What Is Magazine

What is Magazine?
The Word Magazine is coined by the Edward Cave. It is derived from Arabic word
‘makhazin’ which means storehouse- all bundled together in one package. A magazine can be
explained as a periodical that contains a variety of articles as well as illustrations, which are
of entertaining, promotional and instructive nature. It generally contains essays, stories,
poems, articles, fiction, recipes, images etc. and offers a more comprehensive, in-depth
coverage and analysis of subject than newspapers. Most of magazines generally cover
featured articles on various topics.
Magazines are typically published weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly. They
are often printed in colour on coated paper and are bound with a soft cover. In a simple, we
can say that ‘the better the visual narrative of the magazine, the more it will appeal to its
specific audience’. The publisher’s purpose for a magazine is to give its advertisers a chance
to share with its readers about their products.
Magazine Journalism
Magazine Journalism uses the similar tools as traditional journalism tools used for gathering
information, background research and writing to produce articles for consumer and trade
magazines. The cover story is the beacon in any magazine. The cover page quite often carries
stunning headlines to facilitate a compulsive buying of the magazine.
Vanitha : An Indian Magazine
Vanitha is an Indian magazine published fortnightly by the Malayala Manorama group.

Vanitha in Malayalam means woman. It was launched in 1975 as a monthly and later
become fortnightly in 1987. Its Hindi edition was launched in 1997. It has a readership of
over 3.7 million, making it fifth highest read magazine in India.
The Illustrated Weekly of India
The Illustrated Weekly of India was an English language weekly newsmagazine founded in
1880 as Times of India Weekly Edition, later renamed as The Illustrated Weekly of India in
1923. The Publication was ceased in 1993. Also simply known as Weekly by its readership.
The Illustrated Weekly of India was considered to be an important English language
publication in India for over a century. The magazine was edited by A.S. Raman, Khushwant
Singh, M. V. Kamath, and Pritish Nandy. A.S. Raman was the first Indian editor of The
Illustrated Weekly of India. Cartoons in the latter half of the magazine were by R.K.Laxman
and Mario Miranda.
Brief history
 A person named Edward cave published the first English periodical magazine named
Gentleman's magazine founded in 1731. His publication contained everything from
essays and poems to stories and political musings.
 The first American magazine was the Andrew Bradford's American magazine and
Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine in 1741.
 The first magazine for young girls, the young Misses Magazine appeared in 1806.
 The first famous American women's magazine, Godey's Lady's Book was published in
1830.
 The first printed magazine in the Malayalam language - the Jnananikshepam - was
published from Central Travancore in 1848.
 Improvements in printing techniques by the 1890 as well as the increased use of
advertising made possible lower production costs for the magazines. This in turn
caused a boom in their circulation.
 Time Magazine came up in 1923, while Newsweek in 1933. The idea behind these
magazines was to keep in touch with the fast changing conditions around the world.
 Vanitha is an Indian magazine launched in 1975 and published fortnightly by the
Malayala Manorama group.
 The 1980s saw a boom in the publication of magazine in India not only English but in
Indian languages as well.
 The first breakthrough in Indian magazine industry was made by Stardust which
ended the old fan-magazine culture of film journalism.
 The second breakthrough, India Today which covered politics and social trends and it
was India's first successful attempt at quality, up-market serious journalism.
 Today, India has become a glorious store house of both general interest and
specialised magazines which include Outlook, Frontline, Femina, Competition
Success Review and Vanitha that have been quite successful in catching the attention
and imagination of people.
 Some of the popular weeklies in Malayalam such as Mangalam and Malayala
Manorama have exceeded the million mark in circulation.
 .The other major Malayalam periodicals include Mathrubhumi weekly, Madhyamam
weekly, Kala Kaumudi, Dhanam, Samakalika Malayalam weekly etc.
 The best known children magazine was Stnicholas.
 And in the age of Internet, most magazines are also printing its online version along
with the printed form.
Types of Magazines
Today, there are thousands of magazines worldwide. They inspire, inform, educate and
entertain audiences across the globe.
Magazines are classifies in terms of languages and the target audience’s interest. There are
different genres of magazines. Each magazine has its own characteristics like some of the
popular magazine provides broad overview of the topics, scholarly journals provide about the
depth analysis with research findings and similarly trade magazines provide the details of
industry trends and new products.
Some of the magazine’s categories are listed below with examples which will clear the whole
concepts.
 General Interest Magazine - The main purpose of a general interest magazine is to

provide information for the general audience. No background knowledge or expertise
is assumed. Examples- Time, Newsweek, Outlook, India Today and The Week.
 Special Interest Magazine- This is directed at specific groups of readers with
common interests. Example- Golf Digest carries only stories related to golf,
Grihalekshmi, Vanitha etc.
We can categorize some special interest magazines into the following genres based on their
content and target audience:
 Business Magazine Magazine - Forbes, The Economist

 Sports Magazine- Sports Star, Cricket today, Runner's World
 Children's magazine- Champak, Disney Princess, Chanda Mama
 Women Magazine- Femina, Woman's Era, Naari.com
 Entertainment Magazine- Stardust, Filmfare
 Science Magazine - National Geographic, Chemistry Today,
 Health Magazine- Muscle & Fitness, Psychology Today
 Educational Magazine- Competition Success Review, Samanya gyan darpan
 IT Magazine- Electronics For You, Digit
 Auto Magazine- Autocar, TopGear, Over Drive
 Career Magazine - Careers 360, Verbe
 Crime Magazine - Crime & Detective, Real Crime
 Photography Magazine- Digital Camera, Photo Plus
 Fashion Magazine- Vogue, InStyle
References
1- scert.kerala.gov.in

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What is Magazine?

Vanitha : An Indian Magazine

Vanitha is an Indian magazine published fortnightly by the Malayala Manorama group.

 General Interest Magazine - The main purpose of a general interest magazine is to

 Business Magazine Magazine - Forbes, The Economist

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