COURSE TITLE: MAGAZINE EDITING AND PRODUCTION
COURSE CODE: MAC 223
DEPARTMENT: MASS COMMUNICATION
LEVEL: NATIONAL DIPLOMA TWO (ND II) EVENING
QUESTION
Examine the historical development of magazine all
over the world with a special focus on Nigeria with references.
ANSWER
The earliest example of magazines who ‘Erbauliche
Monaths unterredungen which was launched in 1663 in Germany’ It was
a literary and philosophy magazine. The gentleman’s magazines first
published in 1731, in London are considered to have been the first general
interest magazine. Edward Cave, who edited the gentleman’s magazine
under the pens name ‘Silvanus Urban’, was the first to use the term
‘magazine’ on the analogy of a military storehouse of varied
material, ultimately derived from the Arabic ‘MAKHAZIN’ (storehouse)
by way of the French language.
The oldest consumer magazine still in print is ‘The
Scots magazine, which was first published in 1739, through multiple
changes in ownership and gaps in publication totaling over 90 years
waken that claim. Liyold’s England coffee shop in 1734, it is still
published as a daily business newspaper.
According to statistics from the end of 2013, subscription
levels for 22 of the top 25 magazines defined from 2012 to 2015 with
just Time, Glamour and ESPN the Magazine gaining numbers.
Historical development of magazine special focus on Nigeria with references.
In past years, Magazine Publication in Nigeria used
to place emphasis of the information they were distributing, not necessarily
the aesthetic quality, from the mid-80’s to 90’s, magazines publication
could sometimes be difficult to produce due to the unavailability of
advanced computer technology. At that time in Nigeria was news magazines
like TSM (The Sunday magazine) published by the late May Ellen, News
watch by the late Dele Giwa, and tell which was started by a group of
people from News watch. Also popular in the late 80’s and the early
90’s were some soft sell magazines like Prime people and the Lifestyle
true strong magazines such as Hints and Hearts, which were published
by Dr kachikwu and chief Godwin respectively.
Not all these magazines were industry-based , but
rather careered to many demographics. For instance, Prime people appealed
largely to woman because of its report on people of high society.
Of all the magazines that were published them, only
a handful are still in circulation such as tell, News watch and hints.
These Magazines have some turbulences in form of Government oppression
(as in the cases of Tell and News watch) Economic downturn and challenges
of then-emerging digital technology but they still stayed true to their
cases.
REFERENCES.