Practice Primary Source Report on The Australian Journal by Karla Destéfani

 Practice PSR: 
Primary Source Report on The Australian Journal 
Produced by Karla Destéfani

Circulation

The Australian journal begun as a weekly in 1865, it had become a monthly magazine by 1869, aiming to continue the claims of its first issue: “the ablest COLONIAL pens of the day will be engaged on our staff. Historical Romances and Legendary Narratives of the old country will be mingled with tales of Venture and Daring in the new.” (p.227)
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 in 1945. (Osborne blah blah blah) Additionally, each copy contained between 100 and 200 pages under the editorship of Campbell. (reference).
In 1937 the journal cost two shillings which is todays equivalent to $9.90. Additionally, in 1951 the journal cost one shilling which is equivalent to $2.20. This could have attributed to the increase in sales.

Editor

W.E. Adcock was the original editor (p.227-228) and hired Campbell after Campbell submitted several short stories in 1926. Campbell was influential in making the magazines’ “a more responsible publication.”

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).

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.

  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

By comparing a 1929 issue with a 1951 issue, the following section provides an idea of the way Campbell maintained the departments throughout his time with magazine. As a magazine for every member of the family, the Australian Journal offered a broad mixture of editorial and advertising content. The primary content of stories and serials remained constant throughout the decades, but the provenance of stories shows a clear shift by the 1950s towards foreign syndicated fiction. (p.230)

 People looking for local content

It entertained a wide variety of readings -men women and children (pp.228)

Quality readings

Middlebrow- perhaps upper middlebrow

Contents
a. Content Priorities

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”).

Campbell developed strong relationships with many of Australia’s most active freelance short story writers of the 1930s, including Myra Morris, Georgia Rivers, Vance Palmer, Xavier Herbert, Roy Bridges, J. H. M. Abbot, J. P. McKinney, and Arthur Upfield. Common contributed in the 1930s to 50s some of the authors who regularly contributed were Myra Morris, Jon Cleary, Robert Close, and Xavier Herbert.

He continued to encourage younger authors to contribute. Contributors to the Australian Journal filled more pages with around 6,000 words of popular romance, adventure, crime and detective fiction (Osbourne, p.234). There was a total of 2133 stories published within the journal which placed it in at second behind The Bulletin, but thousand above its predecessor The Australian Women’s Mirror. 

b. 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). 

a. Social, Political and Cultural Issues

The quantity of Australian versus overseas authors could impact the issues raised in the stories. 

Format

Ranging between 100 and 200 pages throughout Campbell’s editorship. It responded to the economic realities of publishing balanced advertising revenue with circulation/demand.

 

Proof sheets were brought to me for checking. With corrections made, layouts prepared, dinkuses and illustrations positioned, they were formed into matrices for locking into the magazine rotary press, acquired in 1934 and capable of printing in two colours. On the ground floor behind the administrative offices, the rotary reverberated as the Journal went to press each month. In such a confined space, it took on the proportions of a dinosaur, drowning the sounds of the typesetters and other operators as it was activated, first slowly, and then swelling to a Bach fugue. The crescendo of sound eclipsed the gentler orchestration of flat-beds in their unhurried ssh-soosh-sigh of a punkah stirring the air as each ruled ledger page or poster slid down-up in rhythmic, hypnotic regularity. In our two “berths” on the top deck, the throbbing of the big press through the planks beneath our feet set us off on journeys with writers and artists for the next edition.10

 

 

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/