The centenarians - 100-year old magazines

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

Current frequency: Biweekly--since 1991.

Circulation in the late seventies: 1.5 million.

Circulation today: 400,000.

Biggest misstep: As its readers aged, Grit began catering to an aging audience, with features often focusing on such topics as "amazing octogenarians." As a result, the median age rose higher and higher.

Why it's still alive: Grit's focus has always been good news. Its traditional, small-town audience has always been home- and family-oriented. The shift to family values in the nineties, shared by small-town and big-city dwellers, may be giving the magazine a new lease on life. New features will include family-viewing guides for movies and pieces on real estate, all heralding a return to the good-news focus. "I'd have been more nervous doing this 10 years ago," during the go-go eighties, says new editor Roberta Peterson. "But name recognition is high. People say, 'Is this still being published?'"

POPULAR SCIENCE

Founded: 1872.

Home: New York, born and bred.

First printrun: 5,000 copies.

Circulation in 1874: 12,000.

Circulation in 1916: 132,751.

Circulation in 1992: 1,800,000.

Number of owners: Six. Times Mirror Magazines, of New York City, has owned it since 1967.

Number of editors: 15.

Some of the magazine's famous contributors: Jonas Salk, Barry Commoner, Norman Rockwell.

Original mission statement: "To interest the nonscientific public and to create a taste for scientific literature, and an appreciation of scientific knowledge," according to founding editor Edward L. Youmans. Though populist in intent, the original magazine was relatively scholarly, with an all-print, journal-like cover.

First reincarnation: When its third owner, Science Press, sold the magazine's name to Modern Publishing Company in 1915, it was merged with Modern's more

consumer-oriented book, The Worlds Advance. Its scholarly trappings were tossed aside for a more popular approach.

Second reincarnation: "In the sixties, when it became clear to the editors that there was a consumer-product revolution underway, the magazine made a conscious effort to cover consumer products," says Fred Abatemarco, editor since 1989. Similarly, he says, as interest in electronics evolved from the committed hobbyist to "going to pick out a stereo system," the magazine went from build-it-yourself projects to service and product reviews.

Ongoing editorial evaluation: "Over the next 10 years," says editor Abatemarco, "we're going to find an editorial way to complete the transformation from a hands-on magazine to a 'minds-on' magazine."

Competitors left by the wayside: The Worlds Advance, Science Digest, plus a number of technology titles.

Why it's still alive: Like the advances in science and technology it covers, "the magazine's been able to reinvent itself every few decades," says Abatemarco.

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL

Founded: 1891.

Home: Alexandria, Virginia, by way of Milwaukee.

Original editor: William George Bruce.

Why he started the magazine: A Milwaukee Sentinel employee, Bruce was appointed to his local school board, and found, after "a number of educational journals were secured, that they did not meet the wants of a school-board member." Though concerned that were it such a great idea, "someone more experienced in educational affairs would have covered the same with a publication," Bruce quit his Sentinel job to start the magazine a year later when denied a promotion he thought was his due.