http://www.womenmagazines.org en-us Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:24:10 -0500 http://www.womenmagazines.org/redbook/ The Red Book Magazine is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. Redbook's articles are chiefly targeted towards married women. The magazine features stories about women dealing with modern hardships, aspiring for intellectual growth, and inspiring other women to work together for humanitarian causes. Critics of the magazine feel that the magazine is contradictory and sometimes doesn't cover relevant aspects of a controversial issue. The magazine profiles popular and successful women, such as Christa Miller, to provide inspirational testimonies and advice on life.

The magazine was first published in May 1903, as The Red Book Illustrated, by Stumer, Rosenthal, and Eckstein, a firm of Chicago retail merchants; it changed its name to The Red Book Magazine shortly thereafter. Its first editor, from 1903 to 1906, was Trumbull White, who wrote that the name was appropriate because "red is the color of cheerfulness, of brightness, of gayety." In its early years the magazine published short fiction by well-known authors, many of them women, as well as photographs of famous actresses and other women. Within two years the magazine was a success, with a circulation of 300,000. When White left to edit Appleton's Magazine he was replaced by Karl Edwin Harriman, who edited The Red Book Magazine and its sister publications The Blue Book and The Green Book until 1912; under Harriman the magazine called itself "the largest illustrated fiction magazine in the world" and increased its price from 10 cents to 15 cents. According to Endres and Lueck (p. 299), "Red Book was trying to convey the message that it offered something for everyone, and, indeed, it did... There was short fiction by talented writers such as Jack London, Sinclair Lewis, Edith Wharton, and Hamlin Garland. Stories were about love, crime, mystery, politics, animals, adventure, and history (especially the old West and the Civil War)." Harriman was succeeded by Ray Long; when Long went on to edit Hearst's Cosmopolitan in January 1918, Harriman returned as editor, bringing such coups as a series of Tarzan stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs; during this period the cover price was raised to 25 cents.

In 1927, Edwin Balmer, a short-story writer who had written for the magazine, took over as editor; in the summer of 1929 the magazine was acquired by McCall Corporation, which changed the name to Redbook but kept Balmer on as editor. He published stories by writers like Booth Tarkington and F. Scott Fitzgerald, nonfiction pieces by women such as Shirley Temple's mother and Eleanor Roosevelt, and articles on the Wall Street Crash of 1929 by men like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Eddie Cantor, as well as a complete novel in each issue (Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man was published in Redbook). Balmer made it a general-interest magazine for both men and women; circulation hit a million in 1937, and success continued until the late 1940s, when the rise of television began to drain readers and the magazine lost touch with its demographic. In 1948 it lost $400,000, and the next year Balmer was replaced by Wade Hampton Nichols, who had edited various movie magazines, and Phillips Wyman took over as publisher. Nichols decided to concentrate on "young adults" between 18 and 34, and turned the magazine around; by 1950 circulation reached 2 million, and the following year the cover price was raised to 35 cents. It published articles on racial prejudice, the dangers of nuclear weapons, and the damage caused by McCarthyism, among other topics; in 1954 Redbook received the Benjamin Franklin Award for public service. The next year, as the magazine was beginning to steer towards a female audience, Wyman died, and in 1958 Nichols left to edit Good Housekeeping. The new editor was Robert Stein, who continued the focus on women and featured authors such as Dr. Benjamin Spock and Margaret Mead. In 1965 he was replaced by Sey Chassler, during whose 17-year tenure circulation increased to nearly five million and the magazine earned a number of awards, including two National Magazine Awards for fiction. His New York Times obituary says, "A strong advocate for women's rights, Mr. Chassler started an unusual effort in 1976 that led to the simultaneous publication of articles about the proposed equal rights amendment in 36 women's magazines. He did it again three years later with 33 magazines." He retired in 1981 and was replaced by Anne Mollegen Smith, the first woman editor, who had been with the magazine since 1967, serving as fiction editor and managing editor.

