An early edition of Cosmopolitan |
Cosmopolitan
was first published in 1886 by Schlicht & Field, a publishing firm
based in Rochester New York.
As co-leader of the firm, Paul Schlicht directed the magazine toward ‘first
class family’, promising readers departments for men, women and children. The
women’s department featured articles on fashion, home décor, cooking and child rearing.
The magazine circulated 25,000 copies that year, but then, Schlicht and Field
went out of business in 1888. John Brisbin Walker acquired ownership of the
magazine in 1889, and E.D. Walker of Harper’s
Monthly came on board as editor. Together, Walker and Walker changed the
structure of Cosmopolitan, with E.D. adding color illustrations and stories.
Edith Wharton, Jack Lundon and H.G. Wells were some of the authors whose works
were published in Cosmopolitan, and by 1892, the magazine’s circulation
escalated to 75,000.
William Randolph Hearst bought Cosmopolitan in 1905, adding
to his ownership of other magazines and newspapers such as Good Housekeeping
and the Los Angeles Examiner. But with the stock market collapse, Hearst’s
corporation crumbled, though he did retain ownership of Cosmopolitan. Before
then, he hired top-of-the-line journalists for Cosmopolitan and launched the New
York based film company, Cosmopolitan Productions,
eventually taking the production company to Hollywood
and featuring his mistress in lead roles.
Hearst's International Combined with Cosmopolitan |
During his ownership of Cosmopolitan, Hearst bought World-to-Day magazine in 1911 and
changed the name several times, ending with Hearst’s
International, which Hearst merged with Cosmo in 1925 to become Hearst’s International Combined with Cosmopolitan, with Cosmopolitan having the larger, bolder typeface. After Hearst’s
death in 1951, Hearst’s International
was removed from the cover. Cosmopolitan had a circulation of 1,700,000 in the
1930’s under Hearst’s ownership, with an emphasis on fiction to include one
novelette and two serials in one section and two novels in the other three
sections.
The 1950’s saw a dramatic decline for fiction in magazines.
Circulation for Cosmopolitan dropped to just over one million due to the rise
in popularity of television and mass market paperbacks. Helen Gurley Brown was
brought in as editor-in-chief and took the magazine in the direction many readers
enjoy today. In his personal and professional life, Hearst was admired by some
and greatly disliked by others. Today, his popularity is gone, and his family retains
ownership of Cosmopolitan magazine.
William Randolph Hearst |
4 comments:
Julie, very interesting post. I had no idea COSMOPOLITAN had been around that long. I always associate it with Helen Gurley Brown. I suppose I hadn't thought of it being around before she came on board.
I didn't realize the magazine was that old, either. I always associated Cosmo with modern day magazines, from the 60's thru now. I did like Cosmo beginning as a family magazine and then branching into publishing short stories. As for today, I don't read it. If I happen up it at the beauty parlor, I may flip thru it, but it's mostly advertisement.
Very interesting, Julie. It's funny when research items date back to the old west. I'm always surprised how much scientific research occurred then. Good to know, though, that I could possibly have a heroine reading Cosmo back then. :-)
Hi Kristy: When I researched Boston medical colleges in 1870's, I came upon all types of medical discoveries. I'm not one for that field, but it was fascinating. Some ended up in the book. I'll have to set a story further into the 1800's and insert Cosmo, lol.
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