The Emergence and Evolution of Magazine - Case Study Example

The Magazine: A form to reach a wide audience. Part One History of Magazines The periodical form of the magazine is centuries old, but still has power within the literary world. As a form of writing that has a montage of topics, most often centered on a basic theme, the magazine provides a source that is less immediate than a newspaper, but more informative as longer articles that may be theme specific provide a broader availability of information. Magazines run on varying cycles having publication dates that are most conducive to sales to their demographic. While a great many magazines run on monthly cycles, there are bi-monthly publications, twice monthly publications, and publications that run four times per year. What is a Magazine? A magazine is a collection of communications that are designed to inform. The format of a magazine can be considered appropriate whenever a series of authors are pulled together to contribute stories to a format. As an example, beyond the literary format, television and internet forms have surfaced creating storytelling and articles presented through a variety of methods. Therefore, the collection of information is key to the magazine, not the format in which it is presented in identifying the genre. Some of the origins of the words are considered for their concepts of collection. A magazine can be a place where ammunition is kept, a store room, or armory. The entomology of the word can refer to a general storehouse from both the French magasin and the Italian magazzino. Arabic forms of the word can be found in mahasen or hasana, which means to store and from the Aramaic hassen which means to store or hoard. The two basic division between magazines are consumer and business. Consumer magazines are either sold or given for free and are driven by their advertising dollars, while either being influenced by those dollars or holding onto journalistic integrity. Consumer magazine journalism is intended to be informative and reflective of the culture in which the magazine is primarily entrenched. Business magazines are focused on a type of business and are considered trade magazines An additional division can be made through dividing out journals. There are about eleven different publishing companies responsible for small distributions of journals that are specified for individual academic disciplines. The readership is usually very small and is considered to be geared toward higher end academic pursuits. Most often the journals are costly. However, supporting the journals is a matter of doing so because being published in one adds to the resume of the academic. History of the Magazine Form The term magazine originally was used to describe a depository of extracts from newspaper articles to describe a new form of literature that would include a selection of articles from which to browse. A publication called The Gentlemen’s Magazine, published in 1731, is considered to be the first version of the type of periodical that is generally thought of as a magazine published. Created by a printer named Edward Cave, the work was soon in competition with similar works, but it wasn’t until the publication of The Literary Magazine by Ephraim Chambers in 1735 that a sustained publication existed to rival The Gentlemen’s Magazine (Chambers 190). Works that were used solely for criticism of literature began to appear around 1749 as the Whig and Low Church part gave support to the Monthly Review, which was followed in 1756 by the Critical Review supported by the Tory party and ran by Dr. Smollett. While Chambers mentions the works during the American Revolution only in passing (191), Knott suggested that the new freedoms that were being explored as the United States was being formed as a nation built on ideals created some of the most expressive work of the period (217). Magazines were slow to take hold, however, in the colonies as there was not a great number of literate people to whom to sell them. Benjamin Franklin began a magazine entitled General Magazine in 1741 that only resulted in six issues. Most of the magazines were based on literary topics and included articles by people such as Washington Irving, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Ralph Waldo Emerson (Mogel 6). However, the success was limited. The first commercially successful magazines within the United States were the American Museum and the Columbian Magazine. These magazines were created with the intention of creating a sense of culture within the American society. The Columbian Magazine was based on Federalist principles while the American Museum was based on anti-Federalist ideals (Knott 217). This created a balance with both magazines intending to create a type of written cultural ideal that could be a source of inspiration for those who lived within the union. Magazines that appeared in the 18th century include the Spectator, published by Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, and Household Words, which was edited by Charles Dickens. However in the 19th century in the United States, literacy was increasing rapidly as school systems began to flourish and therefore so did the magazine industry begin to blossom. In 1825 there were less than one hundred magazines within the nation, but by 1850 there were more than 600 publications. A magazine called North American Review was began in 1815 and ran continuously until World War II when it was suspended because of rationing of paper supplies. In 1961 it found a revival and still is in publication (Mogel 6). There were 1200 magazines available by 1870, with 2400 available by 1880 and over 3000 by 1890. Advances in printing made advertising a greater profitable venture and by the turn of the century magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, and Cosmopolitan had begun publication (Mogel 6). Forty-three of the publications that had begun by the beginning of the 19th century still are in existence with the oldest still published coming from 1825 being the Journal of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (Mogel 6). Bernarr MacFadden, health innovator from the era of the turn of 20th century first went into the publishing world in 1899 