Old Homes, in A City of Perpetual Change

The President and Fellows of Harvard College
"Old Homes, in a City of Perpetual Change": Women's Magazines, 1890-1916 Author(s): Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman Source: The Business History Review, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Winter, 1989), pp. 715-756 Published by: The President and Fellows of Harvard College Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3115961 . Accessed: 12/09/2013 16:06
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Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman
"Old Homes, in a City of Perpetual Change":Women's Magazines, 1890-1916

widelydistributed magaAlthough the growthof inexpensive, zines that began in the United Statesin the 1890s has been toward directed noted, the roleplayedby magazines specifically has receivedlittle scholarlyattention. The folfemalereaders lowing articleexaminescontents, personnel, and readership and advertising,pricing, production, and distributiontechniques to demonstrate that the women's magazineswere pioneers in many of these areas. journalist Charles Hanson Towne referredin 1926 to massW Jhen in a of as "old circulation women's
homes, city permagazines petual change," his description resonated on both an objective and a psychological level. Born in the last decades of the nineteenth century, by the 1920s these journals had proved their ability to endure and innovate in an industry characterizedby rapid change. And because the magazines had developed a close relationship with their audience, many readers invested them with the characteristics of an old home: familiarity, trustworthiness, security. Yet traditional accounts of the birth of mass-magazine publishhave often overlooked the importance of the women's magazines. ing Historians have typically pointed to 1893 as the beginning of a "magazine revolution," the start of a new era of low-price, high-volume magazines subsidized by advertising revenues. In that year entrepreneurial publisher S. S. McClure founded McClurs, charging only fifteen cents an issue. In response, John Brisben Walkercut the price of his general-
MARY ELLEN WALLER-ZUCKERMANis visiting professor of marketing at McGill University and associate professor of marketing at SUNY-Geneseo. This article is part of a largerwork on the history of women's magazines in the United States. I am grateful to Steven Tollidayfor his useful comments on an earlierdraft of this manuscript. I Charles Hanson Towne, Adventures in Editing (New York, 1926), 190. Business Hirtoy Reiew 63 (Winter 1989): 715-756. ? 1989 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
/ 716 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman interest monthly Cosmopolitan from twenty-five to twelve and onehalfcents. CompetitorFrankMunseydroppedMunsey's to ten cents. These price decreases in increases circulation; yielded corresponding for in a year, rose from to readers 40,000 200,000 Munsey's, example, 1895.2 This shift of the reaching500,000 by magazineindustryaway from the older, qualityjournalssuch as Harper's, Atlantic, and Cenwhich cost between tury, twenty-fiveand thirty-fivecents an issue, to the inexpensive,generalmass-market magazineshas been seen as a watershed. Lost in this descriptionarethe role playedby women's magazines in pointing the way to this transformation and the subsequentleaderof in women's ship magazines many aspectsof magazinepublishing. The groundworkfor the magazineboom of the 1890s had been laid by women's magazinesin the previoustwo decades;they prefigured the magazinerevolution in price, promotional techniques, and circulation.3Pricesof women's magazineshad long been relatively low, between five and fifteen cents. Advertisers had sought their pagesas earlyas the 1870sand 1880s.Thesejournals enjoyedcirculations higher than Munsey'sand the other general-interest magazines.For examhad a circulation of 600,000, DelineHomeJournal ple, in 1891,Ladies' ator 393,000, and Woman's more than 125,000. Home Companion Munsey's, frequentlycited as evidenceof the "magazinerevolution," had only 35,000 readers,and McClures did not yet exist. Saturday of the twentieth century, Post,one of the largestcirculators Evening had not yet been purchased the Curtis by CompanyandwaslanguishEven one of the most successful of the older, estabHarper's, ing. lished journals, had a circulationof only 175,000 in 1891.4 women's magazineshad achievedlargecirculations earlier Clearly, than other mass-market had moved into a and journals growthperiod in the magazine by the 1890s.5Changespointed to as revolutionary existedat a numberof women's journals, industryas a whole already where astute publisherswere fast building on establishedmarketing techniques. No other group of magazinesincreasedas consistently
See Theodore Peterson, Magazines in the Twentieth Centuy (Urbana, Ill., 1964), 13, 14; and James Wood, Magazines in the UnitedStates(New York, 1949). 3 For agreement see Richard Ohmann, "Where Did Mass Culture Come From? The Case of Magazines," Berkshire Review16 (1981): 87, 88, 99. 4 Figures on magazine circulation from N. W. Ayer,Ayer'sDirectory (Philadelphia, Pa.), 1981; and Peterson, Magazines, 60. 5 For more on this argument, see Mary Ellen Waller (Zuckerman), "Development and Influence of Popular Women's Magazines, 1890-1917" (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1987).
2
Women's Magazines / 717

Table1
Growthof the Big Six Women'sJournals Circulation

1895 Ladies'HomeJournal McCall's Delineator HomeCompanion Woman's Pictorial Review
(started 1899) Good Housekeeping
1910 1,253,000 1,012,000 763,000 688,000

