Chapter 3Chapter 3

Books and Magazines

History of Books and History of Books and MagazinesMagazines

In this chapter we will be discussing the evolution of books and magazines

Generally, the history of print media is cyclical– Begin with an innovation (technological)– This causes competition between new and old forms of media and

increases consumer demand, expands the literate population– Finally results in some level of societal change due to the effects

of the media Through all of this, remember that “Technology facilitates

publishing and influences what formats are possible in media, but it does not define their contents” (your text pg. 63)

Early Print MediaEarly Print Media First we need paper.

– Paper originated in 105 C.E. in China (made from rags)– It took roughly 600 more years for this invention to reach westerners (via

Arab traders in 700 C.E.) Pre-Gutenberg

– Print media consisted of hand-copied material– Monks, clerks, merchants and a select few upper-class people where primary

readers and writers—few others were literate– Books were rare, requiring meticulously hand-painted pages

One famous book that still exists today is the Irish Book of Kells (800 C.E.) from 1200 years ago!!

– Prior to 1100 C.E. written language almost always consisted of Latin—meaning people had to know a second language to be literate

Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church

Early Print Media (cont’d)Early Print Media (cont’d) Pre-Gutenberg (cont’d)

– During the 1200’s written documents in the common tongue became more common

– During the Middle Ages, print media consisted mainly of Bibles and religious or philosophical commentaries.

– Between 1300-1400 Universities began to train clerks how to read and write—thereby expanding the range of materials to be printed

Including science, math, astronomy and navigation Columbus learned about potentially sailing across the ocean to

India from an Arabic manuscript

Early Print Media (cont’d)Early Print Media (cont’d) The Gutenberg Revolution

– Gutenberg (re)invented moveable type in 1450 C.E. The Chinese had it in 1000 C.E. The Korean’s had it in 1234 C.E.

– But Gutenberg sparked a revolution with his Bible in 1455 C.E. (five years later)

By 1470 a French Bible cost 1/5 of what a hand-copied manuscript cost Books were cheaper to produce, giving more people opportunity to buy them…

and so on Common people began reading—literacy rates dramatically rose

– Marshall McLuhan (1992) suggests that people fundamentally changed with the invention of the printing press

Today’s parallel—McLuhan likened the influence of electronic communication to this earlier print revolution

Early American Print MediaEarly American Print Media 1640 C.E. saw the first print media in America

– The Bay Psalm Book printed by the Puritans on an English Press

Benjamin Franklin published one of Colonial America’s favorite non-religious books, “Poor Richard’s Almanac” in 1732– And founded the first subscription library in 1731

Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776) urged people to support independence from Great Britain– Sold 100,000 copies in 10 weeks!

Early American Print Media (c’d)Early American Print Media (c’d) Early Magazines

– Developed in the 1700s in Great Britain– America’s first came in 1741 in Philadelphia

Didn’t thrive due to limited readership

– During Revolutionary War (1775-1789) magazines took a more political tone

Dubbed Miscellanies because they covered a wide variety of topics

– The first Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1790 which gave legal rights to creators for intellectual property

No longer worried about having ideas “stolen”—people would be repaid for their efforts

– The Subject matter began to change as the industry matured Politics to Literature to Newsweeklies

Early Readership in AmericaEarly Readership in America Literacy rates substantially increase during the mid-1800s

– Due to better public education systems and other improving social conditions– Prices of books fell (economies of scale)– More variety

Books became Popular during this time period– Thanks to books that stressed the “American Experience”

Books like James Fennimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans (1826)– Other books touched on important political issues

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) – Harriet Beecher Stowe– Dime novels – produced cheaply and enabled branching out into more

specialized genres Including “Pulp” fiction stories that pushed the status quo (detective stories,

scandals, science fiction and fantasy)

Early American Print Media (c’d)Early American Print Media (c’d)

In the 1900s, Magazines started becoming the primary source for investigative reporting

This transformation was called Muckraking– Journalism that intended to uncover scandals and

corruption; reporters who wanted to stir up the muck– Famous Muckrakers did influence policy:

Ex., Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” (1905) directly led to the Meat Inspection Act (1906)

Ida Tarbell exposed the corruption and abuses of Standard Oil

– As a result, Magazine journalism attracted crusading people who wanted to write about controversial events

Modern MagazinesModern Magazines Saturday Evening Post – very popular, long-running… why did it fail?