when he created Physical Culture. Within the pages of this magazine could be found a great number of strange and exotic theories and remedies for health concerns as well as advise on diet and exercise. It was his magazine Liberty, however, that provided an interesting twist in distribution. MacFadden used boys carrying bags full of the magazine to sell the work with the promise of a pair of roller-skates to any boy who sold fifty copies per week for a year and a new bicycle if this was accomplished for two years (Hunt 181). In the 20th century some of the most important magazines were founded by Henry Luce. Time began in 1925, with Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated to soon follow which were the core of the Time Inc. corporation which would eventually be Time Warner, Inc (Mogel 6). By 1940 Henry Luce owned a publishing empire that far exceeded any other in distribution, profits and influence. He enjoyed a certain celebrity associated with his success that involved him in a great number of ventures, including political and national security events in history. Despite his enormous success, Luce always considered himself a journalist first, putting integrity above all else (Baughman viii). In 1954, Life magazine reported on Sports Illustrated as a new source of information for the sports enthusiast. While this move may seem a big suspect as both Life and Sports Illustrated are owned by the same corporation, the article gives a good overview of the beginnings of a magazine in the middle of the 20th century. Holman, the then editor of the magazine, reported that in three months the issues had held 851 pages of editorial content with 178 of them in full color. The distribution had reached 528,000 families and while it reported a higher than normal price of 25 cents with an annual subscription rate of 7.50, the readership was paying the high prices and enjoying a higher than average quality magazine (158). According to Mogel, in the late 20th century two magazines were launched that have the potential for great success. The first is in competition with Sports Illustrated, a magazine that was founded in 1998 by the Disney corporation in conjunction with their television network, ESPN (154). This move proves that the idea that the print medium is on the way out, being taken over by digital transmissions through television and on the internet does not seem to be supported. While the new mediums, television and internet, were on the rise, Disney still found it a profitable potential to create and start a new magazine in paper and print form. This indicates that the magazine industry is still thriving despite new technologies that might otherwise render then obsolete. The second magazine that Mogel believes to be worthy of notice is Teen People. The precursor to this move was the Time, Inc. publication, People, in which a generous mix of celebrity and human interest articles are published (154). The magazine is intended to be an elevation above the gossip papers which has given an outlet to publicists in order to promote their clients through a more respectable and trustworthy source of celebrity information. A recent example is the publication of photos of Sandra Bullock and her baby that were provided by the actress in a joint effort to bring news of her life to the public through a trusted source. The story is believable because the magazine has a certain credibility in the public eye that might not be shared with its competitors. Therefore, the new magazine launched in 1998 is likely to succeed based on the success of the more adult content oriented version. The teen magazine focuses on people and interests that are associated with life as an American teenager, thus giving it a wide audience from which to attract a demographic. This addition to the Time, Inc. collection of magazines was done through research and development that suggested that the public would respond well to such a magazine. Therefore, once again, the business ventures of the late 20th century in regard to the magazine industry provide support for a continuation of the medium. The financial advantages of the magazine industry were indisputable. Luce had raised eighty-six thousand to invest in Time in 1923, but by 1940 the revenue from the venture was forty-five million (Baughman 2). The way in which a magazine creates profit is both in readership and in advertising revenue. In creating a profitable magazine, one has to balance distribution, advertising, and integrity in order to create a good model of the business. Advertising and Revenue The main revenue source in many magazines is the advertising dollars that are generated through the sale of space. Most ad space in national magazines is sold to national brands, although break out ads have been developed that are geared towards a specific geographic area (Smith 202). The two main types of revenue models on magazines are the both based on advertising sales, but the one also depends on readership purchases, while the other is strictly free to the public with advertising being the sole source of revenue. For Henry Luce, this was a problem. According to Isaacson, Luce felt that having an advertising only model created a conflict with the needs of the magazine to be intended for its readers and the loyalty that the publisher would feel to the advertisers. There have been quite a few studies developed about the size of advertisements and how they affect the consumer. Advertising is sold in differing dimensions depending on the type of magazine, but most often full page, half page, quarter page and eighth page dimensions are used in some form or another. According to DeFleur and Larsen, the size of the ad is surprisingly not very distinct in causing increased consumer connection with the intent of the ad. The effect of doubling the size of the advertisement has no differentiation than the smaller advertisement. However, there is speculation that this is due to the singularity involved in the experiments where in real life advertising is in competition with other stimuli (99). The History of Printing for Magazines The invention of the printing press in 1450 changed the nature of literature distribution. While movable type had been in existence since