HISTORY OF MAGAZINE

(1990-Present)

Sharmaine Labog AB- Journalism III-A January 12, 2017

1990 BBC/Redwood launches Good Food, which takes sector by storm. Similar effect
with range of titles such as Gardeners' World and Top Gear. Also some high-
profile failures, such as Tomorrow's World . Other publishers, especially IPC,
were livid, claiming the magazines had millions of pounds' worth of free TV
advertising
Margaret Thatcher portrayed on the cover of the Sunday Times magazine
supplement as Joan of Arc at the end of her first year as prime minister; seen as
the start of a cosy relationship with Rupert Murdoch (owner of the Times, Sunday
Times and theSun, the UK's biggest-selling daily). HarperCollins, another
Murdoch company, later published her memoirs - Date wrong - should be 1980
World Wide Web described by Tim Berners-Lee
Entertainment Weekly launched (US)
1991 February. Deregulation of listings market, destroying monopoly of BBC's Radio
Times and IPC's TV Times. IPC slashes latter's cover price to move
downmarket; also launches What's on TV . Bauer launches TV Quick. Hamfield
launches TV Plus, which soon folds. Papers launch their own weekly guides as
do some magazines, such as Time Out
Maxwell floats the Mirror Group, achieving almost 250m for just under half of
the company; though investors were seen as as unenthusiastic (May). The run-
up featured pensioners threatening legal action over a fall in the value of their
pensions
Enquiry into Standards of Cross Media Promotion by John Sadler identifies
promotion on BBC TV of BBC magazines as an area for concern
Gardeners' World uses trug (a basket for plant cuttings, etc) as cover mount -
magazine sold inside the cover mount! The height of a marketing battle with
Emap and IPC for gardening market - other cover mounts included a metal and
wood garden spade
New Crane Publishing launches Sainsbury's Magazine licensed from the
supermarket. A variant of contract publishing
BBC closes The Listener. The Times takes over on its crossword
Esquire launches in UK
For Him changes its name to FHM
1992 Emap buys Car from FF Publishing. Magazine switches from hot metal to DTP
production
First SMS text message to a mobile phone
Newspaper and magazine archives published on CD-Rom
(20 June) Economist makes reference to the world wide web: 'Researchers at
CERN in Geneva are trying to build a similar service, which they call World-Wide
 Web (or W3), drawing on their experience in helping physicists find their way
around the mountains of data produced by CERN's accelerators.'
Punch closes for first time
1993 Reed Elsevier plc formed by merger of Dutch academic publisher Elsevier and
Reed International, owner of UK's largest magazine publisher IPC. World's third-
biggest publisher. Starts to sell off consumer products, such as local
newspapers, to focus on academic journals and business information
Mosaic - first graphical web browser
Wired magazine launches in US
Haymarket's What Car? produces CD-Rom holding review of Saab saloon
with XYZ new media magazine
Emap launches weekly Carweek. Closes next year having cost company 7
million
The Times cuts price to 30p, heralding a price war
30 January issue of New Statesman & Society publishes article about rumours of
affair between John Major, the prime minister, and a caterer, Clare Latimer - 'The
curious case of John Major's "mistress"'. Major and Latimer both sued the
magazine, but settled for 1,001 without the magazine admitting liability. They
also sued the impecunious Scallyway , a fringe magazine, which first published
the rumours. However, NSS had to pay for settlements made by its printers,
distributor and newsagents - which cost more than 200,000. It raised the money
in a fund-raising campaign entitled 'Would you sue your paper boy?'. In 2002,
MP Edwina Curry revealed she had a four-year affair with Major between 1984
and 1988
Association of Publishing Agencies founded in UK
to
top
1994 IPC launches Loaded with James Brown as editor - start of a boom in 'lads'
mags'
Emap buys men's fashion title FHM from small publisher Tayvale. Mike Soutar
appointed editor for relaunch with publisher David Hepworth
Reed-Elsevier buys Lexis-Nexis. Marks starts of corporate strategy to
concentrate on online academic markets that is to see it sell off newspapers,
printing companies, book publishers - and IPC, the UK's biggest magazine
house
US Wired magazine launches Hot Wired website
Daily Telegraph claims to be the first national newspaper on the web
Future Publishing launches .Net magazine and Futurenet website
First banner advertising on the web, for Wired magazine (US)
December issue of Vogue carries half-page advertisement for
www.condenast.co.uk
1995 Periodical Publishers Association on the web
 Guardian newspaper launches UK version of Wired
IPC launches UnZip, 'the UK's first fully interactive magazine on CD-Rom'.
Based on content from New Scientist, NME and Vox . Zone did technical work.
