PSR 1: Primary Source Report on The Australian Journal
by Blake Rathie
Circulation
What can you find out about the circulation of the magazine? How would you characterise the circulation--was it limited, or popular? Can you find out if that was considered expensive?
The Australian Journal’s circulation began 1865, starting as a weekly magazine until it became a monthly in 1869. Despite Osborne’s research (2017) indicating that it was an important magazine throughout the 1900s, particularly 1930s to 1950s during Ron G. Campbell’s editorship, the magazine is perceived primarily as a 19th century magazine by critics.
In his research, Osborne expresses that during Campbell’s tenure as editor, sales of the magazine rose from 30,000, to 54,000 copies per issue during the 1930s, reaching a peak of 120,000 by 1945 (Osborne 228). The magazine came to a sudden end in March 1955 when A. H. Massina and Company Pty Ltd sold their building to Keith Murdoch’s Southdown Press and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
The magazine in 1951 was priced at one shilling, a not considerably expensive price, for a middle-class audience.
Editor
Does the magazine have the same editor for a range of time? Can you find out anything about this person? What is her or her background, education, training? If the editor writes for the magazine, what kind of things does he/she write?
From 1926 to 1955, R. G. Campbell was the editor of The Australian Journal, starting first as a writer before becoming editor for close to thirty years, (Osborne 2016, p. 11).
Prior to Campbell, W. E. Adcock was the magazine’s editor (Osborne 227), he hired Campbell after submitting several short stories which together helped make the magazine “a more respectable publication.” After stepping down from the journal as editor, Campbell continued his work with them, as he went overseas to write travel stories for The Australian Journal.
Fig. 1 R. G. Campbell, editor of the Australian Journal, 1926–1955.
Louise Campbell Private Collection. From Osborne, Roger. ‘An Editor Regrets’
R. G. Campbell’s Australian Journal, 1926–1955
Implied Reader
After studying thoroughly a single issue of the magazine--ads, articles, stories, everything--consider its target reader implied by the magazine’s contents: age, sex, economic class, intellectual class, race, political position, and anything else that seems important
According to Osborne, the journal entertained a wide variety of readers, men, women, and children (228), and while it was presented primarily for a middle-class audience that didn’t require higher education, it was considered to be middle, perhaps upper middlebrow quality reading.
Contents
a. In a single issue, what kind of content gets the most pages (creative: fiction, poetry, drama, visual art, music/ critical: cultural, aesthetic, social, political/ informative: travel, biography, history, news)
The Australian Journal was an important option for short story writers, and in its early years some of the most prominent authors were Adam Lindsay Gordon, Henry Kendall, Marcus Clarke and the writer of detective stories (and first editor of the “Detective’s Album”).
There was a total of 2133 stories published within the magazine, the most in a magazine after The Bulletin, filled with genre fiction close to 6000 words such as romance, adventure, crime, and detective fiction (Osbourne, 234).
R. G. Campbell was one such writer to get his start in The Australian Journal, and because of this, once becoming editor he forged strong relationships with many Australian writers in the 1930s, such as Vance Palmer, Georgia Rivers, and Roy Bridges.
b. Advertising: Ratio of advertising to other aspects of the text. What kind of advertising gets the most space? Anything else significant about advertising?
As Osborne points out “advertisements, promoting a wide variety of home products, remedies, and personal improvement schemes, including drawing and short story writing courses” could be found in the magazine’s pages (230).
c. If the magazine attends to social, political, or cultural issues, is there anything that helps you describe its position?
As overseas influences was, and still has a very great impact on Australian culture, overseas media definitely could impact the magazine.
Format
How many average pages per issue? Did it use colour? How much? Photography? How much? How are images used? Do they illustrate stories or article? If there are illustrations, how do they make the magazine feel?
Under Campbell, the magazine generally ranged from 100 to 200 pages per issue, it responded to the economic realities of publishing and as such balanced advertising revenue with circulation and demand. The magazine in 1951 went for a shilling, a price which was in line with its middle-class audience.
References
Osborne, Roger. (2017) 'An editor regrets' R. G. Campbell's Australian journal, 1926-1955 [online]. Script & Print, Vol. 4(41) 226-242. Retrieved from. <https://search-informit-com-au.elibrary.jcu.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=143740445102341;res=IELLCC>
Osborne, Roger. (2017). BEGINNINGS, MIDDLES, AND ENDS: READING POPULAR FICTION THROUGH R. G. CAMPBELL’S AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL. Retrieved from. https://ajstorybook.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/beginning-middle-and-end-reading-popular-fiction-through-r-g-campbells-australian-journal/
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