the 11th century, the printing press in vented by Guttenberg was designed with reusable metal type that allowed for the repositioning of the same type in order to create repeated versions of differing pages. The earliest magazines were creating using letterpress, but the cylinder press, invented in 1811 by Fredrick Konig allowed for a more quickly created work. Offset Lithography came into use in the middle of the 19th century with chemically treated paper attracting the ink where water was used to repel it all from a flat surface (Mogel 68). In 1886, Linotype, created by Ottmar Mergenthaller revolutionized printing by creating a system where a full line of type could be quickly exchanged in order to print multiple pages of differing natures. By the turn of the century, four color printing was in use allowing for images that were represented of life. The methodology was such that the four colors were layered one over the other in order to create a wide variety of color ranges that could reproduce picture images (Mogel 68). It wasn’t until 1948 that the first machine that could accomplish photocopying was designed by two Frenchmen. This design was advanced by IBM, and this foundational design is the basic format of desktop publishing which has become the standard (Mogel 68). The photocopying technique created a much quicker turn around in getting the magazine from design to completion. After the long series of improvements in the printing press, photocopying has revolutionized the printing industry. Changes in the Industry The concept of the magazine has moved from the comfort of the old standard of a piece of physical literature that has pages and are printed to the television, and then to the internet. The form has remained basically the same as various articles are created that are assembled into a format in order to provide a variety of information, but the medium through which those articles are served up to the public has begin to alter as technology has gone through its evolutionary changes. The television magazine format has been around for a quite a number of years. The show is divided into several long segments, longer than news broadcast segments, that discuss and report on individual issues. The CBS television program 60 Minutes has been around for a very long time, creating this very format and attempting to adhere to newsworthy programming (Hewitt 112). However, the content was unique because it focused on popular celebrity style reports as well as content with more serious issues at stake. The show was designed to have a larger appeal, bringing in a greater audience and exposing them to a wide variety of topics. As the internet has expanded its options, the use of the web based format has increased the ways in which people can communicate to one another. This has included the rise of the internet based magazine which can include articles, advertisements, and even coupons just like any other type of publication. Through the use of advanced technologies that make it possible for anyone to be a publisher, magazines have cropped up on all sorts of topics. Going on to a search engine will provide a list of sites where magazine style formats will give information on a broad number of topics. Part Two Current Magazine and Future Magazine As the 21st century has commenced, the magazine has taken new forms, but is still powerful as a form of literature. New technologies have made paper magazines less needed, but none the less they still exist and show a profit. While sales have waned with the turning economy, the internet capacity for having online magazines has not ended the form of literature. People still want something to hold in their hands. However, as the century progresses it will be interesting to watch technology grow and perhaps create a paperless world. Creating a Magazine Typography is the term used to describe the various designs of fonts that are used to create printed text. Typography can be used to also create artistic appeal as words are used to create impact, style, and form. While type is the most functional part of the magazine, the written word communicating to the reader, it is also designed in order to be aesthetically pleasing. The variety of fonts available to the designer is almost unlimited, but the fonts that are most easily read or have the greatest impact will be the ones used most often. The art of most magazines is central to its appeal. The way the magazine is designed can make a huge difference in the way the public will view its content. The cover of the magazine can be the defining factor for a successful sales period. However, there is a tension between the claims of the art department in that it is their work that creates readership, or whether the blurbs advertising the content actually draw in the readers (Mogel 46). It is most likely a combination of both aspects of the cover that create interest in reading the content. The basic principles in creating the cover of a magazine are as follows: 1. Do not tell a complicated story that is difficult for the reader to understand. Reading time for a cover may be three seconds. 2. Make certain the cover logo (the name of the magazine in type or art) is easily identifiable. If a light color is used for the logo, a dark color should be used for the background. 3. Think of the cover as a poster. Would the reader want to hang it on his or her wall? 4. Even consumer magazines that are sold subscriptions rather than on newsstands require exciting graphics. Worse than insulting readers is to bore them. 5. Experiment with fewer cover lines. Sometimes one brilliant, catchy, topical phrase can have a better pulling effect than a half dozen blurbs. 