89-546: Frank Andrew Munsey (August 21, 1854 – December 22, 1925) was an American newspaper and magazine publisher, banker, political financier and author. He was born in Mercer , Maine , but spent most of his life in New York City. The village of Munsey Park, New York , is named for him, along with The Munsey Building in downtown Baltimore , Maryland, at the southeast corner of North Calvert and East Fayette Streets. Munsey
178-584: A muckraking series about finance, reached a circulation of almost a million. Advertising income per issue grew with the circulation, from under $ 3,000 ($ 106,000 in 2023) in October 1894 to over $ 30,000 in December 1895. Rotary presses , developed in the 1860s and gradually improved over succeeding decades, began to be used for magazines in the 1880s, and in 1898 Munsey acquired one that could produce tens of thousands of copies an hour. Munsey's Magazine
267-400: A 24-year period he bought, operated and/or sold as many as 17 papers. During a period in which the total number of American newspapers was in decline, Munsey became known for merging many of his properties. Though perhaps wise financially, his mergers earned him a great deal of enmity from those who worked in the industry. He would be referred to at various times as " Executioner of Newspapers ",
356-590: A few months in 1891. The magazine continued without a named editor for two more years, managed by the same team that was running The Argosy . In February 1890 Munsey bought another humorous weekly, Time (launched in 1884 as Tid-bits ) and merged the subscription list with Munsey's Weekly . Munsey claimed that the acquisition would increase the Weekly ' s circulation from 26,000 to nearly 50,000. A review in Printers' Ink that month commented that none of
445-593: A general magazine could be successful at ten cents. McClure's Magazine dropped its price from fifteen cents to ten cents in July 1895, and Cosmopolitan followed suit in November; the three magazines were the leaders of the field, with Munsey's obtaining a head start in circulation because it had taken the first move to the lower price. It was not until 1912 that McClure's finally overtook it. Selling these magazine for ten cents meant that advertising support
534-646: A grocery store chain, newspapers, and many other magazines, and he was no longer closely involved in the day-to-day management of Munsey's . The price was raised from ten to fifteen cents in 1912. It was dropped again to ten cents in 1916 in an unsuccessful attempt to improve sales, and then raised to twenty cents in 1918. The page count, always higher than in the competing magazines, was increased again, sometimes to as many as 265 pages of non-advertising matter. Circulation continued to drop, to 130,000 in 1920, and advertising sales fell. The Argosy had merged with another of Munsey's magazines, All-Story , in 1920, and
623-419: A humor magazine edited by John Kendrick Bangs . It was unsuccessful, and by late 1891 had lost $ 100,000 ($ 3.39 million in 2023). Munsey converted it into an illustrated general monthly in October of that year, retitled Munsey's Magazine and priced at twenty-five cents ($ 8.48 in 2023). Richard Titherington became the editor, and remained in that role throughout the magazine's existence. In 1893 Munsey cut
712-608: A monthly schedule did not help the circulation of Munsey's . The financial pressure on Munsey intensified, but he was able to obtain a loan for $ 8,000 ($ 271,000 in 2023) through an old friend, John Fogler, who was at that time working for the First National Bank of Leavenworth in Kansas. In the Panic of 1893 the bank called in the loan, and Munsey offered Fogler half-ownership in his publishing company if he would take on
801-517: A monthly, titled Munsey's Magazine , and Richard Titherington, one of Munsey's earliest employees, was given the editorship. The size was reduced from quarto to standard, with 96 pages per issue, and the price increased to twenty-five cents ($ 8.48 in 2023). The following April Munsey acquired The Epoch , a general magazine that had been launched in February 1887 by DeWitt Seligman as a ten-cent weekly, and merged it with Munsey's . The change to
890-571: A natural vehicle for numerous halftones. Johnson's "The Stage" had its share of nudes, as did a department called "Types of Fair Women". "Literary Chat" and "Etchings" (now including poetry) were joined by "Impressions by the Way" (editorials). By the second half of the decade the use of nudes began to decline, but the reputation remained: in 1898 the Wilkes-Barre Public Library cancelled its subscription to Munsey's "because of
979-521: A picture of a pretty girl on the cover of each magazine. He was the first publisher to do so regularly, and the policy probably gave the circulation another boost. In the middle of the 1890s Munsey's became known for printing images of "half-dressed women and undressed statuary", in the words of an editorial in The Independent . The magazine grew to 160 pages of reading matter, with an article on "Artists and Their Work", leading each issue,
