Writing Magazines

Definition of magazines

Apart from being regularly published storehouses of information, magazines, also called periodicals, serials, glossies
or slicks, are publications that appear on a regular interval and contain a variety of content or articles.
Magazines fall under the category of print mass media. Other types of print media are newspapers and books. Print
media has had an interesting journey and magazines, even more so. Here is a detailed look at the topic:

History of magazines

The English word magazine is derived from the Arabic word ‘makhazin’ that meant military storehouse of
war materiel. The word ‘Magazine’ was coined for use by Edward Cave, editor of The Gentleman's
Magazine. Before magazines started in England, articles were being published in periodical format in
England since the turn of the eighteenth century. Daniel Defoe started the first English magazine, The
Review, in 1704 during or just after his imprisonment for criticizing the Church of England. His purpose was
to offer his comment, criticism and satire to influence public taste. In 1731, Edward Cave published the first
issue of The Gentleman’s Magazine, the first periodical to feature a mix of informative and entertaining
genres, and the first to call itself a “magazine.”

History of magazines in India

The 1980s saw a boom in the publication of magazines in India, not only in English but in the major Indian
languages as well. The magazine boom was set off by the launch of India Today in the mid seventies, and the
new –look Illustrated Weekly of India under the editorship of Khushwant Singh. Its inspiration, right from its
red-border cover page to its mode of gathering and editing and ‘packaging’ news, was very ‘Time-
International’ inspired.
Other magazines to be launched in quick succession in the early 1990s were Gentleman, Gentleman Fashion
Quarterly, Onlooker, New Delhi, Bombay, The Week, G and a few others.

Several new film magazines and computer magazines also took off at the same time. The new magazines
introduced colour, gloss and a snazzy style of reporting which personalised and dramatised issues and events.
Photographs, illustrations, charts and graphs enlivened each page and the focus was on soft features. They
were also published on glossy paper with a glamorous look. This especially attracted advertisers.

The boom continued into the 1990s despite the packing up of long-established magazines like the Illustrated
Weekly of India, Sunday and Bombay .

Nearly four out of every five Indian magazines today are in the Indian languages. Hindi alone has
more than 3000 periodicals or magazines, followed by English with over 2,670. Periodicals in Tamil,
Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi Urdu, and Telugu too enjoy a robust circulation and
readership

Types or Genres of Magazines

Most magazines look more or less the same at first glance, but there are differences within this broad category. Basically,
magazines fall into two broad categories: consumer magazines and business magazines. Magazines can also be classified
as General interest magazine (e.g. Frontline, India Today, The Week, The Sunday Times etc.) and Special interest
magazine.

General interest magazines

They are intended for a general audience. One doesn’t need any special knowledge or skills to understand the
articles in the magazine. One just needs to be able to read at a basic level.

Their main purpose is to provide information for an educated, but non-specialist audience, of interested l ay
readers. No background knowledge or expertise is assumed. Articles usually provide a broad coverage of
topics of current interest.

Articles are written by journalists, freelance writers or staff of the magazine who have training
as journalists, but may not have specialized training in the subject they are writing about. For example,
a journalist can write about a biochemistry topic or a complex economic theory without any degrees in
chemistry or economics.

Publications are usually published by commercial enterprises, though some are published by professional
organizations.

Special interest magazines

Special interest magazines (women's, sports, business, scuba diving, etc.), on the other hand, are magazines
who serve readers who want to know more about a subject like , say, playing golf. Different types of magazines
target different audiencesand are typically published weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly or
quarterly. They target different audiences like:

1. Consumer:
These magazines target general reading audiences with special interests. For instance, there are consumer
magazines that cover homes, sports, news, fashion, teen gossip, and many more groups of readers.
Examples include AARP The Magazine, Reader's Digest, Better Homes & Gardens, National Geographic,
People, Time, TV Guide, Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Redbook, Parents, Seventeen, ESPN
Magazine, Money, Men's health, In Style, and thousands more.

Trade and Professional magazines:

Target people working in trades, businesses and professional fields. Newsweeklies for media professionals like
Editor & Publisher, Folio, Broadcasting & Cable, PR Week, Advertising Age, Publishers Weekly,
Variety, Billboard; and thousands of other magazines such as National Fisherman, Construction Today,
Investment Week, Beverage Industry, Candy Industry, Dairy Foods, Restaurant Magazine and others
fall under this category

Business magazines:
Business magazines like Business India, Business World, Business Today and Outlook Business are of special
interest to the corporate world, to business and finance professionals.
News magazines:
A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of magazine featuring articles on current events. The trend
of magazines doing so started as back as the beginning of World War I. As we have already seen, Henry Luce started
the first newsmagazine called Time. It was four years before Time saw a profit, but once it got rolling, it
moved on to make magazine history. This started the trend of newsmagazines and we have countless magazines
doing the same in India like Open. By 2002, a trend was seen in newsmagazines to move away from hard news and
shift their focus toward more soft stories since the hard news was already being covered comprehensively by
newspapers and news channels.

6. Women’s Magazines:
Women’s magazines represent the largest and most financially successful magazine category. Advertisers are fond of
these publications because they target the segment of the population that buys the most consumer products. One of
the longest published women’s magazine is Ladies’ Home Journal . It first appeared on February 16,1883,
and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States.
The Journal, along with its major rivals, were long known as the "seven sisters" and included —
Better Homes &Gardens, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal, McCall’s, Redbook,
And Woman’s’ Day . One of the currently popular women’s magazines today, Cosmopolitan, started out as a
general interest magazine, even featuring many noteworthy
investigative journalism pieces. However, when TV came along andspelled the demise of most of the
general interest magazines,“Cosmo”had a new birth as a magazine for young woman with an interest in men, sex,
and personal success.

7. Men’s Magazines:
The first major “glossy” men’s magazine was Esquire, which was founded in 1933. Esquire featured pinups
and impressive literary features.In 1953, Hugh Hefner, who was originally on the staff of Esquire, founded
Playboy. The first edition contained nude photos of Marilyn Monroe—before she became something of a
superstar. Hefner didn’t put a date on the magazine because he didn’t know if there would ever be a second
edition. However, it sold out as soon as it hit the newsstands. Subscriptions to Playboy soon surpassed those
of Esquire
.