Practice PSR: The Australian Journal by Braith Lane

 

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 began as a weekly magazine in 1865, and transitioned into a monthly by 1869. Most critics know about it as a 19^th century magazine, but Osborne’s research (2017) points out that it was also an important magazine in the 1930s to 1950s, when Ron G. Campbell was editor.

 

Osborne points out that during Campbell's tenure, sales rose from 30,000, to 54,000 copies per issue during the 1930s, and reached a peak of 120,000 copies by 1945 (Osborne 228). It ended in 1955, once Campbell ended his 30 year journey with the Australian journal (Osborne 226).

 

It was between 100 and 200 pages under the editorship of Campbell

200 pages

In 1951 it was one shilling was worth roughly 1/20 of a pound or 12 pennies. This is what the magazines by the Australian Journal were selling for in 1951. Converted to todays currency, it might not seem that of an expense at all, however for 1951, this magazine was expensive, therefore expected to be in good quality, and targeting those of the richer heritance.

 

 

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?

 

 

One of the editors of the 19^th c. period of the magazine was Mary Fortune.  She was a writer of detective fiction and the first editor of the “detective album” was a section of the journal.

 

W.E Adcock was the editor (Osborne 227) prior to Campbell – hired Campbell after Campbell submitted a number of short stories in the 1930s, was influential in making the magazine “a more respectable publication” --- when Campbell hired he changed around the journal and made it “lose its scissor-and-paste appearance”, which was its original feel and appearance.

 

 

R. G. Campbell, who was a teacher prior to coming on board with the magazine first as a writer, the editor of The Australian Journal for thirty years (1926-1955) (Osborne 2016, p. 11).

 

 

After leaving the journal, he went overseas and wrote travel stories for the 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

 

People looking for local content?

It entertained a wide variety of readers - men, women and children (Osborne 228), as it was selling for one shilling in 1951, it indicates that the magazines were targeting a middlebrow or perhaps an upper middlebrow audience (Osborne 228). As mentioned before, the circulation was maintained at a healthy circulation for 2 decades with thousands of magazines and short stories selling, sales rose from 30,000, to 54,000 copies per issue during the 1930s, and reached a peak of 120,000 copies by 1945 (Osborne 228).

 

 

 

 

 

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 magazine was an important venue for short story writers.  In its early years some

of these authors were Adam Lindsay Gordon, Henry Kendall, Marcus Clarke and

the writer of detective stories (and first editor of the “Detective’s Album”), Mary

Fortune (“Waif Wander”).

 

In the 1930s to 50s some of the authors who regularly contributed were Myra Morris, Jon Cleary, Robert Close, and Xavier Herbert .

 

 

 

How many stories per issue, or over its whole run:

Other areas what these magazines use to cover were news scenes and other reports, however the financial return to these editor were not promising, meaning they could not make career off being an editor/casual writer on the Australian Journal (Osborne 228/229).

 

 Some sample stories?

“King of Luggertown” – “R. G. Campbell’s choice of a Vance Palmer story for the ‘Australian Journal Story Book’ drew on Palmer’s stories of the northern coast of Queensland, specifically ‘The King of Luggertown’ (1 August 1933).” (https://ajstorybook.wordpress.com/2017/01/10/for-art-and-money-vance-palmer-and-xavier-herbert/). This short story was an interesting sample as it discuss the rich and powerful, expressed through Palmer’s words in 1933. Very much like many of Palmer’s stories, it is an interesting mix of heritage.

 

 

 

 

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? 

This magazine attends to all 3, as some of the writers, as mentioned by Osborne (227) were captioned and not yet noticed or claimed by bibliography, therefore there labour was done un paid for, causing an issue in cultural political and social issues. Therefore its position was set at a middle/upper class, which at the time (1930’s – 50’s) was predominately the white rich race.

 

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?

 

 

Ranging between 100 and 200 pages throughout Campbells editorship

It responded to the economic realities of publishing

Balanced advertising revenue with circulation/demand

 

The illustrations portrayed by the Authors in the Australian Journal were at high quality and colourful, thus making the magazine have a more appealing approach, but expensive feel. The people displayed on the covers mainly, in the 1950s were male and female WHITE people, this encouraging that there was an cultural issue with these magazines, with their illustrations and covers. Therefore it was inviting for the rich but degrading for the poor and the groups in a lower socioeconomic background.