History of a Magazine Pt.2 - Blog #18

 

Welcome Back!

This blog will be a continuation to the previous blog, we will continue to focus on the History of a Magazine. 

Development of money-making magazines 

Learning from early American Magazines, publishers began producing less expensive magazines in the 1830s, the decline in the cost of printing and mailing helped and possibly encouraged this development. This meant magazines weren’t focused on selling to just a higher class.In addition, publishers started focusing their magazines on reaching a wider audience, they learned from early American magazines that reaching a writer audience will attract more readers which will gain more profit. 

This is also around the time magazines started getting closer or related to the modern magazines today, starting with the style. Earlier on, magazines mainly consisted of information and advice, but publishers soon realized that those topics don’t attract as much attention as entertainment and amusement. However, based on reaching a wider audience, different types of magazines began surfacing. Family, children’s, and especially women’s magazines were being put out by many publishers. Similar to British magazines, women’s magazines became popular very quickly and it’s proved to be a real money-maker. In fact, one of earliest American women’s magazines was Godey’s Lady’s Book, a Philadelphia-based monthly, printed between 1830 and 1898. This magazine alone reached a plethora of women readers along with leading to the employment of about 150 women. 

The start of a revolution: The Saturday Evening Post

The magazine that created a revolution in the magazine business was named The Saturday Evening Post, a weekly magazine that first began printing in 1821 and remained in regular print production until 1969, when it momentarily ceased circulation. In 1971, this magazine was changed to focus on health and medicine news or breakthroughs. However, this wasn’t what made this magazine so popular, it was its format. 

The Saturday Evening Post was the first magazine to put artwork on its cover. It’s publishers said that this decision “connected readers intimately with the magazine as a whole”. Not only did it do that, it became widely recognized and grew in popularity. By 1855, it had a circulation of already 90,000 copies, not only that, its publishers came up with a way to increase it popularity along with making more money. The cover of The Saturday Evening Post was used to feature artworks from famous artists, this would generate publicity for those artists and attract attention to not only a larger audience, but also a wider profit margin. Works by famous artists such as Norman Rockwell, was used, so instead of releasing artwork by themselves, The Saturday Evening Post served as a way to release that artwork. This would have different audiences awaiting the next publication. However, this didnt stop at artwork, this idea traveled to including famous authors and writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and Ring Lardner. Gaining all of this popularity using already popular figures was a genius idea that traveled to impact modern magazines now.

The Saturday Evening Post: Cover page

Children’s magazine: Youth’s Companion

The idea of gaining a variety of audiences did not stop at women, it spread to focusing on the welfare of children, specifically the term youth. If you look at pictures of the youth back then and compare them to pictures of the youth now, you will see a very prominent difference in physics. Not only that, if you read any articles that are meant for the youth now, you will see their focus to be on entertainment through scandals and drama in the latest celebrities. In addition, if you do see any advice given, it would mainly relate to dating, makeup, or skincare advice.  Back then, the youth’s mental, physical, and spiritual health was very important. This was showed in Youth’s Companion, which published between 1827 and 1929 when it merged with The American Boy. An early U.S. mass periodical magazine. This magazine contained mostly religious content which became known to be a wholesome magazine to promote pure and virtuous youth. Over time, this magazine evolved to reach farther then just the youth. By including a lot more PG entertainment pieces, a larger adult audience became attracted. A lot more literary pieces became added as well, regarding to a audience of adult and children. In time, this magazine became known as “a literary force to be reckoned with”.

Development of prices for magazines and its impact

Even though magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and Youth’s Companion were popular and had great circulation, the magazine industry as a whole didn’t have the best circulation, at least not enough to make a great profit. Back then, $0.25-$0.35 was a pretty big sum. This is how much publications would cost because publishers had to gain a profit by making the price more then how much it took to create the publication. This limited, once again, the audience to readers who could afford them. However, this all changed in 1893 when Samuel Sidney McClure began selling McClure’s Magazine at the sum of $0.15 per issue. This became extremely cost efficient very quickly because even though this was less then what he paid to create the magazine, circulation did the rest and created an even bigger profit margin then before. 