In 1982 the magazine was acquired by the Hearst Corporation, and in April 1983 Smith was fired and his place took Annette Capone, who "de-emphasized the traditional fiction, featured more celebrity covers, and gave a lot of coverage to exercise, fitness, and nutrition. The central focus was on the young woman who was balancing family, home, and career." (Endres and Lueck, p. 305) After Ellen R. Levine took over as editor in 1991, even less fiction was published and the focus was on the young mother. Levine mentioned "We couldn't be the magazine we wanted to be with such a big audience, you have to lose your older readers. We did it the minute I walked in the door. It was part of the deal." ]]> Thu, 22 May 2008 05:43:08 -0400 http://www.womenmagazines.org/redbook/ http://www.womenmagazines.org/marie-claire/ Marie Claire is a monthly woman’s magazine produced in France but also distributed in other countries with editions precised to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition concentrates on women around the world and a number of worldwide issues. The magazine also provides the reader with health, beauty, fashion and style information in each issue. Women also have an opportunity to subscribe to it through the mail or Internet.

In addition to the United States, Marie Claire is also published worldwidely in: Australia, Brazil, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Romania, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, South Korea and United Kingdom.

History of the Magazine.
Jean Prouvost created the first issue in 1937, which was distributed each Wednesday. French readers gathered to newsstands to buy this early weekly edition, which was a colossal success. However, in 1942, German occupation authorities in France stopped the distribution of most magazines, and Marie Claire was one of them. The magazine was not redistributed until 1954. At this time, it became a monthly publication versus a weekly one. In 1976, Prouvost retired and his daughter Évelyne took over the magazine and added L'Oréal Group to the company.

Marie Claire US edition is now part of Hearst Corporation, based in New York City. Hearst has branch offices in France, Italy, and several locations in the United States such as Detroit, the West Coast, New England, the Midwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast.

Marie Claire UK is part of IPC Media, based in London. In 2006, it launched its website www.marieclaire.co.uk with daily news, catwalk show photographs and reports, fashion and beauty buys of the day, daily horoscopes and competitions.

The main topic for Marie Claire is “More than a Pretty Face”. The magazine gives readers information about different women around the world and their needs, struggles, and stories of life. The main goal of the magazine is to provide readers with a considerable amount of information about new looks in the fashion industry as well as current issues that women of the world are facing. Moreover, it also adds relationship information, along with a section dedicated to answering specific questions from readers. It provides information pertaining to different items of clothing and accessories, as well as which would be a better deal. Each month identifies a particular female celebrity by placing her on the cover of the magazine and featuring her in a main article, along with providing monthly horoscope.

If you are a fashion minded woman it is Today's magazine For You! ]]> Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:01:00 -0400 http://www.womenmagazines.org/marie-claire/ http://www.womenmagazines.org/cosmopolitan-magazine/ Cosmopolitan is a magazine for women, sometimes referred to as "Cosmo", which has been published for more than a century.

What do you know about your favourite magazine? A little bit of interesting history. Cosmopolitan began as a family magazine, launched in 1886 by Schlicht & Field as The Cosmopolitan. Paul Schlicht told his first-issue readers that his publication was a "first-class family magazine", adding, "There will be a department devoted exclusively to the interests of women, with articles on fashions, on household decoration, on cooking, and the care and management of children, etc., also a department for the younger members of the family."

Cosmopolitan's circulation reached 25,000 that year, but by March, 1888, Schlicht & Field were no longer in business. John Brisben Walker acquired the magazine in 1889, and E. D. Walker, formerly with Harper's Monthly, took over as the new editor, introducing color illustrations, serials and book reviews. It became a leading market for fiction, featuring such authors as Annie Besant, Ambrose Bierce, Theodore Dreiser, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Willa Cather and Edith Wharton. The magazine's circulation climbed to 75,000 by 1892.

In 1897 Cosmopolitan announced plans for a free correspondence school: "No charge of any kind will be made to the student. All expenses for the present will be borne by the Cosmopolitan. No conditions, except a pledge of a given number of hours of study." When 20,000 immediately signed up, Walker could not fund the school and students were then asked to contribute 20 dollars a year. Also in 1897, H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds was serialized, as was his First Man in the Moon (1900). Olive Schreiner contributed a lengthy article about the Boer War.

