1950's Media | Collier's Closes

Magazine Economics.

The closing of Colliers magazine in 1956 shockingly illustrated the postwar changes in magazine economics and the entertainment and editorial tastes of the American reading public. A venerable name in magazine history, Collier s had reached its peak of circulation of above four million at the time of its demise. But rising costs and competition from television and more nimble and aggressive magazines had cut drastically into advertising revenues.

Early History.

The magazine began publishing as Once a Week in 1888 and as Colliers in 1895. It finally became consistently profitable in 1929 as circulation broke through the two million mark. During the Great Depression Collier's prospered. This was the result of the magazine editors' decision in 1925 to reverse their stand and editorialize against Prohibition; after the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was...