– The editors didn’t adjust to the TV competition Life Magazine ran for 49 years, but in 1972 folded… why?

– Television now presented America with generalist images, there was no need for Life, they hadn’t adapted

Today, magazines are reaching very specialized market segments and thriving– Book says in 2001 more men ages 18-49 read Sports Illustrated

than watched Survivor II (the most watched TV program for men in that group)

New Communication Technologies will always impact old media—some like the TV and now the Internet, completely change the game.

Publishing Evolution – After Publishing Evolution – After GutenbergGutenberg

Typesetting – the bottleneck; people had to carefully lay out all words by each letter (up until the 1890s!)

Linotype machines set out a whole line of type from molten lead,

which sped up the process in a major way – (it took them how many centuries to try this??)

Lithography – Allowed illustrations to be more economically added to print; switched from carving to chemical etching

Photoengraving – transformed illustrated publications by creating photographic lithographs (no longer handmade)

Offset printing – following WWII each page was created (complete with text, layout and photos and photographic image was transferred to a metal plate

Publishing in the Information AgePublishing in the Information Age 1960s-70s Computers replaced typesetters (and their machines) and directly

printed the photographic page-image to the metal plate– Today this is standard “Computer to plate technology” in the magazine industry

Carbon copiers, then Photocopying paved the way for higher quality printers Laser printers connected to a computer and some desktop publishing software

(PageMaker, Quark Express) we can now produce professional looking prints at home

Custom publishing enables publishers to print-on-demand, thereby saving money on books that don’t get sold

– Best seller list compilation then/now E-publishing – eBooks are set to explode, but no one is really buying yet (again

with the competing standards)– Some older publications are going online: NyTimes, National Geographic– Other innovations in screen technology will enhance appeal

Print DistributionPrint Distribution Many types of Book Stores Exist

– General Chain Stores (WalMart)– Large Chains of Medium sized stores – Waldenbooks (style

originated in the 1950s)– Superstores – Borders; Barnes & Noble

Americans buy an average of 4 books per year (including cookbooks and toilet trivia)

Selling Online? – 10% of Book sales in the US are made online (like Amazon)– Online retailers may have access to hard-to-find books– May help publishing companies avoid the pressure to create a

best-seller since people will seek out variety

Magazine GenresMagazine Genres General Interest – People, Reader’s Digest Geographic – New York, Arizona Highways, Southern Living Demographic: People en Espanol, Latina, Ebony Lifestyle: Maxim, Rolling Stone Newsmagazines: Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report Special Interest: Guitar Player, Road & Track, Country Living Trade and Professional: Broadcasting and Cable, Editor & Publisher,

Variety, Billboard Elite: The New yorker, The New York Review of Books

Magazine genres and numbers are not constrained by technology.There are somewhere near 75,000 magazines published in the U.S.

Book GenresBook Genres Trade Books: Hard or Soft cover, non-fiction, cookbooks, biographies and

how-to Professional Books: Reference of professional education books aimed at

doctors, lawyers, researchers, managers, etc. Elementary, high school and college textbooks Mass Market paperbacks: soft cover, lower cost, smaller text Religious Books: Bibles, other sacred texts, hymnals, prayer books and

commentaries Book club editions: special editions of regular titles Mail-order publications: books meant to be sold by mail, classic books or

specialized series Subscription Reference Books: Encyclopedias, Atlases, Dictionaries, etc. Audiovisual and Multimedia: Books on tape, CD and websites University and Scholarly presses: primarily appealing to scholars and libraries