In 1905 William Randolph Hearst purchased the magazine for $400,000 ($10,000,000 in 2006 prices) and brought in journalist Charles Edward Russell, who contributed a series of investigative articles, including "The Growth of Caste in America" (March, 1907), "At the Throat of the Republic" (December, 1907 - March, 1908) and "What Are You Going to Do About It?" (July, 1910 - January, 1911) and "Colorado - New Tricks in an Old Game" (December 1910).

Other contributors during this period included Alfred Henry Lewis, Sinclair Lewis, A. J. Cronin, David Graham Phillips, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell. Illustrators included Francis Attwood, Dean Cornwell, James Montgomery Flagg and Harrison Fisher.

With a circulation of 1,700,000 in the 1930s, Cosmopolitan had an advertising income of $5,000,000. Emphasizing fiction in the 1940s, it was subtitled The Four-Book Magazine since the first section had one novelette, six or eight short stories, two serials, six to eight articles and eight or nine special features, while the other three sections featured two novels and a digest of current non-fiction books. During World War II, sales peaked at 2,000,000.

The magazine began to run less fiction during the 1950s. Circulation dropped to slightly over a million by 1955, a time when magazines were overshadowed during the rise of paperbacks and television. The Golden Age of magazines came to an end as mass market, general interest publications gave way to special interest magazines targeting specialized audiences.

In recent years the magazine and in particular its cover stories have become more sexually explicit in tone. The UK edition of Cosmopolitan, which began in the early 1970s, was well known for sexual explicitness, with strong sexual language, male nudity and coverage of such subjects as rape. More recently, CosmoGIRL!, a spinoff magazine targeting a teenage female audience, has been created for an international readership.

Though Cosmopolitan is known for its sex advice, the magazine primarily focuses on educating women in areas other than sexuality and providing coverage of the latest in fashion and beauty. Real-world stories are recounted ("Real Life Reads") first-hand by survivors, safety tips for risky or dangerous situations (such as living alone) accompany stories of hidden risks, health myths and urban legends are debunked. Sections such as "Health Check", which has featured articles such as "Cosmo Gyno" and "Your Body: What An Abnormal Pap Smear Can Mean", are there not only for entertainment value but to help women understand their bodies and even recognize possible health problems. Less serious regular features include "Guy Confessions" (pages where men share embarrassing stories or shameful things they've done); celebrity gossip; "You, You, You", which contains a wide variety of fun facts and advice.

The magazine currently features topics such as sex, makeup and hair tips. Cover blurbs like "How to date eight men at once and get away with it" annoy some readers. Third-wave feminists have argued that although the present iteration of Cosmo was started to stop discrimination and empower women, it now contributes to women's oppression by inspiring uneasiness over their physical image, due to the magazine's venerated display of women's sexuality and statuesque body image.

In its January 1988 issue, Cosmopolitan ran a feature claiming that women had almost no reason to worry about contracting HIV long after the best available medical science indicated otherwise. The piece claimed that unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man did not put women at risk of infection, further stating that "most heterosexuals are not at risk" and that it is impossible to transmit HIV in the missionary position [1]. The stance of this article angered gay rights and AIDS activists who felt it contributed to the demonization already in the gay community due to the epidemic.

Cosmopolitan reaches readers in more than 100 countries and has been published in 34 languages, including Spanish, Korean, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Swedish, Hebrew, Romanian,Georgian, Russian, German, Italian, French, Malaysian and Indonesian. It was banned in Singapore until recently.

Cosmopolitan has traditionally been a women’s magazine discussing such topics as sex, health, fitness and fashion. Recently the magazine is sharing their focus with men’s issues as well. “Cosmo for your guy” is featured in every issue with exclusive advice for the men. Cosmopolitan also recruits men as a part of their staff to answer their female reader’s burning questions they just can’t ask the men in their lives. The “Guy Confessions” add men’s embarrassing mishaps to those submitted by women.

Cosmopolitan also has its own Tv channels. Cosmopolitan Television consists of three television networks, two Spanish language channels, one in Spain and one in Latin America, and an English language channel in Canada, in partnership with Corus Entertainment, which launches on February 14, 2008. They broadcast programs targeted at an audience of women age 18 to 34. ]]> Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:00:57 -0500 http://www.womenmagazines.org/cosmopolitan-magazine/