1. Chapter 8
Magazines in the
Age of
Specialization

2. Online Image Library
Go to
www.bedfordstmartins.com/mediaculture/catalog
to access the Media & Culture, 8th Edition
Online Image Library.
The library contains all your favorite images from Media &
Culture, 8th edition!

3. The Story of Cosmopolitan
60s - Helen Gurley Brown
Transformed antiquated general-interest mag
into the must-read for young, sexy single chicks

4. Magazines in Colonial America
• American colonies, early 1700s—no middle class,
no widespread literacy
• Early magazines documented early American life.
• Concerns over taxation, state vs. federal power,
etc.

5. Magazines in Colonial America
• Ben Franklin in Philadelphia
• General Magazine
• Ruthlessly suppressed competition
• Used privileged position as postmaster
• By 1776 about 100 magazines
in colonies

6. U.S. Magazines in the Nineteenth
Century
• Increases in literacy and public education, combined
with better printing and postal technology, created a
bigger magazine market.
• The Nation (1865–present): Pioneered the national political
magazine format

7. U.S. Magazines in the Nineteenth
Century
“They spring up as fast as mushrooms,
in every corner, and like all rapid
vegetation, bear the seeds of early
decay within them…and then comes a
‘frost,’ a killing frost,’ in the form of bills
due and debts upaid…. The average
age of periodicals in this country is
found to be six months.”
NEW-YORK MIRROR, 1828

8. National, Women’s, and Illustrated Magazines
• Women’s magazines on the rise
• Godey’s Lady Book (1830–1898)
• Helped to educate lower- and middle-class women denied higher
education

9. Illustrated Magazines

10. The Development of Modern American
Magazines
• Postal Act of 1879 lowered postage rates, increased
magazine circulation.
• By late 1800s, advertising revenues soared.
• Captured customers’ attention and built national marketplace
• Magazine circulation flourished.
• Ladies’ Home Journal
• 1903—first magazine to reach a circulation of one
million

11. Social Reform and the
Muckrakers
• Teddy Roosevelt coins term in 1906.
- willing to crawl through society’s muck to
uncover a story.
• Early form of investigative reporting

12. Social Reform and the
Muckrakers
• Journalists sought out magazines where they
could write in depth about broader issues.
• Famous American muckrakers:
• Ida Tarbell, “The History of the Standard Oil Company” (oil
monopoly)
• Lincoln Steffens, “Shame of the Cities” (urban problems)
• Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (meatpacking industry)

13. The Rise of General-Interest
Magazines
• Popular after WWI from 1920s to 1950s
• Combined investigative journalism with
broad national topics

14. The Rise of General-Interest
Magazines
• Rise of photojournalism plays a prominent
role in general-interest magazines.
• 1888 – Kodak photography for working &
middle classes
• Gave magazines a visual advantage over radio

15. The Rise of General-Interest
Magazines (cont.)
• Saturday Evening Post
• 300+ cover illustrations by Norman Rockwell
• Reader’s Digest
• Applicability, lasting interest, constructiveness

16. The Rise of General-Interest
Magazines (cont.)
• Time
• Interpretive journalism using reporter search teams
• Life
• Oversized pictorial weekly
• Pass-along readership of more than 17 million

17. Table 8.1
The Top 10 Magazines
(Ranked by Paid U.S. Circulation and Single-copy Sales,
1972 vs. 2009)

18. The Fall of General-Interest
Magazines
• Nation fascinated with TV
• TV Guide is born.
• Postal rates dramatically rise in early 1970s.
• Life, Look, and Saturday Evening Post all fold by 1972.

19. The Fall of General-Interest
Magazines
• Notable exception to decline of mass market
magazines: People, 1974
• First successful magazine of its kind in decades
• Some charge that People is too specialized to be mass
market with its focus on celebrities, music, and pop
culture.

20. Convergence: Magazines Confront
the Digital Age
• Magazine companion Web sites ideal for increasing
reach of consumer magazines
• Feature original content such as blogs, videos, social
networks, other interactive components
• Webzines made the Internet a legitimate site for
culture, politics, current events.

21. Convergence: Magazines Confront
the Digital Age

22. The Domination of
Specialization
• Magazines grouped by two important characteristics
• Advertiser type
• Consumer
• Business or trade
• Farm
• Noncommercial category
• Includes everything from activist newsletters to scholarly journals
• Ad-free magazines like Ms., Cook’s Illustrated also included

23. The Domination of Specialization
(cont.)
• Magazines also broken down by target audience
• Men and women
• Leisure, sports, and music
• Age-group specific

24. The Domination of Specialization
(cont.)
• Magazines also broken down by target audience
•Elite magazines aimed at cultural
minorities
•Minorities

25. Magazine Departments and
Duties
• Editorial
• Content, writing quality, publication focus, and mission
• Production
• Machines and paper
• Layout and design
• Advertising and sales
• Manage the income stream from ads
• Circulation and distribution
• Either “paid” or “controlled”

26. Figure 8.1
Top Magazine Companies by Total Circulation, 2010

27. What Time Warner Owns
Books/Magazines – Time – Telepictures Productions
• DC Entertainment • IPC Media (75 U.K. – Warner Bros. Television
– DC Comics magazines) – Warner Bros. Animation
– Mad magazine – Warner Home Video
• Time Inc. Television/Cable
– Coastal Living • HBO Movies
– Cooking Light – HBO • New Line Cinema
– Entertainment Weekly – Cinemax • Warner Bros. Pictures
– Essence • Turner Broadcasting • Warner Bros. Theatre
– Fortune System Ventures
– Fortune Small Business – Cartoon Network
– Golf – CNN Internet
– Health – HLN • 10best.com
– InStyle – TBS •CNN.com/CNNMoney.com
– Money – TCM • FanNation.com
– People/People en Español – TNT • Life.com (with Getty
– People StyleWatch – truTV Images)
– Real Simple • Warner Bros. Television • myrecipes.com
– Southern Living Group • PeoplePets.com
– Sports Illustrated – The CW Network
– This Old House

28. Major Magazine Chains
• Time, Inc.
• Largest magazine chain in U.S.
• Advance Publications
• Owns Condé Nast, which controls magazines
like Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue
• Rodale
• Meredith Corporation
• Specializes in women’s, home-related
magazines
• Hearst
• Hachette Filipacchi

29. Alternative Voices
• Many alternative magazines define themselves
through politics.
• Struggle to serve small but loyal contingent of readers
• Some alternative magazines have achieved
mainstream success.
• Early 1980s—William F. Buckley’s National Review had
circulation of more than 100,000.

30. Magazines in a Democratic
Society
• Magazines provide essential information about our
society and unite groups of people.
• But magazines are growing increasingly dependent on
advertising—readers are just viewers and purchasers of
material goods.
How can magazines straddle the need to be both
commercially and culturally viable?