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Magazines in America
Since American Magazine was first published in colonial America, magazines have become a part of American culture. An around 100 magazines were published in 1825. In 1850, this number rose to more than 600, with another four or five thousand titles having come and gone during the 25-year cycle. -
Trans-Atlantic radio transmission
Guglielmo Marconi, the "father of radio" took a simple interest in the Hertzian Wave and invented one of the most important mass media of the new century. Having first experimented with radio signals in the attic of his parent's house, Marconi travelled to England in search of investors. -
The great train robbery
One of Edison's most successful 'activities,' this eight-minute adventure film portrayed Butch Cassidy's theft. It's a hugely successful series, one of the first to tell a cohesive plot. Later, as the public grew dissatisfied with "real" activities, Edison and his company started making action, drama and comedy films. -
Motion pictures
At this point of growth, the three mass media rivals were all text-based: newspapers, books and magazines. The first new social medium to influence magazines was cinema, which entered the field of mass media in 1904 when The Great Train Robbery was filmed by filmgoers. The spread of film magazines started around 1910 and accelerated in the 1940s. -
San Francisco's devastation
Just days after the earthquake and fire ravaged most of San Francisco, the first newsreels were there to document the destruction. This tragedy will be the first global incident of its kind to be filmed by television viewers around the United States and around the world, while most of the recent devastation has been staged for the cameras. -
Radio
Since the entrance of the film as a competitive challenge to magazines, radio was the next emerging medium to reach the industry. Prior to the introduction of "talkies" movies, the first radio station with commercial sponsors and programming was aired in Pittsburgh at the end of 1920. -
Sound recordings
Another aural medium, the phonograph album, started its commercial growth in the 1910s. Starting in 1922, radio disrupted the growth of the phonograph business, and by 1924, sales of both players and recordings declined by 50%. -
Television and video
By the 1940s, the popular appeal in mass circulation magazines (with and without focus on pictures) had been well developed. This include Life, Glance, Collier's, Saturday Evening Post, and others. National publications, with millions in circulations, became an integral part of the national promotional campaigns of nearly all big brand name items. -
Computers
Computers first appeared in their mainframe in the 1940s and 1950s in government departments and universities; they gradually moved to the publishing industry in the 1960s and 1970s, becoming an important way for magazines to decrease costs and increase manufacturing efficiency by automated typing and pre-production. -
Internet
In its original state, the machine offered several direct and indirect advantages to the magazine industry. In a 1997 report, electronic use was correlated with an increase in print use, not a decline. However, much of these favorable correlations have been clarified by the fact that people of higher socio-economic status are usually more likely to be print media consumers.
