Stacey Koch Practice PSR

PSR 1: Primary Source Report on The Australian Journal

by Stacey Koch

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).

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 xxx year, was influential in making the magazine “a more respectable publication” --- when Campbell hired he stopped the

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)

Quality reading

Middlebrow – perhaps upper middlebrow 

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 (230). 

c. If the magazine attends to social, political, or cultural issues, is there anything that helps you describe its position?   

Can you fill this out?  

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