Magazines published in the latter half
of the nineteenth century were targeted towards special interest
audiences and carried very little advertising. Most magazines of this
time were either literary, or religious in content. Before the advent
of radio, magazines were an important advertising medium for many
businesses.
Magazines are considered as the most
specialized of all the advertising media. The magazine industry has
often been described as “survival of the discriminating.” The number of
magazines has increased steadily to serve the educational,
informational, entertainment and other specialized needs of consumers,
business and industry.
Availability of a wide variety of
magazines makes them quite an appealing medium to a very large number
of advertisers. Magazine advertising is equally popular among large and
small companies. Their higl1 interest readers are usually willing to
pay a premium for the magazines.
As pointed out earlier, the role of
magazines is different in the media plan of an advertiser. Magazines
allow the presentation of detailed ad messages along with beautiful
reproduction of photographs, graphics and colors. Magazines are
comparatively a more high-involvement form of print medium than
newspapers, as they are read in a leisurely manner and are not dumped
or thrown after reading as happens in case of newspapers.
Magazines can be classified in various
ways but the most important classification can be in terms of their
editorial appeal or the type of readership they attract.
