. The library has
a
of 52,000 newspaper and periodicals. The
| 1403 |
|
Manuscript writers and illuminators set up stalls or ‘stations’ around St Paul’s Cathedral. They are known as ‘stationers’ and establish the Stationers' Company. The area is the centre of England's printing industry, book trade, newspapers and magazines for the next half millennium. Today, Stationers’ Hall is near the cathedral in Ave Maria Lane |
| 1450s |
|
Johann Gutenberg invents a printing system suitable for mass production of books using movable type, oil-based inks and a wooden screw press. The Bible is the first book he prints. Two copies of the Gutenberg Bible have been digitised and can be seen at the British Library website |
| 1476 |
|
William Caxton establishes England’s first printing enterprise in Westminster. Caxton dies in 1491 |
| 1476 or 1481 |
|
Wynkyn de Worde becomes Caxton's journeyman. After the latter's death, de Worde takes over the business and in 1500 moves his printing press to Fleet Street. He later sets up a book stall in St Paul's cathedral churchyard. De Worde dies in 1534. His name lives on in the Wynkyn de Worde Society |
| 1586 |
|
Josse Amman, a Swiss painter, publishes plates on the
fashions of the day, with the title Gynasceum, sive Theatrum Mulierum
... (The Gynasceum or Theatre of Women, in which are reproduced
by engraving the female costumes of all the nations of Europe).
Published in Frankfort in Latin; regarded as the first fashion magazine |
| 1666 |
|
The Great Fire consumes the City of London, including the old St Paul's Cathedral. The fire will have been fed by the stores of books, oil-based ink and paper in the cathedral's crypt and in the premises of publishers and printers in Paternoster Row and along Fleet Street |
| 1693 |
|
The Ladies Mercury published by John Dunton, at first monthly and then fortnightly. It concerned 'All the nice and curious questions concerning love, marriage, behaviour, dress and humour in the female sex, whether virgins, wives or widows'. It also carried an 'Answers to Correspondents' section |
| 1711 |
|
John Tipper publishes The Ladies Diary or Women's Almanack. |
| 1725 |
|
The Ladies Diary runs small ads, among them for false teeth. Later issues ran display adverts for beauty products. Until this time, the term 'advertising' meant feature articles and reports |
| 1731 |
|
The Gentleman's Magazine is published by Edward Cave in
England. Intended to entertain with essays, stories, poems and political
commentary. Closed 1914. Often regarded as the first modern magazine. Some issues are available online at the Internet Library of Early Journals |
| 1734- |
|
Lloyd's List, the shipping trade title, founded |
| 1741 |
|
First US magazine, American Magazine |
| 1742 |
|
Ben Franklin's General Magazine prints first US magazine
advertisements |
| 1755 |
|
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary credits Edward Cave with coining 'magazine'
(a storehouse or arsenal) in its modern sense: 'Of late this word
has signified a miscellaneous pamphlet, from a periodical miscellany
named the Gentleman's Magazine, by Edward Cave' |
| 1796 |
|
German Alois Senefelder develops lithography to produce high-quality
printed images |
| 1797 |
|
Journal des Dames et des Modes produced in France
as a series of plates every five days by Selléque, Mme Clément
and Pierre Lamésangère until 1829. Lamésangère
became rich and was compared with Alexander 'because his empire over
the world of fashion was as wide as that of Alexander' |
| c1815 |
|
Records of Weekly Amusements for the Fair Sex runs a sales gimmick offering 'disconsolate damsels left lonely by the [Peninsula 1808-14] wars a matrimonial lottery of ten thousand officers, single men, handsome and vigorous' in a lottery with tickets at £5 each (Dancyger) |
| 1828 |
|
Modern Spectator founded |
| 1835 |
|
Railway Gazette founded |
| 1839 |
|
Fox Talbot produces photographs from negatives |
| 1841 |
|
Punch launched in London; inspired by French magazine Charivari |
| 1842 |
|
Herbert Ingram launches The Illustrated London News with
32 woodcuts on 16 pages. It cost 6d. ILN website |
|
|
Establishment of UK national rail network boosts distribution |
| 1843 |
|
Economist founded to campaign for free trade |
| 1848 |
|
First WH Smith railway bookstall. The company had been founded in 1792 by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in Little Grosvenor Street, London – as HW Smith. It reversed the initials in 1846 to become WH Smith & Son because Henry's son was William Henry – and his son had the same name! |
|
|
Illustrated London News publisher Herbert Ingram