6. Experiment with backgrounds. For some audiences, white works best: for others, red or another high-key color is more effective (Mogel 47). The art of creating a cover is involved in a vast array of devices and knowledge that come together to create an appeal that should be difficult to pass by for the potential reader. Anne Leibovitz is a photographer who has created covers for magazines such as Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. Her work is considered some of the most innovative and interesting that has been created. She photographs celebrities by creating a scenario that captures something unusual about them. As an example, she shot Dennis Conner, winner of the America’s Cup in a red, white and blue shirt with a toy boat in a pond, capturing the innocence of his child-like desires, rather than emphasizing the grandness of his achievement (Kobra and Brill 113). Desktop Publishing (DTP) According to Lake and Bean, desktop publishing began before the home computer was developed. The IBM Selectric, developed in 1961, had a ball shaped head, allowed for a selection of the type that was desired into a typed document. With the introduction of the Macintosh GUI (graphics user interface) in 1984, the computer became more user friendly, opening the gateway for personal computers to become more and more commonplace (5). The key to the revolution that took graphics out of the sole hands of trained graphics designers and put it into the hands of anyone who could afford the equipment was the introduction of the Aldus Pagemaker software which allowed for moving digital text and imagery around on a computer so that it could be placed in a format that would give you a printed copy of what you created (Lake and Bean 7). With these advances a world of possibility has opened up where anyone can become a publisher. The concept of the E-zine is intended to allow anyone who has the reasonable resources to create a publication to create an online presence. The e-zine is the online version of a magazine. One format allows for a viewer to go to the website and flip through pages similar to the paper variety. Another version is e-mailed to the addresses of subscribers, creating some control on both sides of the reception and the sending of the publication. A receiver can decide to stop getting the e-zine, but the sender has a clear understanding of his readership (Sweeney 112). The costs of starting a web based magazine or ‘e-zine’ are much more friendly to the common interested parties. If one includes the computer, the costs can be as low as $3,000 or less in order to allow for paying for a domain name and a web hosting site. Software is needed, and someone to write the content, but if one is willing to spend the time writing their own content than no employees are needed for the endeavor. The e-zine can generate revenue just like a paper magazine if advertisers are sold within the space of the site or e-mail deliveries. Having an e-zine can create a source of revenue that has very little expenses and creates interest in topics that are interesting to the owners and the subscribers. Magazines in the 21st Century The future of the magazine publishing industry will rest in how the new technologies are used in order to create usable works that can be successfully sold both to readership and to advertisers. Preserving the format is a matter of business, and if the business is supported, then the format will thrive. If the format cannot be utilized in the new technological world, then it will die as any industry does when technology goes farther than the industry can support. However, the format offers a great deal to the culture as it exists now and therefore, it will survive and thrive in the coming decades. The consumerist culture that has evolved is based on a certain sense of immediacy and gratuitous social expectations that are geared toward the magazine format within the new technologies. On television, there are dozens of shows that reflect that format as they mostly relate gossip and celebrity news. According to Higgs, the sociologist B. Baumann refers to this period as the ‘liquid modern age’, an age where things are not permanent and with a sense of flowing quickly from one thing to the next. Goals, be they long term or short term are not near as important as the immediate (20). The magazine format on television and in e-zine format are perfect for this kind of lifestyle. Higgs says that “In this liquid modern age, things are expected to last for fixed term only. Motives are characterized by impatience for the fulfillment of self-gratification rather than the caution, patience and delay that attend both waiting and the concern for others beyond ourselves” (20). While this does not paint a flattering picture of the current attitudes of the culture, it does seem to ring true. In this technological world that exists, the ability to communicate, pay bills, get paid, work - all can be accomplished through a quick interface that skips a great many steps. This type of world wants condensed information that is available in one easy place. A magazine has articles that are researched and are presented in such a way that a lot of information can be gathered in a short time. This fits into the sociological description of the ‘liquid modernity’. The creation of either a visual or textual record of topics that are of interest has an appeal that will last through this time when the immediacy of things is their greatest value. The format of dense amounts of information arranged through like topics has an appeal to the modern culture. Part Three Opinion and Conclusion There is some theoretical suggestion that the printed word as a form of communication is in decline. That statement, however, does not seem to be supported by advances in technology, In contrast, the theory that is more likely true is that society is becoming a culture that is far more dependant on the printed word. After all, the nation is in a deluge of text messaging, instant messaging, and e-mail. The office memo is not received in e-mail format where paper is no longer necessary for the printed word to exist. It is true that only recently books are being replaced by a single device that can download books for reading, but this only shows an advancement in how books can be read, rather than in a decline of their necessity. However, there does seem to be an argument that paper bound editions of anything are on the decline. This may have some validity, however the texture of a magazine, of holding it in one’s hands and seeing the images that are on the page - it is hard to believe that society would completely abandon this pleasure. There are some forms of the magazine format that cannot be duplicated yet on a computer screen. While that quality may be coming, it is