The centenarians - 100-year old magazines

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb 15, 1993 by Michael Winkleman, Meryl Davids

Before the invention of the car, before the airplane, before the Spanish-American War, there was...Industry Week (or at least there was Iron Trade Review, the magazine that later became Industry Week). The Penton Publishing title is part of an elite group in the magazine industry--those that have survived more than 100 years. The Centenarians have colorful, varied--even checkered--histories, having endured changes of owners, names and editorial mission, as well as tumultuous upheaval in the society they serve. But this group is bound by a common thread: staying power and a tenacious capacity to change with their readers. Here, we offer a brief look at seven of these publishing success stories.

INDUSTRY WEEK

Founded: 1863.

Home: Cleveland; moved from Detroit in 1929.

How many owners: Only one, Penton Publishing, Cleveland, Ohio.

Other names by which it's been known: Iron Trade Review, until 1929; Steel, until 1970, when it became Industry Week.

Why the name changed: Steel replaced iron as the metal of choice; later, Penton figured that broadening coverage--and the magazine's name--to include industries outside of metalworking was a good way to expand circulation and the ad base while protecting the magazine against a downturn in the steel industry.

Circulation in 1970: 120,000--as Steel.

Circulation in 1992: 300,000--as Industry Week.

Who reads it: Nearly one-third of current readers are in metalworking or related industries; others work in energy, transportation, mining, construction, or manufacturing.

Competitors left by the wayside: Chilton's Iron Age.

Original frequency: Weekly.

Current frequency: Biweekly (despite the name).

Original focus: News, steel prices.

Current focus: Industrial management. Helping readers to become better motivators, organization leaders. Industry Week has become, says Charles Day, editor since 1989, "a magazine of ideas."

Why it's still alive: "We try to concentrate on what the readers are telling us," Day says. "Rather than write for other journalists, we look at what the readers say they need to know."

SPORTS AFIELD

Founded: 1887.

Home: New York City, after earlier stints in Chicago as well as Minneapolis.

How many owners: Three. Hearst, the current owner, bought it in 1953.

Longest editorial tenure: Claude King, who founded the magazine, remained editor for 40 years, until 1927. Ted Kesting, named editor in 1945, retired to his cattle ranch in Virginia 25 years later (at age 51). Tom Paugh, the current editor, arrived in 1956 and has been editor since 1977.

Famous writers: Zane Grey, Gypsy Rose Lee (on fishing), Erle Stanley Gardner, Philip Wylie, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.

Titles absorbed: Trails of the Northwoods, in 1926.

Current size: 8 1/2" x 11"--enlarged from the original 6 1/2" x 9" during a redesign in 1926 to compete for newsstand sales and advertising.

Current competition: Its traditional competitors, Field and Stream and Outdoor Life are holding relatively steady; each has a circulation that is at least three times as high as Sports Afield's. Although new outdoors-oriented books like Men's Journal and Esquire Sportsman have been touted as competitors, Sports Afield sees the proliferation and success of regional and niche books like Bassmaster as its real rivals. "Though we were considered a special-interest publication," says editor Paugh, "we're suddenly a broad-based outdoor publication," but, unlike the upstarts, he says, SA is edited for "the deer hunters and bass fishermen of America."

Circulation in 1925: 22,000.

Circulation in 1962: 1,150,000.

Circulation in 1992: 532,000.

Why the drop: Looking for a more upscale audience, with the assumption it would draw a different class of advertisers, Sports Afield doubled its cover and subscription prices in the late seventies (an ironic turn, because this is a publication that lowered its rates substantially during the Depression in a move to keep readers in the fold). Circulation fell, but the remaining subscribers were more likely to be deer-hunting loyalists than outdoor dilettantes.

Editorial focus during its upscale period: Collectibles, paintings with an outdoor theme.

Editorial focus today: Service, product stories and a long-term, ongoing commitment to conservation.

Why it's still alive: While the price hike didn't bring it the class of readers it was seeking, it did bring the magazine to a different circulation level, allowing it to attract endemic advertisers--fishing tackle, ammunition, lures, tents--who can't afford SA's larger competitors.

GRIT

Founded: 1882.

Home: Just moved to Topeka, Kansas, after 110 years in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Number of owners: Five--was family-owned until early seventies. After a succession of owners, Topeka-based Stauffer Communications bought it in 1982. The move west is part of a Stauffer consolidation effort.

Major competition: Television, USA Today.

Sister publication: Cappers--a 111-year-old magazine with a newsier slant and, surprisingly, little reader overlap.

Original frequency: Weekly.