LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM

HISTORY OF LIFESTYLE MAGAZINES

Early Magazines

• What is a magazine? A publication of lasting interest targeted at a specific audience. A collection of articles.

• 1450's Johann Gutenberg invents a printing system using movable type.

• 1476 William Caxton establishes England’s first printing enterprise in London.

Early Magazines

• In 1586 Josse Amman publishes the fashions of the day, with the title Gynasceum, sive Theatrum Mulierum ... (The Theatre of Women).

• In which are reproduced by engraving the female costumes of all the nations of Europe.

• Regarded as the first fashion magazine

Early Magazines

• In 1693 The Ladies Mercury is published by John Dunton, at first monthly and then fortnightly.

• It concerned 'All the nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage, behaviour, dress and humour in the female sex, whether virgins, wives or widows'.

• It also carried an 'Answers to Correspondents' section

Early Magazines

• 1711, John Tipper publishes The Ladies Diary or Women's Almanack.

• By 1725 The Ladies Diary runs small ads, among them for false teeth.

• Later issues ran display advertising for beauty products.

• Until this time, the term 'advertising' referred to feature articles and reports

Early Magazines

• The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731.

• It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1914.

• It was the first to use the term magazine (from the French magazine, meaning "storehouse") for a periodical.

Early Magazines• The oldest consumer magazine

still in print is The Scots Magazine, which was first published in 1739.

One of the first magazines to achieve a mass audience was The Saturday Evening Post. Launched in 1821 and grew to be the most widely circulated publication in the USA.

Modern Magazines

Modern Magazines

• In 1886, Cosmopolitan launched in US initially as a fiction magazine.

• It was intended as a "first-class family magazine", with a "department devoted exclusively to the concerns of women, with articles on fashions, on household decoration, on cooking, and the care and management of children”.

Modern Magazines

• With a circulation of 1,700,000 in the 1930s, Cosmopolitan had an advertising income of $5,000,000.

• In the 1940s, the content still mainly featured fiction writing, the first section had one novelette, six or eight short stories, two serials, six to eight articles and eight or nine special features.

Modern Magazines

• Reformatted by Helen Gurley Brown (author of Sex and the Single Girl) in 1965 as a magazine for modern single career women.

• In 1972, Cosmopolitan UK launched as first international edition.

• Goes on to become world's best-selling woman's magazine - and best seller in UK until arrival of Glamour in 2002.

Modern Magazines

• In the US, the first modern mens magazine Esquire was founded in 1933.

• It always stressed its intellectual side, but really established itself in the war years with its pin-up illustrations and calendars.

Modern Magazines

• In 1986, Arena launched as a quarterly, niche title for men, with a mix of fashion, fads and fiction, hit the streets.

• The first successful mens magazine mirroring the style and content of women's magazines.

Modern Magazines

• In 1946, more than 200 mass-oriented magazines were launched in US

• The Accordian Times and Musical Express launched.

• Later to become Musical Express (1948).

• Then New Musical Express (1952-).

Modern Magazines

Modern Magazines

• The modern lifestyle magazine was pioneered in part by Clay Felker, who launched New York in 1968. Published among lengthy investigative and literary pieces were tips and features on fashion, food, and travel.

Modern Magazines

• The modern CITY lifestyle magazine offers tips and features on arts, culture, bars, food, and travel as well as listings for events and activities.

• Once a London based magazine TIME OUT covers pretty much all major international cities.

Photojournalism, a term coined later by journalism historian Frank Luther Mott, meant telling a story through photos.

The Birth of Photojournalism

"A Burial Party, Cold Harbor, Virginia," photographed by John Reekie in 1865, depicts African American soldiers collecting corpses from the site of a massive battle which took

place in May-June 1864.

The Birth of Photojournalism

• Photographer Mathew Brady first became famous for portraits, Civil War photography team.

• By 1864, Harper’s Weekly was reproducing his team’s photos.

• Promoted idea that photographs could be published documents preserving history.

The Birth of Photojournalism

• The "Golden Age of Photojournalism" is often considered to be roughly the 1930s through the 1950s.

• It was made possible by the development of the commercial 35mm Leica camera in 1925

• It that allowed the journalist true flexibility in taking pictures.

The Birth of Photojournalism

• Time is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It was founded in 1923.

• It has a strong emphasis on photojournalism.

The Birth of Photojournalism

• Today photography is extremely important in the design and presentation of lifestyle journalism.

• Not only illustrating stories.• But documenting life as it is

lived.• Provide a visual social and

cultural history of our society.

The term “Muckraking” was coined by Theodore Roosevelt to describe socially activist investigative journalists.

Progressive investigative journalists writing in the late 1800s, early 1900s.

The “Muckrakers”

The “Muckrakers”

• Samuel S. McClure was a famous muckraker who led a fight in early 1900s for business, social, and political reform.

• McClure’s Reform-oriented muckraking magazine took on the insurance industry, railroads, urban problems, etc.

The “Muckrakers”

• 1900’s - McClure’s Magazine crusaded for social reform through investigative & watchdog journalism.

• Magazines were effective in providing in-depth investigations.

• Attacked the monopolistic practices of Standard Oil

• Exposed municipal corruption in several cities.

The “Muckrakers”

• Muckraking style investigative journalism articles led to:

– Changes in the child labor laws.

– Workers compensation for injuries at work.

– The first congressional investigations.

– The Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906

• All these laws were passed because of the influence of muckraking reporting.

The “Muckrakers”

• Contemporary lifestyle magazines fulfill a watchdog function.

• Often providing in-depth investigations.

• Reviewing, recommending and providing unbiased reporting.

• For example the magazine of the UK Consumers association, Which.

Sources

Magazine Forum. Timeline: a History of Magazines. Available online:

http://www.magforum.com/time.htm [accessed 03-03-2014].