doubtful that it will ever fully replace the feel of a book or magazine cradled in one’s hands. Where does the culture end this practice and in which generation does this no longer have value? It is a feeling that begins as a child when given a first book. Therefore, the social sentimentality will most likely always require the use of words that are on paper. According to Agger, one of the claims for the decline in the written word is that in a capitalistic society that is ever preoccupied with gaining more wealth, the pure pleasure of reading becomes a luxury that is not well managed (92). However, society has always found its way back into the reading rooms. Evidence of this can be found in the proliferation of coffee shops that have sprung up and now grace the interiors of large chain book stores so that patrons can take their coffee with a side of literature. Literature will prevail in some form or another because of all the needs that seem to haunt mankind, the need for knowledge and the thirst to know and experience more can be fulfilled within the pages of a book. As paper based magazines strive to maintain their place in the world of media, one of the advantages is in the subscription based concept. This concept allows for home delivery of the information without the necessity of actively searching the web (117). This advantage, according to Nord, will keep the paper version of the magazine in print for along time. People, by nature, look for convenience. The convenience of the paper based magazine has yet to be surpassed by a different form of media. The post 9/11 world created problems for a great many industries. The magazine industry saw some of these issues as circulation initially dropped, but with the increase in related news worthy articles, the circulation began to steadily increase once again. This type of rebound is consistent with any industry where the sales will have an ebb and tide. As well, the turn of the economy in 2008 has created a great many problems for the magazine industry, as all industries have felt the crunch of a stress economy. Globalization has increased the way in which the world relates to itself. Very few areas of the world are so remote that they are not accessible through the internet. This accessibility has opened a whole new world for distribution and for reaching customers through internet access. The industry is now interested in not only its print works, but in having a decent web presence in order to create a world-wide readership. As well, advances in printing and distribution make it possible for the magazines to have a physical distributorship in countries outside of the United States. The way that technology is advancing with interactive programs and more user friendly graphics capabilities, the nature of the magazine will change and grow. One possibility is that magazines will be customizable so that the reader can choose which articles, graphics, and design is desired so that an individuated copy is made for the reader to enjoy. The technologies that have allowed for magazines to be easily edited for global distribution may be advanced so that they can be used by the individual. As computers are advanced, so may also the screen viewing value, allowing for a paperless magazine to have a better medium through which to present itself. The real possibilities are endless and will influence the world through the format of the multiple articles that are needed in a fast paced, information age. The magazine will survive as condensed versions of these bits of information are made available. . According to Marien, the history of photography is directly associated with the history of commercial imagery in the United States (268). The way in which an image is created is most often designed to be captured within the pages of its intended final target. Therefore, an image will not have the same quality when transposed onto mediums that are not paper. The quality of the image is as much an attraction as the words that accompany the articles within the pages. The need for technological advances within the magazine industry has pushed for these advances to be made. The fast pace of the magazine industry has provided for a quicker pace in creating new and innovative ways in which to survive and to up readership. Therefore, the magazine industry can be applauded for its continuing efforts to upgrade, giving the world better technologies that can be utilized for a wide variety of purposes. Magazines have allowed the photography industry to have a wide outlet for its creative works, the technologies increasing rapidly in order to accommodate the needs of the print industry, but especially within magazines. The printing industry has advanced and with the concept of desktop publishing, the world of publishing has opened up to the individual who needs no large backer to make a statement as an editor. Magazines as a literary medium have a great potential with the new technologies even as they continue to serve the needs of their readership. Magazines are constructed of history, designed to accommodate a wide readership, and are the source of a great wealth of revenue. The format has been available for centuries, providing a place where news, celebrity, and academic achievement can be experienced. The artistic world in all forms can be found involved in a single creation of a magazine, thus giving artist a forum in which to commercially use there talents. The format is well situated for the 21st century and will have a long life beyond the current era. Technology, thus far, has only increased the value of the format. Client Last Name 20 Works Cited Agger, Ben. 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Chapel Hill: Published in association with the American Antiquarian Society by the University of North Carolina Press. Smith, Ronald. Strategic Planning for Public Relations. New York: Routledge, 2004. Sweeney, Susan. 101 Internet Businesses You Can Start from Home: How to Choose and Build Your Own Successful E-Business. Gulf Breeze, FL: Maximum Press, 2007. Woodard, C. (2006). Starting & running a successful newsletter or magazine. Berkeley, CA: Nolo. http://www.ebrary.com/. Yahoo Education. “Definition of Magazine” Yahoo. 2009. Read More