Magazine

9 Pages 2243 Words

ercial developments also played
a role in the transformation of the magazine industry. Economies of
scale provided by new high-speed printing presses, as well as
improvements in photo-engraving technology, made both larger press runs
and higher-quality reproduction affordable. The prospect of marked
increases in readership became a reality once distribution networks
could be established based on a newly completed national railroad
system, made possible by the national standardization of track widths in
the mid-1880s. Circulation growth was also encouraged by favorable
postal rates. Explicitly intended as a subsidy for magazines, the
creation of the second-class mailing permit in 1879 and an additional
lowering of its rates six years later, as well as the establishment of
Rural Free Delivery in 1897, significantly reduced the cost of
delivering magazines to their growing national readerships. It can be
argued, however, that the most important factor in shaping both the form
and content of the twentieth-century magazine was the advent around 1900
of national advertising. With the rise of nationally branded consumer
goods and a significant shift from retailer advertising, largely the
province of newspapers, to that placed by manufacturers, national
advertising quickly became an essential source of revenue for magazines.

Historical transformations within any industry can often be traced
to success of specific individuals, and the journalistic professions
have certainly enjoyed a cast of central characters amply blessed with
both vision and visibility. Samuel McClure, Cyrus H.K. Curtis, Edward
Bok, and George Horace Lorimer all played prominent roles in defining
the nature of magazine publishing during the first two decades of the
twentieth century.

Possessing both a businessman's acumen and an editor's imagination,
Samuel S. McClure (1857--1949) is credited with two contributions t...