364,777
Percent Gmwth 75% 912 39 291
715,000 100,000 550,000 176,100
55,000
237,167
331
Sources:1895 figures,Lord & Thomas, America's Magazines;1910 figures,N. W. Ayer,Ayer's Dimrcty.
in both circulationand advertisingrevenues (see Table 1). Favored with expanding audiences and growingadvertising revenues, publishers of women's magazines held powerfulpositionsin the magazineindusjourtry at the turn of the century, ahead of many general-interest women's nalsin the mass-market race.This earlystartassured magazine magazine publishersa lead in marketingtheir journals in the first decades of the twentieth century. The lack of attention to the earlyactivitiesof the publishersof women's journalshas obscuredtheir pioneeringrole in areassuch as promotion, product development, and attention to customers.Out of their infancyby the 1890s, publishingcompaniessuch as Crowell, masteredthe manufacturCurtis, Butterick,and McCallhad already of circulation and were and distribution mass ing techniques various with marketingstrategies.For these compaexperimenting tactics, as nies, sophisticatedpromotion and product differentiation well as cultivationof customers,offeredthe best way to gain a competitive edge.6 The years 1890-1916 proved crucialfor competitorswithin the women'smagazinefieldaswell as for the general-interest publications; women's magazinesstartedafter the turn of the century stood at a to the earlierentrants. The top ten women's distinct disadvantage circulators from 1910 to 1960 had a mean founding date magazine
6 For an analysisof tactics used by other industries of this period, see Alfred D. ChanReview History dler, Jr., "The Beginnings of'Big Business' in American Industry," Business 23 (Spring 1959): 1-31.
/ 718 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckeman of 1896. By 1915, 80 percentof the women's journalsheadingcirculation lists throughoutthe centuryhad come into existence.7 Progressive Erawinners such as Ladies'HomeJournal, Woman's HomeCompanion,and McCall'sremainedgiantsthroughout the firsthalf of the twentieth century, attesting to the importanceof their early roots. Historiansseekingexplanations concerningthe developmentof mass media targetedat women need to begin their searchin these years. Those interestedin advertising aimedat women also should look at the norms set between 1890 and 1916. A mutuallydependent and beneficial association aroseduringtheseyearsbetweenwomen'smagazines and the advertisingindustry. Although the balanceof power between advertisers and publishers shiftedover the courseof the centhe initial and attraction tury, many of the patternsfor the relationin this ship developed early period.8 Origins of Women's Magazines Women have been able to buy magazinesedited especiallyfor them since the appearance of the Lady's Magazinein 1792. Earlywomen's such as this one carried a good deal of fashion informamagazines sentimental and on etiquette, all targetedat an articles tion, fiction, elite audience. Since these journalscontained virtuallyno advertisand distributionwere borne by readers, ing, the costs of manufacture and only a few could affordsuch a luxury. The best-known title of these earlyyearswas Godey's a journalof fashionand manBook, Lady's Sarah ners,editedby the indomitable JosephaHale forladiesof leisure. Women's journals led the magazine industry in such practicesas copyrightingmaterial,offeringa generouspay scale to contributors, and using artwork.But they sufferedfrom the same obstaclesthat all magazinepublishersfacedin the earlynineteenth century:lackof interested and sufficiently distribution affluent readers, problems,delinquent subscribers,and inadequatemeans of production.9
7 This measurement is not the number of magazines founded by that time; it is rather, a frequencymeasureof how many times a journalappeared.For example,LadiesHomeJournal, founded in 1883, counted 26 times in the sample of 260, since it was listed among the top ten circulatorsin every year from which the data were collected. These figures are derived from data collected from Ayer'sDirectry, 1910-60. 8 MaryEllen Waller(Zuckerman),"Selling Mrs. Consumer: The Role of Women's Magazines in the Development of Advertising," Proceedings of the ThirdAnnual Histry of MarketingConfmnce (April 1987). 9 Additional information on the women's magazines in the antebellum period can be found in John Tebbel and Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman, TheMagazine in Ameica (New York, 1991).
Women's Magazines / 719 The post-Civil Waryearssaw the beginningsof many new publicationsdirectedat women. They fell into three categories: mail-order fashion sheets dress and journals, publishedby patternmanufacturers, whose contents were from magazines pasted together clippings cut from other journalsand newspapers.10 These newcomersdifferedsigwomen's journalssuch as Godey's, Peterson's nificantlyfrom the earlier and Graham's in their sources of financialsupport, size and classof audience,and technologicalsophistication.Six of the journalsstarted in the last decadesof the nineteenth century became leadersin the magazineindustry.Known as the "Big Six," these magazinestopped circulationlists, attractedadvertisingdollars,and were found in the homes of thousandsof loyalreaders."l The Big Six wereLadies' Home Journal (1883-present), McCall's (1873-present), Delineator HomeCompanion Reiew (1873-1939), Woman's (1874-1956), Pictorial (1899-1939), and Good Housekeeping (1885-present). All these journals had benefited from astute, experiencedpublishers.When CyrusCurtis startedthe Ladies' HomeJournalin 1883 in Philadelphiaas a supplement to his Tribune and Farmer, he had worked for more than ten in and already years advertising publishHomeCompanion, ing. Woman's begun in 1874 as TheHome,wavered until the Springfield,Ohio, publishing firm of Mast, Crowell and sound companyalready Kirkpatrick bought it in 1883. This financially and John S. Crowellwas an experienced publishedFarmand Fireside, editor. Good startedin 1885 by ClarkBryanin Holyoke, Housekeepig, was one of several editedby Bryan.When Massachusetts, publications committed suicide in Good revertedto the 1898, Bryan Housekeeping of other Phelps PublishingCompany, producers journals,and then came to rest in 1911in the skillfulhands of the HearstCorporation. Delineator founder EbenezerButterickwas publishing severalother that advertised for his well-established Butterick Comjournals patterns for the same purposein 1873. Simipanywhen he createdDelineator larly,McCall'smagazine,also startedin 1873, was createdto advertise the waresof entrepreneurial pattern makerJamesMcCall. The firm declined afterMcCall'sdeath in 1884, but businessmanJames
10For description of the origins and content of these journals, see Mary Ellen Waller (Zuckerman),"The BusinessSide of Media Development: Women'sMagazinesin the Gilded in Economic and Business Age," in Essays History,ed. Edwin J. Perkins (1989), 7: 40-59; and and Economic "Marketing and Women's Journals, 1873-1900," Business History,ed. William J. Hausman (1989), 18: 99-108. 11Analysis of women's magazines from 1910 to 1960 shows that these six magazines appearmost frequently in a listing of the top ten women's magazinesduring that fifty-year period. The top ten magazinesfor each yearwere derivedfrom Ayr's Dimctoy, listings from 1910 through 1960; analysis was done on the top ten listed for alternate, even years.
/ 720 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckeman Ottley took chargein 1893, returningthe company (and the magaR iew,the youngest Pictorial zine) to a sound financial footing. Finally, of the majorwomen's journals,was begun in 1899 by still another successfulpatternmaker,WilliamAhnelt. Ahnelt's business,and the Pictorial afterArthurVancetook over Review, prospered,particularly the editorialchair of the magazinein 1908.12 Magazines in the ProgressiveEra of The foundersof these women's journalsshrewdlytook advantage an economicandsocialenvironment to the publishing indusfavorable in printingtechtry. In the decadesfollowingthe CivilWar,advances and allowed and methods of mass distribution production nology entrepreneurial publishersto print, sell, and distributemagazinesin numberspreviouslyunimagined.Favorable postalrateswereenacted, and urbanizationand industrialization transformed markets,turning nationalmagazines into a vitaladvertising outlet. As Americans gained more leisuretime and becamemore literate,they turnedto magazines for relaxation and education. Whereasin 1865 only 700 publications that number had more than quadrupledto 3,300; 1885 existed, by it 1890 had risen to over 4,400. Between 1890 and 1905, circulaby tion of monthly periodicalsrose from 18 to 64 million per issue.13 By 1900 there were fifty national magazines,and their number continuedto risein the earlytwentiethcentury.Fromthe 1890s until the United Statesenteredthe FirstWorldWarin 1917,magazinepublishers and finanexpandedtheiroperations, buildingon technological cialinnovations.By the end of the 1910s,mass-circulation magazines werean institution in the livesof most Americans.The new national weregenerally characterized magazines by low price,high circulation, abundantadvertising,and content appealingto popular tastes.14 In each of these areas,women's journalswere among the leaders. The low priceof magazines(ten or even five cents an issue)placed them within reach of an increasingnumber of Americans,most of whom belongedto a broadly definedmiddleclass.(Working-class peo12
zine Making," Woman's Home Companion,Sept. 1904, 8, 9; Frank Presbrey, The Histoy and Development of Advetising (New York, 1929), 488; John Tebbel, The AmericanMagazine: A Compact History(New York, 1969), 124; Peterson, Magazines; and Frank Luther Mott, A Histry of American Magazines (Cambridge, Mass., 1938), 4: 5. 14 For more on these features, see Peterson, Magazines, 13, 14.
13 For statisticson the magazine industry, see Herbert Casson, "The Wondersof Maga-
Waller, "Business Side of Media Development."
Women's Magazines / 721 pie, both male and female, as well as most immigrantsand blacks usually could not affordthe new mass magazines,even at the lower prices; when such individualssaw the magazines, it was generally through "passedalong" copies.) Women'smagazinepublishershad been among the firstto pricetheirwarescheaplyand to targetmiddleclass readers. Maazine circulations reachedunprecedented heightsby the early twentiethcentury.In part,thisgrowthresulted fromthe loweredprices and from the mass production and distributiontechniquesadopted by the industry.Whereascirculationsof 100,000 and 200,000 had been considered largebefore1890, by the turn of the centurynational were magazines attempting to breakthe one million mark. It was a women's magazine,the Ladies' Home Journal,that was the firstto do so, with its February1904 issue.15 held a key position in the structureof magazinepubAdvertising revenuewas necessary to keep pricesdown so cirlishing. Advertising culationcould stayup and to paythe growingfees demandedby contributors.Women'smagazinesattractedlargeamounts of advertising dollarsbecauseof theirhuge circulations, the attributes of theirreaderfemales,chargedwith purchasingfor the home), and ship (primarily their publishers' aggressiveefforts to acquire advertisingaccounts. Ladies' Home HomeCompanion, andDelineMcCalls, Womans Journal, atorall appeared in a listing of top advertising mediapublishedat the turn of the century.16 Finally, editors popularized the contents of their magazines, broadeningand improving the editorialpages, making their entire of the product more diverse.Such expansionreflectedan awareness interests of the magazines' middle-class audienceaswell as the predilections of the editors.The newly available dollarswereused advertising to attracttalented contributors.None expandedand improvedthe contents of their publicationsmore successfully and enduringlythan the editors of the women's journals.17 Ladies'HomeJournalpublisherCyrus Curtis and editor Edward Bok were the first to combine all these elements. Curtis developed a magazineof wide circulation,low price,nationaldistribution,and Home high-volumeadvertising. Journalneareda milBy 1900, Ladies' lion in circulation,a readership than that claimed larger by any other
15 This excludes mail-order journals such as Comfort,often not considered magazines but advertising sheets, distributed at low or no cost to readers. 16 Presbrey,Histmy, 481. 17 For discussion of the attributes and philosophies of the editors of women's journals in this period, see Waller, "Popular Women's Magazines," chap. 2.
/ 722 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman
Edward Bok ? As the pioneering editor of the Ladies'HomeJournal, Bok expanded the and advertising.(Photographreproducedfrom EdwardBok, magazine'scontent, readership, The Americanizationof EdwardBok [New York, 1921], frontispiece.)
did not standalone in its success,an excepmagazine.But the Journal tional creatureof its editor and publisher.Delineator, McCall's, and Woman's Home Companion were also firmly establishedby 1900, as Pictorial and Good Review would be by the outbreakof Housekeeping the First WorldWar. Otherkindsof magazines wereavailable to readers duringthe years when the new women'sjournalsweregainingstrength.Qualitymagazines such as Scribner's, AtlanticMonthly,and the Century Harper's, articles and fiction of a standard for a relatively published high literary elite audience. Mail-orderjournals such as Comfort, People's Literary and Vickery's floodedhomes, servingprimarFireside Visitor Companion, Journaland ily as advertising catalogs.Farmmagazinessuch as Farm FarmandFireside servedan importantsegment of the population and were earlyfavorites with advertisers. Religiousmagazines,illustrated Book and weeklies, the earlywomen's journalssuch as Godey's Lady's and the hugely popular routh'sCompanion all drew readerPeterson's, journals ship. By the end of the century,inexpensivegeneral-interest and weeklieslike Saturand McClure's (both monthlies likeMunsey's
Women's Magazines / 723 and Collier's) dayEveningPost,Harper'sWeekly, gained audiences. The women's journals were distinguished from these others because their publishers and editors employed a combination of innovativemarketingtacticssooner than the competitors. The successfulearlyuse of aggressive promotionalploys, low price,targeting of a mass (largely female)marketeagerfor their product, and appreciation of advertising revenuemeritsthese individualsand their publications recognitionin journalismhistoryas pioneers.The mail-order journalsalso used a low-price strategyto gain high circulation,and they were financed by advertisingrevenue.But they failed to secure the big advertisers, and most readersprovedunwilling to pay much for the papers.The qualitymonthlies such asHarper's, and Scribner's, the Century but by the turn of the cengradually acceptedadvertising, because tury they were experiencingdifficultiesattractingadvertisers their targetedaudiencewas so small. Moreover,they maintainedan editorialaloofness, a distancefrom their readers,unlike the intimacy establishedmost successfully by the women's journals.18 The general massmagazines,such as Munsey's, McClures,and Everybody's, gained laterthan the women'sjournals,wereunableto draw largecirculations advertisers as consistently,were less responsiveto their readers,and were not as long-lived.Evensuccessful weeklieslike ultimately general Post hit their until the and Collier's did not stride Saturday Evening end of the first decade of the twentieth century. A closerlook at the operationsof the majorwomen's magazines, the individualswho ranthem, and the people who readthem in the yearsbetween 1890 and 1916 helps explain the prosperityof these journals. Product: The Magazines Magazinesunderwent many changes between 1890 and 1916: they in size, the qualityof theirprintimprovedgreatly,and their increased contents became more diversified. Improvementsin technology and production in the print indusof mass circulatry were necessarypreconditionsfor the appearance tion magazines. included use of the rotary developments Technological These advancesgave press, stereotypeplates, and photoengraving.19
'8 Arthur John, The Best Years of the Century:RichardWatsonGilr, Scribner's Monthly and CenturyMagazine, 1879-1909 (Urbana, Ill., 1981). '9 Ohmann, "Mass Culture"; and Peterson, Magazines.
Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckman / 724 an advantage to the new publishersaimingfor largeaudiences.Printinnovations reduced the cost of publishing, and allowed larger ing runs of issues to be printedin a shorteramount of time. Since many favored the publisherwith printingexpenseswerefixed, this structure the highest volume circulationover which to spreadthe costs. Printingshops beganusing mass-production techniques, such as assemblylines, conveyorsystems,and timed productionscheduling. Development of the rotarypressresultedin production at ten times the ratepreviouslyachievedby the older flatbedpress.The new press also made reproductionof artwork simplerand cheaper.Previously, had been engraved reproductions by hand, an expensiveprocess.Pholowered the cost.20 By the end of the centurya multicolor toengraving rotarypresshad been perfectedby R. H. Hoe, and the CurtisCompanyinstalledthe firstone in 1908. The perennially popularpictures could now be printed and the magazinesstill sold at a price within reach of largenumbers of consumers. Although other magazines targeted at the mass market also employed these innovativeprocessesto produce the necessarylarge women'smagazines runs,threeof the companies publishing pioneered in this technologicalrevolution, actuallyinstallingthe most modern machineryin their own printing plants (facilitiesnot alwaysowned by the generalmass-market magazines).Curtis,Crowell,and Butterick all purchasedthe latesttechnology and also expandedtheir printing plants to keep up with demand for their products. The CurtisCompanybuilta new printingplantin 1895 in response to high subscriptionrequestsfor Ladies'HomeJournal.21AfterCurtis Postin 1897, another building, needed to acquiredSaturday Evening house additional waspurchased by 1900. In 1901, printingmachinery, a tradejournalnoted that the CurtisCompanyowned a printingplant that includedforty-ninepressesand twenty-one bindingand cutting machineswith a dailycapacity of 25,000 copies.These machineswere custom-madefor Curtis.22 Ladies'HomeJournalwas the first magazine to use colorprintingand alsoinnovatedin the use of two-, three-,
20 In addition to the new photoengravingprocess, inexpensiveglazed paper lowered the cost of making illustrations from photographs. See Kathleen Brady,Ida Trbell: Portraitof a Muckrker (New York, 1984), 65. 21 See "A Few Things We Have Done," LadiesHomeJournal, Nov. 1908. See also Salme in the Marketplace (Baton Rouge, La., 1979), 12, 17. Steinberg, Reformer 22 Pfitable Advertising,Dec. 1901. The article noted that the building was "modern in every particular.It is constructed entirely of iron, steel, and brick, is seven stories high, and provides a space of 1,000 feet on each floor."
11
( ( CO", I (h t Rlt lI, -II, .t(0,\i^:,\"O !'t
Pt Il:n::DELI. Pt-1A"
Ladies' Home Journal, 1896 * Begun in 1883, the Journalwas one of the most successful of the "Big Six" women's magazinesat the turn of the century. Publisher Cyrus Curtis and his staff worked to make their publication the first to surpass one million in circulation. (Curtis Publishing Company, 1896.)
/ 726 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckeman and four-color printing.23Another, largerbuilding was begun on in 1909 and completedin 1911. IndependenceSquarein Philadelphia Thus, as Curtispublicationsexpanded, the companyacquiredadditional plant and machineryto keep up with circulationand to offer readers attractive magazinesin a timely fashion. CyrusCurtisinsisted on keepinghis plantand officesin Philadelphia to hold down expenses. In the 1920s, followingthe leadof others,the CurtisCompanymoved some editorial and advertising officesto New York City,leavingbehind the printing and distributionfacilities. the CrowellCompany,publisher of Woman's HomeComSimilarly, and Farm and Fireside American and (and Magazine panion eventually had of makalso its the end the Collier's), century, enlarged plant by ing room for more editorialpersonnel as well as new printing and binding machinery.Expandingon the originaloffice on West High Streetin Springfield, Ohio, the companymadeperiodicadditionsfrom 1880 through 1903. CrowellCompany also bought one of the first high-speed rotarypresses.24 The successof Woman's HomeCompanion propelledthese expansions. A promotional pamphlet published in 1903 noted that new machineryusing the latest technology was necessarybecauseof the increasein the Companion's circulationfrom 75,000 in the 1880s to Additions to the Crowellpressroomin 1903 were "espe450,000.25 the constructed for needsof this publication[the Comcially particular panion],in orderto producethe finest resultsin printing."26 By 1900 the magazines,previouslyfolded by hand, were pressedinto shape 25,000 magazinesa day.By 1912, by a machinecapableof processing the CrowellCompanyhad againbeen forcedto increaseits spaceand to add printing presses, some for color production.27 Crowellused a sophisticatedfiling system and the Mergenthaler numberof subscribers. linotypemachineto keeptrackof its increasing Clerks systematicallyrecorded readers'addressesand subscription renewaldates. Insertsbasedon this information,calledthe subscription "flier,"appearedin the magazine.The manufacturing process wasalsorationalized to cope with the increased volume.By 1910,work
23 WalterDeane H. K. Curtis,1850-1933, Newcomen Fuller, TheLif and Timesof Cyrus Society Address (New York, 1948), 20, 21. Fuller worked for the Curtis organization and had risen to the position of vice-president by the time of this address. 24 Gerald (New York, 1947). Young, This is Cnrwel-Collier 25 CrowellPublishingCo., Aboutthe Crwell Co. (Springfield, Ohio, 1903), found in Hayden CarruthPapers, box 9, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New YorkPublic Library. 26
Ibid.
27
Casson, "The Wonders of Magazine Making," 9; and Young, This is Crowell-Collier
Women's Magazines / 727 was broken down into nineteen separatedepartments.28 Trio(DelineThe Butterick Company,which put out the Butterick and printed the Butterickpatterns, ator,Desgner,and New Woman) also operated a modem printing press in its manufacturingdepartment in New YorkCity.By 1907, almosttwo thousandpeopleworked in the largefifteen-storybuilding located at Springand MacDougal streets. The basement contained an enormous printing plant, used to produce both the Butterickmagazinesand the popularButterick patterns.29 These acquisitions by publishersof major women's magazines demonstratethat more efficient and cost-effectiveprint technology was crucialto the developmentof mass-market magazines.Publishers had to modernize their machinerycontinuously in orderto keep up with the volume of work generatedby constant growth, much of it stemming from their women's publications. The content of women'smagazines as the industry expanded grew. The young magzines of the 1870sand 1880shad been eclectic,varying in quality.Earlypublishers focusedon financial survival, printinganyavailable. turn the of the century, however, the editorial By thing materialhad improved. All publishershad to broaden and upgrade in orderto become and remainmajor the contents of their magazines contendersin the field of women's journals.Such changeswere possibleforseveral reasons. The editorsof the women'sjournals haddiverse interests, as did their growing audience. By marketingto the home and familyas well as to women, editors opened up a wider horizon of possible subjectsfor inclusion. The majorwomen's journalswere well established,and this stabilityallowedthem to experiment already and to try differentideas. Most important, the abundantadvertising dollarspouring into the coffersof the women's journalsmade possible the purchaseof high-qualitystories, articles,and illustrationsin ever greateramounts. Storiesbegan appearingin the women's journalsby writerssuch as William Dean Howells, JackLondon, Ida Tarbell,Mark Twain, and SarahOre Jewett. Presidential candidates WoodrowWilson and Theodore Roosevelt wrote essays. Featuresfocused on subjects as asThomasEdison,JaneAddams,andwarandweaponry. Other diverse articlesspanned a wide range of topics, offeringuseful coverageof venereal politics, life overseas,socialreformactivities,femalesuffrage, disease,and women's presencein the work force and in higher edu28
29
See Crowell, About the CrowellCo., 8. W. A. Swanberg, Driser (New York, 1965), 119.
/ 728 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman cation. The magazinesalso continued to maintainand improvethe service directed at femalereaders; several regular departments specifically called themselves "trade journals."30 As they broadenedthe rangeof topics, editorsalso attemptedto differentiatetheir journals from the competition by adding more Some, such as Edward departments,articles,and editorialcolumns.31 Bok of Ladies' Home HomeComJournalor ArthurVanceof Woman's their panionand then Pictrial Review, projected personalities through the pagesto try to distinguishtheirmagazines in readers' minds. Editors fosteredan air of intimacy,makingreaders feel that by purchasLadies' Home or Home Woman's Journal Companion they wereprivy ing to exclusiveinformation, that they had entered a special circle. Despite their similarities,by 1912 each of the Big Six had a style and flavorof its own. On a continuum, Good Housekeeping lay at one end, representinga strong focus on homemaking topics, with PictorialReview anchoring the other, embodying fashion, society, and came Woman's HomeComsophistication.Next to Good Housekeeping then Ladies' Home both Journal, panion, homey, yet wide-rangingin for edited the content, socially conscious, intelligent homemaker. McCall'sand Delineator fell nearerto Pictorial with McCall's Review, fashions and and modern and elegant, Delineator, favoring patterns printingfashioninformationalong with a broadspectrumof articles. Ladies' the most fiction,reflecting its popularity HomeJournal published with advertisers,whose dollars could pay for high-priced stories. Woman's carriednumerous columns devoted to Home Companion readers.Household departmentsemphasizingfood preparation and health issuesdominatedGood The three former Housekeeping. pattern sheets (Delineatr, McCall's,andPicrialReview)all publisheda higher percentageof materialon fashionsand clothing than the other journals. The women's magazinescontinued these effortsto distinguish themselves from one another throughout the 1920s.32 Other magazinesalso expandedtheir contents between 1890 and 1916, but the women's magazinesdid so while remainingfinancially sound and retainingthe loyaltyof their readers.The advertising dol30 In the 1914 Woman's Home Companion survey, customers voted service departments the most important section of the magazine; see "Survey," 5. 31 Even as product differentiation continued, successful departments were sometimes HomeCompnioncopied Ladies' HomeJournas BabiesBureau. imitated;for example,Woman's 32 These differenceswere determined by quantitative analysisperformed on the issues of the Big Six appearingin 1912. See Waller, "Popular Women's Magazines." For discussion of the continuation of these similarities and differencesin the 1920s, see Hazel Stevens, "An Inquiry into the Present Content of Women's Magazines as an Index to Women's Interests" (M. A. thesis, Columbia University Journalism School, 1925).
Women's Magazines / 729 larsthat the women's journalsattracted gaveeditorsthe meansto try a varietyof ideas, to develop new departments,and to bid for the work of the best artistsand writers. For example, CharlesHanson Towne recalledthat while working at Delineator, he was authorized to offer a writer $5,000 for a serialbefore she had even written an on the journalSmart Set,the highest outline;in his previous experience price he had ever paid was $2,000 for a completed novelette.33 A few magzines directedat women used a different tacticin these their years,achievingdistinctiveness subjectmatter(and by narrowing rather than such audience) by broadeningit; magazines,by definidid not become mass-market fashionjourtion, journals.High-quality such as and Bazar nals, Vogue (1892-present) Harper's (1867-present) markedout a specialaudience. Vogue publisherConde Nast sought to attracta specialclass of readers,endeavoringat the same time to "rigorously . . . exclude all others."34 Mail-ordermagazines, marketing a large assortment of goods through the postal system and targetingthe home, gained huge cirin rural areas. The firstmail-order came culations,especially magazines out of Augusta,Maine,in the 1870s, publishedby E. C. Allen. They on low price,typicallystatedas fifty cents a year; competed primarily the often, however, publisherdid not collect payment and did not care about it. Readerswere needed not for their subscriptionfees, but only for theirnames,to swellthe circulation list shown to potential advertisers. Many mass-market magazinesalso underwrotetheir costs but the mail-order hadlittleother revenue, throughadvertising journals reasonfor existence.They resembledmail-order catalogsmore nearly than magazines,although stories and games appearedin each issue so the journals could qualifyfor the second-classmailing rate. The expansion of content and enhanced quality of the editorialmatter in the women's magazines them fromthese purelymaildistinguished order journals. When the Post Office insistedon seeing a list of paid subscribers for magazinesdesiringthe second-class ratein 1907, many mail-order did not want to payfor these advertising sheets. journalsdied; readers Two that managedto keep going were Woman's World (1901-40) and
in Editing, 79. Towne, Adventures Conde Nast, quoted in Caroline Seebohm, The Man Who Was Vogue-TheLift and Timesof CondeNast (New York, 1982), 80. For firsthand accounts about these two journals, see Edna Woolman Chase and Ilka Chase, Alwaysin Vopue (GardenCity, N.Y., 1954); Carmel Snow with Mary Louise Aswell, The Worldof CarmelSnow(New York, 1962); J. at Henry Harper, The Houseof Harper(New York, 1912); and Helen Laurensen, Stranger the Party (New York, 1972).
34 33
/ 730 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckermn survivedby reducingits rateto fifteen Comfort (1888-1940). Comfort cents a yearand Woman's World by pricingat twenty-fivecents annuBoth with the ally. majorwomen's journalsfor readers.35 competed Publishers, Editors, and Magazine Staff The expandingwomen's magazineindustryofferedattractive opportunitiesto talentedindividuals with entrepreneurial abilities,creativity, and self-confidence.Technologicaladvanceshad removed the most onerousobstacleto creatinga magazine,the start-upexpenseof highcost printing.Few tradesecretsexisted,so newcomers had readyaccess to technologicalprocesses.With printingand mailingcosts relatively low and advertisers looking for promotionalvehicles,an enterprising individualcould startup a magazinewith little difficulty.(Whether it succeededor not was more problematic;it has been estimatedthat 7,500 magazineswere founded between 1885 and 1905, and that about half of them failed.)36 Commenting on the mushroomingin women's magazines, Woman's HomeCompanion noted in 1904 that "THE WOMAN'SHOME COMPANIONhasseen morethan thirty years of this growth-it has seen the field it once occupied alone becomeovercrowded with magazines modeledcloselyupon it, in form, in characterand in name."37 increased,as addiMagazinestaffsof existingjournalseverywhere tional writers, editors, illustrators,and advertisingmanagerswere needed to produce the enlargedand expandedpublications.By the workedon earlytwentieth centuryan estimated40,000 professionals and the over200,000 employees magazines, industry nearly supported all. The typicalwomen'smagazine staffhad a managing a makeeditor, up editor,an assistantor associateeditor,and editorsfor art, fashion, At the Crowell Company the food, home service, and children.38
On developments in the postal service, see Mott, Historyof Amerian Magazines, 4: 33 20; and Jane Kennedy, "Development of Postal Rates, 1845-1955," Land Economics no. 2 (May 1957): 93-112. On mail-orderjournals, see Mott, Histry of AmericanMagazines, 4: 365-67. 36 Mott, Histoy of American Magazines, 4: 11. 37 Home Companion, Woman's Oct. 1907, 42. On the ease of starting a woman's magazine, see Mott, who notes that "Most cities of any size had women's magazines at some time or another during this period (1885-1905). Any hustling publisher could start such a journal 'on a shoestring' "; Histry of Amercan Magazines, 4: 362. Easy credit, readily availableand inexpensive editorial material, the use of premiums, and eager advertisersall made easy start-up possible. 38 See Casson, "The Wondersof Magazine Making," 8; and VeraConnolly,Judy Grant: Editor (New York, 1940), 89 for this description.