starts a daily newspaper, The London Telegraph |
|
|
Illustrated London News depicts the Christmas tree of Albert
and Queen Victoria, so popularising an idea that had been seen as
a Germanic import |
| 1850 |
|
Number of magazines published in US reaches 685 |
| 1852 |
|
Mills in Germany begin producing wood pulp for paper making, replacing
rag-based paper for newspaper and magazine printing |
| 1853 |
|
The Field launched (now the oldest title in IPC's stable) |
| 1855 |
|
Illustrated London News published Christmas special with
colour cover produced using coloured wood blocks. Selling 130,000
copies a week – 10 times the daily sale of The Times |
|
|
Colored News is first paper to use colour: closes after a
month |
| 1859 |
|
Great Moral History of Port Curtis, Australia's first comic |
| 1860s |
|
Atlantic Monthly in US begins to accept advertising |
| 1861 |
|
First colour photography |
1863
|
|
Illustrated London News selling 300,000 copies
a week |
| 1869 |
|
Canadian Illustrated News launches with a half-tone on its
cover – of Queen Victoria's youngest son, Price Arthur |
| 1870 |
|
Learning to read and write compulsory in Victorian England under
free schools system |
| 1871 |
|
Charles Austin Bates establishes first advertising agency offering
"creative services" |
| 1871 |
|
Newspapers start to print pictures (using halftone) |
| 1872 |
|
Scribner's Monthly appoints advertising manager (US) |
| 1872 |
|
$1m budget for advertising Lydia Pinkham's Pink Pills (US) |
| 1873 |
|
Hermann Vogel in Berlin produces colour using silver halide solutions,
the basis of photographic process until the advent of digital cameras |
| 1873 |
|
The Goal: The Chronicle of Football launched |
| 1874 |
|
Funny Folks comic paper launched for adults (closed 1894) |
| 1875 |
|
UK Trade Marks Registration Act |
| 1879 |
|
Life in London uses halftones regularly, starting with a
drawing of Lillie Langtry. These were made in Paris |
| 1881 |
|
Harper's Monthly accepts advertising |
|
|
Tit-bits launched by George Newnes (also Football-Bits
in 1919). Established model of rewriting material from many sources,
using cheap newsprint and selling in volume. Spawned many imitators |
| 1882 |
|
Photos sent by wire |
1883
|
|
Cyrus H.K. Curtis launches Ladies' Home Journal
in the US, edited by his wife, Louisa Knapp Curtis |
| 1885 |
|
The Graphic publishes photo-picture story about a visit to
a zoo |
|
|
ILN uses better paper stock to reproduce paintings |
| 1886 |
|
Cosmopolitan launched in US as fiction magazine |
|
|
First Berne Copyright Convention |
|
|
Stranglehold of newspapers for national advertising demonstrated
by papers such as The Times devoting up to 60% of their space
to advertising, whereas ILN could only muster 20%. In US, because
of absence of national newspapers, the position was the reverse |
| 1887 |
|
Sherlock
Holmes makes his first appearance in Beeton's Christmas
Annual in Conan Doyle's 'A Study
in Scarlet' |
|
|
Cassell's launches The
Woman's World with Oscar Wilde as
editor (until 1889). The magazine closed in 1890 |
|
|
Hearst Corporation formed in US by William Randolph Hearst. |
| 1888 |
|
Alfred Harmsworth launches weekly Answers to Correspondents on
Every Subject under the Sun to appeal to a new population of young
readers. Follows Newnes Tit-bits model. He was later to found
the Daily Mail and own The Times, and become Lord Northcliffe |
|
|
National Geographic launched (US) |
| 1889 |
|
Answers to Correspondents on Every Subject under the Sun
shortens its title to Answers. Launches competition to win
£1 a week for life. Entrants had to guess the value of the gold
and silver in the Bank of England. Entries had to be signed by five
witnesses. Nearly three-quarters of a million postcards came in. Circulation
soared towards half a million. However, prize competitions based solely
on guessing were declared illegal the following year. Harmsworth responded
by donating 250 guineas to the Balaclava Heroes Fund supporting veterans
of the Charge of the Light Brigade |
| 1889 |
|
Photograph of Oxford and Cambridge boat crews used in Illustrated
London News |
| 1890 |
|
4,400 magazines reach 18 million circulation in US |
|
|
Arthur Pearson (a former employee of Newnes) launches
Pearson's Weekly |
|
|
Comic Cuts launched by Harmsworth (closed 1953). Heralds
boom in comics aimed at adults |
|
|
Oscar Wilde's The
Picture of Dorian Gray published in Lippincott's
Magazine
(and as a book a year later) |
| 1890s |
|
Football clubs publish programmes and magazines |
| 1891 |
|
The Strand magazine launched as a monthly in UK and US by George Newnes.
