chapter 5- magazines 

  • brief hist of magazines
    • possibly originated in china
    • 2 prominent colonial printers tried to duplicate the success of magazines in the New World
    • andrew bradford- the american weekly mercury (newspaper); american magazine (first one in US)
    • benjamin franklin- the general magazine etc
    • early magazine industry
    • saturday evening post (1821); cont for 148 years
      • norman rockwell’s paintings used as front cover
      • printed in same building as ben franklin’s magazine
    • harper’s (1850)
      • female centric; fashion
      • atlantic monthly (1857)
      • literature, history, arts
    • mass circulation era
    • postal act of 1879
      • act that makes it cheap to ship books, magazines, and newspapers
      • helped w circulation of all sorts of print media
    • railroad
      • fueled growth of mass circulation magazines
      • cheaper to transport, weight wasn’t the issue; made it easier to circulate
    • 1870s-magazines sold for as little as 10 and 15 cents
    • magazines were america’s first national mass medium
    • muckraing
      • search for and expose scandal, corruption, defend mass interest
    • the era of specialization
    • ww2 further urbanized and industrialized america; tv in colour began to compete w magazine for mass national audience
      • public- more leisure and money to spend
      • mag more specialized and lifestyle oriented
  • magazine advertising (circulation types)- types of circulation
    • magazines price advertising space in their pages based on circulation
    • controlled circulation
    • circulate various editions in certain markets, control who their audience is and what market to promote in
    • custom publishing
      • brand magazines
      • magalogues (on airplanes)
  • measuring circulation
    • 1914- audit bureau of circulations; provide reliability to announced circulation figures
    • 2012- name changed to alliance for audited media
    • 360 deg most recent measure of circulation
    • circulation data are augmented by measure of pass-along readership
  • trends and convergence in magazine publishing
    • new models of measurement will replace traditional methods
    • online magazines
    • becoming profitable
    • ads and copy
    • advertiser influence over magazine content
    • complementary copy
    • sponsored content and ad-pull policy
      • can include demand for an advance review copy of the magazine by advertiser
  • developing media literacy skills
    • recognizing the power of graphics
    • graphics and other artwork provide the background for interpreting stories