The History Of Magazines and Newspapers

Below is a timeline showing all of the important events which have occurred in the history of print media.

1693-1843- In this time things were published such as "The Ladies Mercury" "The Ladies Diary" "The gentlemen's magazine" "Lloyds List" the first US magazine "American Magazine" "Spectator" "Railway Gazette" "Punch" and "Economist". These were the first magazines to be produced and all stemmed from each other to spread across the world as each country was starting to produce their own magazines. "The Ladies Diary" was the first magazine to show small ads and displayed beauty advertising, up until this point advertising was referring to feature articles and reports.

1848- First WH Smith Railway Stall, the company had been founded in 1792 but was then named HW Smith but the initials reversed and became WH Smith & Son because Henry's son was William Henry. 

1850- The number of magazines published in the US reaches 685.

1852- Mills in Germany began producing wood pulp for paper making replacing the rag based paper that was previously being used.

1853- "The Field" launched which is now the oldest title produced by IPC.

1861- First colour photography.

1863- "Illustrated London News" is selling 300,000 a week.

1870- Learning to read and write becomes compulsory in Victorian England.

1871- Charles Bates establishes first advertising agency offering 'creative services'.

           Newspapers start to print pictures using half tone.

1873- Hermann Vogel In Berlin produces colour using silver halide solutions which was the basis of photographic process until the advent of digital cameras.

1875- UK trade marks registration act.

1886- "Cosmopolitan" magazine launched in US as a fiction magazine.

1887- Hearst corporation formed in US by William Hearst.

1890- 4,400 magazines reach 18 million circulation in the US.

1892- Four colour rotary press comes into use.

            "Vogue" founded by Arthur Turnure and Harry McVikar.

1894- "Billboard Advertising" launched in US, shortened to "Billboard" in 1897.

1906- "John Bull" was a penny weekly that was to become the UK's largest selling magazine.

1909- Conde Nast buys "Vogue" which is by then a struggling New York society weekly, under new editor Edna Chase it becomes a photo-fashion monthly for upmarket women.

1910- William Hearst buys "Pall Mall" and "Nash" in the UK, this makes him the first US publisher to operate internationally.

1926- National Broadcasting Company founded in the US, and British Broadcasting Company established as public service body.

1931- First colour photo in a British paper, in "The Times".

         Odhams is the owner of the best selling magazines and is the dominant force in UK magazines,      although it is now known as IPC.

1933- Photo based news magazines start to appear in the UK.

1936- "Mickey Mouse Weekly" printed in full colour gravure.

"Billboard" publishes US music chart and Conde Nast merges "Vanity Fair" with "Vogue".

1945- "Elle" launched in France.

1950- "Woman's Own" celebrates the end of paper rationing for magazines with a 45 page issue whereas war time copies had been 20 or 24 pages.

         "Radio Times" selling more than 8 million copies a week, the largest audited circulation in the world.

1953- "TV Guide" launched in the US and was distributed in 10 cities.

             Hugh Hefner's "Playboy" launched with Marilyn Monroe on the cover.

             J. Lyons & Co installs LEO, the worlds first commercial computer.

1958- 'Daily Mirror' group buys Amalgamated Press which is the start of the process that led to the creation of IPC.

1959- Amalgamated Press sells Conde Nast Publications to Samuel Newhouse to add to his Advance newspaper empire.

1961- 43-year-old Denis Hamilton appointed editor of the Sunday Times as well as the announcement that they are developing a Sunday colour supplement.

         Outrage in the "New Daily" and "Sunday Express" over the "Spectator" publishing a poem with a homosexual theme, as this was at a time when words such as adultery, rape and abortion were only just starting to appear in national newspapers.

1962- The "Bolton Evening News" is the first UK paper to print colour advertising.

            "Sunday Times" launched the "Sunday Times Colour Section".

1963- Newnes, Fleetway (formerly Amalgamated Press) and Odhams Press merged as part of IPC Media.

1965- Resurgence of men's magazines in UK with launch of "King" and "Penthouse" as well as "Vogue" starting "Men in Vogue" section.

1967- "Rolling Stone" launched in US which started as a fanzine inspired by Jagger's band who have been seen on the cover 19 times.

1969- Rupert Murdoch buys "News of the World".

1970- IPC Media sells the "Sun" to Rupert Murdoch.

            "TV Times" is the most used weekly colour magazine in Britain.

1972- "Cosmopolitan" UK is the first international edition which goes on to become the best seller magazine in the UK.

1976- IPC launches home video division.

1983- Advance resurrects "Vanity Fair" for a second launch in the US.

1984- Apple Macintosh is launched.

1985- Software such as "Pagemaker" and Adobe "Illustrater" running on the Apple Macintosh are allied to laser printers which leads to the advent of desktop publishing, this revolutionises the production of magazines.

1986- PCs become accessible for UK home owners making a huge market for PC magazines.

1987- The 'holy trinity' of publishing software on Macintosh is created with Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator.

          Voluntary ban on tobacco advertising covers 27 magazines including "Horse and Pony" and "Vogue".

1989- "Vogue" uses barcode on front cover.

             Hearst magazines international founded to exploit brands such as "Cosmopolitan".

1992- First SMS text message sent to a mobile. 

            Newspaper and magazine archives published on CD-Rom. 

           "Economist" makes reference to the world wide web. 

1993- Mosaic is the first graphical web browser.

            Association of Publishing Agencies founded in UK.

1994- "Daily Telegraph" claims to be the first national newspaper on the web.

             First banner advertising on the web for "Wired" magazine (US).

             December issue of "Vogue" carries half-page advertisement for www.condenast.co.uk

2000- Microsoft forecasts that the sales of e-books and e-magazines will top over $1 billion.

2001- Conde Nast launches "Glamour" in innovative handbag-sized A5 format with a £4 million marketing campaign.

2003- Emap sets up an actual "FHM Pub" manned by models behind the bad and professional darts players as part of a mobile phone marketing event programme.
        "Sunday Times" newspaper launches "The Month" a CD-Rom previewing arts and entertainment events in the weeks ahead.

2009- Recession leads to Conde Nast closing "Portfolio" in US and weekly "Vanity Fair" in Germany. While "Wired" loses almost 60% of it's US advertising pages in a year. Yet the launch of the UK version still goes ahead.

2011- Rupert Murdoch announces the closure of the 200-year-old Sunday newspaper "News of the World" after phone hacking scandal.

      "Dazed and Confused" exhibition at Somerset House celebrating 20 years of the magazine.