Macfadden Communications Group

Last updated
Macfadden Communications Group
Founded1898;126 years ago (1898)
Founder Bernarr Macfadden
Country of origin United States
Headquarters location New York City, New York, U.S.
Publication types Magazines
Official website www.macfad.com

Macfadden Communications Group is a publisher of business magazines. It has a historical link with a company started in 1898 by Bernarr Macfadden that was one of the largest magazine publishers of the twentieth century.

Contents

History

Macfadden Publications

Physical Culture, Bernarr Macfadden's first magazine though the company Macfadden Publications, was based on Macfadden's interest in bodybuilding. The launch of True Story in 1919 made the company very successful. Other well-known magazines, such as Photoplay and True Detective , soon followed. Macfadden also launched the tabloid New York Evening Graphic . Bernarr Macfadden withdrew from his leadership roles with the company in 1941.

Macfadden-Bartell

In 1961, the Bartell Broadcasting Corporation bought a controlling share in Macfadden and merged with the company, forming Macfadden-Bartell. [1] Bartell owned WADO New York, WOKY Milwaukee, and KCBQ San Diego. A share in Bartell was acquired by Downe Communications in 1967, with full control in 1969. [2] Between 1969 and 1974 Downe was acquired by Charter Company. Bartell was fully acquired by Downe in 1976, and Downe was fully acquired by Charter in 1978.

Downe purchased the newspaper supplement Family Weekly in 1966, and the Ladies' Home Journal and The American Home from the Curtis Publishing Company in 1968.

Macfadden Group

Macfadden's women's magazines were spun off in 1975, and sold to the unit president, Peter J. Callahan. These magazines were:

Us was purchased in 1980, and sold in 1986. In the mid-eighties, Macfadden bought the Ideal Publishing Company, which published Teen Beat and other fan magazines, from Filmways. MacFadden acquired a stake in what would become American Media in 1989 when it bought a stake in the National Enquirer .

Sterling/Macfadden

In 1991, the Macfadden consumer magazines were spun off and merged with Sterling's Magazines. Sterling's published fan magazines such as Tiger Beat , as well as the music magazine Metal Edge . The merger was finalized in October 1992. [3] In 1998, the conglomerate's line of youth music publications was sold off to Primedia; the rest were bought by Dorchester Media in 2004. [4]

Teen Magazines

Macfadden Holdings

The trade magazines Chief Executive and Discount Merchandiser, as well as the company's stake in American Media, remained a separate company. American Media was sold in 1999 to the investment group Evercore Partners. The Macfadden trade titles were sold to VNU the same year.

Present day

The executives of Macfadden Business Communications started a new company using the Macfadden name. It is a publisher of business-to-business magazines.

Historical publications

Magazines [5] [6] [7]

  • Physical Culture
  • True Story (1919–2004)
  • Brain Power (1922–24) (also titled National Pictorial Brain Power Magazine)
  • True Experiences (1922-
  • True Romances (1923-
  • Love and Romance (1923-
  • Muscle Builder (1924-
  • True Detective (1924–1971)
  • Master Detective (1930-
  • Famous Detective Cases
  • True Love
  • True Love Stories (1924-
  • True Marriage Stories (1924-
  • Modern Marriage
  • Own Your Own Home
  • Your Faith
  • Your Home
  • Dream World (also titled Dream World: Love and Romance)
  • Ghost Stories (1926–32) (under Harold Hersey's control 1930–32)
  • Macfadden's Fiction Lovers' Magazine
  • Midnight (also titled Midnight Mysteries)
  • The Dance Magazine
  • Climax: Exciting Stories for Men
  • Photoplay (1934–1980)
  • Secrets (1936-
  • Personal Romances (1937-
  • Movie Mirror
  • Radio Mirror ( -1948)
  • Saga: Adventure Stories for Men (195x-198x)
  • TV Radio Mirror (1949–1977)
  • True Confessions (1963–1992)
  • Motion Picture (1911–1977)
  • Sport (1946–1975)
  • Intimate Stories (1948-
  • Revealing Romances (1949-
  • Pageant (1961–1977)
  • Liberty (1931–1950)
  • Home Furnishings News (2006-2014) [8] also known as HFN [9] [10]
  • Dance Magazine (2001-2016) [11]
  • Dance Spirit (2006-2016) [12] [11]
  • Dance Teacher (2006-2016) [12] [11]
  • Pointe (2006-2016) [12] [11]
  • Dance Retailer News (2006-2016) [12] [11]
  • Grocery Headquarters (2004-2017) [13] [14]

Newspapers

Teck Publishing Corporation (1931–1938)

Bartholomew House imprint

Macfadden also published a few hardcover books through the years, under the imprint Bartholomew House. Initially a way to group together stories from Macfadden's magazines into a book (as in Great Western Heroes, Great Pioneer Heroes), [15] the imprint expanded into first editions of new material after the purchase by the Bartell Group ( Coffee, Tea or Me? , "Say ... Didn’t You Used to Be George Murphy?").

