When Was the Last Time You Read a Magazine?

Magazines: the things that you encounter at doctors' offices or in boxes stored by your mom in the attic but never typically give a second glance to. When we went over the topic and history of magazines in class, I was actually a little surprised to find that the concept and focus of them weren't always the way they are in today's magazines in both format and purpose. You know, eye-grabbing front covers like "Obama goes golfing...conspiracy?!?" and whatnot, but maybe during their prime times of success, they would entail headlines more along the lines of "Abraham Lincoln and how many top hats he really had" instead. But what we learned was that the idea started out with a general theme   so general, in fact, that the first magazine was inspired to be called and published as General Magazine (by Benjamin Franklin).

The commonly implicated approach of magazines at this time was to target all people as an audience. They included a variety of content in their binds, ranging from important news stories that adults would often discuss to crossword puzzles to entertain children. Personally, I think that this technique used by magazine businesses to gather their market was a very creative and solid one. They were able to have several aspects compiled into one informative issue that would appeal to likely anyone you could pick from a crowd. But as time wore on and the 20th century drew near, magazines began to become less and less popular with the development of newer technology such as the radio. Magazine creators, with no other thoughts as to how to move forward, concluded that they would have to demassify their aim for readers and begin to focus on topics that would appeal to particular groups of people.

I personally think that magazines could continue to be successful without targeting niche audiences. With certain marketing skills, I believe that a broad-topic magazine like The Saturday Evening Post could make a comeback in the world. Not that I have ever really enjoyed reading a magazine, of course, but if there was one of general interest that stood out from the rest that are all focusing on niche audiences (which is all my generation has ever truly been exposed to), then maybe I would pick it up and give it a read.