35
Women's Magazines / 731 weekly payrollamounted to almost $4,000 by 1910. The company to accomwas dividedinto sections,with greater required specialization modatethe growthof the business.Departments existedfor "superintendents, accounting, advertising,editorial,circulation,main press, power,engraving,composing, electrotyping,job press,proofreading, pattern,shipping,folding,stencil,subscription, agents,installment."39 At the Ladies'HomeJournalBok had an editorialstaff of thirty-five workingfor him, and Theodore Dreiserhad thirty-twopeople under him when he editedDelineator from 1907 to 1910. The McCallComseven hundred panyemployed people by 1913, when publisherJames sold the to the Ottley company banking firm of White, Weld & Company.40 Despite these additions, the staffsfailed to keep pace with the growth of the magazines,and the personnelshortageofferedopportunitiesforadvancement to enterprising The Crowell Comindividuals. an such At Home of an environment. Woman's panyprovides example both Hayden Carruthand GertrudeBattles Lane perCompanion, formed a wide varietyof editorial, marketing,and executive duties, in numerousaspectsof the magazine's production.When participating Lanejoined Crowellin 1903, the Companion had only eightstaffmembers.Carruthjoined the organizationin 1905, when each staffmember still had numerous and diverseresponsibilities. Carruthengaged in a multiplicityof jobs, includingediting, writing, promotion, and And Lane moved from her position as editor of the distribution.41 household department to managingeditor, to editor-in-chief, and finallyto vice-presidentof the CrowellCompany.Such job diversity and possibilities for advancement attracted ambitious, energetic individualsand contributed to the growth in scope and quality of the magazines. The move to increasethe professionalstaff formed one part of the overallrationalization experiencedby the Big Six women's magaand comzines in personnel,technology,manufacturing, distribution, in and of material.42 Standardization efficiency policies missioning became points of competitive strength. The procedurefor paying Home authorsprovidesone example.Curtisand Ladies' Journalmain39Young, This is CellU-Colier, 11. See Edward Bok, The Americanization of Edwad Bok (New York, 1921), for staff size of Ladies'HomeJournal; see Swanberg,Dniser, for Delineaor; and "James Ottley," National Cycpaedia of American Biypthy (New York, 1935), 24: 65, 66, for size of McCall's. 41 Carruth, "What's Going On," 28 Feb. 1918, Hayden Carruth Papers, box 10. 42 In this, the magazines fit into the "search for order" occurring in American society at large. See Robert Wiebe, Sewrhfor Onrer(New York, 1967).
40
/ 732 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman tained a policy of prompt payment: they mailed out a check every Tuesdayfor all materialacceptedto that point. Carruthat the ComCollins, remarking, panioncited this practiceto his editor Frederick "I know from talkingwith authorsand artiststhat the Curtis people's reputationfor promptness helps them a great deal."43 Women'smagazines providedgood job opportunitiesfor females, and women entered this areaof journalismin increasingnumbers. These journalsalso proved to be placeswhere women could move into top positions. Femaleeditorsincluded GertrudeBattlesLane of Woman's HomeCompanion and Katherine Leckie,MarieMeloney,and Honore Morrowof Deineator. McCa's hadfivefemaleeditorsbetween the death of founderJamesMcCallin 1884 and 1918, with only one male editingfor a briefperiod, in 1911-12. Vogue had had only female editorsfrom its start:JosephineRedding,MarieHarrison,and Edna WoolmanChase.Otherfemaleeditorsof this periodincludedEli7abeth Bazarand JulietWilburTompkinsof FrankMunJordanofHarper's sey's short-livedwoman's journal, The Puritan (1897-1901).44 Of the Big Six women's magazines,all but Ladies'HomeJournal had shifted at least their editorialand advertisingactivitiesto New YorkCity by the late 1910s. Good moved from Holyoke, Housekeeping when it was in 1911.Butterick's Hearst Massachusetts, purchasedby and editorial offices in had been New YorkCity since the printing 1870s. Woman's HomeCompanion moved its editorial,art, and evenoffices there afterthe turn of the century.Both tually its advertising McCall'sand Pictorial Review had startedand remainedin New York
City.45
Severalof the women's magazine owners became horizontally integrated,publishingmore than one magazine.The Curtis,Crowell,
43 Hayden Carruthmemo to FrederickCollins, 11 Nov. 1907, Hayden CarruthPapers, box 10; Carruth had little success on this point, and he complained that, "This is especially to be regretted when in so many ways we come into direct competition with The CurtisPublishingCo., whose system of paymentsis the promptest, surest, and most entirely satisfactoryof any publishing house on the market." Memo, 26 Dec. 1907, ibid. 44See Chase, Always in Vogue; for descriptions of Jordan, Tompkins, and Wilbur, see "Notes on Some Magazine Editors," TheBookman, Dec. 1900, 357. On women generally, see "The Journalist'sBirthday,"and "Women as Editors," TheJounualist, 23 (April 1898): 9, 10, 121. The only female publisher during this period was Mrs. FrankLeslie, who had taken over on her husband's death. 45 These moves proved permanent, as the magazines'main offices remainedin New York throughout the century. From 1910 to 1960, 62 percent of the top women's magazines had main offices in New YorkCity. This proportion increasesto 73 percent when Philadelphia (home of Ladies HomeJournal)is added in. Geographically,it was a highly concentrated industry. Figures from analysisof top ten circulators, 1910-60, from N. W. Ayer, Dircty.
Women's Magazines / 733 and Butterick companies followed this strategy, with successful women's magazines providinga basefor expansion.Several publishers out brought foreigneditions.46Production, promotion, solicitation of advertising,and processingof articlesall benefitedfrom the economies of scale that these publishersachieved. Publishersdiversified by addingsubscriptionagenciesand shopping servicesto the pattern sales alreadyoffered. Ladies'HomeJournaland Woman's HomeComCurtisintegrated panionboth sold reprintsof their popularcovers.47 vertically, buying papermills and forests,and continued this strategy throughout the twentieth century. The McCall Company bought additionalmachinery and beganprintingother publishers'magazines as well as its own. By the outbreakof the FirstWorldWar,the women's magazine that intenindustryhad become highly concentrated,a characteristic sifiedas the centuryprogressed.Fivepublishers-the Curtis,McCall, Crowell,Butterick,and PictorialReviewcompanies-put out 40 percent of the top ten circulatorsbetween 1910 and 1960.48 Pricing Strategies The early mass-marketwomen's magazine publishersemployed a penetrationpricingpolicy in the last decadesof the nineteenth cenand to captury, sellingtheirproductat a low rateto gain subscribers ture a substantialpart of the market;they used advertising dollarsto close the revenuegap. The ten or fifteen cents per copy chargedby the women's journalsin the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s markeda crucialchangefrom the twenty-fiveto thirty-fivecents being chargedby aimedat an elite readership. Within the lowerprice qualityperiodicals women's range, magazine purchasers provedpriceinsensitive, although not completely so: Good had a lower circulationwhen Housekeeping pricedat $2.00 annually,and McCall'sachieveda higher circulation when priced at 50 cents. Price differencesin the 1870s and 1880s, reflectingthe journals' differentorigins and missions, were evened out by the turn of the century,when all but one (McCall's)charged
46 For had an international edition by the time of the First World War, example, Vogue and Delineatorhad been publishing in Europe since the late nineteenth century. 47 See Hayden Carruth Memo, 9 April 1907, Hayden Carruth Papers, on the subject of reprints. 48 The analysis was performedon data derivedfrom N. W. Ayer,Dinretoy;the exact figure is 40.4. Good Houkeepng changed publishersso it does not appearas frequently.This magazine industry characteristic is given specal note in "Circulation:9,496,841," F,unm, Aug. 1937, 63-69ff.
/ 734 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman $1.00 for twelve issues. Confident of the establishednature of their product, publishersof women's magazinesraisedtheir pricesgradunot to move out of an acceptable allyin the early1900s, careful range.49 Readers to which they continued journals, developedloyalty particular to buy despite small price increases.(The cheapermail-ordermagazines, with their minimal editorial copy, never engendered such emotions). Home Companion had both Ladies'HomeJournaland Woman's startedout cheaply in the 1880s, chargingreadersfifty cents annually. In the 1890s, as they improvededitorialquality and developed customerloyalty,both raisedtheirpricesto $1.00 peryear,firmlydistancing themselvesfrom the taint of the mail-orderjournals. Both the Journal and the Companion experienced dips in subscriptions after the 1890s immediately pricehikes, but these provedtemporary. Delineator and Pictorial Review had been priced at $1.00 a year from their beginnings.50 Good founded in 1885, initiallycarried the relatively Housekeeping, high priceof $2.50 peryear,justifyingthe expensewith semimonthly publication.However,this pricemade Good Housekeeping only slightly less expensivethan the matriarch, at $3.00 peryearand $1.50 Godey's, morethan the other new women'sjournals.Good lowered Housekeeping its pricein the 1890s to $2.00 and switchedto monthly publication. At the turn of the century the price dropped again, to $1.00. In a raisedits priceto $1.50 in 1905, competitivemove Good Housekeeping shortly afterLadies'HomeJournalincreasedits single-copy price to fifteen cents, which the Curtis Company felt it could risk since the Journalhad passed the million mark in circulationin 1904. Curtis held its annual price at $1.00 for severalmonths, then raisedit to $1.50 as well. McCall'smagazinelaggedbehind the other five majorwomen's journals,with its price long remaininglow at fifty cents a year after gradualincreasesduring the 1890s, from thirty to forty and finally to fifty cents a year.This low priceundoubtedlyhelped fuel McCall's enormouscirculation growthin the firstdecadeof the twentieth cenwhen tury, subscriptionsjumped from 100,000 in 1899 to one million in 1908. Unlike the mail-order journals,however,McCall'scir49 HomeCompanion, 700th See, for example, announcement of price increasein Woman's ed., Dec. 1908. For pricesof the variousmagazinessee Mott, History Anniversary ofAmerican Magazines, 4: passim. 50See Waller-Zuckerman, jour"Marketingthe Women's Journals";the general-interest raised their prices shortly after this; nals, such as McClure's,Munsey's, and Cosmopolitan, see Tebbel, AmericanMagazine.
Women's Magazines / 735 workedhardto raise culationwasfilly paid. The McCallmanagement the qualityof the editorialmaterial,especiallyafter1893 when James and fiction.Ottley morearticles Ottleytook overand beganpublishing In 1917 and illustrations.51 alsoimprovedthe typography, paperstock, at ten cents an McCall'sfinallyjoined its competitors issue, moving to fifteen cents per issue the following year ($1.00 and $1.50 annuHomeCompanion and Ladies' HomeJournal earlier, ally). Like Woman's McCall'ssaw a brieffallingoff of circulationafterthe price increase, then sales climbed again. Mass-market women's magazinesgenerallydid not compete for readerson price, all stayingwithin close range of one another (see Table2). Readers respondedbetterto promotionaltechniques,attractive content, and editorialappeals.52 Pricesneverrosein proportionto the costs of producingthe magarevenues zines; those expenseswere borne by advertisers. Advertising continued to gain in significance for the magazineindustry,and the increased quantityof advertising steadily.By 1904, magazinesreaped As the types of productsbeing revenues.53 $30 million in advertising advertisedshifted from the pervasivepatent medicines of the 1870s and 1880s to goods logically appealingto women as homemakers turned their attention to (soaps,foods, and clothing), manufacturers women's magazines,which efficientlyreachedthe desiredcustomer group. Advertisers willingly paid high ratesfor space in the pages of these journals. Women's magazinestook in an estimatedone-third of all advertising between 1890 and 1916.54 dollars going to magazines
51See "James Ottley," 64, 65; Mott, Histoy ofAmericanMagazines4: 582; and Harry Tipper, H. L. Hollingsworth, G. B. Hotchkiss, and F. A. Parson, Advertisig: Its Principles and Practices(New York, 1915), 283. 52 The relativelack of importance of price competition remained a characteristicof the women's magazineindustryfor the firsthalf of the twentieth century. Examinationof prices in the top ten magazines from 1910 through 1960 revealsa statisticallyinsignificant relationship between price and placement in the top ten circulators(R=-.18). Data for just one woman's magazine,Ladies'Home Journal,also revealno significantrelationshipbetween quantity and price for an even longer time period, 1890-1960; see MaryEllen Waller(Zuckerman), "Content Change in Women's Magazines,"WorkingPaper,Jones School of Business, Nov. 1987. Both analyses are based on figures taken from N. W. Ayer, Directry. 53For a revenuessubsidizecurrentmagaprovocativediscussion of how much advertising zine prices, see Vincent Norris, "Consumer Magazines and the Mythical AdvertisingSubsidy," JournalismQuarterly 59 (Summer 1982): 205-11, 239; Vincent Norris, "Mad Economics: An Analysisof an AdlessMagazine,"Journalf Communiatin 34 (Winter1984): 44-61; and LawrenceSoley and R Krishnan,"Does AdvertisingSubsidizeConsumer Magazine Prices?"JournalofAdvertising 16, no. 2 (1987): 4-9; Casson, "Wonders of Magazine Making," 9. 54 See Curtis in LeadingNationaland FarmPublicaof Advertisers Company, Expenditures tions (Philadelphia, Pa., 1920), for comparative advertising revenue figures.
/ 736 Mary Ellen WaUer-Zuckennan The journalscame to rely heavilyon advertisingrevenuesto subsidize their production. In the earlyyears, most of the advertisingprinted in Delineator andMcCall'sheralded theirpublishers' own products(patterns, thimSince the editorial content was thin and the bles, scissors). journals reallyservedas promotionalcatalogsfor the companies,they required little financial revenues.Woman's HomeComsupportfromadvertising both carriedsmallamounts of advertispanionand Good Housekeeping ing from their inception. CyrusCurtiswas the publisherwho most however,directingpromotional aggressively sought out advertisers, materialsat them (as well as at readers),visiting them personallyto sell Ladies' Home medium. He used advertisJournalas an advertising revenues to better editorial material for the Journaland to buy ing for the The other women's journals,seepay promoting magazines. the desire of to advertisers reach female customers and Curtis's ing success, soon followed suit. The Journal, the Companion,and other women's magazines initiatedthe practice of placingadvertisements next to relatededitorial material.EdwardBok of the Journalis creditedwith being the first editor to run editorialmaterial traditionthrough the advertisements at the back of the Women's ally segregated journalsalso magazine. led in guaranteeingthe products advertised,in assistingadvertisers in improving and promotingthemcopy,and in extensively advertising selves. Women's magazinespublished editorialsexplainingthe purpose and value of advertising.The Curtis Company developed the firstcode to regulateadvertising in 1912, and severalof the women's false journalswagedcrusades (most notablyLadies' against advertising HomeJournaland Delineator). Magazinepersonnelalso playeda key role in standardizingthe rates set for advertisements.55 Promotion Methods Women'smagazines of marketing methods, includemployeda variety ing personalselling, advertising,and salespromotion. Reader-agents andwerepaidwith a comwomen) sold subscriptions (predominantly bination of cash and gifts, includingbooks, teaspoons, and pictures. The magazinesranclubs for their agentsto encouragethem, to instill a sense of independence,and to promote competition. The Journal
55 See Pfitable Advertising (15 June 1898): 50; Steinberg, Refimer; Bok, Americanization; and Waller (Zuckerman), "Selling Mrs. Consumer."
Table2 Women's Magazines, 1912

