrities have long been a popular format in the United States. In 2019, ''People Magazine'' ranked second behind ESPN Magazine in total reach with a reported reach of 98.51 million.

Professional

Professional magazines, also called trade magazines, or business-to-business magazines are targeted to readers employed in particular industries. These magazines typically cover industry trends and news of interest to professionals in the industry. Subscriptions often come with membership in a professional association. Professional magazines may derive revenue from advertisement placements or advertorials by companies selling products and services to a specific professional audience. Examples include ''Advertising Age,'' ''Automotive News, Broadcast (magazine), Broadcast, The Bookseller,'' and ''The Stage''.

Based on tone or approach

Magazines can be categorised by their tone or approach, e.g., as with periodical works of satire or humor.

Cover

Being on the cover of a magazine is sometimes considered an honor or distinction; examples are one-time common statements to the effect that an individual had "appeared on the cover of ''Time (magazine), Time''" or of the ''Rolling Stone'', etc.

The English ''Wikipedia'' presents a number of List-type articles that survey subjects and individuals appearing in the covers of specific magazines; see for example:

* List of National Geographic cover stories, List of stories on the cover of National Geographic;
* Lists of people on the United States cover of Rolling Stone, List of individuals on the cover of ''Rolling Stone'';
* Lists of covers of Time magazine, List of people/stories on the cover of ''Time'' magazine;
* List of Vogue (US) cover models, List of individuals on the cover of U.S. ''Vogue''.

See also

* History of journalism
* Automobile magazines
* Boating magazines
* British boys' magazines
* Business journalism, Business magazines
* Computer magazines
* Customer magazines
* Fantasy fiction magazines
* Fashion journalism
* Horror fiction magazines
* Humor magazines
* Inflight magazines
* Lifestyle magazine
* Literary magazines
* Luxury magazines
* Music magazines
* News magazines
* Online magazines
* Pornographic magazines
* Pulp magazines
* Science fiction magazines
* Scientific journals
* Shelter magazines (home design and decorating)
* Sports magazines
* Sunday magazines
* Teen magazines
* Trade journals
* Video game magazine
* Video magazines
* Zines

Lists

* List of 18th-century British periodicals
* List of 19th-century British periodicals
* List of amateur radio magazines
* List of architecture magazines
* List of art magazines
* List of avant-garde magazines
* List of computer magazines
* List of environmental periodicals
* List of fashion magazines
* List of food and drink magazines
* List of gadget magazines
* List of health and fitness magazines
* List of horticultural magazines
* List of lesbian periodicals
* List of LGBT periodicals
* List of literary magazines
* List of magazines by circulation
* :Lists of magazines by country, Lists of magazines by country
* List of manga magazines
* List of manga magazines published outside of Japan
* List of men's magazines
* List of music magazines
* List of online magazine archives
* List of political magazines
* List of pornographic magazines
* List of railroad-related periodicals
* List of satirical magazines
* List of science magazines
* List of travel magazines
* List of teen magazines
* List of video game magazines
* List of wildlife magazines
* List of women's magazines

Categories

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References

Further reading

General

* This work, by two ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' magazine historians, also covers such magazine titles as ''Der Spiegel'', ''¡Hola!'', ''Life'', ''National Geographic'', ''Paris Match'', ''Reader's Digest'', ''People'', and ''Time''.
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* The foregoing journal and archive links are to the journal abstract page, where PDF or HTML viewing cna be chosen. See also o
this archived link

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U.S. magazines

* Baughman, James L. ''Henry R. Luce and the Rise of the American News Media'' (2001
excerpt and text search

* Brinkley, Alan. ''The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century'', Alfred A. Knopf (2010) 531 pp.
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Book review by Janet Maslin, ''The New York Times'', 19 April 2010
* Damon-Moore, Helen. ''Magazines for the Millions: Gender and Commerce in the Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post, 1880–1910'' (1994
online

* Elson, Robert T. ''Time Inc: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1923–1941'' (1968); vol. 2: ''The World of Time Inc.: The Intimate History, 1941–1960'' (1973), official corporate history
* Endres, Kathleen L. and Therese L. Lueck, eds. ''Women's Periodicals in the United States: Consumer Magazines'' (1995
online

* Haveman, Heather A. ''Magazines and the Making of America: Modernization, Community, and Print Culture, 1741–1860'' (Princeton UP, 2015)
* Johnson, Ronald Maberry and Abby Arthur Johnson. ''Propaganda and Aesthetics: The Literary Politics of Afro-American Magazines in the Twentieth Century'' (1979
online

* Mott, Frank Luther. ''A History of American Magazines'' (five volumes, 1930–1968), detailed coverage of all major magazines, 1741 to 1930 by a leading scholar.
* Nourie, Alan and Barbara Nourie. ''American Mass-Market Magazines'' (Greenwood Press, 1990
online

* Rooks, Noliwe M. ''Ladies' Pages: African American Women's Magazines and the Culture That Made Them'' (Rutgers UP, 2004
online

* Summer, David E. ''The Magazine Century: American Magazines Since 1900'' (Peter Lang Publishing; 2010) 242 pages. Examines the rapid growth of magazines throughout the 20th century and analyzes the form's current decline.
* John William Tebbel, Tebbel, John, and Mary Ellen Zuckerman. ''The Magazine in America, 1741–1990'' (1991), popular history
* Wood, James P. ''Magazines in the United States: Their Social and Economic Influence'' (1949
online

* Zuckerman, Mary Ellen. ''A History of Popular Women's Magazines in the United States, 1792–1995'' (Greenwood Press, 1998
online

Magazine cover-art related

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* This work discusses the history behind the 322 cover illustrations, generally painted, that Rockwell created for this magazine, through November 1963, before turning to another decade of painting illustrations about civil rights, poverty, and space exploration for ''Look (American magazine), Look'' magazine, en route to his 1977 Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contribution to American portraiture.
* This work presents images of the seven cover graphic arts illustrations that Wheeler created for ''Life (magazine), Life'' magazine, throughout 1963, originals and other materials related to which are now a part of this museum's collection.

External links

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Magazines,
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