Magazines share their name with gunpowder stores and Russian shops
Magazine comes from the Arabic makhazin, storehouses, reaching English through French and Italian. It first meant a military depot. In 1731 an English editor borrowed the word for a monthly collection of writing, and the storehouse of information was born. In Russian, the same root still simply means a shop.
The original sense survives in gun and artillery magazines, and French and Russian use cognates for retail stores. The publishing meaning arose in the eighteenth century thanks to Edward Cave, who edited The Gentleman's Magazine in London under the pen name Sylvanus Urban. His publication, launched in 1731, was the first general-interest magazine, though Germany had produced a literary and philosophical periodical as early as 1663.
Some early titles proved remarkably durable. The Scots Magazine, first printed in 1739, is often called the oldest consumer magazine still published, although ownership changes and gaps adding up to more than 90 years undercut that claim. Lloyd's List, started in Edward Lloyd's coffee house in 1734, stopped printing in 2013 after 274 years but still updates online daily. In France the Gazette de France dates from 1631 and a journal for scientists from 1665, while Jean Loret reported Parisian society news in verse from 1650 to 1665. French periodicals were censored under the old regime, became factional propaganda during the Revolution, and flourished after 1815, mostly devoted to literature and serving religious and political communities.
Magazines differ from newspapers in appearing less often, favouring features and targeting narrower audiences. They differ from academic journals, which are written by experts for experts and may be peer reviewed, whereas magazines inform or entertain a general public in a more accessible style. They are sorted by frequency, audience, subject and tone, and a cover appearance has long signalled distinction.
Funding comes from advertising, cover prices, subscriptions or a mix. Three circulation models dominate. Paid circulation sells copies or subscriptions and yields clear readership data. Non-paid titles are given away in street boxes or on airlines, so publishers know only how many were distributed. Controlled circulation, common for trade magazines, sends free copies only to qualifying readers, because printing and postage make giving them to everyone too costly. Many print titles have now moved partly or wholly online.
Source: Magazine
