A magazine is a publication that comes out at regular intervals and presents a variety of contents. Articles, stories, pictures, cartoons, and letters to the editor may typically be found between the covers of a magazine. Some magazines are intended for general readers, while others specialize in one subject. Magazines are more up-to-date than books but more permanent than newspapers. They are also called periodicals.

Types of magazines

A visit to a newsstand or bookstore gives an idea of the broad range of topics covered by magazines. Some of the most popular magazines are general-interest publications such as Time and Newsweek. These cover news, business, entertainment, and other subjects. People and Us focus on celebrities. The New Republic and The National Review discuss politics. People interested in business might read Business Week or Money. Computer experts have Wired or Information Today. Such magazines as Seventeen, Mademoiselle, and Good Housekeeping are directed at women of different age groups. The New Yorker and Harper's focus on the arts and society. Ebony and Black Enterprise focus on subjects of special interest for African American readers. And thousands of other magazines focus on subjects such as child care, sports, hobbies, home repair, music, computer games, and much more.

Digests are collections of articles on a number of different subjects. Reader's Digest is probably the most popular of these publications. Children's Digest, Science Digest, and Jet are other examples. Digests usually come in smaller formats than other magazines. Many of their articles were previously published in other magazines.

Scientific or scholarly magazines are often called journals. These publications are often written in language that is specialized for a particular profession or area of study. For this reason they are usually read and written by professors and published by university presses.

Some magazines are published without expensive printing presses or editorial offices. For decades people who were interested in various aspects of popular culture have published “zines,” which are often crudely duplicated and stapled together. With the widespread use of the Internet beginning in the 1990s, such people started to use Web sites and gained more readers.

Using magazines

A reader who wants to know which magazines are being published on a particular topic can use an annual publication called Ulrich's Periodicals Directory. To track down specific magazine articles or to find out what articles have been written about a particular subject, the reader can use a periodical index such as Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. The Readers' Guide covers general-interest magazines, but many other indexes cover specialized fields.

The magazines sold on newsstands and in stores are generally current issues. Older issues, called back issues, can often be found in libraries, either in bound volumes or on rolls of microfilm. In addition, many magazines maintain online archives of their old articles.

History of magazines

The invention of the modern printing press in the 15th century made magazines possible. One of the earliest-known magazines was published in Hamburg, Germany, from 1663 to 1668. A few years later specialized magazines on the arts and sciences began appearing in England and France. The French magazine Le Mercure galant, first published in 1672, is considered the first general-interest magazine. The Gentleman's Journal and other general-interest magazines were published in England soon after, followed by magazines written for women, travelers, and other groups.

The 18th century saw an explosive growth of magazines, particularly literary publications. Some of the greatest writers of this period created magazines or wrote for them. In England Daniel Defoe published The Review, Richard Steele and Joseph Addison created The Tatler and The Spectator, and Samuel Johnson wrote for and managed The Rambler and The Idler. In the United States Benjamin Franklin provided news, weather reports, and tidbits of homespun philosophy in Poor Richard's almanac, published annually from 1732 to 1757.

In the 19th century every phase of publishing was more productive. More than 500 magazines were published in the United States alone in the first quarter of the century. Godey's Lady's Book, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Nation were among the outstanding periodicals established in the following decades. Harper's, first published in 1850, is considered the first mass-circulation magazine.

Some outstanding literary and critical journals were published in Great Britain during the 19th century. Many of these journals serialized, or published in sections, the works of great writers such as Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Charles Dickens. The Strand Magazine is remembered as the place where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first published his Sherlock Holmes stories.

Two of the greatest changes in magazine publishing in the 20th century were the rise of photographic illustration and the growth of advertising. The use of photographs led to the development of picture magazines such as Life and Look. Photos became widespread in most other types of magazines as well. The sale of advertising allowed publishers to keep cover prices and subscription prices down and thus attract more readers.

A number of highly successful and influential magazines began in the United States during the 20th century. The most successful of them was probably Reader's Digest. Founded by DeWitt Wallace and his wife, Lila Acheson, in 1922, it is now one of the most widely circulated magazines in the world. In 1923 Henry R. Luce and Briton Haddon founded Time. Luce later built up Time Inc. as a publishing empire. In 1925 Harold Ross started The New Yorker, which published the work of many distinguished reporters and literary authors.