This result was seen and replicated by more two publishers…

• Cosmopolitan (founded 1886) sold for $0.13
• Munsey Magazine (1886–1929) sold for $0.10 (“estimated that between 1893 and 1899 “the ten-cent magazine increased the magazine-buying public from 250,000 to 750,000 persons”)

All three magazine became widely known and successful. In addition, this risky experiment showed that magazines can be sold for less than they cost to produce due to greater circulation and a wider audience. This left space to make extra money by charging for an advertising space. Speaking about advertising, in the 1900s, this became an important piece in making money. Earlier on, publishers didn’t allow advertising because they wanted to leave space for their articles, literature, and writing. However, once they found a way to in frase circulation and its effect, they found advertising to be worth it to make more money in the long run. This also gave advertisers a way to reach a larger audience though popular magazines. Publishers would make profit by increasing prices for advertising spaces and advertisers would make more money by having their advertisements seen by a larger audience, hoping for more publicity. Later on, advertising became normal to see in modern magazines, especially in women’s magazines which make up about half of their magazines. 

*graphic in the beginning was made on Canva

*picture of early cover of magazine was found on https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/5-2-history-of-magazine-publishing/#:~:text=The%20first%20magazine%20was%20published,including%20the%20elite%20and%20women.

All information can be found in these sources:

https://interlatina.org/en/7/news/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-germany#:~:text=In%201663%2C%20the%20German%20poet,the%20highest%20number%20on%20earth.

https://geniuses.club/genius/pierre-bayle

https://dbpedia.org/page/Jean_Donneau_de_Visé

See you again in Pt.3!

History of a Magazine Pt. 1 - Blog #17

 

Welcome Back!

Today we will be going over the History of a Magazine. It’s important to know the background of something before you even begin to create it. So without further ado, here is Pt.1 of The History of a Magazine. 

Cambridge definition of a magazine:

“ a type of thin book with large pages and a paper cover that contains articles and photographs and is published every week or month.”

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/magazine

Early “Magazines”

The earliest “magazine” came in the form of brochures, pamphlets, and almanacs ( annual calendar containing important dates and statistical information). So, if you think about it, magazines are a culmination of these three forms of early “magazines”. 

Once the printing press in Europe became a repeated use for early publishers, it became the standing ground for the actual concept of the earliest versions of the modern magazine. Ideas for this concept started circling during the 17th century. After a while, generalized topics became too big of a feat to reach being as it required much work. Publishers soon found a way to lessen the work load and maximize efficiency, targeted audience. Publishers started catering to specific interests for different types of audiences. This was the first step to the evolution of the modern magazine we see today, however, this was only the beginning as the early magazine was nowhere near the criteria to be considered “pleasure reading” as well as not having enough news source to be a considered a newspaper. The early magazine can placed in the middle spot between a modern magazine and a newspaper, but it was getting there. 

Paving the path- Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

Johann Rist: Theologian and poet

Published Edifying Monthly Discussions( English title), Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen( German title), a physiology newspaper issued between 1663 and 1668, which he considered to be the “first true magazine”.  This periodical was said to have inspired others to create and print literary journals across Europe. 

Journals such as:

• Denis de Sallo’s French Journal des Sçavans (1665)
• The Royal Society’s English Philosophical Transactions (1665)
• Francesco Nazzari’s Italian Giomale de’letterati (1668)

Pierre Bayle: French philosopher and author

In 1675, Bayle was appointed the chair of philosophy at the Protestant academy of Sedan, in 1681 that academy became oppressed by the government against Protestants. Right before this event, Bayle fled to the Dutch Repulblic where he was appointed professor of philosophy and history at École Illustre in Rotterdam. From 1684 and 1687, Bayle published Novelles de la République des Lettres, a journal,of literary criticism in protest and to escape French censorship. Since Bayle had the experience of being a professor almost all over Europe, his journal sparked a “revival of learning” during the 1600s and inspired zeal for education. 

Jean Donneau de Vizé: French journalist, royal historian, playwright and publicist.

Published the first “periodical of amusement”, Le Mercure Galant (later renamed Mercure de France) in 1672. This is a step closer to a modern magazine because they are mostly made to entertain, such as a tabloid which is meant to create drama. This periodical contained a combination of news and entertainment, short stories, and poetry. This inspired other publishers to use the same theme in their later magazines. The shift from wanting to be educated to the need for entertainment increased pretty quickly after Jean’s version of a magazine. 

As the 18th century started approaching, the increase in literacy became known, especially for women. Before this lighter magazine was created, periodicals consisted of more intellectual publications such as articles, news, statistics. This then shifted to a more popular need, entertainment. The approach of the 18th century brought along women wanting to be educated as well. Women increase the reading record which created the inspiration for writers to publish for female reader. This increase helped magazines grow in popularity as women craved information as well as entertainment. This went as far as to reaching out to women and considering them as a target audience for magazines. An example would be “The Athenian Mercury”  written specifically for women in 1693. 

