Updated: 12/14/2004

The Print Media - 12


 

 

 

Magazines

Part IV

 

The Top Magazines, Historic Chronology


Note from the rank-order listing below that most of the top 25 U.S. magazines are aimed at women, only two magazines are designed for men, and the rest are intended for general audiences.

 

TOP 25 U.S MAGAZINES IN - 2001
Rank Magazine Average In Millions

1

Modern Maturity

22

2
Reader's Digest
 12.6
3
TV Guide
 10
4
National Geographic
8
5
Better Homes and Gardens
 7.5
6
Family Circle
 5
7
Good Housekeeping
 4.2,
8
Woman's Day
 4.2
9
Ladies' Home Journal
 4.1
10
Time
 4.1
11
McCall's
 4
12
People Weekly
 3.5
13
Playboy
 3.2
14
Sports Illustrated
 3.2
15
Newsweek
 3.2
16
Prevention
 3
17
Cosmopolitan
 2.6
18
Southern Living
 2.5
19
Maxim
 2.5
20
Martha Stewart Living
 2.4
21
Seventeen
 2.4
22
Redbook
 2.3
23
YM
 2.2
24
O, the Oprah Magazine
 2.2
25
Glamour
 2.2
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulation.

The chart below lists 12 key periods in the history of magazines.

1741 First Magazine Published in America
1800s Rapid magazine growth due to increased literacy and decline in postage rates for magazines
1893 McLure's magazine starts "muckraking" in mass circulation magazines
1922 Time becomes first weekly newsmagazine
1936 Life becomes first picture magazine; launches photojournalism
1941-1945 Life graphically documents the progress of World War II with weekly photos
1950s Television results in major drop in magazine ad revenue and circulation
1969 Saturday Evening Post, which was one of the first and most successful general interest magazines, ceases publication
1970 Specialized magazines start a boom in niche magazines that continues today
1972 Life magazine stops publication as a monthly; Ms magazine launched
1990s Magazines begin publishing on the Internet
2000s Zines (Internet magazines) published by thousands of home-based publishers

Here are Internet links to a few popular magazines and resources:

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This concludes the Film, Radio, TV, Internet, Book, Newspaper, and Magazine sections of the Mass Media Cybercourse.

 

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