Magazines: Voices for Many Interests 1/26/15 10:40 PM • Magazines serve the function of surveillance, monitoring what is going on, transmitting the culture, and entertaining the population. It’s most notable function is correlation: interpreting the society by bringing together many diverse facts, trends, and sequences of events. • Magazines began in London for the affluent, urbane, and literate population only. They were used mostly for politics and this idea was adopted later by the United States. • It was difficult to establish magazines to the public in the American colonies because people were spread out, literacy was not widespread, the population was not affluent, and there were any complications with transportation. • Social changes in the 1800’s encouraged the growth of magazines in the United States. The population grew, cities became larger, more citizens were educated, the mail became more reliable and less costly, and all forms of transportation improved. (Not to mention there were many things going on and news of important issues.) • The magazine flourished during the era of the “muckrakers.” Prestigious magazines were used to expose corruption in business and government and unacceptable social conditions. Magazines played a significant role in the reform movement that characterized most of the 1900’s. • Magazines were changed in the 1920’s. There were newsmagazines and large-circulation magazines containing something for everyone, making them important vehicles for national advertising. These were very successful and seemed to be a permanent feature in society. • Television absorbed most of the advertising that had previously gone to the large general masses, causing many magazines to die out. The industry adapted remarkably well, however, by developing a host of specialty magazines aimed at the markets with well-defined interests and characteristics. • The magazine industry today is fiercely competitive and very dynamic, mostly including consumer and business magazines, although many other types are published as well. • Chains own most magazines. Large conglomerates with many kinds of businesses buy magazines and add them to their diverse holdings. • The number of people who subscribe or read magazines is no indicator of how successfully they are making a profit or influencing the readers. The opinionmagazines pack the most punch influentially, but their circulations are small compared to the more popular magazines. • Computer technologies challenge magazines as well as newspapers generally, but magazines are likely to survive in their current form. It is a medium that presents material tailored for the interests of specific kinds of people in a manner that they prefer, and therefore it is likely that Americans will be reading magazines for a long time to come. • Magazines increasingly have digital strategies such as online editions and connections to search engines, social networking, and mobile
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