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Portrait of the USA: Magazines' Night
www.americancorner.org.tw | 2013-01-15 13:56
The first American magazines appeared a half century after the first newspapers and took longer to attain a wide audience. In 1893, the first mass-circulation magazines were introduced, and in 1923, Henry Luce launched Time, the first weekly news magazine. The arrival of television cut into the advertising revenues enjoyed by mass-circulation magazines, and some weekly magazines eventually folded: The Saturday Evening Post in 1969, Look in 1971, and Life in 1972. (The Saturday Evening Post and Life later reappeared as monthlies.)
Magazine publishers responded by trying to appeal more to carefully defined audiences than to the public at large. Magazines on virtually any topic imaginable have appeared, including Tennis, Trailer Life, and Model Railroading. Other magazines have targeted segments within their audience for special attention. TV Guide, Time, and Newsweek, for example, publish regional editions. Several magazines are attempting to personalize the contents of each issue according to an individual reader's interests.
This specialization has brought an upswing in the number of magazines published in the United States, from 6,960 in 1970 to 13,878 in 2001. Ninety magazines had a circulation of over one million in 2001. The top two in circulation were both aimed at retired persons: NRTS/AARP Bulletin (21,465,126) and Modern Maturity (18,363,840). Rounding out the top five were Reader's Digest (12,558,435), TV Guide (9,259,455), and National Geographic (7,738,611).
In 1993, Time became the first magazine to offer an on-line edition that subscribers can call up on their computers before it hits the newsstands. In 1996, software magnate Bill Gates started Slate, a magazine covering politics and culture that was intended to be available exclusively on-line (Slate's publisher soon decided to add a print version).
Meanwhile, a new hybrid of newspaper and magazine became popular starting in the 1970s: the newsletter. Printed on inexpensive paper and often as short as four to six pages, the typical newsletter appears weekly or biweekly. Newsletters gather and analyze information on specialized topics. Southern Political Report, for example, covers election races in the southern U.S. states, and FTC Watch covers the actions of the Federal Trade Commission. Newsletters can be the product of small staffs, sometimes only a single reporter who produces the issue by computer.
The newsletter has been joined by the "zine," highly personalized magazines of relatively small circulation, sometimes with contents that are meant to shock. Afraid, for instance, is a monthly zine devoted to horror stories.
Magazine publishers responded by trying to appeal more to carefully defined audiences than to the public at large. Magazines on virtually any topic imaginable have appeared, including Tennis, Trailer Life, and Model Railroading. Other magazines have targeted segments within their audience for special attention. TV Guide, Time, and Newsweek, for example, publish regional editions. Several magazines are attempting to personalize the contents of each issue according to an individual reader's interests.
This specialization has brought an upswing in the number of magazines published in the United States, from 6,960 in 1970 to 13,878 in 2001. Ninety magazines had a circulation of over one million in 2001. The top two in circulation were both aimed at retired persons: NRTS/AARP Bulletin (21,465,126) and Modern Maturity (18,363,840). Rounding out the top five were Reader's Digest (12,558,435), TV Guide (9,259,455), and National Geographic (7,738,611).
In 1993, Time became the first magazine to offer an on-line edition that subscribers can call up on their computers before it hits the newsstands. In 1996, software magnate Bill Gates started Slate, a magazine covering politics and culture that was intended to be available exclusively on-line (Slate's publisher soon decided to add a print version).
Meanwhile, a new hybrid of newspaper and magazine became popular starting in the 1970s: the newsletter. Printed on inexpensive paper and often as short as four to six pages, the typical newsletter appears weekly or biweekly. Newsletters gather and analyze information on specialized topics. Southern Political Report, for example, covers election races in the southern U.S. states, and FTC Watch covers the actions of the Federal Trade Commission. Newsletters can be the product of small staffs, sometimes only a single reporter who produces the issue by computer.
The newsletter has been joined by the "zine," highly personalized magazines of relatively small circulation, sometimes with contents that are meant to shock. Afraid, for instance, is a monthly zine devoted to horror stories.
