History of regional magazines

The first publication which could be classed as a magazine was a German publication release in 1663 in Germany. These magazine were intended for an intellectual audience. The mane magazine didn’t appear until 1731 with the release of “Gentleman’s Magazine”. 

Back in the early days for magazines they were successful but the cost of printing outweighed the success of them. They could not produce any more than a hundred thousand issues at a time because the printing machine would not allow it. Distribution of these magazines was also a major problem as they found it difficult to move the large amount of magazines a great distance.

Due to William Randolph Hearst the magazine industry rocketed and evolved. Hearst owned many newspapers in America before expanding his business into making magazines. He started off publishing magazines such as Good Housekeeping and National Geographic.  Other important publications to the evolution of magazine include Conde Nast’s, Vogue magazine.

Fortune magazine, produced in the 20^th century, is known as the first magazine to be printed in full colour. Fortune magazine also invented photo-journalism. However due to the increased printing costs of producing these magazines Fortune started to lose money in 1948 they were forced to redesign. 

In the 1970’s the first celebrity magazines emerged. “People” magazine was first released in 1974. Since then celebrity magazines have become one of the best selling magazine genres of all time. This led to a boom in the production of magazines aimed at a female audience.

Some predicted the death of magazines like they did with newspapers. However even though the numbers of printed magazine have dropped due to people purchasing digital versions, there will always be the desire for printed magazines. This is because we often shape our lifestyles upon.



One lifestyle magazine which I looked at was Southern Living magazine. This magazine was first released in 1966 by the Progressive Farmer company. This company was then bought by Time Inc for $498 billion and is now the largest regional lifestyle magazine in the UK. 

Legal restraints

There are many legal constraints about producing magazines, and the UK is amongst the strictest democratic countries in the world when it comes to the controls of magazine productions. Firstly, there are restrictions on what kind of competitions they are allowed to include in the magazines. Very few magazines produce in the UK have a licence to hold a sort of lottery style of competitions, where people pay to be entered into a random drawer. This means that any competitions which people pay to enter has to involve some sort of skill, such as a writing competition.

Another legal constraint magazines have to follow is about contracts. If they make a contract with their readers, such as a delivery date for a prize, they must follow meet his date and not break their contract. Another legal aspect that must be followed when producing a magazine is copyright. This means that they must have permission of the copyright owner before including material in the magazine. This means any pictures used must be taken by the company or permission of use must be acquired. If they do not get this they will be breaking the law.

Other constraints includes controls about the sort of content they can include within their magazine.


Print media in the UK is entirely self-regulating, meaning that they are controlled by the themselves and don't have to follow and statutory rules. The print media have established the Press Complaints Commission of it's own accord and is used to keep a measure of journalistic standards. 

Brief choice

I am very interested in all aspect of media so all of the briefs appealed to me. However this brief appealed to me because of the tasks included in it. I am interested in magazine as I did this in my AS coursework so I know how to make an effective magazine and enjoy making print products such as magazines and billboards. I have also spent a lot of time building websites so the website aspect of this brief appeals to me both as part of my ICT course and as a recreational activity. The billboard aspect of this brief also appeals to me, as I like working with graphics, print and photo editing. 

I have decided to make a regional lifestyle magazine. I have chosen to do this because I will have enough to write about and it will be easy to find an article to write about.

Evaluation Link

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW6syaHPugWkMQZZhABV9Dw

Final Double Page Spread

Final Contents

Final Cover