City in Arkansas (USA); zip code 72943.

1. A paperback periodic publication as a physical object.
2. A periodic paperback publication; SYN. mag.
3. A business firm that publishes magazines; SYN. magazine publisher.
A periodical publication, typically containing articles, essays, reviews, illustrations, and advertising. It is thought that the first magazine was Le Journal des savants, published in France 1665. The earliest illustrations were wood engravings; the halftone process was invented 1882 and photogravure was used commercially from 1895. Printing and paper-manufacturing techniques made great progress during the 19th century, making larger print runs possible. Advertising began to appear in magazines around 1800; it was a moderately important factor by 1850 and crucial to most magazines’ finances by 1880. Specialty magazines for various interests and hobbies appeared in the 20th century. In the US, subscriptions account for the majority of magazine sales. In Europe, distribution and sales are largely through newsdealers’ shops and stands.
history
Among the first magazines in the US were Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac 1732–57 and the short-lived The American Magazine 1741 and General Magazine 1741. By the 1800s the magazine industry was flourishing. North American Review began 1815. Around the time of the Civil War, such magazines as Harper’s Weekly, Harper’s Monthly Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly were published for the first time. At the beginning of the 1900s The Nation and Illustrated Newspaper began publication, and soon The Ladies’ Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post followed. McClure’s, Collier’s, and Cosmopolitan began as messengers of social reform, attacking government and business policies. The Reader’s Digest was founded 1921, Time 1923, The New Yorker 1925, Fortune 1930, and Life 1936. The 1930s saw the rise of the photojournalism magazine and the introduction of color printing. The US pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, specializing in crime fiction and science fiction, were breeding grounds for writers. The devel
opment of cheap offset litho printing made possible the flourishing of the underground press in much of the Western world in the 1960s, although it was limited by unorthodox distribution methods, such as street sales. Prosecutions and economic recession largely killed the underground press; the main survivor in the US is the rock-music magazine Rolling Stone 1968.
The Reader’s Digest, with editions in many different countries and languages, is the world’s best-selling magazine.
TV Guide is the best-selling magazine in the US. The Ladies’ Home Journal, first published in the late 1800s, led the way for women’s magazines in the US. With magazines such as McCall’s, Women’s Day, Ms, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Vogue, and Family Circle, women’s magazines constitute the largest group.
Comic books are usually aimed at children, although in Japan, Latin America, and Europe millions of adults read them. Artistically sophisticated adult comics are produced in the US and several European countries, notably France. They developed from comic strips in newspapers or, like those of Walt Disney, as spinoffs from animated cartoon films. The first superhero, Superman, created 1938 by Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster, soon had his own monthly periodical, and others followed; the Marvel Comics group, formed 1961, was selling 50 million copies a year worldwide by the end of the 1960s and found a cult readership among college students for titles such as Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk.

ETYM French magasin, Italian magazzino, or Spanish magacen, almagacen; all from Arabic makhzan, almakhzan, a storehouse, granary, or cellar.
1. A light-tight container holding the film and supplying it for exposure as required; SYN. cartridge.
2. A store house (as a compartment on a warship) where weapons and ammunition are stored; SYN. powder store, powder magazine.