The insightful analysis by David Shaw was one of many articles written in the popular press during the 1960s and 1970s to discuss what city magazines were doing,could do,and should do.The continuing development of the genre also prompted several scholarly studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s based for the most part on surveys of the magazines.Alan Fletcher reported in 1977 that city magazines had found an important,albeit narrow,niche in the marketplace in large-sized and medium-sized metropolitan areas.Alan D.Fletcher,“City Magazines Find a Niche in the Media Marketplace,”Journalism Quarterly,54,pp.740-43,49(Winter,1977).Fletcher and Bruce G.Vanden Bergh found in 1982 that city magazines were growing in numbers and acquiring problems,including problems related to advertising support and circulation.Alan D.Fletcher and Bruce G.Vanden Bergh,“Numbers Grow,Problems Remain for City Magazines,”Journalism Quarterly,59,pp.3l3-17(Summer,1982).Ernest C.Hynds reported in 1979 that most city magazines had some interest in pointing our local problems and needs and that about half see themselves as possible alternatives to local newspapers.Ernest C.Hynds,“City Magazines,Newspapers Serve in Different Ways,”JournalismQuarterly,56,pp.619-22(Autumn 1979).John P.Hayes reported in 1981 that most city and regional magazine readers comprise a specialized audience of educated,upwardly mobile,credit-card-carrying adults who attract local and regional advertisers.He determined that the magazines use a good deal of freelance material but generally do not pay well and pay on publication.John P.Hayes,“City/Regional Magazines:A Survey/Census,”JournalismQuarterly,58,pp.294-96(Summer,1981).Sam Riley also used a survey to obtain information for his discussion of the development of city and regional magazines in the South in 1982.Sam Riley,“Specialized Magazines of the South,”Journalism Quarterly,59,pp.447-450,455(Autumn,1982).Little has been reported in the academic journals since then,but city magazines have been the subject of a few theses and at least one dissertation.Vicki Hesterman summarizes a great deal of information about city magazines in her 1988 Ohio University dissertation,which specifically considers“Ethical Standards of American Magazines:The Practices and Policies of City and Regional Publications.”Vicki Hesterman,“Ethical Standards of American Magazines:The Practices and Policies of City and Regional Publications,”Unpublished dissertation,Ohio University,August,1988.
Trade journals and some members of the popular press have been the primary sources of information about the continued development of city,state and regional magazines in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Advertising Age printed a“Special Report:City&Regional Magazines”in 1985 that discussed their growth and reasons for their success.“Special Report:City&Regional Magazines,”Advertising Age,Vol 56,January 17,1985,pp.11ff.Folio magazine,the“magazine for magazine management,”also has provided reports on city and regional magazines from time to time.Heidi Schultz,publisher of Chicago and a member of the City and Regional Magazine Association board of directors,reported in 1992 on what these magazines were doing to recover from the recession.She said they were among the hardest hit during the recession but were fighting back with creative,innovative programs to strengthen their advertising revenues and build their local franchises.She discussed such activities as reader-response programs,joining with advertisers in highly visible events,and the use of formatted pages built around a theme such as“River North”or St.Patrick's Day.Heidi Schultz,“City&Regionals:Building Strength,”Folio,Vol.21,No.8,pp 57-59(August 1992).Folio reported on the battle for the Los Angeles market in September of 1990 Susan Hovey,“The Lure of LA-LA land,”Folio,Vol.19,No.9,pp.50-52(September 1990).and the battle between two city magazines and the regional Texas Monthly in November of that same year.Liz Horton,“Two Against One in Texas,”Folio,Vol 19,No.11,pp.81,83.Local newspapers also report on the magazines in their communities on occasion.For example,the Chicago Tribune looked at the efforts of several magazines to win readers and advertisers in its city of publication in the late 1980s.James Warren,“A Lot of Crust:In a City This Lively,Chicago's Magazines Are Inexcusably Stale,”Chicago Tribune,July 18,1989,Section 5,pp.1-3;Chris Storch,“Chicago Times at 2:Searching for an Identity,”Chicago Tribune,August 21,1988,Section 7,pp.1-2;Chris Storch,“The Chicago Magazine Story,”Chicago Tribune,January 18,1987,Section 7,pp.1,9;James Warren,“The Meaty Chicago Times Makes for a Freshing Debut,”Chicago Tribune,August 26,1987,Section 5,p.2.