looks at the way in which the dominant American publishing company of the early twentieth century defined and studied its readers,and then used information about them to shape its image to appeal to advertisers.As such,it is closely tied to the emergence of a consumer culture,a business-based,market-oriented culture that put,as William Leach has written,the accumulation of wealth and goods at the center of American life.William Leach,Land of Desire:Merchants,Power and the Rise of a New American Culture(New York:Pantheon,1993).Between 1909 and 1929,the U.S.population increased about a third,from nearly 90,500,000 to just over 121,000,000.During the same time,circulation of weekly periodicals rose by 73.5%,to 34,495,000,and the amount spent on such consumable items as food,beverages,clothing,personal care,furniture,fuel and utilities rose 174%,to$78,952,000.
See Historical Statistics of the United States,Colonial Times to 1957(Washington:Bureau of Census,1958).Baldasty has shown how the focus of newspaper journalism changed during the nineteenth century as a consumer culture emerged,Gerald J.Baldasty,The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century(Madison:University of Wisconsin Press,1992).and SusmanWarren I.Susman,Culture as History:The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century(New York:Pantheon,1984).and TaylorWilliam R.Taylor,In Pursuit of Gotham:Culture and Commerce in New York(New York:Oxford University Press,1992),Chapter 5.have looked at the interaction of media and culture in the early twentieth century.Fox and Lears,Richard Wrightman Fox and T.J.Jackson Lears,eds.,The Culture of Consumption:Critical Essays in American History,1880-1980(New York:Pantheon,1983);Fox and Lears,eds.,The Power of Culture(Chicago:University of Chicago Press,1993).Cohn,Jan Cohn,Creating America:George Horace Lorimer and The Saturday Evening Post(Pittsburgh:University of Pittsburgh Press,1989).Mott,Mott,A History of American Magazines.Sketches of the Post and Journal appear in Vol.4,pp.536-555,671-716.Pollay,Richard W.Pollay,“Thank the Editors for the Buyological Urge:American Magazines,Advertising and the Promotion of the Consumer Culture,1920-1980,”in Marketing in the Long Run:Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Historical Research in Marketing,ed.Stanley C.Hollander and Terence Nevett(East Lansing:Michigan State University,1985).,Wilson,Christopher P.Wilson,“The Rhetoric of Consumption:Mass Market Magazines and the Demise of the Gentle Reader,1880-1920,”in The Culture of Consumption,pp.40-64.and Tebbel and ZuckermanTebbel and Zuckerman,The Magazine in America,1741-1990,pp.81-97,141-181.have looked at the way magazines,especially Curtis magazines,worked to earn readers'trust in advertising.Kreshel has explored the early culture of market research,and has shown how it was used to try to reduce the uncertainty of advertising and to legitimize advertising as a profession.
Peggy J.Kreshel,“Toward a Cultural History of Advertising Research:A Case Study of J.Walter Thompson,1908-1925,”Ph.D.dissertation,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,1989;also see Kreshel,“Advertising Research in the Pre-Depression Years:A Cultural History,”Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising,15(Spring 1993),pp.59-75;“John B.Watson at J.Walter Thompson:The Legitimation of Science'in Advertising,”Journal of Advertising,19(1990),pp.49-59;and“The Culture'of J.Walter Thompson,1915-1925,”Public Relations Review,16(Fall 1990),pp.80-93.Publishers began using market research regularly in the first two decades of the twentieth century when advertisers began demanding proof about advertising and readership claims.The identification of readers in mere circulation numbers no longer seemed enough,especially for publishers and advertising agents seeking to prove the“efficiency”and effectiveness of advertising.Advertisers wanted to know who those readers were and what other publications they read.They wanted to know where the readers lived and the types of products they bought.Just as businesses increasingly sought information about markets,they likewise sought information about audiences and consumers.Curtis conducted its first readership survey in 1916,and through the 1920s expanded its use of audience studies.That research involved a process of definition that required both inclusion and exclusion,and helped publishers like Curtis carve a niche in the mass market.It also reinforced stereotypes of blacks and immigrants,labeling them as outcasts in a culture built on the ability to buy.To Cyrus Curtis and his staff,readers were more than just an audience;they were a product in themselves,something that could be defined,packaged and sold to advertisers.As in the commercial publishing world today,readers were a commodity.