British Magazines

During the early 18th century, Great Britain followed Europe’s example in creating magazines. 

Three major magazines published regularly in Great Britain:

• Robinson Crusoe author Daniel Defoe’s the Review( domestic or foreign affairs)
• Sir Richard Steele’s the Tatler( emphasized living, culture, and virtuous behavior) added targeted audience for women, “Female Tatler in 1709 and Female Spectator in 1744.”
• Joseph Addison and Steele’s the Spectator.( emphasized living, culture, and virtuous behavior) added targeted audience for women, “Female Tatler in 1709 and Female Spectator in 1744.”

These magazines were published either daily or weekly. The supply timeline is closer compared to that of newspapers however the content related closer to magazines. These three magazines focused on politics, welfare, health, and culture. Two of the three created a more inclusive type of content to increase supply and demand by targeting a female audience. “Female Tatler in 1709 and Female Spectator in 1744”, were created to generate and draw a large number of women readers. 

American Magazines

There was not much success for American magazines although it did leave an impression and proved the cause of a decrease in the selling of magazines. This gave information on what helps sell magazines and what doesn’t. 

In 1741, Andrew Bradford’s American Magazine and Benjamin Franklin’s General Magazine became publicized in Philadelphia. American Magazine failed after 3 months and General Magazine failed after 6 months. These publications failed because there were few readers, prices were too high, attracted a very limited audience, expensive distribution systems and publishing costs. This taught us that even if these magazines failed, magazines in general will still be viewed as popular universally especially during the first half of the 18th century and the end of the 1700s. More than 100 magazines appeared in the US, however despite this number, colonial magazines still recorded low transmission figures and were considered intellectual.

*Graphic created in Canva

Sources used for research:

https://open.lib.umn.edu/mediaandculture/chapter/5-2-history-of-magazine-publishing/#:~:text=The%20first%20magazine%20was%20published,including%20the%20elite%20and%20women.

https://interlatina.org/en/7/news/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-germany#:~:text=In%201663%2C%20the%20German%20poet,the%20highest%20number%20on%20earth.

https://geniuses.club/genius/pierre-bayle

https://dbpedia.org/page/Jean_Donneau_de_Visé

Sources used for pictures in timeline for Early Magazines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Athenian_Mercury

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercure_de_France

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mercure_de_France,_October_1749.png

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pierre-Bayle

https://www.xwhos.com/person/jean_donneau_de_vise-whois.html

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouvelles_de_la_république_des_lettres

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giornale_de_Letterati-Tinassi.jpg

http://siba.unipv.it/buniversitaria/bu/index.php?en/193/philosophical-transactions-of-the-royal-society

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_des_sçavans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Rist

Sources used for pictures in timeline for British Magazines:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-tatler-founded-by-richard-steele-mary-evans-picture-library.html?product=canvas-print

https://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/a/english-school/sirrichardsteele1672-1729.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Addison

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Rise-Of-Periodicals/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19318163-the-spectator

https://www.hetwebsite.net/het/profiles/defoe.htm

https://www.alamy.com/robinson-crusoe-title-page-from-the-life-and-strange-surprising-adventures-image159110820.html

https://renardpress.com/renard-author/eliza-haywood/

https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/blog/post/63

Have a great day!

Preliminary Tasks: Double-Page Spread Explanation- Blog #16

 

Welcome Back!

For reference:

This blog will be the continuation and finale of my Preliminary Task blogs.

This blog will go more into detail of the process and the result I came up with when creating and finishing my double-page spread. 

For the page I numbered “2”, I used the same font from “THE PLACES SHE’LL GO” for the title “ALL ABOUT LUGGINA” . I kept the frame for the main picture from the original template because I liked how centered and retro it looked. I also kept it because it looked like a house and I thought it would be creative to hint at the fact that Luggina feels a conflict about where she would like her home to be and this picture was taken in Florida so this would foreshadow her final desire but not her final decision. I kept the little X graphic on the top right because I liked the placement. I moved the page numbers to the top right, above the title, because it would have gotten blocked by the graphics on the bottom of the pages. I kept the same shade of yellow for the top half but I wanted to distinguish the text from the top half, as well as make it seem cohesive with the other page so I changed the color from the original template. I played around with what picture to put in the frame and I ended up picking this one because the circle shaped mirror created a very unique contrast with the house shaped frame. Underneath the picture is a caption revealing a fact about Luggina and a topic that will be further discussed in the next pages of my magazine.