Based in Burleigh St, on the north side of the Strand opposite the Savoy. Magazine used super-calendered paper, wood engravings, photographic line
blocks and half-tones. Colour covers in the US. Publishes Sherlock
Holmes story, 'A Scandal in Bohemia' in July 1891 issue |
|
|
International Copyright Convention |
| 1892 |
|
Four colour rotary press |
|
|
Land and Water publishes colour halftone using three coloured
inks |
|
|
Ladies' Home Journal bans patent-medicine advertising
(US) |
|
|
Vogue founded by Arthur Turnure and Harry McVickar |
| 1893 |
|
20,000 readers cancel their subscriptions to Strand Magazine when Sherlock Holmes is killed off in 'The Final Problem'.
Conan Doyle relented only in 1902 bringing the detective hero back
in 'The Adventure of the Empty House' |
|
|
In US, Frank Munsey cuts price of Munsey's Magazine
to 10c and the cost of subscriptions to $1 to boost sales and seek
profits from advertising revenue rather than copy sales |
|
|
McLure's Magazine launched by Samuel McLure achieves high
sales using cheap cover price model (10c) and 'muckraking journalism' |
|
|
The Engraver and Printer publishes colour halftone in US |
| 1894 |
|
Billboard Advertising launched in US; becomes Billboard
in 1897 |
| 1895 |
|
Harmsworth's stable includes Comic Cuts, Forget-Me-Not
for Girls, Funny-Wonder and Home Sweet Home, The Halfpenny Marvel,
Union Jack, Sunday Companion, Home Chat and Comic Home Journal |
|
|
First issue of US magazine The Bookman |
| 1896 |
|
Simplicissimus satire magazine founded in Germany (closed
in 1944) |
| 1897 |
|
George Newnes Ltd incorporated on 5 August (to become part of
IPC Magazines 70 years later). Edward Hudson founds Country Life as Country Life Illustrated |
| 1898 |
|
New York State passes law against misleading advertising |
|
|
Ladies' Home Journal owner Cyrus H. Curtis buys
Saturday Evening Post and relaunches it as an illustrated journal |
| 1899 |
|
Victorian intellectuals christen the decade the 'naughty nineties' |
|
|
Pearson's Magazine publishes a separate US edition (until 1925) |
| 1900 |
|
British magazines widely distributed around the empire and the US |
|
|
C Arthur Pearson, founder of Pearson's Weekly and Pearson's Magazine launches Daily Express with news on the front page, rather than the usual classified advertising |
|
|
Price of 'chemical' wood pulp $36 a tonne in US, down from $344
a tonne in 1866 |
| 1902 |
|
Times Literary Supplement launched |
| 1903 |
|
Daily Mirror launched by Answers founder Alfred Harmsworth. It focused on women readers and was the first daily to be illustrated only with photographs |
| 1904 |
|
Optical Lantern and Kinematograph Journal launched |
|
|
Puck launched by Harmsworth. First comic to use substantial
amount of colour (closed 1940) |
| 1906 |
|
John Bull launched by Odhams. A penny weekly that was to
become the UK's largest-selling magazine, boasting a circulation (very
probably exaggerated) of 1,350,000 on its front cover in 1916. Although
highly patriotic, it took an anti-establishment stance, championing
grievances of troops in the first world war, even though this was
illegal, under mercurial editor Horatio Bottomley |
| 1907 |
|
newspaper photographs transmitted by telegraph wire through cable under the Channel from Paris to London |
|
|
Pearson's Royal magazine raises the bar for printing coloured photographs |
1909
|
|
Condé Nast buys Vogue, by then a struggling
New York society weekly. Under editor Edna Woolman Chase it becomes
a photo-fashion monthly for upmarket women |
| 1910 |
|
William Randolph Hearst buys Pall Mall and Nash in
UK – first US publisher to operate internationally. Founds National
Magazine Company |
|
|
Cyrus Curtis, publisher of Ladies Home Journal in US, issues
leather-bound book that lays down what kinds of advertising were acceptable
in the magazine, to limit graphic intrusions of advertising. Alfred
Harmsworth, proprietor of The Times and Daily Mail,
laid down the laws for his titles |
| 1911 |
|
Woman's Weekly launch: "our motto: practical and
useful" (now IPC) |
|
|
Rotogravure aids magazine production of photos |
|
|
Photoplay launched in US, a movie fan magazine |
| 1912 |
|
Hearst buys Harper's Bazaar in US |
| 1913 |
|
Political weekly New Statesman founded by Sidney Webb |
|
|
Liverpool-born journalist Arthur Wynne devises a 'word cross' for
the New York World, based on a childhood game |
|
|
Leica's first camera using 35mm film with a frame size of 24×36 mm (instead of 18×24mm for cinema). 2:3 aspect ratio |
| 1914 |
|
Rainbow is first British comic aimed at children. Some faltering
adult comics refocus on children |
|
|
American Audit Bureau of Circulations formed |
|
|
Newnes takes over Pearson's titles |
|
|
The Gentleman's Magazine ceases publication |
|
|
Colour magazine, a glossy reproducing paintings with unrelated
text of fiction, poems and reviews (closed 1924) |
|
|
August 3: Britain declares war on Germany |
|
|
Nast launches Vanity Fair |
| 1918 |
|
November 11: end of first world war. War Illustrated launches
competition for readers to coin new name as war ends – became News
Illustrated |
|
|
Reader's Digest launched (US) |
1919
|
|
Under editor George Horace Lorimer, Saturday Evening
Post publishes a 200-page issue, 111 pages being advertising.
