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On this day, February 16, 1741, Benjamin Franklin published his "General Magazine & Historic Chronicle", the second American magazine publication. He had conceived of the concept earlier, but was beat out by Andrew Bradford's "American Magazine", published just three days earlier. Franklin, though, had the honor of a more enduring publication, publishing for six months, as opposed to Bradford's for just three. At the time, Ben was 35 years of age, and already the publisher of a newspaper and an almanac.

A magazine is different, with the accumulation of interesting, noteworthy information and current events that spans a month, or a quarter, and must still be relevant at the end of the period.

Remember the magazine "George", first published in September 1995. It was concieved of and co-founded by John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Michael J. Berman, a glossy monthly magazine with a tag line, "Not just politics as usual." It had a pretty good run, until 2001, but it doesn't matter who you are, or how much political power you wield, sometimes your take on bringing the news just isn't enough. Kennedy and Berman were looking to pair politics and celebrity, and keep readership up and interested, but most often, people want their news straight, no chaser. (Of course, tabloids area adifferent animal: the more sordid, the more bling and flash, the better, but that's not news).

Franklin showed his intention with his General Magazine" of giving a review of the colonial news from the American as opposed to the British point of view. He did use other forums, including The Virginia Gazette and other weeklies for articles and verse, but his new publication would be an American enterprise.


Interestingly enough, the word news comes from "North, East, West, and South", where news comes from across the globe, in all directions!