Title Prices Cover Annual 15? 15 15? 5? 15 $1.50 $1.50 $1.50 $ .50 $1.50 Circulation Format
Publis
Ladies'HomeJournal Delineator Woman's HomeCompanion McCall's Good Housekeeping
1,538,360 930,600 758,155 1,084,902 300,000
16" x 10/" Almost 16" 111" x 54" 11" 9?"
Curtis
Butter
Crowe
McCa
Ameri Mag (Hea
Pictrial Review
15?
$1.00
616,156
Almost 16"
PR Co
Sources: fromN. W Ayr'sAmerican Circulation fromthe m Annual,1912.All otherinformation Newspaper figures
Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman/ 738
ANALYSIS OF ADVERTISING MA'TIF IN 1Q17 } TheDelineatorThe \oman's Maazine he Designer

Known amon4 .Advertitrs as te Autficrrk Trio
A
I15%
E
7.8 %
C
[2%
A-THE HOME-ILING
.iIi I
;a
* F
FJRNSHIN. ETCNna h
4 eA yni *,
B-KTCrENAND
g Chase' we. al
TAB -,
.*t-n
-l? fa p aU
aIC--W EARINGAPPARE--as.-*,
, I
O E-TourETr ODS-.. <
.b.a
F -o.x)osr-FOR
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-, FARM AND GAR-DEN