The publication was by this time selling a million copies
a week with famous authors and Norman Rockwell's covers. |
| 1920 |
|
Daily Express carries Rupert Bear cartoon |
| 1922 |
|
Good Housekeeping launched by National Magazines, a subsidiary
of US publisher Hearst |
|
|
British Broadcasting Corporation formed as commercial radio broadcaster |
|
|
Pearson's Magazine publishes first crossword
in the UK, devised by Arthur Wynne (February) |
|
|
Vogue publisher Condé Nast buys Vanity Fair
and House & Garden to form Condé Nast Publications |
| 1923 |
|
The Radio Times launched. Christmas covers in colour |
|
|
Time launched in US by Henry Luce |
| 1924 |
|
Good Housekeeping Institute is founded |
|
|
Sunday Express is first UK newspaper to publish a crossword (Nov 2) |
|
|
Answers carries its first crossword |
| 1925 |
|
Harold Ross launches The New Yorker, inspired by Punch
and Simplicissimus |
|
|
French title Vu devotes two-thirds of contents to photojournalism |
|
|
Leica I (Leitz camera) with focal plane shutter launched and popularises 35mm format |
| 1926 |
|
The Melody Maker launched (closed 1990) |
|
|
Amazing Stories launched by Luxembourg-born
Hugo Gernsback, one of the pioneers of science fiction in the US.
His name lives on in the annual Hugo awards. Amazing now published
by Paizo |
|
|
National Broadcasting Company founded in the US |
|
|
British Broadcasting Corporation established as public service body,
funded by licence fee paid by owners of radio sets |
| 1927 |
|
Final Sherlock Holmes story,'
Shoscombe Old Place', published in the April issue
of the Strand Magazine |
| 1928 |
|
Baird beams TV image from UK to US |
|
|
Shops Act 1928 classes the sale of newspapers, periodicals and magazines as one trade partly because of the difficulty in saying what the difference is between them |
|
|
National Magazines goes into book publishing |
| 1929 |
|
The BBC launches The Listener as a weekly
review of radio programmes (closed 1991) |
|
|
Harper's Bazaar launched in UK |
|
|
Stock market crash in US causes many to lose fortunes |
| 1930 |
|
The
Times carries its first crossword; as does The Listener and Country
Life (February 1) |
|
|
Henry Luce launches Fortune business magazines
with very high design and production values |
| 1931 |
|
Audit Bureau of Circulations established in UK covering national
and regional papers |
|
|
First colour photo in a British newspaper, The Times |
|
|
Odhams, owner of best-selling magazine John Bull, and The
People and Daily Herald newspapers, launches Woman's
Own. Company is dominant force in UK magazines (now IPC). Woman's
Own came with a free cover-mounted gift: three skeins of
wool |
| 1933 |
|
Photo-based news magazines start to appear in the UK on the lines of the German titles: Pictorial Weekly; Weekly Illustrated (1934); Picture Post (1938) |
|
|
Esquire launched in US |
| 1934 |
|
Radio Times overtakes John Bull as the biggest-selling
magazine, with sales of 2m a week, a position it would hold until
1993 |
| 1936- |
|
BBC launches the world's first regular television service from Alexandra
Palace in London. The Radio Times runs a "Television Number"
in London edition only |
|
|
Incorporated Society of British Advertisers publishes 'The Readership
of Newspapers and Periodicals' based on 80,000 interviews |
|
|
Mickey Mouse Weekly printed in full-colour gravure |
|
|
Henry Luce expands his stable with photojournalism
weekly Life, so forming US group Time-Life that will become
AOL-Time Warner |
|
|
Billboard publishes US pop music chart |
|
|
Nast mergers Vanity Fair with Vogue |
| 1937- |
|
Dandy comic launched by DC Thompson, ushering in a new style
of drawing and a wealth of characters (still published) |
|
|
Marie Claire launched in France by Jean Prouvost 1937 |
|
|
Odhams (now IPC) opens printing plant in Watford,
Herts with Speedry Gravure Process for colour printing. Launches Woman weekly
in June with low cover price, 2d, for
a full-colour magazine. Within a year, the title was selling 500,000
copies a week |
|
|
Saturday Evening Post selling 3 million copies
a week, the largest circulation in the US |
|
|
Radio Times drops The |
| 1938- |
|
Beano comic launched (still published) |
|
|
Match launched by Jean Prouvost |
|
|
US radio advertising revenue surpasses magazines |
| 1938 |
|
Picture Post launched in UK by Edward Hulton.
