The earliest regular Colonial newspaper was the Boston News-Letter founded in 1704. The hyphen, I’d guess indicates that media consolidation afflicted even the first publisher…though I’m not quite sure how. I learned today that The Atlantic was the first American magazine, and began publishing just two years after the BNL in ’06.
As improbable as that may seem, the current issue of Atlantic (which I just had to buy to see the Pentagram redesign for myself) boldly declares that it’s in its 302nd Volume–or at least that’s what the TOC says.
The Editor’s note doesn’t quite jibe with that figure—it mentions a first redesign coming 1947–90 years after the magazine’s founding. That would put the age at 151, or exactly half of 302.
So, either someone made a mistake, or The Atlantic publishes in dog years.
Well, looking at Wikipedia tells me that the statement about the Atlantic is deeply wrong. The Atlantic was founded in 1857. Not even remotely close to 1704.
The first magazine was North American Review founded in 1815. I have actually read years worth of this particular publication.
Given the state of printing and more importantly binding it is exceedingly unlikely that anything other than a book or a broadside was published in the 18th century in the United States
In the parlance of the time “News-Letter” would indicate a letter than contained news. Not a merger except in the sense of two functions in one.
I see that I too have been mistaken. It would seem that there were many magazines before even the North American Review:
“During the period between the first and the second wars with Great Britain Americans were unduly sensitive over the lack of a national literature, and absurdly determined that such a literature should at once be produced. A considerable number of magazines were projected with the deliberate purpose of improving literary conditions, and of avoiding the taunts that crystallized in Sydney Smith’s notorious question. The feeling of patriotism is reflected in such titles as The Columbian Magazine, The American Magazine, The American Museum, The American Apollo, The Monthly Magazine and American Review, The United States Magazine, The American Universal Magazine, The American Moral and Sentimental Magazine, The National Magazine—all of which were used before 1800.”
http://www.bartleby.com/226/1101.html
and
“There were a few magazines of this standard English type in America before the Revolution. Franklin, as usual, led the way, though it happened that his rival Andrew Bradford actually published the first magazine in the colonies. Franklin’s soon followed, and these two little periodicals brought out the same month in Philadelphia, 1741, clearly indicate the attempt to transplant the English type, with some adaptations, for colonial readers. Franklin’s title, The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America, shows his intention of giving a review of colonial news rather than of British. He did, as a matter of fact, use The Virginia Gazette and other weeklies for articles and verse, but he also took European items whenever he could get them. Both magazines were evidently premature, however, for Bradford’s existed only three months, and Franklin’s only six.”
http://www.bartleby.com/225/0712.html
I love this website, it definitely inspirational as well as informative and entertaining. I am a college student at the moment and I am trying to figure out which major I should go into to pursue a career to do layouts for magazines. Graphic Design(Aesthetic/paint)? or Graphic Communications(publishing/technology)? Any suggestions or tips would be great thank you.
A local business publication have rebranded and redesigned their front cover and they have cited yourself has inspiration. This is the website:
http://www.lancashirebusinessview.co.uk/previous.htm
this page as both the old and new cover.
This is the designer’s rationale:
I always saw redesign of LBV as a evolution, not a revolution. The magazine works and has a substancial readership who were obviously happy with the magazine in its original format. My aim was that the existing reader should still feel comfortable with the layout whilst moving the magazine design forward to attract new readers.
The fonts chosen where Helvetica Compressed and Rockwell.
Helvetica compressed as it instantly evokes ‘News and The Press’, Rockwell because in it’s lighter weights it has all the legibility of a traditional serif news fonts such as Times New Roman but in it’s heavier weights and at larger sizes it has far more individuality and over the next few issues will help define the personality of the magazine and the combination of the two fonts will quickly become identified with the brand qualities that LBV brings to the news stand.
I started designing with the cover as this holds the face and the personality of the magazine. I wanted it to be more than a picture of that months featured businessman and a title, I wanted it to sell the content, to entice the reader to read on, so I envision the cover to develop into be a far more creative experience. By putting the in this issue section across the top it separated the secondary featured content from the lead feature. An obvious development was the new logo or type style; set in the classic headline font Helvetica Compressed it makes a bold statement and gives equal importance to Lancashire, something I felt was lacking in the original brand. (quick point this statement may look a little hollow if on the first new issue we go back to using a single image featuring a business person but that’s up to
you.)
Internally the aim is a quiet revolution, with subtle changes such as running text range left instead of justified to avoid ugly rivers and word spacing associated with justifying texts on short measures rather than gimmicky tricks. The new font palette gives the page a fresher, more contemporary feel which is more legible and hopefully the design adds to the enjoyment of the reader experience. The magazine is now set on a 12 column grid, which though probably not yet obvious will allow for a more flexible and creative use of the page as the redesign unfolds over the next few issues.
It would be good to hear your thoughts on the redesign and whether it is indeed a move forward.
What happened? The last entry dated in October?
This blog used to be so fresh and lively.
Now?