Underneath the caption is a graphic of a cartoonish/ Dr.Seuss looking landscape. I added this graphic to fill up empty space and also to start building the aesthetic I wanted. This graphic shows a barren landscape with multiple roads pointing towards different directions. This landscape signifies Luggina’s confusion about where she wants her home to be. 

Below the top half of the page is the text. I found a white background in Canva and added it to the bottom half with the text. In this page I wrote about Luggina’s background. Things such as the political state of Ecuador, the crimes Luggina has experienced herself and how it has affected her norms. Next to the text is a graphic of sketched balloons. In the Dr.Seuss book , “Oh, the places I’ll go”, the character is taken by a huge balloon to the places he will go. The balloons are to signify Luggina going to Florida, the place she will go to where she will realize that there is a whole other world outside of Ecuador. The big “L” at the start of the text is from the original template and I decided to keep it because it reminded me of the beginning of a kid’s storybook. I made sure to put direct quotes by Luggina in bold lettering so it could stand out to the readers.

For the page numbered “3”, I started the top half with keeping the same shade of yellow as it is in the original template. I kept the frame from the original template and I added a picture that framed her face as the center. The text next to the picture is in the same font but in green, this will contain a quoted introduction by Luggina including her name, where she is from, what grade, and something about herself. This is to formally introduce the reader to whom I’ve been writing about throughout the magazine. I wanted to make this introduction a lot more personalized to Luggina so I put it in her native tongue, spanish, and translated it to English as well. This introduction is titled “ Hi! Allow me to introduce myself!”, in green, bold lettering. This is to make it seem like Luggina is introducing herself to her readers, it’s to create a more personal connection.

Below the top half is the text half. I started this half with a “pull quote”, this will contain something Luggina says that will stick out a main point I want readers to know about Luggina. This font and thickness is the same one I used for the numbers and subheadings for my table of contents. I made the top half smaller then how it originally was and I gave more space for the text by bringing the white background up. The title is in the same font, thickness, and color as the recent headings.

I decided to make this page about a “A Day in the Life”. This will be about Luggina’s life in Ecuador, what her routine is in a school day, what she does on the weekends, any hobbies, her dreams, etc. The picture next to the text is a picture with more than just Luggina, its a picture of her having fun and happy. I added this picture because the cotton candy is yellow which goes with the color scheme I am going for. The graphic I added below shows only one, long road, leading to some unknown place. I added this graphic because it signifies Luggina’s need for stability outside of the chaos of a world she grew up in. It also foreshadows her decision of picking somewhere to go, and where she would end up staying. As in the last page, I highlighted any direct quote in bold lettering to stand out to the readers.

*Original photos

*Graphics and templates from Canva

*I gathered all of this information by interviewing Luggina personally

*All bolded quotes are direct quotes from Luggina herself

That’s all for my Preliminary Tasks! 

See you soon!

Preliminary Tasks: Double-Page Spread- Blog #15

 

Welcome Back!

This blog will begin the last set of my Preliminary Tasks. 

Today, I will be revealing my double-page spread. 

This spread contains 3 original pictures, total, involving my main subject. This double spread is titled “All About Me” which is a topic on the main subjects life before visiting Florida. It will highlight a day in the life of a girl living in Ecuador, her struggles personally and what is happening in Ecuador politically.

 The font will be the original font included in the template I selected however, I did play around with the positioning of the colors to result in a cohesive two page spread.  I added a line down the middle of the page so the colors wouldn’t meld together. 

I added sketched graphics around the bottoms and sides of the texts. These sketches were meant to add a hint of Dr.Seuss into each page, as mentioned before. I kept the same color scheme as the last two pages but I did add white for a more simplistic and clean look regarding the text.  I wanted to make sure that the readers wouldn’t be distracted from the text by a bright color. 

I will be going into more detail in my next blog.

Below I will reveal the before and after of my double-page spread:

Before:

After:

*Made in Canva 

*Original Photos

That’s all for today! 

Preliminary Tasks: Table of Content Explanation- Blog #14

 

Welcome Back!

This blog is a continuation of my Preliminary Tasks- Table of Contents.

Here I will be presenting my analysis on the creation of my table of contents. I will be explaining why I chose certain colors or fonts, what the table of contents consists of, and why chose certain graphics. 