*seg
Z2"L _, CNEOUl S _U _ _
wC h Cepn Cawm,* at.
i PL i
uddi
+ Amone. be eiSA
ei
Analysis of Advertising, 1917 * As part of their efforts to attract advertisers,women's magazines createdresearchdepartments to collect data on readers,markets, and magazine content. Here, the Butterick Company shows the breakdown of types of products advertised in its women's magazines. (Reproduced from Mrs. John Doe. A BookWherein for the FirstTimean Attmpt Is Made toDeemine Woman's Power Sharein thePurchasing ofthe Nation [New York, 1918].)
Women's Magazines / 739 had its "Girl'sClub," the Companion a "Pin Money Club," and PictorialPeviwits "Daughtersof the GoldenTreasure." Some agentssold for The several offered Companion magazines publishingcompanies. a yearof free copies to readers who gavesubscriptionsas gifts to two To solicit readers,the Curtis Company used "boy sales," friends.56 who were given specialdirectionsfor selling Ladies' HomeJournalto women. A 1912 Curtis Company manual for such boy agents, titled"How to Sell 100 CopiesWeekly," devoteda whole optimistically section to sellingtheJournal.The booklet not only encouraged doorto-door sales, but also directedboy agents to approachwomen out The Companion used a "Pony Man," shopping for a possible sale.57 who organizedsales teams of young boys in ruralneighborhoods. All the magazinesran announcements calling for reader-agents and subscriptionsolicitors,emphasizingthe money and other prizes to be earned; fabuloussumswerepromised to be within everywoman's reach. Such advertisements on the table of contents pages appeared and scatteredthroughout the magazines.Typicalcopy read, "Earn YourEducation," and "A Book for EveryGirl."58 Individualsearnthis in the in numbered thousands; 1898 the Agency ing money way for Woman's Home counted "severalthouDepartment Companion sand agents . .. manyof whom areschool-teachers."59 This included both professional and amateuragents.Ladies' Home Journalreported having about 30,000 agents in 1901, and by 1903 Crowellclaimed to havethe samenumberaffiliated with the Companion's Department of Agents, taking in subscriptionsall over the United States.60 In the 1890s, publishers stillreliedon techniquesfromearlier years such as subscriptionclubs, discounts, premiums, and reader-agents
56 Seeissues of Woman's Home backpages,1895through1910forexamples Companion, of thesegift offersto reader-agents. Fora description of the clubs,see Helen Woodward, TheLady Persuaders an advertising (New York,1960), 103, 104. Woodward, copywriter, workedfor both Woman's HomeCompanion andPicorialReview duringthe earlyyearsof the twentiethcentury,as well as for advertising in the agencies placingadvertisements women'smagazines. See HaydenCarruth Memo, 8 Nov. 1907, HaydenCarruth Papers, box 9; Woman's HomeCompanion, Dec. 1910, 12. 57 Curtis "How to Sell100Copiesa Week"(Philadelphia, Pa., 1912),50-59. Company, Thispamphlet nine particular identified who would buy the Journal, typesof customers as well as eleven"traps"(refusals and how to overcome by potentialJournal purchasers) them. Fordescription of Curtis's of the boy agents seeJanCohn, sellingthe Post, handling
Review 61 (Summer tory 1987): 185-215. 58 Woman's HomeCompanion, Jan. 1912, 83; Ladies'HomeJournal, June 1912, 1. 59 "WhenWeWere Co. employee News Jan.1926, (Crowell Younger," publication), Goad box 9. 15, found in HaydenCarruth Papers, 60 Crowell, Aboutthe Crowell Home Co., 26; "A FewThingsWe Have Done," Ladies' Nov. 1908; and Steinberg, 10. Journal, Refrmer,
"The Business Ethic for Boys: The Satunray HisEveningPostand the Post Boys," Business
Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckeman / 740
1For June Only
4-
EVER before have I offered such valuable Pre mriums,as herein described, for a single new subscriber to the JoOURNAI.; neither can I afford them permanently; but, for one month, I h iave selected Special as an inducement for your kindly aid in securing )our neighbor I'renmitms or friend to become one of our number before July is t. \Xith your hearty encouragement and co-opera ation, I would like to to the highest possible HO)IE JOURNAI. push the circulation of TIhELADIES' if round million e July ist-and with a possible, before point-a copies, determinationto accomplish what has never before bt eendone in periodical literature in the history of the world. I offer you th( e best possible value I can devise, trusting the incentive may be strong enou igh to assure a special It is to be hoped, however, that effort from every triend of the JntuRNAl.. itself to lend as much every reader is sufficiently interested in the JOURNAL aid as possible to the advancementof its interests. Not a dollar of profit do I ask for myself for such new subscribers as may be added to our lists during this month, but shall be satisfied with what the future ma) bring to me by the JOURNAIS enlarged possibilities. It should be a matter of pride with every readerand friend,that HER JOUINAl. shall have such a tremendous influence for good and pure literature, as a widespread circulationof one million copies would give it. It would be an easy matter to accomplish this end, if each one would only take the trouble to speak to some one friend about it. A singleword from you will do more than thousands of dollars worth of newspaper advertising. Shall we have that million? Sincerely yours,
4- e'4
TheQuestfr New Subscribers of the Ladies' Home Journal, ? CyrusCurtis,the founder wasthe mostaggressive in the pursuit of both readers amongwomen's magazine publishers and advertisers. fromLadies' Home June 1891, supplement.) Journal, (Reproduced
to increase circulation. After the turn of the century, however, more sophisticated methods were added to keep old readersand attract new ones. Subscription clubs and premiums were dropped or deemphasized, as publishers endeavored to assure themselves, their advertisers, and the U.S. Post Office that readers were willing to pay full price. Increasingly, publishers moved toward employment of professional

"Rossmore" Silver-Plated Teaspoons, Tablespoons and Forks Seven-Piece Toilet-Set
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as Yearly Subscriber (not their oftn fnane), we w.ill iJail, postlpaid, Sil,er, ware One Dozen Teaspoons; or, a Set of F"our Tables,poons; or, a Set rHER, E:ar
To anyone who will, beforeJulyIst, 1891,sendus One Dollarfori new