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#17327880531601068-495: A price for 10,000 copies. They offered to pay five and three-quarter cents, but Munsey stuck to his seven-cents price. Munsey continued to advertise: the advertisements said "On all news stands", though at first this was far from the truth. A few orders began to come in, and within ten days all 20,000 copies had been sold. Two more printings brought the total to 60,000. The advertisements and production costs brought Munsey's debts to $ 150,000 ($ 5.09 million in 2023). Munsey
1157-495: A series of books for young people, titled Munsey's Popular Series for Boys and Girls, and he also began a series of cloth-bound books starting with his own The Boy Broker , which had been originally serialized in The Golden Argosy . Both these series were advertised in the Weekly . When the schedule changed to monthly, the magazine expanded to 96 non-advertising pages, with a few halftone illustrations. Initially
1246-467: A series on "Prominent American Families", and a series by Theodore Dreiser on American writers. New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt and U.S. House Speaker Thomas B. Reed each wrote articles for Munsey's in 1899, and a series called "My Favorite Novelist and His Best Book" brought contributions from Arthur Conan Doyle , Bret Harte , and Frank R. Stockton . Munsey argued that the short unsigned articles by his house staff, in departments such as "In
1335-446: A substantial profit. Other magazines, notably McClure's and Cosmopolitan , quickly followed suit, but it was not until 1904 that Everybody's Magazine managed to outstrip Munsey's circulation, reaching a figure of almost a million. In 1882 Frank Munsey moved from Augusta, Maine , to New York City, intending to launch a children's magazine. His main investor soon pulled out, leaving Munsey without enough capital to publish
1424-417: A surge in circulation to 115,000, but this was temporary, and though Munsey experimented with The Golden Argosy , shortening the title to just The Argosy , and changing the page size and page count, he was unable to reverse the decline. In 1889 Munsey launched Munsey's Weekly , hoping that it would establish itself as profitable before The Argosy failed completely. The first issue of Munsey's Weekly
1513-486: A word for everything he bought from Henry. The result was that a dozen stories by Henry appeared in Munsey's over the next five years. Once they had become profitable, all of Munsey's magazines paid on acceptance or soon after, rather than on publication, unlike most of the competing magazines. This made them more attractive to writers. World War I brought more articles on military topics, often written by members of
1602-477: A year circulation had risen to over a quarter of a million copies. Munsey's Magazine included both fiction and non-fiction on art, music and the theatre, and celebrities. In 1893 Munsey became one of the first publishers to regularly depict a pretty young woman on the cover , and circulation was also boosted by the liberal use of illustrations. During the mid-1890s Munsey's often included images of nude and semi-nude women, though this became less common later in
1691-615: A younger sister and brother. Frank worked at a grocery store in Lisbon Falls, and since the store included the local Post Office he was able to teach himself to use the telegraph. At age sixteen he moved to Portland as the telegraph operator for a hotel, and after jobs in Rye Beach , Boston and elsewhere he returned to Maine, where he was hired by Western Union in about 1877 to manage their branch office in Augusta . As Augusta
1780-513: Is credited with using new, high-speed printing presses , supplied with inexpensive, untrimmed, pulp paper, to mass-produce magazines at significantly reduced costs. Each issue could be priced as low as 10 cents; less than half the lowest price then charged for similar publications. Munsey's publishing presented diverse genres, preferring fictional, action-adventure storytelling. His magazines were aimed at working-class readers who could neither afford, nor expect to read about people like themselves in,
1869-638: Is much reduced. Frank Munsey was born on August 21, 1854, on a farm a couple of miles from Mercer, Maine . His father, Andrew Chauncey Munsey, was a Civil War veteran who had been born in Quebec; his mother was Mary Jane Merrit Hopkins Munsey. The family moved around Maine several times: first to Gardiner , six months after he was born; then three years later to Bowdoin . They stayed in Bowdoin until 1868, then moved to Lisbon Falls , and again in about 1878 to Livermore Falls . Frank had three older sisters, and
