Skip to Main Content

Revolutions from Grub Street: A History of Magazine Publishing in Britain

Online ISBN:
9780191756306
Print ISBN:
9780199601639
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Revolutions from Grub Street: A History of Magazine Publishing in Britain

Howard Cox,
Howard Cox

Professor of International Business History

Professor of International Business History, University of Worcester
Find on
Simon Mowatt
Simon Mowatt

Associate Professor of Management

Associate Professor of Management, AUT Business School
Find on
Published online:
16 April 2014
Published in print:
6 March 2014
Online ISBN:
9780191756306
Print ISBN:
9780199601639
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book provides a study of magazine publishing in Britain from the perspective of the entrepreneurs and commercial enterprises that created its history. Convulsed by social, political, and technological revolutions, the industry has proved both adaptable and resilient. Using a range of source materials, the study traces magazine production from the earliest examples of individuals seeking to earn their living as Grub Street hacks, hawking popular reading matter around eighteenth-century London, through to the global multi-media conglomerates that produce and distribute a vast range of modern consumer titles, utilizing digital age technologies. This 300-year study in business history seeks to explain why the economic activity of magazine publishing has assumed such a diverse range of organizational forms over time. In doing so, it pays particular attention to the changing technologies of publishing enterprises, and the working practices which they have engendered. The role of Britain’s powerful printing trade unions is thus afforded detailed attention. The study shows how, during the nineteenth century, the rise of mass-circulation consumer magazines and related systems of mass production eventually led to a period of extreme firm concentration. By the 1960s the vast enterprise of IPC had emerged as the dominant producer of consumer magazines in Britain, prompting political concerns over the issue of press monopoly. However, from the mid-1980s the twin impacts of globalization and digital technologies began to transform the industry, sparking the challenge of a new generation of customer-driven magazine publishing enterprises benefiting from desktop publishing systems and the ICT revolution.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close