Current publications

Related Research Articles

<i>Photoplay</i> (magazine) American film magazine

Photoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines. It was founded in Chicago in 1911, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded Motion Picture Story, another magazine directed at fans. In 1921, Photoplay established what is considered the first significant annual movie award. For most of its run, it was published by Macfadden Publications. The magazine ceased publication in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. Orlin Tremaine</span>

Frederick Orlin Tremaine was an American science fiction magazine editor, most notably of the influential Astounding Stories. He edited a number of other magazines, headed several publishing companies, and sporadically wrote fiction.

<i>Us Weekly</i> American celebrity and entertainment magazine

Us Weekly is a weekly celebrity and entertainment magazine based in New York City. Us Weekly was founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, who sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986, and sold to American Media Inc. in 2017. Shortly afterward, former editor James Heidenry stepped down, and was replaced by Jennifer Peros. The chief content officer of American Media, Dylan Howard, oversees the publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Composograph</span>

Composograph refers to a forerunner method of photo manipulation and is a retouched photographic collage popularized by publisher and physical culture advocate Bernarr Macfadden in his New York Evening Graphic in 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernarr Macfadden</span> American physical culturist and magazine publisher (1868–1955)

Bernarr Macfadden was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine publishing company Macfadden Publications.

<i>True Detective</i> (magazine) American true crime magazine

True Detective was an American true crime magazine published from 1924 to 1995. It initiated the true crime magazine genre, and during its peak from the 1940s to the early 1960s it sold millions of copies and spawned numerous imitators. For most of its run, it was published by Macfadden Publications.

<i>True Confessions</i> (magazine)

True Confessions is a confession magazine targeted at young women readers. It was originally published by Fawcett Publications, beginning in 1922.

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<i>New York Graphic</i>

The New York Evening Graphic was a tabloid newspaper published from 1924 to 1932 by Macfadden Publications. Exploitative and mendacious in its short life, the Graphic exemplified tabloid journalism and launched the careers of Walter Winchell, Louis Sobol, and sportswriter-turned-columnist and television host Ed Sullivan.

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Sport was an American sports magazine. Launched in September 1946 by New York–based publisher Macfadden Publications, Sport pioneered the generous use of color photography – it carried eight full-color plates in its first edition.

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True Story is an American magazine published by True Renditions, LLC. It launched in 1919 and was the first of the confessions magazines genre. It carried the subtitle Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.

<i>Ghost Stories</i> (magazine) American pulp magazine

Ghost Stories was an American pulp magazine that published 64 issues between 1926 and 1932. It was one of the earliest competitors to Weird Tales, the first magazine to specialize in the fantasy and occult fiction genre. It was a companion magazine to True Story and True Detective Stories, and focused almost entirely on stories about ghosts, many of which were written by staff writers but presented under pseudonyms as true confessions. These were often accompanied by faked photographs to make the stories appear more believable. Ghost Stories also had original and reprinted contributions, including works by Robert E. Howard, Carl Jacobi, and Frank Belknap Long. Among the reprints were Agatha Christie's "The Last Seance", several stories by H.G. Wells, and Charles Dickens's "The Signal-Man". Initially successful, the magazine began to lose readers and in 1930 was sold to Harold Hersey. Hersey was unable to reverse the magazine's decline, and publication of Ghost Stories ceased in early 1932.

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References

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  2. "Chase Seeks U.S. Leasing Unit:; Share Exchange Is Set COMPANIES TAKE MERGER ACTIONS". The New York Times. 1969-10-30. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-12-05.
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  4. "Primedia buys teen mag publishers" . Retrieved 2017-12-05.
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  9. "About HFN" company webpage. Retrieved 2013-02-18.
  10. "Why PBM's Small Addition Will Have a Large Impact On Its Business - M and A and Finance @ FolioMag.com" . Retrieved 2014-11-11.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dance Magazine Announces New Ownership". dancemagazine. 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Lifestyle Media Inc. merged with Macfadden Dance Magazine, LLC Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
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  14. "Winsight LLC acquires the B2B magazine Grocery Headquarters from Macfadden Comm". Talking New Media. 2017-06-01. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
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