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e ha,e ever rhis is the most advantageous offer of Sil,er-plated Warare. made. Ve do wish you to understand this to be the finest Sil,er-plated a ipot VWare manufactured; it is nothing of the sort. It is not our best goods, but. o at the same time, it is not the cheap, miserable trash so often offered in "gift T aely one who will, before July st, 1891, send us One Dollar for a new enterprises." It isof steel, platedfirst with nickel and then with silver, and .,ill Yearly Subscriber (not their own name), we will mail, postpaid, a Linen Toileta set 'et of Seven Pieces, ,hich will amply repay the slight effort expended in securing wear well and for a long tinle. No housekeeper can afford to be w-ithout of Silver-p}ated Table-ware, if only for company use, and, at this time of the year 'he new name. Two mats, 9x14 and 7x[2 inches, respectively; on, pair, and during the berry and ice-crea.m seasons, those .ho are already sup,plied ,ill 8,1 xqY2 incles; anotherpair, 7)// inchessquare. Monie cloth, damask bOTder
ft,or p_tty_ai_d
Gold Thimble
SxCbuc-ixen sendus One Dollar fora neCYearlo (not
fnTo an one e iho -ill, before July ist. 1891, a ti their ob n name), we will mail, postpaid, a (;G,ld Thimble, i karat fine. t It is not solid gold. Notice
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o gifts solid enourage and frie s and n l of to ayers gold, one beingon theoill, readerstosignupe washand aosuer of the thanthe best of is
size 0of TIhi desireu. 55 "elat-. -t1paid Price ngTilob,
before Yearly fora new July st, 8, sendusOneDollar form Thimble veryinuh more drable Subscriber wIhible rhis to prepay ownn p (not their name), e willmail(send 5a centsadditional state the postage) of those adeof solid gold,and s erymuch heaper. In ordering, a air of utcher-inenScarfs, and50 incheslong, ith knot 70 inches
ted fringe, stamped ready for embroidering. The cheapest linens we have ever secllred. I'he lowest offer we have ever made. If you select them don't forget
much thicker where the wear comeis. TIhedark line around the edge of the fig-e, bet,,een the-A running A Phitesld,, feseqntr il the S et eenc toer re stloiffening
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To any one who will, before July ,st, i891, send us One Dollar for a new Collar-Box, will mail a package of this, so-calledSET Yearly Subscriber (not their own name), we \V oaste," Etmpbroidery Silk-various shades, odd lengths, 5assorted sizes-all We Call alfurnisha Vel-licdMroc;l, nea at the srilh mills, aved ,y send them out just as receiver; icot simpling t(ren or r shades of red, gireen, blue aoid yellowi, ft*moll'flBI
Factory
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Silk
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11 o^ n h send .. Yearl ".. One Dollar for a 1891, , ne any one whowill, before .st, us i,To Subscriber (not their ofwn name), we will fil, ostraid, a Box of eirst-qralit
July
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eds ged 'I'es le atrrae f the ins six n o tingethe pstapin ta g ri nColo, the bottom of the Box itself e permits eof the Box eneing veniently pised as a illalette. Three god Brushes, of lirent sizes, and ele
e A To any one ,ill, before pely 1st, 8, send us One Dollar for a nei on early Subscriber (not their name), we ill mail, postpaid, this Button-hook,
tho Color in tin tras, colete
s. s Fnal^~~~out penchts, A Pair of Pillow
in a Satin-lined Case. paider
Price,
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J
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,ill, before July ist, i89i, send nem a Dollar for Yearly Subscriber (not their o,,n name), rill we give as a Prenium one of our postage and packiig. th combioes felatre l a Hammock , of ashdbedst of s a Sting. As we send it out it is compsleteand in per.ect readiness for hanging up.
Bho one 'I`o any
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ready for embroidering. Boxese cftis aesho,rarepresent one of the 4welve ,pairsin oulrassortment. are all desirable, and Wegiiaranto'liey Price, 40 cents per pair, p,ostpaido
aicked in a verysmall and conipact bundle, and is just the thing in which to spend a hot suimer's after5 Price,50cents. Postage andiacking, ocents extra.
Premiumsfir Pzaden Birging New Subscriben
All the women's magazinesused prize
was available to a reader who "will, before July Ist, send us One Doffar LHo premiums for a new Yearly Subscriber from Ladiesr How (not their own name)." (Reproduced jou-ea
June 1891, nal, supplement, p.3.)
/ 742 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckeman subscriptionagents. Sales teams planned strategy,mapped out sections of towns for solicitations,andgavehouseholders a polishedsales the at headsales force was the pitch.61 department Aiding subscription which maintained files on readers. Customer quarters, subscriphuge tion serviceswere becoming more complex, and automatedsystems took over more of the work. Renewalnotices from the subscription managerappearedin the front pagesof each magazine.The McCall attenCompanyboldlyprintedits noticesin pink to catchsubscribers' tion.62Crowelland Hearst (by 1911the owner of Good Housekeeping) offered readersthe option of monthly installmentpayments.63 With marketingsuch an important component of a successful other promotionaltechniquesemerged.Advertisements for magazine, in in other on newsand magazines appeared periodicals, newspapers, stands.Led by CyrusCurtis,who had spent $310,000 advertising the Ladies' as earlyas 1889, and hundredsof thousandsmore Home Journal in the 1890s, all the women's journalsadvertisedto attractreaders. in tradejourThey also placed advertisementsaimed at advertisers nals such as N. W. Ayer'sDirectory. Publishers and sellingmore than one title used group advertising tried to persuadereaders of one publicationto buy another put out whatlatermarketers termeda "brand by the samecompany,employing loyalty" strategy.Publisherspromoted each publicationin the pages of theirother magazines,and they offeredspecialratesand premiums to theirown subscribers. Forexample, a "PrettyGirlCalendar" would be sent to each Woman's HomeCompanion subscriber who sent in fifty cents for an annualsubscriptionto another Crowellmagazine,Farm andFireside.64 The inside coverof the Companion an advertisecarried ment for "The AmericanMagazine,published by the Publishersof
WHC ."65
61 See "Circulation: 9,496,841," Fortune, 63-69ff; Crowell, About the Crowell Co.; Curtis Co., SellingEfforts (Philadelphia,Pa., 1913); and Phillips Wyman, Magazine Circulation: An Outline of Methodsand Meanings (New York, 1936), 11. 62 See McCall's, issues for 1912, Table of Contents page. 63 11. The Crowell orgpni7ationcarefullypointed out that this plan Wyman, Circulation, was not really installment selling, but rather a "pay as you get" plan, since the product, the magazines, arrivedover the course of the payment plan. See "Circulation:9,496,841," Fortune,108. 64 Woman's HomeCompanion, Jan. 1915, 44. Carruthnotes that they were offeringcalendars to Companion readersin 1907 and 1908; see Hayden Carruth Memo, 9 Sept. 1908, Hayden Carruth Papers, box 9. 65 Home Companion, Jan. 1915, inside cover; a similaradverSee, for example, Woman's tisement appearing in the Companion, Dec. 1913, 71, noted that "we are confident that every COMPANION reader will also enjoy THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE."
Women's Magazines / 743 The Companion expandedthis areaof customerserviceeven further. By 1912, readerscould subscribeto magazinesnot published Readers by the Crowell Companythroughthe Companion. simplylisted and mailedin the titlesof the publications and the magathey desired, zine took careof the rest. A similarservicehad been available as early as 1904, but to take advantageof the earlieroffer, readersalso had to subscribeto the Companion, a requirementmissingfrom the later
advertisement.66
Coversbecamemore importantwhen single-copysalesincreased afterthe turn of the century. Street carsprovidedstrategicspots to post them. Publishersalso supplied newsstanddealerswith promotional posters. Companion fiction editor Hayden Carruthsuggested the vendors to determine which coverssold best and using surveying this information to select future "saleable"covers.67Carruthalso recommendedthat the originalsof the Companion cover picturesbe enteredin variousexhibits.In 1915two of the drawings used as Comcovers in an in exhibition with plates Texas, Galveston, panion hung underthem noting wherethe pictureshad firstappeared. Other Conpanion cover originals hung in the offices of a leading advertising free of charge,but such gifts were specifically linked to subscription werewarnedthat the offerremainedgood only renewals,and readers as long as the supply held out.69 Publishersmaintainedan "exchangelist" of other publishersto be given complimentarycopies of magazines.Magazinesalso reguand magazines larlysent out "clip sheets" to editors of newspapers several weeks in advanceof an issue'spublication, showing the table of contents for upcoming numbers, describingthe entire issue, and Both partiesusuallybenefited printingabout ten pagesof excerpts.70
66 See Woman's Home Companion,Sept. 1912, 1, for offer noted first; see "Announcement Page," ibid., Jan. 1904, for later offer. 67 See ibid., Feb. 1907, 13, where the editors state that they have been running advertisements in the "traction cars"; Hayden Carruth to Mr. Messier, 15 Dec. 1916, Hayden Carruth Papers. 68 Hayden CarruthMemo, July 1915, Hayden CarruthPapers;Hayden CarruthMemo, 18 May 1909, ibid. A Carruth memo, undated [1910], Hayden Carruth Papers,noted the covers hanging in the advertising agency, but left the agent unnamed. 69 See Woman's Home Companion, Oct. 1907, 1, for an example of this marketing technique. This painting had won their huge cover content; a similar promotional effort was repeated in 1911, where readerswere sent a reproduction of a picture by Kate Greenaway. See Companion,Dec. 1911, Announcement page. 70 See HomeCompanion Hayden CarruthPapers,box 10, for Woman's clip sheets of June, July, Aug., and Sept. 1905. Carruth was in charge of preparing these sheets.
subscribersreceived reproductions of certain covers agent.68 Companion
/ 744 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman from these tactics, which providedpublicity for the magazinesand could cause resentcopy for the editors. However, the arrangement ment. For example,after the turn of the century, with the Ladies' Home Journalwell established,CyrusCurtisdecided to stop sending free copies to those on the "exchangelist," provokingunfavorable comment from one editor: The LadiesHome Journal is one of the freak that has publications to achieved a wild-eyed success methods that it were base flattery by callfakes. Themagazine intoitsposition of popularity hasbeenboosted freeadvertising amountof practically which,in the by the enormous it has and lured the of the UnitedStates past, country press inveighed
into publishing... .7
did not neglectthe most obviouswayof adverFinally,magazines themselves constantlyin theirown pages.Every tising:they promoted issue trumpeted descriptionsof the exciting articlesand stories to numbersoften carappearthe next month. December and January riedtwo full-page of the comspreads announcingthe specialofferings readers and all their but ing year,enticing purchaseof the ensuring magazinein the future. Distribution In additionto advances in printtechnologyand innovations in promotional methods, more reliable linesof distribution aidedthe purveyors of mass-market distributed magazines.Women'smagazinepublishers their goods through all available channels. They set up subscription bureaus,used the servicesof the AmericanNews Company (ANC), and eventuallydeveloped their own distributivecapabilities. few technicalproblemsfor pubcustomerspresented Subscription lishersby the FirstWorldWar.With improvedrailtransport and more extensivepostalservice,publisherscould be assuredof reachingtheir subscribers and couldguarantee of eachissue.The Postal promptarrival Act of 1879 had allowedthe applicationof low second-class mailrates to magazines,makingmail distributiona cost-effectivemethod. The RuralFreeDeliveryAct (1891)providedpublishers with accessto the farmand other ruralmarkets.Indeed, Ladies'HomeJournalclaimed to have influencedthe size of RFD mailboxes,sayingthat the boxes had been constructedso they could hold the 11 x 16-inchJoumral.72
71
72
Quoted in TheJournalist32 (1 Nov. 1902): 1. See "A Few Things We Have Done," Ladies'HomeJournal, 3.
Women's Magazines / 745 This periodmarkedthe consolidationof publishers'subscription Home servicesinto highly efficient, rationalized operations. Woman's in this stressedits efficiencyand speed area, claimingin Companion 1903 to have "the largestnumber of names and addressesactually set in type to be found anywherein this country. Six to eight men arekept busy the yearround keepingthe list up to date and freefrom 73 error." As the subscriptionprocessbecamemore mechanical,publishers turned their attention to luring the single-copybuyer. Railroadstations, hotels, officebuildings,drugstores, stores,and local department stores all for attractive outlets grocery provided magazinesales. The transportation system had improved, so reachingthese distribution points presentedfew problems.But publishershad to negotiatewith the outlet ownersto ensurethat their magazinesreceivedprominent had the advantage positions in the display.McCall'sand Delineator of having their own agenciesalreadyestablishedin towns throughout the United Statesand Canada,where customerscould purchase patterns and magazinesproduced by these companies. As was true for magazinesgenerally,newsstandsdid not become important for women's magazine publishers until after the turn of the century. In 1898 only about 8 percent of Woman's Home came from The sales newsstands.74 Curtis Companion's Company encouragedits local agents to supply newsstands, but Curtis itself not to, as the amount per copy taken by the distributor, preferred the AmericanNews Company,was so largethat Curtissuffereda loss on each issue sold. Curtis did sell a small number of magazinesto newsstands becausethe companyrecognizedthe throughwholesalers, promotional value in having its journals on display.75 The ANC was a problematicfactor for many publishersin the late nineteenth century.Established in the 1860s, this wholesalerhad a monopoly on the distribution of magazines, with thirty-tworegional branchesnationwide.Eventually,throughvarioussubsidiaries, ANC also retailedperiodicals,books, and an ever-expanding of array other items. Publishers held mixedfeelingsabout ANC's services. Although servicethat ANC providedfor them and their valuingthe distribution customers,they resentedthe powerheld by the company.SinceANC usually took a commission percentagebased on a magazine'scover
See Crowell, About the Crwell Co., 5. Mott, Historyof American Magazines, 4: 766, quoting from Printer'sInk. 75 10, 11; and G. A. Sykes, "Periodicalson the ElevatedRailroads," Steinberg, Reftomer, Printer'sInk, 21 Dec. 1892, 830.
73 74
/ 746 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckrman to handle higherpricedmagazines.FrankMunsey price,it preferred clashedwith ANC when he reducedthe priceof Munsey's to ten cents and offeredit to ANC for six and a half cents. ANC saw little profit in this magazineand would agreeto pay only four and a half cents He decided to per copy. Munsey found ANC's termsunreasonable. circumventthe agency and distributethe magazineto newsdealers
himself.76
When Munseysucceeded in his venture,otherpublishers followed, their own distribution at least Curtis started systems using partially. to in the late Post the newsstands Evening sending Saturday directly the with and the twentieth he was same 1890s, by early century doing all his magazines.To ensurethe profitability of this method of distribution, Curtisrefusedto acceptreturnsof unsold copies. Beginning in 1910, Curtisenteredinto agreements with over 1,500 independent wholesalers,who signed contractsgiving Curtisthe right to approve all other magazines sold by the retailer.Rival magazines, such as HomeCompanion, Woman's were usuallyvetoed. Although the right of approval sectionof the contracts wasdisallowed Trade by the Federal Commission in 1917, the Curtis Company continued to use newsdealersheavily,still bypassingthe ANC. By 1922, newsdealers sold 64 percent of the copies of Ladies'HomeJournal,giving it a higher percentageof circulationsold through newsdealersthan any of the other Big Six.77 The Hearst Company began direct distribution (includingGood in 1913. In 1914, over 83 percent of McCall'scirculaHousekeeping) tion was still through subscription, but in 1919 the McCall Company and the PopularScience Monthly Company formed the S-M News Companyto distribute theirpublications. most comEventually, panies used a combination of their own distribution systems and wholesalingcompanies;the CrowellCompany remainedthe exception, continuing to rely on ANC.78 Some women's magazine publishersplaced their magazinesin departmentstoresand sold their patternsthrough the same outlets. A readercould purchasethe magazine,browse through it, spot an attractivefashion, and buy the appropriate pattern all in one stop.
76 For more on Yars, Frty Millions-The Munsey's fight with ANC, see GeorgeBritt, Forty Career of FrankA. Munsey(New York, 1935), 83-85; for additional details about the ANC generally, see Mott, Histry of AmericanMagazines, 4: 18; and Peterson, Magazines, 91. 77 Edward Bok, "The Magazine with a Million," LadiesHomeJournal, Feb. 1903, 16; and Steinberg, Reformer, Rate 11; percentagescalculatedfrom figures appearingin Standard and Data Service (Skokie, Ill., Nov. 1922). 78 See McCall's 43-59. advertisement,Ayer'sDirctory (1914), n.p.; Wyman, Circulation,
Women's Magazines / 747 The Butterick, McCall, Curtis, and PictorialReview companies all of Woman's followedthis salestechnique,but the publishers eventually HomeCompanion and Good refused to sell their Housekeeping steadfastly patternsthrough stores. Drugstoresalso provideda popularpoint of distribution for women's magazines. By the beginningof the twentieth century,the mechanicsof distribution no longer presentedan impediment to large-volumesales of periodicals.Competition focused insteadon the point of sale (for prominent placement and display)and on the variousmethods for and retaining in both arenas weredicsubscribers. acquiring Strategies tated by the characteristics of the customer market. Customers The numberof potentialcustomersfor women's magazines expanded enormously between 1890 and the FirstWorldWar.Economic and demographicchanges, as well as conscious strategieson the part of magazinepersonnel, contributed to this broadenedmarket. Industrialization and urbanization greatlychangedwomen's roles,as much productivework shifted out of the home, and increasingnumbers of households moved to cities.7 The rapidityof these demographic and economic transformations,alteringwork and lifestyles, caused women to searchfor reliable manualsthat would tell them prescriptive how to lead a properfemininelife. The journalsthemselveswidened their focus, targetingthe home as well as the homemaker.Publishers and editorsworkeddiligentlyto extend their circulations;publishers advertisedextensivelyto reachpotential customers,and editorsdrew readers in throughcareful campaigns designedto build close relations. With an enlarged customerbasecamethe impetusto expandthe range of materialappearingin the magazines. Simple demographicsaided magazinesellers.Between 1890 and 1920, total U.S. populationjumped from almost 63 million to 105.7 million. During the sameperiod, femalesin the populationincreased by about two-thirds,from 30.7 million to 51.8 million. The literacy ratecontinued to climb, reaching94 percentfor the total population in 1920.80
79These and the American changes are described succinctly by Nancy Woloch, Women (New York, 1984); and Carol Hymowitz and Michaele Weissman, A Histoy of Experience in America(New York, 1978). On changesin women's roles, see Lois Banner, Women Women in ModernAmerican Neer Done (New York, 1982); Histry (New York, 1974); Susan Strasser, and Sheila Rothman, Woman's ProperPlace (New York, 1978). 80 U.S. Statistics of the U.S., Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical ColonialTimes to 1970, Part 1 (Washington, D.C., 1975).
/ 748 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman Not only weretheremorewomen with greater in the populiteracy women who did readmagazines lation, swellingthe market; frequently conducted read more than one. In 1914 Woman's Home Companion a mail surveyamong its subscribers, receiving1,951 responses.Fortynine percentof those answering saidthat they readfiveor more magazines in additionto the Companion, and 85 percentclaimedthat they at least other read three magazines.When asked"What other magazines do you read?"Companion subscribers listed a varietyof titles, but the top five were Ladies'HomeJournal(990 respondents);Pictoral Review(469 respondents); the mail-orderLadies World(421 418 respon(atthis time a fictionperiodical, respondents); Cosmpolitan and and Delineator Post dents); (381 respondents). Saturday Evening Thus GoodHousekeeping came in sixth and seventh, respectively.8' femaleswho purchasedwomen's magazineswere likelyto buy more than one publication, and most often, they bought an additional women's magazine. This duplicate readershipmay not have been unique to women's journals, but it did increase the demand for women'smagazines.Few rivalgoods existedto interfere with this purwomen's columns in the newspapersoffered the chasing pattern: nearest competition, and they necessarilyprovided less depth and intimacy. Specificdata on early readersare difficult to acquire,but some inferencescan be made. Middle-classreaders(includingupper and lower middle classes)formed the largestpart of the women's magazine market.It is unlikelythat the budgets of most workingwomen allowed them to purchaseluxurieslike magazines;when they read these journals,it was through passed-alongcopies.82 The content of the magazinesadds furtherevidenceabout the natureof the readerto the middlethe storiesandarticles ship:editorsandpublishers geared classwomen and familiesthey believedwere buying their magazines. in largepartfrom Editorsformedan impression about theirreaders letterswrittento the journals.As Charles Hanson Townenoted about his task of composing the monthly editorialpage for Deserner:
I went at it with fearin my heart, for I realizedwhat a responsibility it was. But afterI got it going, I enjoyedthose talkswith readers,and the correspondence proved the most interestingI had ever received. People would write in on everyconceivablesubject, and I felt almost as if I knew them all personally.83
See 1914 WHC Reader-Surey, Hayden Carruth Papers, box 10, 4. A Hisrny of Wage-Earning Womenin the United See Alice Kessler-Harris,Out to Work: States(New York, 1982), 120-22, for salariesand budgets of working women in this period. 83 Towne, Adventures in Editing, 153.
81
82
Women's Magazines / 749 The contents of the magazinesand the editors' beliefs about their Ohmann notes, when no specific audiencearesignificant;as Richard "we areleft with conjecturebasedon research on readers is available, content, and (perhapsbetter) on what readershipthe editors were they thought they had succeeded tryingto reach,and what readership in reaching."84 The majorwomen'sjournalswereedited for and marketed to middle-classreaders,even if individualsoutside this group readthe journals.Bok believedhe was editingfor middle-class readers; in 1915he saidthat Ladies' directed toward HomeJournalwas primarily familieshavingincomes in the $1,200-$2,500 range.EditorsFrederick Collins,ArthurVance,and Gertrude BattlesLanewould haveconcurred.McCall'snoted in an advertisementthat it "is a prosperous magazine,and is readby the prosperouswomen of the country; not all of them very rich, and not all of them very poor; but the great middle class, who are the real producersand buyers."85 The letters to the magazines,which abound, appearto havecome from women in this middleclass.Although these missivescamefroma self-selected sample,they composed the responsethat editorssaw and reactedto in making editorialdecisions.86 With changesin household technology,middle-class women had more leisure time. Labor-saving devices lightened the work burden for many housewives.87 The magazinesentertainedwomen in their idle hours, provided household information, and offered guidance about activities outsidethe home. Departments focusedon such issues as women's clubs (completewith schedulesof recommendedactivities), scientifichousekeeping, and educatedmotherhood. Columns with advice for working women (or "girls," as they were regularly to pursueappeared activities called),listsof books to read,and cultural each magazinecarriedinformationabout one or regularly. Typically,
Ohmann, "Mass Culture," 97. Varioussources document the beliefs of editors about the middle-classnature of their audiences. On Bok, see Steinberg, Refirmer, 6, 7; for Collins's ideas, see FrederickCollins to Edward Everett Hale, 28 Sept. 1908, Hayden Carruth Papers; for those of Lane and Vance, see Waller,PopularWomen's Magazines, chap. 2. For McCall's advertisement, see Co., 11, 14. Ayer'sDirectry (1914), n.p.; and discussion of audience in About the Crowell Ohmann concludes that "the main audience for these magazineswas what was called then, as now, the 'middle class': people in small businesses, professionals, cerks, tradespeople, farmers,and significantly,wives and mothers from this same stratum"; "Mass Culture,"91. 86 Here I am referringto actual letters seen in archivalmaterial, as described, for examJournalism ple, in Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman,"VeraConnolly, ProgressiveJournalist," History15, no. 2 (Spring 1989): 80-88. Letters printed in the magazinesprovide uncertain evidence as editors at times manufactured these missives. 87 For a for Mother: The slightly different view, see Ruth Schwartz-Cowan, More Work Irnies of HouseholdTechnology from the OpenHearth to the Microwave(New York, 1983).
85 84
/ 750 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman more "causes"or crusades; readers could comfortably and easilydirect their reformenergies.For example,the Companion conducted camfoods paignsfor healthybabies,cleanergroceries,and purerpackaged and againsttuberculosisand child labor.Women'smagazinesdid not lead in the "muckraking"movement, but their effortsprovedmore in the pagesof women's continuedto appear enduring;reformarticles As women's role shiftedfrom producerto consumer,readingand became part of the learningabout new productsin the marketplace housewife'sjob. Magazineexpertshelped her in this new job of consumption. In addition to the servicedepartments,all the women's articles on home management,discussions of the new journalscarried to use the the and information on how market, appliancesflooding with branded packaged, products appeared increasingrapidity.The most obvious instance of this assistancewas the Good Housekeeping Institute, establishedin 1901. Initially, the Institute tested the usefulnessof housekeepingmethods and productsmentioned in the announcedthat it would accept Housekeeping magazine.In 1902, Good advertisements for tested and approvedby its Institute. only products The serviceexpandedfurtherin 1912, when HarveyW. Wiley,former chiefchemistfor the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture, joined the staff. established the Seal of for out andfound tried Wiley Approval products Manufacturers donateditems,and the Institutetestedthem acceptable. free of charge.If a product passed, the magazinereportedon it as an informationalservice,providinga description,the price, and the name of the manufacturer; Houseand August issuesof Good January carried of all In first reviewed.89 its keeping years,and listings goods under Wiley's direction, the Institute performeda valuableservice for housewives, providinguseful consumer information. Womenthus provided a readyandgrowingtarget for magamarket zine publishers,constituting a largeaudiencefor many types of publications.90 An increaseddemand had arisen,which astute women's
88 See "The Cat in the Cracker HomeCompanion, Nov. 1907-Feb. 1908; Barrel,"Woman's "The Campaign of Hope," ibid., Feb. 1910. The Better Babies Bureaustartedin the Aug. 1913 issue and continued through the 1920s; articles describing the evils of child labor began in the Sept. 1906 issue and also continued on a regularbasis through the 1920s. For discussion of the continuation of reform articles in women's journals, see WallerZuckerman, "Vera Connolly." 89 See Katherine Fisher, "Housekeeping Emerges from the Eighties," GoodHousekeeping, May 1935, 80-83; and Harvey Washington Wiley, A Histry of the CrimeAgainst the FoodLaw (Washington, D.C., 1929). 90 See Perriton Maxwell, editor of Metropolitan Magazine, quoted in Zona Gale, "Editors of the Younger Generation," The Critic44 (April 1904): 320; and Edward Bok, The
magazines throughout the early 1920s.88
Women's Magazines / 751 3 Table 1916 Top Ten Circulators,

