Magazines began to have mass circulation after the American Civil War. Apart from growth in literacy and availability of cheaper printing that were responsible, the arrival of Women magazine was also responsible. In addition were the Postal Act of 1879, which permitted mailing magazine at cheap rates and the spread of the rail road which carried people and publications westward from the east coast, as well as the reduction in the prices of magazines due to competiting price war.

Of significance to this trend is the era of muckraking, which attracted large readership. However, the mass circulation was made possible by industrialization which provided people with leisure and more personal income.

Following the end of World War II, deep alterations in American culture and, in particular, the advent of television changed the relationship between magazines and their audiences. Magazine could not match the reach of television despite its large circulation. Many of the mass circulated magazines closed up. Magazine therefore sought solace in specialization and a life style orientation.

3.4.2 Convergence in Magazine Publishing

Online magazine or webzine have emerged made possible by convergence of magazine and the Internet. For example, Time end Mother Jones now have online edition. There are also others who are strictly online.

Online magazines face certain challenges as at now. One is how the subscription for them should be charged. This difficulty is imposed because web users are accustomed to free access to sites. Besides, pure online magazines must generate their original content, an undertaking that is very expensive. Besides, they have to compete online for readers and advertisers as equals with webzine subsided by paper magazine. In addition, purely online magazines must also compete with the other websites on the Internet.

3.4.3 The Influence of Advertisers on Magazines

The sustenance and profitability of magazine business, made possible by advertisement has brought much influence on magazine content. Since the major aim of every business is to make profit, no magazine would like to lose its advertiser. Therefore magazine editors are very cautious in new presentation so as not to offend their advertisers. The questions emerging is that how can a magazine function, offering depth, variety and detail content when its editorial content is influenced by advertisers?

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SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3

Trace how magazine grew and the factors that were responsible for its mass circulation.

4.0CONCLUSION

Printing brought expansion in literacy. People found it necessary to learn how to read and write. Printing had become one of the engines driving the industrial revolutions. It was responsible for building and disseminating bodies of knowledge and the refinement of new machines.

Printing made newspapers and magazines possible, brought scientific and technological development, and technology as a result of industrialization gave us mass market magazines. However, one major challenge facing the printing world is that most Nigerians prefer watching television or listening to radio than reading books.

5.0SUMMARY

The unit has been able to discuss in appreciable details the basic components of the print world, namely: books, newspaper and magazine. The unit examined the origin and the historical base of these print products.

The unit traced the development of books to over 5,000 years ago when alphabets were developed independently in several places around the world and ideogrammatic (picture-based) alphabets appeared in Egypt (as hieroglyphics), Sumerian (as cuneiform) and urban china.

The newspaper was traced to have started with handwritten newsletters which were circulated privately among merchants, passing along information about everything from wars and economic conditions to social customs and "human interest" features. The unit established that the first printed forerunners of the newspaper appeared in Germany in the late 1400's in the form of news pamphlets or broadsides, often highly sensationalized in content.

The unit also noted that magazine started in 1704 by Daniel Defoe as a weekly periodical called the Review. The unit underscored the place of advertisement in newspaper venture, and submitted that sustenance and profitability of magazine business is hinged on advertisement.

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6.0TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Explain the concept of yellow journalism. Name with convincing reasons a current newspaper in Nigeria that practices Yellow Journalism.

7.0REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS

Baran, S.J. (2002). Introduction to Mass Communication. New York: McGraw Hill.

Bitner, R. (1989). Mass Communication: An Introduction. New Jersey:

Prentice Hall.

Sambe J.A. (2005). Introduction to Mass Communication Practice in Nigeria. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Limited.

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UNIT 2 BOOK PUBLISHING

CONTENTS

1.0Introduction

2.0Objectives

3.0Main Content

3.1Origin and Concept of Book Publishing

3.2Understanding Book Publishing and its Terminologies

3.3Steps in Book Publishing

4.0Conclusion

5.0Summary

6.0Tutor-Marked Assignment

7.0References/Further Readings

1.0INTRODUCTION

This unit gives the basic understanding of book publishing, as well the steps involved. The unit is subdivided as follows:

1.Origin and concept of books

2.Understanding book publishing and its terminologies

3.Steps in book publishing

2.0OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, you should be able to:

∙discuss the origin and concept of book

∙explain the process of book publishing and its terminologies

∙enumerate the steps in book publishing.

3.0MAIN CONTENT

3.1Origin and Concept of Book Publishing

Long before the coming of the printing press, books were made of vellum (calf or lamb skin) because of its durability. In San Simeon (also known as Hearst's Castle), there are lampshades that William Randolph Hearst had made from 15th century Gregorian prayer books and the vellum is still in excellent condition. For books that took more than a year to produce, paper was too flimsy. However, for print books, vellum was too costly to produce.

One notable historical figure in the printing world was Gutenberg. In 1452, Gutenberg conceived of the idea for movable type. In his

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workshop, he brought together the technologies of paper, oil-based ink and the wine-press to print books. The printing press was not a single invention. It was the aggregation in one place, of technologies known for centuries before Gutenberg. One thing to remember is that Gutenberg got credit for an invention that was thought to have been developed simultaneously in Holland and in Prague.

Below are other inventions brought together by Gutenberg in his pursuit of a printing press:

∙The adaptation for printing, of the wine or olive oil, screw-type press that had been in use for hundreds of years, throughout Europe and Asia.

∙The adaptation of block-print technology - known in Europe since the return of Marco Polo from Asia at the end of the 13th century.

∙The development of mass production paper-making techniques. Paper was brought from China to Italy in the 12th C. but was thought too flimsy for books.

∙The development of oil-based inks. These had been around since the 10th century, but smeared on the vellum used to make books. The religious manuscripts used an egg-based tempera. This was unsuitable for printing with type.

∙Gutenberg's contribution to printing was the development of a punch and mold system which allowed the mass production of the movable type used to reproduce a page of text. These letters would be put together in a type tray which was then used to print a page of text. If a letter broke down, it could be replaced. When the printing of the copies of one page was finished, the type could be reused for the next page or the next book.

These technological improvements stretch across five centuries. They do not cluster around Gutenberg's time.

The first books to show up in print shops were bibles and religious tracts. The next books to attract publishers were the "humanist" texts brought back from Byzantium by the Crusades, and other texts of antiquity but there was little or no printing of new ideas.

Many people went into the printing business and went out again. The reason was that the distribution of books was poorly organized. The

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