AustLit

MEDIA TRADE PRESS

Trade periodicals have tracked transformations in the mass media. Changes in printing methods were paralleled by the Australasian Typographical Journal from 1870 and the appearance of the Australian Lithographer in 1964. Wireless Weekly began in 1922 as a technical guide. Oswald Mingay started Broadcasting Business in 1934 as an insert in Radio Retailer, and by 1947 was publishing two trade journals and five annuals. Broadcasting and Television has operated under various mastheads since 1950.

In 1921, D.W. Thorpe initiated the Australian Stationery and Fancy Goods Journal, which became Ideas for Stationers, Sporting Goods, Newsagents, Art and Gift Shops, Booksellers and Libraries in 1934, or Ideas for short after 1937; it has been Bookseller and Publisher since 1971. With the growth of local publishing, Ideas spawned a separate title from 1962 as Australian Books in Print, then Australian Serials (Periodicals) in Print in 1981. In 1988, the resale of D.H. Thorpe Pty Ltd saw its absorption into the Reed Elsevier group.

The creation of industry bodies such as the Country Press Associations from 1900 and the Australian Newspapers Conference (later Council) in 1924 underpinned Newspaper News from 1928; it became Advertising and Newspaper News in 1969.

As advertising agencies went from selling space to providing a full service of artwork and research, at least 15, frequently fugitive, periodicals—starting with The Reason Why (1908)— represented the shifting nature of their business. The Waddy (1919) was ‘for driving home club facts’; Smith and Miles’ Proof (est. 1925) built goodwill by selling the advertising firm’s ‘personality’. Advertising Monthly in 1928–30 rose with the boom and sank in the Depression. Rydge’s (est. 1928) always advanced the ties between commerce, entertainment, finance and publicity. Market researchers gained a separate voice in 1956 with the stencilled Journal of the Market Research Society of Victoria, which expanded Australia-wide from 1960. The media journals became explicit about the packaging of audiences for sale.

By the late 1960s, Newspaper News had 2575 subscribers, Advertising in Australia 2376 and B&T Weekly only 1811. Like the mass media they serve, the trade publications are squeezed by online advertising. In addition to its print version, B&T launched an electronic edition in 2003. It went bi-weekly in 2008.

REF: J. Nicholson, A Life of Books (2000).

HUMPHREY McQUEEN