thumb|upright|Issue for October 27, 1832

The Penny Magazine was an illustrated British magazine aimed at the working class, published every Saturday from 31 March 1832 to 31 October 1845. Charles Knight created it for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in response to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which started two months earlier. Sold for only a penny and illustrated with wood-engravings, it was an expensive enterprise that could survive only with a large circulation. Though initially successful, with a circulation of 200,000 in the first year, it proved too dry and too Whiggish to appeal to its intended working-class audience. The Edinburgh Journal, by contrast, which included a weekly short story, grew more slowly, but lasted longer.

Early success

During the first few years of publication, The Penny Magazine succeeded in building an audience, selling over 200,000 copies in 1832 with an estimated readership of nearly one million that year, easily outselling other periodicals such as the Edinburgh Journal and The Saturday Magazine.

Price

Several factors contributed to the early success of The Penny Magazine. First, its price of 1d. made it affordable for its intended working-class audience. Its only direct competitor in this price range in 1832 was the Edinburgh Journal.

Use of non-radical information

Another aspect of its success as suggested by historians Rosemary Mitchell and A.L. Austin was the role of ‘non-radical information’. Austin states that the timing of the publication of the periodical in the same year as the Reform Act 1832 was significant as this meant that "the working classes expected parliamentary authority to consider the laboring community's complaints" and that such questioning of authority led to a "public shift toward rational inquiry" which could be found within the pages of The Penny Magazine. Similarly, in 1841 over 30% of males and nearly 50% of females were still illiterate, therefore using illustrations Knight was able to appeal to an audience with limited reading skills, while also enabling self-education.

The illustrations became highly popular with Knight’s target audience as shown by the fact 1,887 illustrated articles were published in The Penny Magazine between the years of 1832 and 1845. These images would often vary between machinery and animals. The popularity of illustrations and Knight’s desire for sales resulted in certain covers becoming scientifically inaccurate, for example an illustration of "The Boa Constrictor" (October 27, 1832) showed the creature attacking its prey with fangs drawn even though the reptile suffocates its prey. Austin argues that the idea of the snake striking at its prey was more likely to stir the reader’s emotions and entice them into purchasing the magazine.

References

Further reading

  • Paper & Printing : The New Technology of the 1830s : Taken from the Monthly Supplement of the Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, August to December 1833, Oxford : Plough Press, 1982. With an introduction by Colin Cohen.
  • History of Information Online: Charles Knight & The Penny Magazine
  • Spartacus Educational Online: Charles Knight
  • Penny Magazine, complete 14 volumes 1832-45 at Internet Archive.org.