Woman'sWorld Post Saturday Evening Ladies'HomeJournal
McCall's
2,061,636 1,827,842 1,607,629

1,305,687
Pictorial Repiew Woman's Home Companion Cosmopolitan HomeJournal People's

Collier's
1,236,075 1,071,757 1,057,001 899,550

860,000
Delineator
830,000
Source: Crowell-Collier 1922. Company, NationalMarketsand NationalAdvertising,
magazinepublishersreadilysupplied.Women'smagazineeditorsalso targetedother membersof the family,therebyswellingthe potential audience even further.Articles, stories, and columns of interest to effect men and childrenaswell as to women appeared, with the overall of broadeningthe content. During these yearsmost women's magain 1895, that their zines claimed, as did the agents for LadiesWorld publicationswere "read by everyonein the familyfrom the housewife herself to the bachelor brother."91 One sourceestimatedthat by 1898 approximately 750,000 famian of two to three which meant audience lies readmagazines regularly, and larger millionpeople.92 Most publishers focusedon buildinglarger now to attract revenues. Women's needed circulations, advertising of the five than succeeded better most; by 1916, Big Six magazines women'sjournalsplacedamong the ten highestcirculating magazines
of all kinds (see Table 3).93
Woman's Column 3 (Feb. 4, 1890): 4, quoted in Mott, Historyof AmericanMagazines, 4: 353, on the predominantly female nature of magazine readership.The editors of the Cenof the Century, tury also believed their readershipwas strongly female; see John, Best Years 19, 49. 91Lord & Thomas, America'sMagazines and Their Relationto the Advertiser (Chicago, 1895), 26. 92 See unmarkedpromotional booklet, 1929, 20, Crowell-Collier Crowell-Collier, Papers, New York Public Library. 93Circulationsfor 1916 compiled by Crowell-CollierCo., NationalMarkes and National which 1922 (New York, Crowell, 1922). The mail-orderjournal Woman's Advertising World, topped this list, cost only 35 cents, straddlinga shadowy line between advertisingcatalog and magazine.
/ 752 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman numbersor made undifferentiated Initially,publishers emphasized claimsabout the qualityof theirreadership. unsubstantiated However, as circulationsgrew, publishersbegan to collect informationabout their readers.Before the First WorldWar,marketresearchwas still in a nascentstate.Academicians, and advertising manufacturers, agency all carried out some but much market research studies, personnel activityremainedin the hands of the magazinepublishers.Women's magazine publishers were among the leaders in performing such research,pioneering in studies of readerdemographics,consumer preferences,comparativeadvertisingdata, and market surveysfor products of major advertisers.94 inforBy the 1890s,the CurtisCompanyhadgathered rudimentary mation about the incomes of Ladies' subscribers. Home CurJournal tis also startedkeeping recordson advertisingrevenuein the 1890s and begancomparative in the 1910s.95 In 1911Currecords advertising tis formed the firstresearch departmentof any publishingcompany. Headed by CharlesCoolidge Parlin,this departmentwent on to disfield. Among its firststudieswas tinguishitselfin the marketresearch one devoted to departmentstoresand clothing patterndistribution, obviously of help to the Journaland its advertisers. Other publishersbegan to categorizereadersaccordingto geographic regions (information easily obtained from subscription HomeCompanion records).96Forexample,by 1908 Woman's possessed a breakdownof its circulationby state and county. Analyzing this Collins noted that "Of this circulation information,editor Frederick over 80% is in located small cities, towns and country disprobably tricts. A largerpercentagethan is usual in magazinecirculationis to be foundwest of the MI River." that "the quality Collinsalsoobserved of the WHC's constituencyso faras educationand financialstability is concerned has increasednearly 50%."97
94 See Mary Ellen Waller(Zuckerman),"Aspects of EarlyMarketResearch,1879-1917," Proceedings Confince, Spring 1988. of the AMA Winter Educator's 95 See and Bok, "Magazine with a Million." Curtis, Expenditures of Advertisers; 96 For Brothers example, see "Queen of Fashion" (McCall's) advertisement, Remington Manual (1893), 477; and Woman'sWorld advertisement, Printer'sInk, 25 Sept. Newspaper 1913, 61. 97 See GeographicCirculationBreakdown,1908, Hayden CarruthPapers,box 9. As early as 1892 Crowell Company was selling lists of subscribersto its various magazines to businesses for direct mail purposes; see Elkhart Carriageand Harness Manufacturing Co. to Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick,8 Feb. 1892, in WarshawCollection of Business Americana, Smithsonian Institution Archives,Washington, D.C.; letter written by Woman's HomeComCollins to contributorEdwardEverettHale on 28 Sept. 1908. Collins panioneditor Frederick took over in 1906, so presumably he had seen the 50 percent improvement in the two intervening years.
Women's Magazines / 753 werecompilingcompletereader By the 1920s, magazine publishers to discover the circulation numbersactually what represented.98 profiles when selling Usefiul to editors,this infbrmation provedmost important one circulation man to as Crowell magazinespace advertisers, since, the new were to discover that "advertisers remembered, beginning added circulationhad a greatdeal of waste in it: that is, new readers, not congenialwith the old group, were being lured into the fold by high pressuremethods ... "99 With this effort came the development of sophisticatedmarketresearchtechniques. Editorsnurtureda close relationshipwith their readersas a way to attractand hold them. Letters,suggestions,and advicefromreaders in the magazines(contributors a smallsum for their received appeared the feelingthese One sentence from the describes efforts). Companion journalstriedto evoke:"So manypeoplewriteto us about 'ourmagazine,' 'our Companion,' that we have come to look upon the three million or more people who edit, manage,manufacture, buy and read 'our magazine'as one greatfamily."'00 This relationship provedespeciallyeffectivein retainingreaderloyalty. Often, magazinepurchase wasa familyaflair. As one Deineator reader wrotein 1910, "I am renewI to the magazine that cannotkeephome without. ing my subscription I was brought up on The Delineator.My mother took it beforeme, and her mother before her."101 This letter could be replicatedthousandsof times for each of the Big Six magazines. Readersrelied on and trusted the information printedin thesejournals,givingthem and the individuals editingthem an enormous amount of power,influence,and responsibility. Americansin general,both male and female,looked to the new massmagazines for advice and understandingabout the industrializedand urbanized United States.Forwomen'sjournals,a strongtie developed between the female subscribers and the editors. Few externalforces competed for the attention of housewives, most of whom did not work outside the home, strengtheningthe impact of the magazines. As the author of the narrative summaryof the resultsof the Woman's HomeCompanion's 1914 readersurveyreported, "The feeling carried awayfrom a readingof the ballotsin generalis that they werewritten by a body of devoted and enthusiasticfriends, to whom the Com98For corroboration of this time frame, see Herbert Hungerford, How PublishersWin (Washington, D.C., 1931). 99Letter from Gerald Young to the author, 19 Jan. 1985. 100Woman's Home Companion,March 1910, "Our Own Page." 101Quoted in Mabel Potter Daggett, "When the Delineator Was Young," Delineator, 76, 365 (Nov. 1910): 419.
/ 754 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman panion is a delight and an inspiration,and for whom it is in many cases the only link with a broaderculture that their surroundings Women'smagazines afford."'02 dependenceand customer encouraged in of a loyalty variety ways: by carefullyansweringall inquiries;by a sampleof letters, recipes,and homemaking printing representative reader contests; and by setting up readerbureaus, tips; by running which assistedsubscribers with problems. Editor EdwardBok built up a largereaderbureauat his Ladies' HomeJournal.Readerscould write to the Journaland receiveprofessional,detailedadviceon anyproblemfroma staffof editorsthat evenand cajoledhis readers tuallynumberedthirty-five.Bok "encouraged to form the habit of looking upon his magazineas a great clearinghouse of information.Beforelong, the lettersstreamedin by the tens and confidentially. To ensurecompliance, Bok occasionally wroteletters under a pseudonym to his editors.'03 Woman's HomeCompanion established a similarservice.Expertsin each departmentansweredreadercorrespondence;editors received a specifiedsum of money per letter answered.Readersbelievedthese editors answeredout of concern and caringfor the writers:in fact, the staffworkedon piece rates,which by 1916 had reachedfifty cents editorsrequired to submitcarbonsof each per letter,with department in order to be The also had severalspecial response Companion paid. reader servicesincludingthe BetterBabiesBureau,the Good Citizenship Bureau,the Pin Money Club, and a column forworkingwomen. In 1916 the Companion calculatedsome resultsof its readerservices, that tens of thousands of patterns hadbeen sent out, readers estimating enrolled in clubs, and mail sent in.104Ladies'HomeJournalreceived almost a quarter-million letters from readersin the first six months of 1913. And as the Curtis Company proudly stated, "It answered them, each one-not brieflyand publiclythrough its open columns, but fully, conscientiously,confidentially,through the mails."Curtis also noted that 25,000 homes had been built from plans purchased from the Journal.105
of thousands during a year ... "The staff answered letters promptly
102 103
56. Bok, Americanization, 174; Steinberg, Refrnme, 104 See Carruth Notebooksfor 1916,1917,and1918,Hayden Carruth Hayden Expense box 26, budgetrecords with notationsof the amountspaidout to department Papers, editorsboth for theircolumnsandfor answering Home Comreader letters;and Woman's panion,April1916, Tableof Contentspage. 105
Curtis, SellingEfforts,235.
See 1914 WHC Reader-Survey, 6, 14.
Women's Magazines / 755 This responsivenessto the needs of readersdistinguished the women's journalsfrom other magazines.In magazineslike the Cento theirown taste;S. S. McClure turythe editorschose piecesappealing believed that editors must first please themselves. Even the increasPosthad nothinglikethe servicebureaus Evening inglypopularSatuniay of the women's journals.106 Yet while rapidindustrialization and urbanizationwere making American women moreuncertain abouttheir"properrole,"and hence more dependent on these publicationsfor guidance, the magazines themselvesincreasingly were run as businessoperations,not as literor advice Women's journals. ary magazinesled in innovativebusiness and of the editors and publisherssaw themselves many techniques, as business Bok standsout as perhaps Edward preeminently people. the foremostexampleof an editorwho also definedhimselfas a business person; GertrudeBattles Lane of the Companion is another.107 The magazines'twin missions as profit-makingfirms and advisorsto women could sometimesoperateat cross-purposes. When editors concentratedclearlyon their readers'needs for informationand directionwithout letting the businessaspectsof the publishingworld dominate, the roles functioned harmoniously;when the two magazine purposes clashed, it was the psychologicallyvulnerablereader
who often lost out.108
This conflictof interestwasat its most intensein the areaof adveron editors;both EdnaWoolmanChase(Vogue tising, placingpressure editor) and Theodore Dreiser(Delineator editor) battled their adverThe magazines editorial to tising departments uphold integrity.109 themselvesalso reflectedthis tension. Inconsistenciesbetween advertising and featurearticlesappeared,confounding readers.For examHome Companion carriedan articleon the dress needs ple, Woman's of women, warningof the harmfil effectsof usinga corset,yet numerous advertisements for corsetsappearedin the same issue. The food
106
John, Best Years of the Century;and Peter Lyon, The Life and TimesofS. S. McClure
Mystique(New York, 1963); Cynthia L. White, Women's Magazines, 1693-1968 (London,
(New York,1963). 107 See 33 for evidenceconcerning Bok; and MaryEllenZuckerRefomer, Steinberg, to Success: Gertrude Battles Laneandthe Woman's Home Companion," man, "Pathway in press,Journalism for a description of Lane. History, 108For debateby scholars on the pernicious effectsof the contentof the present-day women's on female seeWeibel, The Feminine readers, Mirn, Mirrr, BettyFriedan, magazines Forever Feminine 1970);Marjorie (London,1983);Ann Douglas,TheFeminizaFerguson, tionofAmerican Culture (New York,1977);and MaryEllenWaller-Zuckerman, Informa-
tionSouwes in theHistory ofPopuarWomen's Mgazines (Westport,Conn., 1991), introduction. 109Chase, Always in Vogue,107; and Swanberg, Dnriser,128.
n / 756 MaryEllen Waller-Zuckem

editor'scolumndiscussing diet and nutritionwassurrounded by advertisementsfor tempting, high-caloriefoods. Advertisements showing women obsessed with physical columns beautycompetedwith editorial the of inward beauty.110 stressing importance as businessescould also leadediHowever,viewingthe magazines into tors a closer relationshipwith their reader-customers; influence flowedin both directions. theirreaders, but readers' affected Magazines letterscarried with weight with editors,who were still experimenting formand content. As good businessoperations,magazines responded to their customers' needs. Conclusion The women's magazineindustry flourishedin the Progressive Era, with women's journals topping circulation lists. Such popularity to place their copy in the pagesof these pubencouragedadvertisers lications.The dynamism of the industrydrewtalented andprofitability editorsand shrewdpublishers. for both Theseeventsprovedimportant the women's magazineindustryand the magazineindustrygenerally. During these yearsof successand growth, the staffsof women's magazines experimented: they triednumerouspromotional techniques to attractreaders,varied the editorialcontent and even the format of the magazines, and used all available distributionmethods. In their of tried variousploys, offeringbetadvertisers, courtship publishers ter placementof advertising within the magazine, cleanercopy design, researchinto advertisementeffectivenessand product markets,and editorialsupport of advertising.By the end of the era, much of the had ended; relationsbetweenthe magazines and the experimentation advertisers and readershad settled into fixed patterns.Practices were establishedthat became norms for the women's magazineindustry throughout the twentieth century. Women's loweredprices,used advertising revenues to subjournals sidize production, built close relationshipswith their readers,and offeredadvertisers assistance with copy soonerthan otherpublications. The publishersof women's magazinesrationalizedtheir production operations,buying the most advancedprint machineryto do so, and editors worked to differentiate their magazinesfrom those of comThese petitors. pioneeringstrategiesput women's magazinesat the forefrontof the mass-magazine market.
110 See
Woman's Home Companion,May 1912.
0~~~~~
Bulsines~ss
H-listory1
Revie-w
W I N T E R 1 9 8 9
Published by the Harvard Business School

Cover:New York City Newsstand, 1903 and distribuin printing technology Aided by advances in mass-circulation tion methods, proliferated magazines availwere titles America. latenineteenth Many century scene as thisnewsstand ablein theearlytwentieth century, attests.(Photograph courtesy of the Libraryof Congress, D.C.) Washington, Backcover: Sample Advertisement, Butterick Com1918 pany, in theuseofmassmarket As leaders techniques, advertising women's produced publishers promotionmagazine many toencourage advertisements al brochures containing sample increasedadvertisingin their journals. This one is a Butterick publication,Mrs. Company reproducedfrom John Doe. A Book Wherein for the First Time an Attempt Is Made to Determine Woman's Share in the Purchasing Power of the Nation (New York, 1918), p. 42. For an extendedlookat the pioneerig roleof women's magazines,seepp. 715-756.
Cover and text design by Virginia Evans ? 1989 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. ISSN 0007-6805 Second-class postage paid at Boston, MA.

Old Homes, in A City of Perpetual Change

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The President and Fellows of Harvard College

Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman

"Old Homes, in a City of Perpetual Change":Women's Magazines, 1890-1916

Women's Magazines / 717

Growthof the Big Six Women'sJournals Circulation

1910 1,253,000 1,012,000 763,000 688,000

Percent Gmwth 75% 912 39 291

715,000 100,000 550,000 176,100

Sources:1895 figures,Lord & Thomas, America's Magazines;1910 figures,N. W. Ayer,Ayer's Dimrcty.

Waller, "Business Side of Media Development."

/ 722 Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman

Women's Magazines / 725

( ( CO", I (h t Rlt lI, -II, .t(0,\i^:,\"O !'t

Casson, "The Wonders of Magazine Making," 9; and Young, This is Crowell-Collier

Table2 Women's Magazines, 1912

Ladies'HomeJournal Delineator Woman's HomeCompanion McCall's Good Housekeeping

1,538,360 930,600 758,155 1,084,902 300,000

16" x 10/" Almost 16" 111" x 54" 11" 9?"

Ameri Mag (Hea

Sources: fromN. W Ayr'sAmerican Circulation fromthe m Annual,1912.All otherinformation Newspaper figures

Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckerman/ 738

ANALYSIS OF ADVERTISING MA'TIF IN 1Q17 } TheDelineatorThe \oman's Maazine he Designer

O E-TourETr ODS-.. <

-, FARM AND GAR-DEN

Mary Ellen Waller-Zuckeman / 740

1For June Only

Women's Magazines / 741

To anyone who will, beforeJulyIst, 1891,sendus One Dollarfori new

rthimble the the cu representing cut in half. It isf

amid Ia . c. y lcnts, po-,tpaid.

ordering, specifyNumber10. Price, 50-inch,35 cents; 70-inch,55

and Glove-Box PIECES

'I'h Svcoi' e to^sdirectl?fonm,the.winding-| le shades-olives,delicate butgooddesirab

'I'he Boxisof Jap,annedT^lrin.

tho Color in tin tras, colete

s. s Fnal^~~~out penchts, A Pair of Pillow

in a Satin-lined Case. paider

Bho one 'I`o any

Premiumsfir Pzaden Birging New Subscriben

All the women's magazinesused prize

June 1891, nal, supplement, p.3.)

subscribersreceived reproductions of certain covers agent.68 Companion

magazines throughout the early 1920s.88

Women's Magazines / 751 3 Table 1916 Top Ten Circulators,

2,061,636 1,827,842 1,607,629

Pictorial Repiew Woman's Home Companion Cosmopolitan HomeJournal People's

1,236,075 1,071,757 1,057,001 899,550

Source: Crowell-Collier 1922. Company, NationalMarketsand NationalAdvertising,

See 1914 WHC Reader-Survey, 6, 14.

Mystique(New York, 1963); Cynthia L. White, Women's Magazines, 1693-1968 (London,

n / 756 MaryEllen Waller-Zuckem

Woman's Home Companion,May 1912.

Published by the Harvard Business School

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