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#17327880531601958-458: Is the state capital of Maine, Munsey had an opportunity to meet local politicians, and he made the acquaintance of James Blaine , one of Maine's senators. Augusta was also the center of a major part of the American magazine publishing industry, and among other local businessmen Munsey met Edward Charles Allen , who had founded People's Literary Companion in 1870 and become very successful in
2047-546: The 1912 Republican Party nomination for the presidency. Munsey and George W. Perkins provided the financial backing for Roosevelt's campaign leading up to the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Roosevelt and his supporters bolted from the convention, Munsey was one of the most outspoken critics of what were labeled as "corrupt proceedings" and announced that Roosevelt would run at
2136-479: The American News Company (ANC), the distributor of almost all magazines of that time. ANC typically charged about five cents per copy for distributing a twenty-five or thirty-five cent magazine, but Munsey wanted a higher profit than this would give him. Initially ANC refused to handle the magazine at any price, but eventually they offered him four and a half cents. Munsey told them that his price
2225-487: The Baltimore Ravens , opened on the first floor facing the ground level streets. Munsey died in New York City on December 22, 1925, from a burst appendix at age 71. In his will he made large bequests to his sister, nephew and niece, generous bequests to many cousins, and gifts and annuities to a large number of old acquaintances. He also bestowed large sums to 17 of his upper management employees, but nothing to
2314-540: The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. The original location was on the northern edge of the devastated downtown district. The Munsey Building was notable for its upstairs offices and its ground floor printing presses, visible to passers-by through large department store, display-style windows designed and built for "The News" of Baltimore. Under Hearst's ownership, the paper moved again in 1924 to East Pratt Street between Commerce and South Streets (facing
2403-821: The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in New York City. This bequest included ownership of the Sun-Herald newspaper, The Mohican Stores grocery chain, and real estate holdings in Manhasset, New York , on the north shore of Long Island. Under the leadership of Museum President Robert W. DeForest , the Metropolitan Museum developed part of the land into a planned residential community called Munsey Park, New York . It featured Colonial-style houses and streets named after American artists. The community's first model home opened in 1928. By 1950
2492-444: The pulp magazines and the upmarket slicks , and included Max Brand and Edgar Rice Burroughs . Although Munsey's two sister magazines, Argosy and All-Story , regularly carried science fiction , Munsey's rarely did so for its first thirty years. Starting in 1921, with the change to an all-fiction format, some science fiction began to appear, including in the November 1923 issue John D. Swain's "The Last Man on Earth", filmed
2581-601: The " Dealer in Dailies " and the " Undertaker of Journalism ." Newspapers with a period of Munsey ownership: The sale of the Herald in 1924 left Munsey owning only two newspapers at the time of his death the following year. The Evening Telegram was sold to Scripps-Howard in 1927, two years after Munsey's death. Munsey also authored a number of novels: Munsey founded the Munsey Trust Company in 1913. It
2670-437: The "Etchings" column. When Argosy began its fiction-only policy at the end of 1896, Munsey heavily re-used reprinted fiction from the magazine's earlier monthly issues. For example, 12 of the 18 contributions to the October 1896 Argosy were reprints from issues of Munsey's Magazine from between November 1891 and April 1893. The magazine's covers were initially simply a table of contents, but in 1893 Munsey began putting
2759-465: The 25-cent "slick" magazines of the time. Munsey's pulp magazine innovation spawned a new line of publishing, one in which he was well positioned to profit, and from which he did become wealthy. If one of his magazine titles was no longer profitable, Munsey would stop his presses just long enough to typeset/promote one of many titles continuously being field-tested. New titles can expand revenue or replace what has been lost when demand for an older title
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2848-582: The Museum had sold the Munsey real estate interests to other developers, realizing an estimated four million dollars from these transactions. At the time of his death his fortune was estimated to be $ 20 million to $ 40 million. Today with the rate of inflation it would be valued at $ 250 million to $ 500 million. Mercer, Maine Mercer is a town in Somerset County, Maine , United States. The town
