The Birth of the Modern Magazine

The modern magazine was born sometime in the later decades of the 19th century (Peterson, Theodore. Magazines in the Twentienth Century. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Ill., 1958; p 1). Various factors, besides the growing literacy and education of the average American, led to its creation: one happened in 1879 when Congress granted periodicals low-cost mailing privileges, another in 1893 when publishers started to bring the price of magazines within the reach of the common person. But to Peterson, just as important was the day in 1897 when Cyrus Curtis bought the struggling SEP for a $1,000 and began reviving it; and the day in 1889 when George Horace Lorimer took over as editor of the SEP and began "attuning it to popular tastes,'' (Peterson, p1).

Magazines certainly had existed in America before this time period, however most of these were unstable ventures that did not travel far from their place of publishing. According to Peterson, the two decades after the Civil War were a boom time for magazines, with almost 50 magazines reaching national status by 1900 (Peterson, p2). The subjects these magazines covered is reflected in such titles as Popular Science Monthly, Ladies' World, and Babyhood.

Still, Peterson says, the average citizen was not at this time a reader of magazines. The average person was caught between the upscale monthlies, such as Harper's Weekly, which were edited and priced beyond the average person's scale, or the cheap weeklies, filled with sentimental trite (Peterson, p3).

Events leading up to the turn of the century favored the rise of common-interest magazines. America was changing from an agrarian to an industrial economy; railroads connected cities far and near, and factories started to produce for national or regional markets rather than simply local ones. Therefore sellers of these products, such as the new chain stores, wanted to advertise on a national basis, and needed a medium, such as a national magazine, which could achieve this. (p> Into this situation stepped a host of new national magazines meant for the middle class. While previously the average price of a magazine was a quarter, publishers of new magazines such as McClure's and Munsey's sold their for the price-slashing price of a dime.

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