Timeline

MAGAZINES TIMELINE

1704 First magazine, The Review, published in London.

1741 First two magazines in America: Andrew Bradford's American Magazine and Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine.

1801 Port Folio, one of the most important magazines in the era of the Political Press, begins publication.

1811 Niles Weekly Register appears, forerunner of modern news magazines.

1821 Saturday Evening Post begins publication and continues for the next 148 years. It is discontinued in 1969 then reappears a few years later.

1828 Ladies' Magazine and Godey's Ladies Book, the first of many women's magazines, appear.

www.uvm.edu/~hag/godey/index.html

1845 First issue of Scientific American.

1850 Harper's appears.

www.harpers.org

1855 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, featuring woodcut illustrations, is published.

1857 Harper's Weekly begins. It will become notable for its illustrations of the Civil War.

1893 Munsey's Weekly lowers its price to 10 cents an issue, makes advertising rather than subscription and single-copy fees the most important source of revenue.

1903 Age of muckraking begins as McClure's publishes investigative articles that urge social reforms.

http://merlin.alleg.edu/employee/h/hmccull/tarbell/

1922 Reader's Digest first published.

www.readersdigest.com

1923 First of the modern newsweeklies, Time, is published.

www.time.com/time

1936 First of the pictorial magazines, Life, appears. It will be joined a year later by Look.

www.lifemag.com

1945 John Johnson starts Ebony, a magazine targeted to African-American readers.

www.ebony.com

1953 Hugh Hefner publishes Playboy, ushering in a new era in American sexual mores.

1953 TV Guide hits the newsstands. First national magazine devoted to a medium that will directly compete with magazines for advertising revenue.

www.tvguide.com

1956 Collier's becomes the first general interest magazine to go out of business because of competition with TV. Look and Life soon follow.

1960s In response to TV, magazines become specialized, aiming at niche audiences. Magazines such as Bow & Arrow, Cycle World and Modern Maturity typify this trend.

1968 New York starts trend toward "city" magazines.

1972 Gloria Steinem starts Ms., a magazine that encourages the burgeoning "women's movement."

1982 Computer Retail News appears, the first of many magazines devoted to the growing popularity of personal computers.

1990s Word-processing, photo imaging and page design software change the way magazines are produced.

1994-1996 Print magazines begin on-line counterparts.

1995 Slate and Salon, two Internet magazines (also called web zines) appear.

2000 Time Warner, world's biggest magazine company, merges with AOL, world's biggest Internet service.

www.aoltimewarner.com