2937-530: The New York Sun , Munsey had already set up a distribution company, named Red Star News, and Dana now gave Munsey credit to run advertisements in the Sun for the magazine. Munsey wrote again to ANC and told them he was raising his price to seven cents. He did not know that ANC were now receiving thousands of orders for Munsey's from dealers: ANC sent someone to his office in response to his letter, asking for
3026-479: The Public Eye", "The Stage", "In Vanity Fair" (society events and gossip), and "The World of Music", had "done more than anything else to individualize the magazine [and] to popularize it". Mott agrees, commenting that "Literary Chat" and "The Stage" were accurately reflective of dramatic and literary fashion, and occasionally included "acute and sensible criticism". In the 1900s, when the muckraking movement
3115-426: The age of 18 living with them, 57.1% were married couples living together, 8.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.5% had a male householder with no wife present, and 30.7% were non-families. 24.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.69. The median age in
3204-420: The age of 18 living with them, 59.4% were married couples living together, 5.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.1% were non-families. 19.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 2.94. In the town, the population was spread out, with 24.3% under
3293-462: The age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 26.0% from 25 to 44, 30.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.6 males. The median income for a household in the town was $ 37,500, and the median income for a family was $ 41,250. Males had a median income of $ 34,028 versus $ 21,295 for females. The per capita income for
3382-401: The business. Munsey became determined to publish a magazine, and having saved $ 500 and persuaded two acquaintances to invest $ 3,500 ($ 111,000 in 2023), he spent his $ 500 on acquiring manuscripts, and left Augusta for New York in 1882. There he discovered that the cost estimates he had made were unrealistically low. He simplified the plans for the new magazine and wrote to the main investor for
3471-521: The contributors were not well-known writers, except for Horatio Alger , whose novelette "A Fancy of Hers" appeared in the March 1892 issue. This was part of a run of issues in 1892 which each ran "a complete novel in each number", typically about fifty pages. Non-fiction departments included a theater column, "The Stage", written by C. Stuart Johnson; "Literary Chat"; a humor section called "Etchings", and editorial columns. Munsey's own novel Derringforth
3560-448: The decade. Circulation peaked at about 700,000 in 1897, and fluctuated thereafter until the 1910s, when it began to decline. The magazine became fiction-only in 1921. Many popular writers appeared in its pages, including O. Henry , H. Rider Haggard , Arthur Conan Doyle , Bret Harte , Max Brand , Edgar Rice Burroughs , P. G. Wodehouse , Joseph Conrad , and Ella Wheeler Wilcox . By 1924 circulation had dwindled to 64,000 and in 1929
3649-684: The first specialized pulp magazine which featured railroad-related stories and articles. This was soon followed by a similar magazine, The Ocean , which featured sea stories and articles. The Ocean debuted with a March 1907 issue. After the January 1908 issue, The Ocean's title was changed to The Live Wire and its content became more general purpose. Other Munsey pulps and magazines included Puritan , Junior Munsey , All-Story Magazine , Scrap Book , Cavalier , Railroad and Current Mechanics . Once he became interested in newspapers, Munsey's visibility increased, both locally and nationally. Over
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3738-412: The following month. In 1896 he changed it to carry only fiction, and began printing it on cheap wood-pulp paper, making it the first pulp magazine. Circulation grew again, reaching 300,000 in 1902, and half a million in 1907. By 1895, circulation of Munsey's Magazine was over half a million copies per month, reaching 700,000 by 1897. In October 1906, Munsey began publishing Railroad Man's Magazine ,
3827-419: The following year as The Last Man on Earth . Philip M. Fisher and E. F. Benson also published science fiction in Munsey's . In the February 1923 issue, Tod Robbins' "Spurs" appeared, set in a traveling circus, with a cast including " circus freaks ": unusual people such as midgets. The story was filmed in 1932 as Freaks . Munsey's Magazine revolutionized the popular magazine market by proving that
3916-409: The funds, but received no reply. He was forced to give up the idea of launching the magazine himself as he had only $ 40 in hand along with the manuscripts he had bought. He persuaded E. G. Rideout , a New York publisher, to take on the magazine, with Munsey as editor and manager. The first issue, titled The Golden Argosy , was dated December 9, 1882. Rideout went bankrupt in early 1883, but Munsey
