Mark Bradley Practice PSR 1- The Australian Journal

PSR 1: Primary Source Report on The Australian Journal

by Mark Bradley

 

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). Its final issue was printed in April 1962.

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 century 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 R. G. Campbell and hired Campbell after Campbell submitted a number of short stories in 1926 and was influential in making the magazine “a more respectable publication”.  Campbell was a teacher prior to coming on board with the magazine first as a writer, and then the editor of The Australian Journal for thirty years (1926-1955) (Osborne 11).

 

 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

It entertained a wide variety of readers - men, women and children (Osborne 228), and read by many soldiers of the Commonwealth as speculated by Campbell. Though there was much variety, critics such as P. R. Stephensen states the magazine did not cater to highbrow tastes.

 

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. The Australian Journal was important in supporting promising freelance writers. More then 2000 stories were contributed by almost 750 writers between 1926 and 1955 and of these, almost one quarter of the stories were contributed by only 20 long-term writers.

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 is implied in the magazines title, Campbell focused on incorporating Australian stories from Australian authors. Unfortunately, as magazine sales fell, so too did the competitive wages paid to Australian writers, and the magazine had to rely more on syndaciated fiction from overseas.

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?

During Campbells editorship, Issues ranged from 100 to 200 pages in response to economic hardship.