Magazines are publications,
usually periodical publications, that are printed or electronically published (the online
versions are called online. Most publishers now provide digital versions of
their print magazine titles through various online services for a fee.) They
are generally published on a regular schedule and contain a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising,
by a purchase price, by prepaid subscriptions, or a combination of the three. At
its root, the word “magazine” refers to a collection or storage location. In
the case of written publication, it is a collection of written articles. This
explains why magazine publications share the word root with gunpowder magazines, artillery magazines, firearms magazines, and, in various languages
although not English, retail stores such as department
stores.
Definition
By definition, a “magazine”
paginates with each issue starting at page three, with the standard sizing
being 8 3/8″ x 10 7/8″. However, in the technical sense a “journal”
has continuous pagination throughout a volume. Thus Business
Week, which starts each issue anew with page one, is a magazine,
but the Journal of Business Communication, which
starts each volume with the winter issue and continues the same sequence of
pagination throughout the coterminous year, is a journal. Some professional or
trade publications are also peer-reviewed, an example being the Journal of Accountancy. Academic or
professional publications that are not peer-reviewed are generally professional
magazines. The fact that a publication calls itself a “journal” does not
make it a journal in the technical sense. The Wall Street Journal is actually
a newspaper.
Distribution
Magazines can be distributed through
the mail,
through sales by newsstands, bookstores,
or other vendors, or through free distribution at selected pick-up locations.
The subscription business models for
distribution fall into three main categories.
Paid
circulation
In this model, the magazine is sold
to readers for a price, either on a per-issue basis or by subscription, where
an annual fee or monthly price is paid and issues are sent by post to readers.
Paid circulation allows for defined readership statistics.
Non-paid
circulation
This means that there is no cover
price and issues are given away, for example in street dispensers,
airline in-flight magazines, or included with other
products or publications. An example from the UK and Australia is TNT
Magazine. Because this model involves giving issues away to
unspecific populations, the statistics only entail the number of issues
distributed, and not who reads them.
Controlled
circulation
This is the model used by many trade
magazines (industry-based periodicals) distributed only to
qualifying readers, often for free and determined by some form of survey. This
latter model was widely used before the rise of the World
Wide Web and is still employed by some titles. For example, in
the United Kingdom, a number of computer-industry
magazines use this model, including Computer
Weekly and Computing, and in finance, Waters
Magazine. For the global media industry, an example would
be VideoAge International.
History
The earliest example of magazines
was Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen, a literary
and philosophy magazine, which was launched in 1663 inGermany. The Gentleman’s Magazine, first published in
1731, in London was the first general-interest magazine. Edward
Cave, who edited The Gentleman’s Magazine under the
pen name “Sylvanus Urban“, was the first to use the term
“magazine,” on the analogy of a military storehouse.[4]
In the mid 1800s monthly magazines
gained popularity. They were general interest to begin, containing some news,
vignettes, poems, history, political events, and social discussion. Unlike
newspapers, they were more of a monthly record of current events along with
entertaining stories, poems, and pictures. The first periodicals to branch out
from news were Harper’s and The
Atlantic, which focused on fostering the arts. BothHarper’s and
the The Atlantic persist to this day, with Harper’s being a
cultural magazine and The Atlantic focusing mainly on world events. Early
publications of Harper’s even held famous works such as early publications
of Moby Dick or famous events such as the
laying of the world’s firsttrans-Atlantic cable however the majority of
early content was trickle down from British events.The oldest consumer magazine
still in print is The Scots Magazine, which was first published in 1739,
though multiple changes in ownership and gaps in publication totalling over 90
years weaken that claim. Lloyd’s
List was founded in Edward Lloyd’s England coffee shop in
1734; it is still published as a daily business newspaper. Despite being among
the first mass media outlets to venture from the bible, periodicals still remained
rooted in the naturalized class and gender system held by European and American
society.
Manufacturing of the early magazines
were done via an archaic form of the printing press, using large hand engraved
wood blocks for printing.When production of magazines increased, entire
production lines were created to manufacture these wooden blocks.
The development of the magazines
showed an increase in literary criticism and political debate, moving towards
more opinionated pieces from the objective newspapers.The increased time
between prints and the greater amount of space to write provided a forum for
public arguments by scholars and critical observers.
The early periodical predecessors to
magazines started to evolve to modern definition in the late 1800s.[10] Works slowly became more
specialized and the general discussion or cultural periodicals were forced to
adapt to a consumer market which yearned for more localization of issues and
events.
In 2011, 152 magazines ceased
operations and in 2012, 82 magazines were closed down.Between the years of 2008
to 2015, Oxbridge communications announced that 227 magazines launched and 82
magazines closed in 2012 in North America.Furthermore, according to
MediaFinder.com, 93 new magazines launched between the first six months of 2014
and just 30 closed. The category that produced new publications was “Regional
interest”, six new magazines were launched, including 12th & Broad and
Craft Beer & Brewing.However, two magazines had to change their print
schedules. Johnson Publishing’s Jet stopped printing regular issues making the
transition to digital format, however still print an annual print
edition.Ladies Home Journal, stopped their monthly schedule and home delivery
for subscribers to become a quarterly newsstand-only special interest
publication.
Magazine stand, Sweden 1941
According to statistics from the end
of 2013, subscription levels for 22 of the top 25 magazines declined from 2012
to 2013, with just Time,Glamour and ESPN
The Magazine gaining numbers.
References(All
text and Images from):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magazine
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