The Strand Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 (January 1891)
The first issue of The Strand Magazine, January 1891, the illustrated monthly edited by George Newnes, in a Wellcome Collection scan with its ads intact.
What it is
The first issue of The Strand Magazine, January 1891, the illustrated monthly edited by George Newnes, in a Wellcome Collection scan with its ads intact. A short introduction admits there are already many monthlies, promises stories by the best British writers, translations of foreign authors and pictures by eminent artists, and asks readers who like the number to tell their friends. Inside: a history of the Strand itself, Grant Allen's 'A Deadly Dilemma', a visit to the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Daudet's siege of Paris stories, Pushkin's 'The Queen of Spades', a Voltaire tale for children, a visit to the animals' hospital, and a new series of portraits of celebrities, Tennyson and Henry Irving among them, at different ages. Around them more than 30 pages of ads sell Vinolia soap and cream, Bovril, Bird's Custard, Frame Food, Beecham's Pills, patent plasters, night lights and books, including Newnes's own Tit-Bits.
Why read it now
The Strand became the template for the illustrated general magazine, and this first issue shows the model plainly: light reading full of pictures, paid for in part by the mass advertisers packed into the front and back. Two things still hold. The launch note asks for word of mouth in one plain sentence and admits the first issue has defects, a modest register that suits a new product better than big promises. The celebrity portrait series is a recurring format that gives readers a reason to come back each month, the logic of a fixed content series today. The ads are a lesson in what not to copy: Bovril offers a thousand guineas to charity if anyone refutes its claim, and Frame Food calls its infant food bone-forming and brain-developing, unchecked health claims of the kind later law restricted. Beecham's buys prestige by showing a sculpture as 'art in advertising'. Dated: the claims, the prices and much of the fiction. Use: when launching a Saudi publication or newsletter, lead with one recurring visual feature and ask early readers directly to pass it on.
Passages worth keeping
It may be said that with the immense number of existing Monthlies there is no necessity for another.
يبدأ المحرر بالاعتراض الذي سيخطر للقارئ، وهو كثرة المجلات، ثم يرد عليه بدل أن يتجاهله.
He is conscious of many defects in the first issue, but will strive after improvement in the future.
الاعتراف بنقص الإصدار الأول يبني الثقة ويخفض توقعات القارئ، مع وعد بالتحسن في الأعداد القادمة.
Will those who like this number be so good as to assist, by making its merits, if they are kind enough to think that it has any, known to their friends.
طلب صريح ومهذب من القراء أن يوصوا بالمجلة لأصدقائهم، فالتوصية الشخصية أقوى وسيلة لنشر منتج جديد.
Portraits of Lord Tennyson in youth are rare; but Lord Tennyson himself has had the kindness to assist us.
الباب الجديد قائم على صور نادرة حصلت عليها المجلة بمساعدة الشاعر نفسه، وهذا ما يجعله مادة لا يجدها القارئ في غيرها.
ART IN ADVERTISING boldly and beautifully demonstrated.
إعلان حبوب بيتشام يعرض تمثالًا من صنع نحات معروف ليربط اسم الدواء بالفن والذوق الرفيع.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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