Revolutions from Grub Street charts the evolution of Britain's
popular magazine industry from its seventeenth century origins through
to the modern digital age. Following the reforms engendered by the
Glorious Revolution of 1688 the Grub Street area of London, which later
transmuted into the cluster of venerable publishing houses centred on
Fleet Street, spawned a vibrant culture of commercial writers and
small-scale printing houses. Exploiting the commercial potential offered
by improvements to the system of letterpress printing, and allied to a
growing demand for popular forms of reading matter,
during the course of the eighteenth century one of Britain's pioneering
cultural industries began to take meaningful shape. Publishers of penny
weeklies and sixpenny monthlies sought to capitalise on the
opportunities that magazines, combining lively text with appealing
illustrations, offered for the turning of a profit. The technological
revolutions of the nineteenth century facilitated the emergence of a
host of small and medium-sized printer-publishers whose magazine titles
found a willing and growing audience ranging from Britain's
semi-literate working classes through to its fashion-conscious ladies.In 1881, the launch of George Newnes' highly innovative Tit-Bits
magazine created a publishing sensation, ushering in the era of the
modern, million-selling popular
weekly. Newnes and his early collaborators Arthur Pearson and Alfred
Harmsworth, went on to create a group of competing business enterprises
that, during the twentieth century, emerged as colossal publishing
houses employing thousands of mainly trade union-regulated workers. In
the early 1960s these firms, together with Odhams Press, merged to
create the basis of the modern magazine giant IPC. Practically a
monopoly producer until the 1980s, IPC was convulsed thereafter by the
dual revolutions of globalization and digitization, finding its
magazines under commercial attack from all directions. Challenged first
by EMAP, Natmags, and Conde Nast, by the 1990s IPC faced competition
both from expanding European rivals, such as H. Bauer, and a variety of
newly-formed agile domestic competitors
who were able to successfully exploit the opportunities presented by
desktop publishing and the world wide web. In a narrative
spanning over 300 years, Revolutions from Grub Street draws together a
wide range of new and existing sources to provide the first
comprehensive business history of magazine-making in Britain.
popular magazine industry from its seventeenth century origins through
to the modern digital age. Following the reforms engendered by the
Glorious Revolution of 1688 the Grub Street area of London, which later
transmuted into the cluster of venerable publishing houses centred on
Fleet Street, spawned a vibrant culture of commercial writers and
small-scale printing houses. Exploiting the commercial potential offered
by improvements to the system of letterpress printing, and allied to a
growing demand for popular forms of reading matter,
during the course of the eighteenth century one of Britain's pioneering
cultural industries began to take meaningful shape. Publishers of penny
weeklies and sixpenny monthlies sought to capitalise on the
opportunities that magazines, combining lively text with appealing
illustrations, offered for the turning of a profit. The technological
revolutions of the nineteenth century facilitated the emergence of a
host of small and medium-sized printer-publishers whose magazine titles
found a willing and growing audience ranging from Britain's
semi-literate working classes through to its fashion-conscious ladies.In 1881, the launch of George Newnes' highly innovative Tit-Bits
magazine created a publishing sensation, ushering in the era of the
modern, million-selling popular
weekly. Newnes and his early collaborators Arthur Pearson and Alfred
Harmsworth, went on to create a group of competing business enterprises
that, during the twentieth century, emerged as colossal publishing
houses employing thousands of mainly trade union-regulated workers. In
the early 1960s these firms, together with Odhams Press, merged to
create the basis of the modern magazine giant IPC. Practically a
monopoly producer until the 1980s, IPC was convulsed thereafter by the
dual revolutions of globalization and digitization, finding its
magazines under commercial attack from all directions. Challenged first
by EMAP, Natmags, and Conde Nast, by the 1990s IPC faced competition
both from expanding European rivals, such as H. Bauer, and a variety of
newly-formed agile domestic competitors
who were able to successfully exploit the opportunities presented by
desktop publishing and the world wide web. In a narrative
spanning over 300 years, Revolutions from Grub Street draws together a
wide range of new and existing sources to provide the first
comprehensive business history of magazine-making in Britain.
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