15 age label; 15.99 introductory offer; for Mac and PC
Editor Gill Hudson puts CD-Rom on cover of August issue of Maxim in UK
IPC launches Uploaded.com, based on content from Loaded , and nme.com,
based on New Musical Express. Start of an ambitious web programme
Indonesian government revokes licence of weekly news
magazine Tempo (founded 1971). Staff splits to launch website,Tempo
Interaktif (www.tempo.co.id) and weekly Gatra. Web articles attacking corrupt
president Suharto and his son 'Tommy' later collated as book
1996 Punch resurrected by Mohamed el Fayed
Futurenet website claims 200,000 registered users
Future's .Net produces 32-page supplement 'Doing Business Online'
with Financial Times. Distributed 460,000 copies with paper and magazine
Loaded selling more than 250,000 copies a month
VNU launches Jobnet recruitment website based on advertising
in Computing, PC Week and Network News
1997 TV Guide magazine in US goes online
Web page linking test case between Shetland Times andShetland News settles
out of court
Zest and Good Housekeeping make masthead TV programmes
April issue of Emap's Garden Answers has metal and wood garden spade on
cover
Dennis's Maxim beats IPC's Loaded and Emap's FHM in launching new-wave
men's magazine in US
Filipacchi Medias and Hachette Filipacchi Medias merge to form Hachette
Filipacchi Medias, the world's largest magazine publisher, with 160 titles in
France and internationally
David Hillman, who redesigned the Guardian, appointed Royal Designer for
Industry by the RSA
Hearst launches Kosmopolitan in Indonesia ('C' pronounced as 'ch')
1998 Cinven, a venture capital firm, funds management buyout of IPC from Reed
Elsevier plc for 860 million
Custom Publishing Council established as a committee of the Magazine
Publishers of America
1999 Cosmo Hair launches
Wagadon's Deluxe folds. Cond Nast sells Wagadon stake to Emap, and Nick
Logan sells his The Face, Arena and Frank to Emap. Frank closed immediately
Launch of www.natmags.co.uk Over the next 18 months, National Magazines
launches 'microsites' for each of its magazines
2000 January issue of Loaded published with 100 different covers
FHM launches in US under editor Ed Needham. Maxim guarantees sales of
950,000 copies a month to advertisers
Beme, a women's portal, launched by IPC Electric
National Magazines buys UK arm of Gruner and Jahr
In advertising in US magazines such as Brill's Content for its e-book reader,
Microsoft forecasts: '2005: The sales of e-book titles, e-magazines and e-
newspapers top $1 billion'; and '2020 Ninety per cent of all titles are now sold in
electronic as well as paper form. Websters [US dictionary] alters its first
definition of the word 'book' to refer to e-book titles read on screen.'
2001 US group Time Inc buys IPC from Cinven for 1.15 billion
European Union Directive on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information
Society
Spate of activity in women's glossies. Cond Nast launches Glamour in
innovative handbag-sized A5 format at 1.50 with 4m marketing campaign; first
ABC sales figure of 451,486 just 690 behind Cosmopolitan .
National Magazines launches In Style and Cosmo Girl!; Cosmo-branded cafes.
Launches increase sales in the sector by 17.8 per cent
Emap sells US arm Petersen for 366m to Primedia - having paid 1bn for the
company in 1999
Dotcom crash. IPC closes high-profile websites such
as Beme.com and Uploaded.com. Similar story of contraction at Emap.
Technology-dependent Future in crisis: sells Business 2.0 in US and closes UK
edition; closes many other titles
Newspaper and magazine designer Simon Esterson appointed Royal Designer
for Industry by the RSA
2002 John Brown Citrus wins contract to publish satellite broadcaster Skys customer
magazine, the UK's highest circulating magazine (5,183,964 copies) from
Redwood - and becomes biggest company in the field
Hachette Filipacchi Medias of France buys Attic Futura (UK arm of Australian
publisher PMP) and ends joint deal with Emap over fashion glossy Elle ,
women's monthly Red, and Elle Decoration and Elle Girl
Despite series of relaunches, Punch closed by Mohammed al Fayed. Lives on
as website selling cartoon catalogue www.punch.co.uk
2003 Dennis uses picture messaging on Maxim website
Emap sets up an actual FHM Pub, manned by models behind the bar and
professional darts players, as part of a mobile phone marketing event
programme
Saturday's Daily Mirror scraps female-oriented M and The Look magazine
supplements in favour of We Love Telly and Football Confidential. M once
marketed itself as the biggest weekly women's magazine
Glamour confirms position as best-selling women's monthly, more than 100,000
copies ahead of Cosmo, at 576,832 copies
 Best-selling UK titles are What's on TV at 1.7m (IPC); Take a Break 1.2m (H
Bauer); and Radio Times 1.2m (BBC Worldwide). Contract titles claim largest
circulations: Sky Customer Magazine (6.1m); AA Magazine; O Magazine (2.5m)
- all published by John Brown Citrus
Sunday Times newspaper launches The Month, a CD-Rom previewing arts and
entertainment events in the weeks ahead. To be published on the last Sunday of
each month. Sponsored by Renault cars. Cost estimated at 10 million. The
Independent launches 'compact' version
PPA announces marketing programme to promote magazines for
advertising www.ppa.co.uk
The Illustrated London News relaunched as a monthly by ILN Group
2004 January: IPC launches 'world's first men's weekly', Nuts . Emap follows a week
