PSR- The Australian Journal. Audrey Burton
PSR 1: Primary Source Report on The Australian Journal, 1926-1955
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 journal,
by 1869. Most critics know about it as a 19th 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.
The Journal was put together in Melbourne,
from 1859-1949 at the Massina’s Swanston Street building (Osborne 228). After
which it was widely delivered around Australia and New Zealand, finally to subscribers
across the world (Osborne 229).
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).
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 19th 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. W.E Adcock hired Campbell after Campbell submitted several short
stories in the fall of 1922.
R. G. Campbell, who was a teacher prior to
becoming assistant editor to the Australian Journal. After a four year
probation, he was appointed editor in 1930.
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
Campbell continued to write,
beginning his memoir, about his life in magazines. Unfortunately, he died on
the 18 April 1970 (Osborne 233).
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
The
Australian Journal offered a broad mixture of editorial and advertising content
and was read by the whole family (Osborne 230).
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.
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 (Osborne
230).
c. If
the magazine attends to social, political, or cultural issues, is there
anything that helps you describe its position?
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.
Audrey
Burton
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