History and Evolution of Magazines
The word 'magazine' was derived from the Arabic word 'makhazin' which means 'depot' or 'storehouse', from makhazin came the word makzan in Arabic, from which came maggazzino in Italian which then became magsin in French and then finally Magazine in English.
Magazines are a kind of literature publication that are being used since the 1700's to give out news and information that are of the target audience's interest. The first ever magazine was published by a German named Johann Rist, who was a theologin and poet of Hamburg. The magazine was called Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen, it was a literary and philosophy magazine that was launched in 1663, in Germany.
In America, magazines were mainly made to voice people's political opinions. The first magazines in America were published in 1741, Benjamin Franklin's The General Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, For all the British Plantations in America.
Talking especially about Pakistan, the first magazine published was called 'Nigar' by Ilyas Rashidi who is known as the 'Pioneer of Film Journalism' in Pakistan. The first issue of Nigar magazine was published on November 21, 1948.
In mid 19th century, monthly magazines started gaining more and more popularity. The information, poems and news started attracting more people's attention with time. People found them different from newspapers as magazines had collection of different yet relevant information. With passing time, magazines started getting more developed and had it all, be it history, poems, coverage of political events and a lot entertaining stories and it even had pictures. It had a record and coverage of all monthly events. With revolution of magazines, the vendors got more profits not just from the consumers but also the advertisers.
In 1993, the first ever men's magazine got issued in America, known as 'Esquire'. It covered fashion, music and culture. And it also centered around masculine issues and had pinup features in it.
The magazines were further evolved in late 1990's when the first online-only magazine was launched, known as 'Salon' in America. The magazine publishes articles on U.S politics, culture and also current events along with other variety of topics like relationships, friendships and reviews on books and technology.
In the 1890's through the help of chromolithography, colored photography made it's way to the magazines making them more appealing and attracting. Later in 1910, technology got more advanced and there was development in two and tree-color printing. With time, the magazines got more and more better and more appealing to the target audiences with the help of better and advanced technology and printing processes.
And now in the 20th and 21st century, the technology has evolved so much and so have the magazines. Now there are not only physical copy of magazines but also online magazines(e-magazines) which means they are easily available for anyone and everyone. The biggest hand in the evolution of magazines is definitely the technology, the technology in this century is so powerfu and advanced that it has made everything more easier and so much better. Some of the most liked magazines now include Vogue, Time, Vanity Fair and more, people love them because of the content it has and because their amazing and influencial covers and blogs attract people.
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