Survivors…
Conan O’Brien mourns the death of Newsweek in print: “It’s sad, it’s a little mind-boggling. And what’s even stranger and sadder is when you see some of the magazines that actually outlasted Newsweek.
“Newsweek’s gone but these magazines still exist! These are all completely real:” Pond Hoppin, Chess Life, Pole Spin, Airports of the World, Where to Retire, Witches & Pagans, Weed World, Amateur Radio, Racing Pigeon Pictorial, and Just Labs.
– JimRomenesko.com (via TeamCoCo)
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As we console ourselves that there does, after all, seem to be a future for journalism, we might recall that it was on this date in 1936 that Life became the third title (after Time and Fortune) in Henry Luce’s publication stable. The first (essentially) all-photographic American news magazine, it dominated the market for more than 40 years, selling more than 13.5 million copies a week at one point; it was so popular that President Harry S. Truman, Sir Winston Churchill and General Douglas MacArthur all serialized their memoirs in its pages. Life succeeded as a weekly through 1972, at which point it receded to a series of occasional special editions. From 1978 to 2000, it was published as a monthly; then in 2004, revived again (through 2007), as a newspaper insert. In 2008, Time Inc. allowed Google to host the magazine’s image bank (many, previously unpublished). And finally, in 2009, Life.com was launched; it closed in January of this year.
Here is that first issue’s cover; readers may also enjoy Flavorpill’s selection of “The Ten Greatest Life Magazine Covers of All Time.”
The Fort Peck Dam in Montana, photographed by Margaret Bourke-White