History of the Magazine Industry

The first ever magazines started to appear in the 16th-17th centuries in Germany and France and were in the form of bookseller catalogues and notices. The success of this lead to other small magazines across Europe. In America, the first magazines that were debuted in 1741 when Andrew Bradford's "American Magazine" and Benjamin Franklin's "General Magazine" began publishing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a mere 3 days apart from each other. However neither lasted long as "American Magazine" lasted only 3 months and "General Magazine" only lasted for 6. This was due to the fact that there were a limited of people who had the ability to read and write and had leisure time (the educated and the elite), as opposed to the poor and working class people, as they did not have an education and did not have free time.

In colonial USA, magazine's target audiences were politicians, the educated, and the merchant classes. In the United Kingdom and post established USA, magazines were originally meant for the wealthy elite, as they were able to read and write properly and not for the working class or poor people, as they were not able to read as much as the wealthy elite. For London's elite, regularly published pamphlets and magazines offered philosophy, poetry and politics to the higher class people, as they were literate and knew how to write, as opposed to the poor, working class people.

The circulation of magazines have changed a lot since its inception. Like I have mentioned before, magazines in the 17th century were in the form of bookseller catalogues and notices. But now in the 21st century, you can get the standard paper copy of magazine anywhere, or alternatively you can access the magazine's website online, which is much easier as pretty much everyone in the world has internet access nowadays.

When the first magazines started to appear, people wanted to spread and inform knowledge more quickly, so printing press was invented. They first arrived in colonial America in the 1500s. The printing press involved a moveable type that was arranged over a flat wooden plate called the lower platen. Ink was applied to the type, and a sheet of paper was laid on top. An upper platen was brought down to meet the lower platen. The two plates pressed the paper and type together, creating sharp images on the paper. But nowadays, advances in mass-production printing, conveyor systems, assembly lines and faster lines made magazine distribution and circulation more faster and easier. In the 20th century, new types of magazines had started to arrive, including news, business and picture magazines. Photojournalism started rising in popularity and more colour had been starting to get used more than it did in the 19th century. In the 20th century with the rise of technology, a lot more colours are being used and there is a wide variety and genres of magazines. For example, we have lifestyle and fashion magazines (such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar) and news and business magazines (such as Time and Forbes).