The Washington times., 1907-05-19

a new lQed N4dRdLAuC NANNY.
This new idea, in a word, IS the pub
fishing of 4 magazine in two sections
two complete magazines, each with us
own cover, and yet each bearing the
same name, and being a part OF the
! whole. The two magazines are to be
sold as one, precisely as in the case OF
/ the Sunday newspaper with It's varying
sections.
Four OF five years ago this idea took
shane with me It was the deduction
| from a logical consideration Of publish
ing conditions which began 10 be felt
then. and which since that time have
BEEN felt much more sharply To make
MYSELF clear I must go back a bit and
| give In nerest outline, a glimpse OF the
| magazine business (the active magazine
| business. I mean OF the last dozen
years. And in this glimpse / must
/ necessarily speak OF myself good deal,
| FOR the reason that il happened 10 fall
IA me 10 do most OF the new things
which have contributed so largely 10 the
! tremendous upbuilding and expansion OF
neutrality-suspicious.
The Beginning of Real Expansion.
| cal expansion n the magazine world
had its beginning With the launching OF
/ the ten-cent magazine. That was thir-
teen years ago last October, and the
! initial plunge was made with Munsey
! Magazine. At first the venture was not
looked uDon seriously by other publish
ers, by the various news companies and
lnewsdealers, and by the public generally
No one believed It possible TO issue sue
| cessfuIly a frst-rate magazine at such a
1 . three
years before the advertisers OF the cOun-
Try could be brought TO recognize the
merits OF a magazine selling at this
price. They fancied or stubbornly
maintained, at ali events-that no pub
/ Usher could issue a really good magazine
! at ten cents copy, and furthermore.
| that the readers OF such a magazine
would not measure up TO their require
| nents in culture and in cash OF The
| realm.
/ This ten-cent price has done a great
work in the world 1t may be, however,
that now its work is well-nigh finished
When the old prices Of twenty-five
| cents and thi-ty-five cents for a maya
zine were smashed down 10 ten cents,
there were probably about quarter Of
/ a million regular magazine-buyers in
| the United States and Canada-not
more. 1 should say. Today there are
I weIl-nigh two million regular magazine
buyers-ten million readers-an empire
created primarily by the ten-cent price.
But MUnsey's Magazine not only
smashed the price down to a popular
figure. but it smashed convent onahty
in notwithstanding as well. l. came
out as an entirely new type of magazine,
HweH
zine giving the people what the people
wanted as closely as we could interpret
their wants. instead of giving them, as
had been the custom among magazine
editors. what they themselves, the edi-
/ tors thought the people should have
This new-priced new type of magazine
instantly swept into an enormous sue
cess. its circulation bounding forward by
forty and fifty thousand. and sometimes
a hundred thousand gain one number
over another Then came competition,
old magazines coming down 20 the new
price, and new magazines created every
: where.
And Nov Another Epoch.
II was about ten years ago, three
years after Munsey's Magazine begaT
its pioneering, that I worked out tbs
idea of an entirely new type Of maya
zine-an all-dctiOn magazine, whlcf
should be free from Illustrations and
so big that it would carry an enormous
cargo of stories. 1 tested the idea or
the Argosy, which Immediately begaT
| TO plunge forward in circulation. Bu
the magazine was so utterly different
from anything that had hitherto beer
issued that other publishers looked uPoT
! it for a number of years as a joke. II
= fact. the Argosy had the field 70 itSel
for four or five years before cOmpeu
ton appeared During this time II was
, the common belief and oft-repeateS
: statement that 1 was constantly losing
money on the Argosy. but that I KEEP
it up merely out Of pride.
These are the two chief epOchs Il
: magazine making in the last dOzeT
years-the launching OF Munsey's Maya
zine at its new price and on its new
lines, and the creation OF The Argosy OF
Its new lines Munsey's Magazine, botl
in price and in character and get-up
has been copied all over the world AnC
The Argosy likewise has become a mode
for good many publishers. just how
many don't know This is the age o
+. specialization. Il IS the fourteen-incl
, gun that does the work The piece tina
scatters is no longer effective. TIL
Argosy type of magazine-the all-f1ctiol
magazine, is the fourteen-inch gun.
5 The standard magazines composed O
illustrations and articles and fiction
> haven't the striking force OF the Argos,
! type. The fiction magazine. strangeI.
/, enough, is sufficient unto itself Il I
o Independent of illustrations. Its picture
, are word pictures, and they get a hol
on the reader which islnever equaled b.
: the artists of the brush or OF the cam
era. The standard magazine. on IN
other hand. is not independent OF IN
: fiction element. Its very existence
g judging from the records up to date
E rests largely upon the fiction that
carries. But an all-illustrated maya
zine, if big enough and good enough
= might well prove TO be q handsome sue
cess. The idea has never been tried. ]
q will be pretty thoroughly tried now
e however. in the first section Of Tn
j Scrap Book ----------------,-.