Magazines

One word, nine letters, magazine. The history of the magazine is quite more complex than one would think so buckle up your seat belts because this one's a page turner. The first magazine was published in 1741 by the great historical figure, Ben Franklin. This magazine was anything but the type of magazine we have today. The name of the magazine, General Magazine, alone drops clues about the content it contained. General Magazine had something for everybody. I challenge you to go to any old grocery store and look at the rack of magazines by the cashier to see if you can find one that has that kind of content.  Everything you can imagine was crammed into one tiny, shiny magazine. Containing everything from puzzles to news its no wonder General Magazine was a hit! A few 80 something years later someone else had tried their hand in this new way of communication. Saturday Evening Post would change life as we knew it. Magazines had become a national medium, had a national audience, were nationally  advertising, and had a national identity! 58 years after the publish of Saturday Evening Post the postal act of 1879 was passed. Magazines were now selling at 1 cent per pound! The government had subsidized the magazine industry as a whole. With the magazine there were innovations of photojournalism, Investigative journalism, and personality profiles. But like all good things it came to an end... well more like a pause. The magazine industry had a decision to make: Find a niche audience or find a new job. So they decided to take the earlier option. Believe it or not, the gradual demassification of magazines led us to those thing that stock the shelves in our bathroom today.