later with Zoo . Launch budget for each about 8m
BBC Magazines announces ownership deal with publisher of The Times of India,
following relaxing of country's rules on foreign investment
Hearst launches 50th international edition of Cosmopolitan - in Bulgaria
Acorn User closes
Emap announces the closure of The Face, once the embodiment of cutting-edge
youth culture, after 24 years
Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and Elle all follow Glamour's lead in launching
'travel' or 'handbag' formats. The Times follows theIndependent's lead and
launches 'compact' version; Guardian announces plans to switch to Le Monde-
sized Berliner format
H Bauer, the German publisher, launches - and later closes - Cut men's weekly
in UK
Sales of Emap France's Tele Poche and Pleine Vie fell by 15-20% after
Bertelsmann subsidiary Prisma Presse launches Tele 2 Semaines
Hearst-controlled National Magazine Company forms partnership in the UK to
produce weeklies with Australian Consolidated Press
Pearce Marchbank, who established the graphic style for Time Out and
did Oz covers, appointed Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA
Nat Mags launches Reveal, 'the ultimate glossy women's weekly'
2005 IPC launches real-life weekly Pick Me Up
Emap launches Italian fashion weekly Grazia in UK
Cond Nast launches monthly Easy Living in UK
Time Out Chicago launch
Burda launches Full House women's weekly
Wallpaper* launches in Moscow
IPC's Woman & Home launched in South Africa by Caxton
Future pulls out of buying Highbury after Office of Fair Trading refers deal to the
Competition Commission; later buys 37 of its titles
 IPC relaunches fading Loaded
IPC launches compact-sized TV Easy
Gruner & Jahr (75% owned by the German group Bertelsmann) pulls out of US
after 30 years by selling Family Circle, Parents, Child and Fitness to Meredith for
$350m
Facsimiles of FHM pages available for reading on the website
Emap France launches Closer
FHM issues August issue in 3 sizes
Cond Nast launches trial issue of Men's Vogue in US
HFUK's Psychologies looks for 'third wave' women in Britain (Oct)
Guardian newspaper switches to Berliner format at 80m cost (Sept)
2006 Real People launch from ACP-NatMag (Jan)
Highbury sells all its divisions
Emap closes Smash Hits
Love It! and Inside Out from News Magazines
BBC sells Origin division
Emap launches weekly First
Emap sells French arm to Mondadori
Teen sector in distress in UKand US
Sneak, Family Circle and Test Drive close; You withdrawn
H. Bauer launches In the Know
London freesheet war
3 publications nominated as icons of England: The Eagle comic; Punch and The
Spectator
2007 IPC launches weekly Look
Tyler Brl launches Monocle
Vanity Fair launches as a weekly in Germany
Cond Nast (US) launches Portfolio
Free men's weekly Shortlist launched
2008 Emap dismembers itself into consumer and trade divisions, which are then sold
In its first act after buying Emap's consumer titles, Bauer closes weekly First and
monthly New Woman
News of the World relaunches its supplement as Fabulous, Britains biggest
weekly glossy
US supermarket chain Wal-Mart cuts 1,000 titles from its magazine stocks -
including the Economist, Business Week, Forbes and Fortune
2005 Dalek cover for Radio Times wins best cover battle in PPAs magazine
promotion week
Haymarket closes womens monthly Eve, but maintains website spin-off
evecars.com
 Conde Nast cuts Mens Vogue frequency to just 2 issues a year instead of 10
BBC to review commercial activities after accusation of being an out of control
juggernaut. BBC Magazines launches Lonely Planet amid controversy and
complaints from Wonderlust
Ben Goldacre attacks Woman's Own over its medical reporting in his Bad
Science column in the Guardian ('Bad Science: Jackie's tale sets alarm bells
ringing', 8 November 2008, p12). A complaint by the interviewee to the Press
Complaints Commission about the article, 'A Phone Call Could Kill Me', was not
upheld.
TV chef Jamie Oliver launches Jamie magazine at WHSmith
2009 Arena, the Wagadon monthly that revitalised the mens lifestyle sector in the UK,
closed by Bauer; Dennis closes Maxim
Press Complaints Commission upholds complaint against Closer for a 'serious'
breach of the Code of Practice, after it published 'distortions and fabricated
quotes' about a woman who had not known she was pregnant before giving birth
Bauer launches Eat In
Press Complaints Commission says 5% of the complaints it sees are about
magazines, with the 'greater proportion' from people featured in real-life' stories.
These included Closer 'distort[ing] a story in breach of the Editors' Code of
Practice; Chat's 'cavalier approach' to intrusion into grief or shock; Take a
Break paying the daughter of a convicted arsonist for a story about her mother's
crime
Recession bites: Conde Nast closes business-glitzty Portfolio in US and mega
weekly Vanity Fair in Germany; Wired loses almost 60% of its US advertising
pages in a year. However, in UK, publisher goes ahead with launch of Wired and
fashion twice-yearly Love
2011 July 8. Rupert Murdoch announces the closure of the 200-year-old Sunday
newspaper the News of the World
August.
November. Dazed & Confused exhibition at Somerset House and book
celebrating 20 years of the magazine
BBC Worldwide agrees to sell or license its magazines to Exponent, a private
equity firm that own Magicalia, for 121m and offload India joint venture

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