Lisa Syester, age 10, of Indianapolis, Ind., for her question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST MAGAZINE PUBLISHED IN AMERICA?
Magazines are much like newspapers in that they represent the work of many writers. There is a difference in form and content, however. Many magazines have covers and bindings of staples or stitches and are less concerned with daily, rapidly changing events than are newspapers. Most magazines feature long, detailed articles, reports or stories.
Some of today's magazines are designed to entertain while others are designed to inform. There are about 16,500 different magazines published in the United States today, more than found in any other country.
America's first magazine was called American Magazine. It had a subtitle: A Monthly View. It was first published in 1741 in Philadelphia and it only lasted for three months.
A Philadelphia journalist named Matthew Carey started two early magazines that also only lasted for a short time: The Columbian, published in 1786, and The American Museum in 1787.
America's first magazine for women was called Godey's Lady's Book and it was first published in 1830 by a man named Louis A. Godey. Sarah Josepha Hale was the editor of the magazine which helped shape the tastes of thousands. of women.
The first influential intellectual magazine made its debut in 1840. Called The Dial, the magazine was published by New England transcedentalists and was edited by a journalist named Margaret Fuller.
The first American magazine to feature many illustrations was Leslie's Weekly, published by Frank Leslie in the mid 1800s. Then in 1857 Atlantic Monthly was launched and was first edited by the famous poet James Russell Lowell. Harper's Weekly, with lots of drawings and battle front reports, was published from 1861 to 1865 during the Civil War.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reformers exposed conditions in business, industry and politics in Everybody's Magazine and McClure's Magazine. It was McClure's Magazine that became the first successful inexpensive magazine. Before publication of this magazine, earlier efforts had been published mainly for wealthy people.
A publisher didn't need too much money to launch a new publication during the 1920s. Both The New Yorker and Time were started in the 1920s with little funds. Today, however, high costs involving production and mailing require a great deal of money to start and maintain a new magazine. Some new publications succeed by aiming for a small, specialized audience.