- A magazine is a periodical that contains articles, stories, editorials, images, advertizing and want ads. Usually several editions of a magazine are issued each year. News and financial magazines tend to be published weekly while topical magazines, professional journals, children's magazines and popular general purpose magazines may be published monthly, quarterly or semi-annually. A magazine's success is based on the size of its readership because, even more than the sale of subscriptions, magazines derive their primary revenue from the sale of advertising.
- Forty-five percent of the magazine market is controlled by the publications owned by three companies: Time Warner, Hearst, and Advance. Time Warner owns Time, People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly. This company earned twice the magazine revenues of Hearst and Advance in 2002. Hearst owns Cosmopolitan, Esquire and O. Advance owns Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Parade. Magazines that are devoted to popular culture have the largest readership followed by business magazines and then by news magazines.
- Glossy print magazines began to be published for the masses in the late 1890s. This greatly expanded the reach of the earlier magazines, which had been only affordable by the wealthiest Americans. Three developments coincided with the growing availability and attractiveness of magazines atat this time. First, the railroads made widespread distribution of the publications possible. Second, photography and the technology to reproduce photographs via printing on paper became available. Finally, the first advertising agencies opened. This innovation assisted the popularity of magazines by collecting a growing repetoire of graphic design.
- The first magazine, The Spectator, was published by Joseph Addison in the early 18th century. The magazine was only one page long. A new issue came out every day and it resembled a regular newspaper only instead of printing news articles, it contained only editorial opinion and commentary. There were no pictures or classifieds.
- The most successful magazines often start with an influential popular personality. This gives a marketing advantage in the soliciting of the initial subcribers. This has been true historically with Helen Gurley Brown, for example. It continues to be true. In a time when many consistently successful magazines are downsizing, Oprah Winfrey's "O" magazine and Martha Stewart's home and cooking magazines are newer, highly popular publications.
- Magazines usually purchase stories, articles, and illustrations from freelance writers and artists. They also tend to buy fillers such as sidebars of information and puzzles, cartoons and jokes. Writer's Market produces a yearly database directory of magazines for authors and illustrators. It is available online and as a book. Information in the listings tells how to submit articles, how long they should be and how much the magazine pays, if anything. The magazines often are organized into departments that are headed by editors, so it is important to direct articles to the proper person to receive the most favorable consideration for publication.