First editor was Stefan Laurent. Print run of 750,000 copies reputed to have sold out before noon on the day of launch. Closed in 1957 |
|
|
Homes & Gardens runs an article on the delights of Hitler’s holiday chalet in Bavaria by author and photographer Ignatius Phayre, saying Mein Kampf had sold 4.5 million copies. The New York Times runs a similar piece in 1941 by C. Brooks Peters |
| 1939 |
|
September 3: war declared between Britain and Germany. Paper shortage
forces closures; launches prohibited |
|
|
Sales of Woman estimated at 750,000 |
|
|
Picture Post sales peak at 1,750,000 |
|
|
Condé Nast launches Glamour in US |
|
|
NBC in the US makes experimental TV broadcast |
| 1940 |
|
The Luftwaffe mounts its Blitz, focusing on the manufacturing cities such as Birmingham and Coventry and ports such as Liverpool and London. The area around St Paul's Cathedral and along Fleet St is devastated. Paternoster Row – the centre of the publishing trade – is flattened and the publishers never return to the area |
| 1942 |
|
Amalgamated Press of the UK takes control of Condé Nast Publications
after founder's death |
|
|
Brendan Bracken, minister of information and confidant of Churchill, defends the printing in Britain of 16,000 copies of Die Zeitung, a weekly newspaper, in German in the midst of paper rationing. Bracken has been identified as a model for Big Brother in George Orwell's 1984 because of his running the censorship system. The pointing image of Big Brother referred to in the book and seen in the films is inspired by Alfred Leete's Lord Kitchener cover for London Opinion and the Great War recruiting posters based on it that Orwell saw as a boy |
| 1944 |
|
Supplies of red ink run out in UK |
|
|
Spanish magazine Hola! launched |
|
|
French close magazines, including Match and L'Illustration
over collaboration; reappeared in 1949 |
| 1945 |
|
End of second world war |
|
|
Brendan Bracken merges the Financial News into the Financial Times |
|
|
Elle launched in France |
| 1946 |
|
More than 200 mass-oriented magazines launched in US |
|
|
Accordian Times and Musical Express launched; later to become
Musical Express (1948), then New Musical Express (1952-) |
|
|
Diese Woche (This Week) German language news
magazine founded by British Control Commission for Germany; in 1947,
this became Der
Spiegel (The Mirror). In January 1962, Der Spiegel ran
a mock-up of a front cover of Time showing the US title's
founder Henry Luce on
the front cover as its front cover |
| 1947 |
|
US news weekly Time calls time on the British empire in an editorial ‘Much that is enviable’ (24 February):
Great empires, like old soldiers, never die; they just fade away. Britain's legacy, like Rome's, will cling for centuries to history's pages, shaping men and events. Yet to all empires comes a day of which it can be said: ‘At this point the sceptre had passed to other hands.’ That day came last week to Britain. Victory in two desperate wars had bled Britain white. For years both the wise and the merely smart had been pointing to signs of Britain's decline. The loosening bonds of empire, the ‘austerity’ (that dignified synonym for poverty); the defensive tension in foreign policy were old symptoms of what was happening. But it took the coal crisis to bring home to the world the fact that decline had reached the Empire's heart.
|
| 1948 |
|
Sunday paper the News of the World sells 8 million copies |
| 1949 |
|
Paris Match and L'Illustration relaunched |