4005-522: The government, including Robert Lansing , William C. Redfield , and Franklin Knight Lane . War pictures and images of members of the government were common, and there were two editorial sections, covering the war but also other topics. Mott describes the nonfiction in the period 1916 to the end of the decade as "unusually interesting and varied", citing work by Richard Le Gallienne , Brander Matthews , and Ann O'Hagan , among others, but adds that
4094-410: The ground floor, where the grimy printing presses once rumbled and rolled, replaced later by the ornate brass and marble counters for customer service with wood and paneling framed, glass-partitioned offices of the banking empire, but the name remained. Ironically, by 2013, a modern branch office of M&T Bank , an out-of-town corporate bank which also put its name on the city's pro football stadium for
4183-498: The head of a new party. Munsey's encouragement and his offer of financial backing led to the formation of the Progressive Party , which acquired the nickname the " Bull Moose Party " (from TR's quote: "I'm as strong as a bull moose", when questioned about his age after previously becoming the youngest president upon McKinley's assassination, serving almost two terms as president) then nominated Roosevelt for president. Munsey
4272-508: The loan. Fogler declined and Munsey was forced to borrow the money elsewhere, at 18% interest. Late in 1893 Munsey lowered the price of Munsey's to ten cents. This was not a completely new idea: the Ladies' Home Journal was priced at ten cents (and had been launched earlier in the decade at only five cents), though it was targeted at women rather than a general audience. Some of the established general magazines were also retreating from
4361-426: The magazine became a monthly the editorial tasks were managed by Munsey's staff, with no named editor. Richard H. Titherington was made editor of the monthly Munsey's Magazine from its first issue in 1891, and stayed in that role until 1929. Many issues of Munsey's Weekly may no longer exist; David Reed, in his history of popular magazines, reports that "it would appear that the first five volumes, that contain
4450-419: The magazine field". McClure published what he liked, believing that what pleased him would please his readers, whereas Munsey published what he thought would be popular, but McClure felt that Munsey was the best editor in the business. Other assessments of Munsey have not been so kind: "a man with no real sense of what values or ideas he wanted his magazine to convey" is one academic comment. Mott summarizes
4539-446: The magazine himself; instead he persuaded an existing publisher, E. G. Rideout, to take it on, with Munsey as manager and editor. The magazine was titled The Golden Argosy , and the first issue was dated December 2, 1882. Rideout went bankrupt in early 1883, and Munsey took over as publisher. The magazine was not initially profitable, and for years Munsey was under immense financial pressure. An advertising campaign in 1886 brought
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#17327880531604628-456: The magazine was "on a lethal toboggan", with circulation declining. The "complete novel in each issue" policy, tried in 1892, was revisited in the mid-1910s, with contributions from P. G. Wodehouse , Joseph Conrad , Arnold Bennett , and others: serialization of longer works was tried again, along with variations in the length of the fiction. From 1921 the magazine was switched to fiction only, including poetry. The authors printed came from both
4717-491: The magazine was merged with Argosy , another of Munsey's magazines. The price cut from twenty-five cents to ten cents is considered by historians to have been the start of a revolution in magazine publishing. Before 1893, the bulk of most magazines' income came from the sale of subscriptions , though advertising was another source. Munsey's Magazine showed that it was possible to set a low price in order to increase circulation and attract sufficient advertising revenue to make
4806-511: The magazine was printed on rotary presses; the covers were added to the rest of the magazine by hand until Munsey acquired machines to automate the process. From 1905 color began to appear on some internal pages as well, though the quality was often poor as the three colors were not always correctly aligned. A campaign to increase circulation began in 1905, but from 1906, when circulation was almost back to 700,000, it fell steadily, down to 400,000 in 1912. By this time Munsey's businesses included
4895-432: The magazine's history by saying it was "never a first-class magazine ... sometimes there was quality as well as quantity in the magazine, but there was a shocking amount of mediocrity". John Tebbel, a historian of magazines, agrees: " Munsey's was never as good a magazine as McClure's or Cosmopolitan ; its level was nearer the mediocre." John Kendrick Bangs was the editor from January to June 1889, and from then until
