Black History Month: The Colored American Magazine
When I searched for the first Black American magazine, Ebony came up. This is the first POC magazine in the United States that achieved national publication. However, The Colored American Magazine was the true first monthly publication in the U.S. and it built the market for future magazines, like Ebony. it was created in May of 1900 and ran until November of 1909 out of Boston. It
When I searched for the first Black American magazine, Ebony came up. This is the first POC magazine in the United States that achieved national publication. However, The Colored American Magazine was the true first monthly publication in the U.S. and it built the market for future magazines, like Ebony. it was created in May of 1900 and ran until November of 1909 out of Boston. It was founded by Harper S. Fortune, Walter Alexander Johnsons, Walter W. Wallace and Jesse W. Watkins who all hailed from deep south Virginia. Their mission was to write about black Americans succeeding in business, art, education, medicine, etc. and who were devoted to the culture in regard to religion, literature, science, music and art. What is pleasantly surprising is that at the time at least 1/3 of the readers were white, although the magazine was targeted to POC. The magazine was known for portraying the lives of the black American through their own voices in stories, poems, essays, and novels. They were also the first to publicly called out white Americans for doing nothing around issues surrounding hate crimes, such as lynching in the south at the time. They called for repealing racist laws such as the 15th Amendment and spoke up on voting choices. It’s unfortunate that the publication had financial issues from the get-go and went under. However, the entire publication has been digitized and can be viewed at Coloredamerican.org. It’s obvious how and why they set the tone for magazines to come!
Brief History of Advertising
It all started with newspaper. Someone wanted to place an ad in the paper so they reached out to an agent who represented newspapers. They compiled lists of papers and placed ads in them on behalf of brands who wanted to advertise. Newspapers would negotiate with the agent who would get on the list. The agent also contracted with the newspaper for large amounts of space at discounted rates. They would then resell these spaces to advertisers at a marked-up rate….
It all started with newspaper. Someone wanted to place an ad in the paper so they reached out to an agent who represented newspapers. They compiled lists of papers and placed ads in them on behalf of brands who wanted to advertise. Newspapers would negotiate with the agent who would get on the list. The agent also contracted with the newspaper for large amounts of space at discounted rates. They would then resell these spaces to advertisers at a marked-up rate. They worked on commission from the media outlets for the advertising that he gathered for them. The first agency was created in Philadelphia in 1841 by Volney Palmer, who was brought by Francis Ayer. Francis published an annual publication listing newspapers from which agencies sought business, their rates and their circulation. As the industry grew brokers began to offer more than just ad placement services and branched out into research, promotions and marketing strategy. They worked on behalf of the advertisers rather than the publishers. This conflict of interest in payment led to the later shift of fees over commissions. Ad agencies became the experts in the mid 19th century. During the 20thCentury ad agencies grew and became more creative with elaborate “brand personalities” and drama in the 50’s and 60’s. It was in this era that agencies became global giants from mergers, such as Ogilvy, WPP and Omnicom. By the 1980’s measuring results became increasingly important from clients and have continued to get more sophisticated. Information brought to you by The SAGE Handbook of Advertising.