Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word magazine derives from the Arabic makhāzin, the plural of makhzan meaning depot or storehouse, originally a military storehouse. It entered English via Middle French magasin and Italian magazzino. Edward Cave, editor of The Gentleman's Magazine in 1731, was the first to apply the term to a publication, describing it as a place to treasure up information.
The earliest example of a magazine is Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen, a literary and philosophy magazine launched in 1663 in Germany. The first general-interest magazine was The Gentleman's Magazine, first published in 1731 in London.
The Scots Magazine, first published in 1739, has the strongest claim to being the oldest consumer magazine still in print, though multiple changes in ownership and publication gaps totalling over 90 years complicate that claim.
Muckrakers were investigative journalists who wrote for popular magazines in the early 1900s to expose corporate and political corruption, social ills, and unsafe conditions. McClure's was the most prominent muckraking magazine. Notable muckrakers included Ida Tarbell, who investigated John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, and Samuel Hopkins Adams, who documented patent medicine fraud in 1905. President Roosevelt coined the term when he complained they were raking up too much muck.
The seven sisters are Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Woman's Day, Redbook, Family Circle, and Better Homes and Gardens. They are a group of major American women's magazines that have historically shaped cultural values related to domestic life and parenting.
Closures outnumbered launches in North America in 2009, but between 2010 and 2015, launches outnumbered closures each year, sometimes by a ratio of 3 to 1. Subscription figures from the end of 2013 showed that 22 of the top 25 magazines declined compared to the previous year. Research published in 2025 found that print magazines are perceived as more trustworthy with better quality journalism than digital alternatives.