4984-581: The many illustrations ... which are on the nude order". However, the halftones were still an important part of the magazine's appeal. After the Spanish–American War began in April 1898, the regular lead article became "In the Public Eye" rather than "Artists and Their Work", but photographs, now on military topics, were still frequent. Articles on famous people, both European aristocrats and American magnates and politicians, were common; these included
5073-539: The new leaders of the field were published by men primarily interested in making money, rather than in culture. Magazines ran advertisements before Munsey's Magazine , but relying on advertising rather than subscriptions for income became the dominant business model for consumer magazines in the 20th century. Munsey's biographer, George Britt, described Munsey and McClure as "great rivals of those days ... great business man matched against great editor". McClure considered Munsey "the greatest business man that ever entered
5162-618: The numerous employees who worked for him. He bequeathed an annuity of $ 2000 to Annie Downs, a love interest of the young Munsey who "turned him down for marriage because she didn't think he was a good enough prospect for success." Munsey also contributed considerably to Bowdoin College , the Maine State Hospital at Portland, and Central Main General Hospital at Lewiston. All the remainder of his fortune he gave to
5251-429: The old "Basin"/ Inner Harbor piers), The Munsey Building, by then separated from the newspaper was later renovated into an elaborate bank headquarters and customer service lobby of marble, brass and bronze for his Munsey Trust Company . In the early 2000s, after a series of bank mergers and out-of-town take-overs, the building was transformed into apartments and condos with some commercial food and snack shops located on
5340-464: The older standard of twenty-five or thirty-five cents: McClure's was launched in June 1893 at fifteen cents, and Cosmopolitan cut its price to twelve and a half cents the next month. The Epoch , which Munsey had acquired in 1892 and merged with Munsey's , had cost ten cents, but there had been no successful general illustrated magazine at that price. The change brought Munsey into conflict with
5429-464: The price to 10 cents. He had to struggle to distribute it at this price, since the American News Company had a monopoly on magazine distribution and had little interest in a low-priced magazine. By the February issue Munsey was printing 200,000 copies, and it soon became successful enough to guarantee his financial security. The Argosy 's circulation had dropped to 9,000 by March 1894, but jumped to 40,000 when Munsey converted it to monthly publication
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#17327880531605518-409: The price to ten cents ($ 3.39 in 2023). This brought him into conflict with the American News Company , which had a near-monopoly on magazine distribution, as they were unwilling to handle the magazine at the price Munsey proposed. Munsey started his own distribution company and was quickly successful: the first ten cent issue began with a print run of 20,000 copies but eventually sold 60,000, and within
5607-459: The southeast corner of North Calvert and East Fayette Streets in downtown Baltimore. Its located across from the central Battle Monument Square. The building was rebuilt in 1911 by architectural firms Baldwin & Pennington of Baltimore and McKim, Mead and White of New York City. Baltimore's Munsey Building had briefly been that city's tallest building. This rebuilt structure replaced the newspapers' previous headquarters which had been lost in
5696-523: The story, and Bangs serialized it, but offered his resignation from the editorship. His last issue was in June. Bangs and Munsey remained on good terms, and Bangs subsequently sold work to Munsey, both for Munsey's Magazine (as the Weekly was later retitled) and for the Daily Continent , a short-lived tabloid version of the daily paper the New York Star , which Munsey acquired for
5785-575: The tallest structures in the Nation's Capital. The first national headquarters of the Girl Scouts of the USA was located in this building from 1913 to 1916. D.C.'s Munsey Trust Building was torn down in spite of a court case and extensive protests by historical preservationists. Thirty-five miles northeast of D.C., two additional buildings have carried Frank Munsey's surname. The Munsey Building sits at
5874-452: The title to just The Argosy in 1888, and experimented with changing the page size and page count, but made no headway. In 1889 he launched a second magazine, Munsey's Weekly , and in 1891 he tried his hand at running a newspaper, taking over the Daily Continent , but giving it up after only four months. At the end of the year he converted the weekly to a monthly, titled Munsey's Magazine , priced at 20 cents, and in October 1893 he cut