This is the before and after:

Before:

After:

Like I previously mentioned in my last blog, I used a template in the same set as my cover page ,from Canva, for my table of contents. I appreciated the retro/2000s style it gives off because it caters to the demographic I am hoping to reach, which is a younger audience. It has the same colors as my cover page however the fonts are different.  I figured that by using the same colors and template set, my magazine would be seen as cohesive and it would have the flow of a good, trendy magazine. 

If you haven’t noticed by now, I have been trying to allude to a kind of Dr.Seuss aesthetic. I try to allude to Dr.Seuss at least once in each page of my magazine. This is to add a piece of myself into this magazine since I can’t disclose any personal information. 

I have always enjoyed the drawings and fonts from his books, it gives me a sort of comfort because it reminds me of my childhood.

So, in my cover page, the title alludes to Dr. Seuss “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”—my title page is “The Places She’ll Go”. “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” is about what life is, what you can expect when you get older, and how to move through life’s biggest changes. “The Places She’ll Go” is about a girl  who experiences a whole different lifestyle and realizes that her mentality from living in Ecuador has put her on a flight or fight mode her whole life, now she is thinking about a change. 

 The effect I wanted my table of contents to have instantly is organized chaos. This might seem dramatic but what I mean is everything is in its place but it’s fun to look at. The colors, graphics, font type, box organization. If you look at the original template, you can see that each box has a number and it would end up looking simplistic. Which is good but my magazine is supposed to look retro and fun to look at but not too professional because a younger audience wouldn’t be attracted to that.

I chose a different font for the title than the original version because I felt like it would look more organized since there was already so much going on. 

I based the page numbers off of the amount of pages my magazine is allowed to have (4 page magazine) and how many of those pages I could write on (6 pages, front and back). For example, the section titled “All About Me”, will have a full two page spread dedicated to it. However, the section titled “ Back to the Past” will have one page dedicated to it because that is how much I believe it would take. 

The font I used for the title and the explanations for each section is Kitsch Display. It’s a clean and simplistic. I decided to add some type of cleanliness to my table of contents because I wanted people to focus on the most important parts and not be too distracted by a funky kind of font. The font I used—Tallow Regular— for the banner next to the “All About Me” section contributes to the Dr.Seuss theme I am trying to add in every page of my magazine. This font is more of a cartoonish and Dr.Seuss type of font. I figured it would compliment the banner that looks very Dr.Seuss-like and contribute to the theme I am going for. The font I used for the page numbers and section titles is the original font—fraunces— used in the original template for my table of contents. I kept it so it could give a sense of familiarity of my cover page and to separate the numbers and section title from the section explanations. Each font is to separate the roles of all the elements in my table of

Each graphic is next to a section of the magazine and it hints to what it will be about. For the section “ All About Me”, I put a banner, which alludes to the drawings Dr.Seuss creates and I added the name of my main subject, “Luggina”. For the section “A New Experience”, I put a graphic of the place my main subject will have that new experience in. In this case, it’s Florida, however I searched for the most retro looking Florida graphic to compliment the style I’m going for. For the section “ Realization”, the graphic I put symbolizes two things, first is the main subject realizing that she prefers the place her “new experience” resides in, she sees it as a better home then her home is Ecuador. The second is the inner conflict inside my main subject about where her real home is, Florida?, or Ecuador? The graphic of a house represents her conflict and confusion of where her actual home is and where she wants to be after that new experience. For the section “ Back to the Past”, I put the most aesthetically pleasing stamp of Ecuador to show that no matter what, her final decision has to be going back to Ecuador because that is where her life is established. 

*graphics from Canva

*templates from Canva

                                               That’s all for today! 

                         See you in my next set of my Preliminary blogs!

Preliminary Tasks: Table of Contents-Blog #13

 

Welcome Back!

This blog will introduce the next set of preliminary tasks—my table of contents. 

I used Canva to look for a set of templates and picked out the ones I would be using for my magazine. The cover page in my previous blog came in a set of templates that consisted of a table of contents. I decided to keep it so I wouldn’t risk the magazine looking mismatched. I also enjoyed the retro style it had going on so I figured it would be best to keep it. I did keep the same colors but I changed the fonts to a more cartoony/retro style. To fill out empty spaces, I added graphics from Canva that gave somewhat an idea of the topics I would be talking about. I wanted this magazine to give off a Dr. Seuss aesthetic. 

Before:

After:

That’s it, on to the next!

*graphic made on Canva