5963-431: The town was $ 18,068. About 7.2% of families and 12.6% of the population were below the poverty line , including 12.1% of those under age 18 and 15.1% of those age 65 or over. 44°40′41″N 69°56′11″W / 44.67806°N 69.93639°W / 44.67806; -69.93639 Munsey%27s Magazine Munsey's Magazine was an American magazine founded by Frank Munsey in 1889 as Munsey's Weekly ,
6052-398: The town was 48.4 years. 18.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 6.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 19.8% were from 25 to 44; 40.1% were from 45 to 64; and 16.1% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 647 people, 256 households, and 178 families living in the town. The population density
6141-440: The town. The population density was 24.9 inhabitants per square mile (9.6/km ). There were 399 housing units at an average density of 14.9 per square mile (5.8/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 98.3% White , 0.2% African American , 0.6% Native American , 0.5% Asian , and 0.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.3% of the population. There were 287 households, of which 22.3% had children under
6230-409: The weekly papers paid well for syndicated writers, with Munsey's Weekly in the middle of the pack at $ 5 per column ($ 170 in 2023); only two magazines paid more than $ 5, and several paid less. Circulation stayed below 40,000, which was not enough to meet its costs, and in two and a half years the magazine lost over $ 100,000 ($ 3.39 million in 2023). In October 1891 Munsey changed the Weekly to
6319-401: The writers used, for both fiction and editorial material, were not expensive. Art was typically printed as halftones , which were cheaper than woodcuts , and paper prices were low. The result was a very profitable magazine. Three-color covers began with the November 1899 feature, but did not become the norm until 1903. Color covers required a flatbed printing process, but the rest of
6408-438: Was 24.2 people per square mile (9.4/km ). There were 366 housing units at an average density of 13.7 per square mile (5.3/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 97.06% White , 0.15% African American , 0.31% Native American , 1.39% Asian , 0.62% from other races , and 0.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.62% of the population. There were 256 households, out of which 31.6% had children under
6497-701: Was able to claim the magazine's title and subscription list in lieu of unpaid salary, and the magazine continued with Munsey as publisher. In 1884 Blaine was the Republican candidate for President, and Munsey proposed to start a magazine, Munsey's Illustrated Weekly , to carry campaign news. The magazine ceased publication after the election but its apparently official nature helped Munsey get credit for paper and other supplies. Munsey later said, "That debt made me. Before, I had no credit and had to live from hand to mouth. But when I owed $ 8,000 my creditors didn't dare drop me. They saw their only chance of getting anything
6586-500: Was able to persuade him to extend more credit, and was quickly proved right as circulation soared over the next couple of years. The print run for November 1893 was 60,000; for December it was 100,000; for February 1894 it was 200,000; and in October 1894 it was 275,000. The half-million mark was reached in April 1895, and in 1897 circulation peaked at 700,000. Munsey's remained the circulation leader among general magazines until late 1904, when Everybody's Magazine , propelled by
6675-442: Was at its height, Munsey refused to join the trend, saying later that he was "keenly interested in a constructive policy, not a destructive policy. Munsey's Magazine has never been committed to the muck-raking theory, and never will be." Munsey's political bent was always Republican , but his admiration for Theodore Roosevelt led him to support the Progressive Party in 1912, and Munsey's , along with Munsey's other publications,
6764-410: Was dated February 2, 1889. It was 36 pages long, in quarto format, and priced at ten cents ($ 3.39 in 2023). The contents were satire and comedy: it was aimed at the same market as Life . Munsey hired John Kendrick Bangs as the founding editor; at the time Bangs was working for Harper's , but only for two afternoons a week, leaving him time to take on other responsibilities. At Harper's he
6853-405: Was dated October 1929. Munsey's Weekly included humorous pieces, but also a gossip column about politics and the society of Washington, D.C. Illustrators included Charles Howard Johnson , F. P. W. Bellew, E. L. Durand and A. E. Fenner. Frank Luther Mott , a magazine historian, describes the magazine as "a good paper of handsome appearance". In August 1887 Munsey had begun publishing
6942-569: Was named after the Revolutionary War hero Hugh Mercer . The population was 709 at the 2020 census . According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 27.36 square miles (70.86 km ), of which 26.71 square miles (69.18 km ) is land and 0.65 square miles (1.68 km ) is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 664 people, 287 households, and 199 families living in
7031-404: Was not initially printed on pulp paper, and is not always regarded as a pulp magazine , but by 1900 it was using pulp paper for the signatures that did not include any illustrations, with better paper where photographs were reproduced. Circulation fell slowly from 1898 until 1905, but advertising revenue stayed strong. Munsey had built a modern printing plant which reduced costs, and most of
7120-656: Was one of its most ardent supporters and one of the largest contributors to its "third party" campaign expenses. The campaign pulled one of the largest votes ever in American history for a candidate not from one of the two dominant parties. In 1905, Munsey built the Munsey Trust Building in downtown Washington, D.C. , on 'F' Street, between 12th and 13th Streets next to the National Theatre , off Pennsylvania Avenue . Designed by McKim, Mead and White of New York City with 13 floors, it had ranked among
7209-401: Was part way through serialization when the first ten-cent issue appeared. In 1896 another well-known writer appeared: Hall Caine 's The Christian , serialized from 1896 to 1897, was very popular. Other well-known authors followed, including F. Marion Crawford , H. Rider Haggard , Anthony Hope Hawkins , Myrtle Reed , and Grace MacGowan Cooke . Ella Wheeler Wilcox contributed poetry to
7298-418: Was purchasing paper on four-month credit, and the planned increase in the print run of each issue, prompted by the success of the first ten-cent issue, meant Munsey's indebtedness to his paper supplier would increase very rapidly. The paper supplier visited Munsey to say that he had talked to others in the trade, and was convinced that it was impossible for Munsey to make a success of a ten-cent magazine. Munsey
7387-449: Was re-organized in 1915 as The Equitable Trust Company with Munsey as chairman of the board, and became one of the city and state's dominant financial institutions into the late 20th century. It was purchased by Maryland National Bank in 1990. Munsey became directly involved in presidential politics when former president Theodore Roosevelt announced his candidacy to challenge his hand-picked successor President William Howard Taft for
7476-399: Was required for the magazines to be profitable. Magazines such as Harper's and Atlantic , who were regarded as the leaders of their field, cost twenty-five to thirty-five cents, and their editors saw their market as "the best people, not the most people", in the words of one magazine historian. The revolution Munsey's began led to a huge expansion of the market for general magazines, and
7565-430: Was responsible for "The Editor's Drawer", a long-established humorous column. Bangs found Munsey to be difficult to work for; Bangs was used to a relaxed relationship with his previous publisher, but Munsey was constantly asking him about his work. By this time Munsey had written several novels for The Golden Argosy , and he submitted one, titled A Tragedy of Errors , to Bangs, who rejected it. Munsey insisted on running
7654-546: Was retitled Argosy All-Story Weekly ; the combined magazine's circulation was 500,000, far ahead of Munsey's . Munsey's was switched to an all-fiction policy, like Argosy All-Story Weekly , in 1921, but circulation was down to 64,000 by 1924, the last year for which Munsey reported separate figures. Munsey died in 1925, and William Dewart took over as publisher. In 1929 the two magazines were reorganized: Munsey's became All-Story , and Argosy All-Story Weekly became simply Argosy. The last issue of Munsey's Magazine
7743-478: Was six and a half cents, and decided to bypass ANC. He notified about ten thousand dealers that ANC would not carry Munsey's Magazine , but that it could be had directly from the publisher for seven cents in New York plus the cost of shipping. Munsey knew many of the dealers, and added personal letters to the notification, but fewer than a hundred orders came in response. At the suggestion of Charles Dana of
7832-610: Was strongly for Roosevelt during the Republican convention . In 1904, Munsey hired Bob Davis to edit the New York Sunday News , and when that was closed down soon afterwards, Davis was made fiction editor of Munsey's Magazine , leaving the editor, Richard Titherington, in overall charge. Davis made an arrangement with O. Henry in January 1905 that for five years he would have the right of first refusal on all Henry's work. In return Davis agreed to pay ten cents
7921-448: Was to keep me going." An advertising campaign in 1887 put Munsey $ 95,000 in debt, but made The Golden Argosy profitable, and boosted circulation to 115,000 in May of that year. The improvement was temporary; Munsey later realized that magazines for children were uninteresting to advertisers as children had no buying power, and the subscriptions dropped as the children grew up. He shortened
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