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Time Inc. Life Publishing and Business Records

Call Number

MS 3009-RG 26

Date

1936-2001, inclusive

Creator

Time, inc.

Extent

31.21 Linear feet in 33 record cartons including 18 reels of microfilm, 3 flat boxes

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The Life Publishing and Business Records contain materials from the offices and staff of the business and publishing side of the magazine's operation. The majority of materials come from the publisher, and the advertising sales, business, market research, and circulation departments.

Historical Note

For the majority of Time Inc.'s existence, the company maintained a strict separation of editorial from the publishing and business side of each magazine, colloquially called the separation of "church" (editorial) and "state" (publishing). Publishing and Business Management includes the publisher, general manager, business manager, advertising sales, marketing services, letters, circulation, and public relations. The editorial side reported up to the editor-in-chief and the publishing/business side reported up to the corporate business executive who was the president prior to 1960 and the chief executive officer after that. Henry Luce structured Time Inc. this way so that the business side could not (in theory) influence the editorial content of the publications. For example, the advertising sales people could not interfere with a magazine's decision to run an article on the dangers of cigarette smoking, even though it might mean losing millions of dollars in tobacco ads.

In February 1936, Luce came up with the idea of creating a picture magazine. Luce proposed his new magazine concept to Time Inc. executives. At first, the group thought that Luce wanted to increase the number of pictures include in Time or that he wanted to add a supplement to the magazine but Luce was adamant that he wanted to create a magazine focused on photo journalism. While the executives were suspicious, Luce knew the idea could work. Luce's faith in the concept came from his experience with Fortune. Fortune, itself, was almost a photo journalism magazine and had been innovative in its use of photography. If these advances could be combined with Time's editorial content, Life could be a success.

After doing some initial research and testing, Time Inc. published the first issue of Life on November 23, 1936. In the original proposal to the board, the magazine would be the same size as the Illustrated London News and printed on shiny paper with around 200 high-quality photographs recording significant current news events including detailed captions. By presenting the images in this fashion, Luce hoped that the reader would be able to both enjoy what they were seeing but also be able to study the images to gain a logical understanding of what was happening in the world around them.

At the magazine's launch, it would cost 10 cents per issue, or $3 per year for a subscription. Based on the price of the magazine, they decided to name it Dime, The Show-Book of the World but quickly decided to change its name. According to Elson, staff and charter subscribers were asked to submit other names, and the title Life was suggested by both cofounder Henry Luce's wife Clare Luce and Time Inc. president James Linen's father. Since the name was already in use by another publication, Luce purchased it in order to acquire the rights.

The first staff members in 1936 were Luce as managing editor, John Martin as Luce's alternate and proposed sucessor as Life's managing editor, Daniel Longwell as picture editor, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Peter Stackpole as staff photographers, and Mary Fraser as copy chief. Despite a strong staff and a good concept, the magazine's financial outlook was ambiguous. Based on their pre-launch research, they knew that circulating the magazine wouldn't be a problem since most readers were attracted by the pictures and wanted to purchase the magazine to find out more. The real problem was figuring out how to turn a profit.

If Life followed the example of magazines like Time and Fortune then the way to make a profit would to be to rely on magazine subscriptions to cover the costs of printing and publication. Because of the high cost for making Life, doing this would make the magazine too expensive for the average reader. Instead of relying on subscriptions, Life would rely on advertising to bring in the needed revenue. With this idea in mind, the money made from the magazine's circulation would be used to cover the cost of printing the magazine but advertising revenue would cover everything else.

During Life's run, it was one of Time Inc.'s most successful ventures in terms of subscriptions and reader response but struggled with production and financing. Even though Life was popular, Time Inc. could not financially sustain production of Life and suspended its production as a weekly magazine in December 1972. Almost as soon as production was suspended, Time Inc. began planning Life's revival. The Magazine Development department published the first Life special in 1973 as a newsstand magazine followed by nine more. Time Inc. revived Life as a monthly in 1978. In 2000, publication was again suspended, but revived in 2004 as a newspaper supplement. In 2007, Time Inc. completely ceased printing of Life and created a website for images from the collection.

Citations:

Elson, Robert T. 1968. Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1923-1941. New York: Atheneum.

Hooper, Bill. Email to Holly Deakyne, 10 June 2016.

Prendergast, Curtis, and Geoffrey Colvin. 1986. The World of Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Changing Enterprise, 1960-1980. New York: Atheneum.

Time To Stop Publishing Life Magazine, Will Keep It Online. U.S. News. CNBC, 26 March 2007. https://www.cnbc.com/id/17797635.

Arrangement

This record group is arranged into nine series:


Series I. Publisher's Office Files
Series II. Business Office Files
Series III. Advertising Sales Files
Series IV. Market Research Department Files
Series V. Advertising Copy Acceptance Files
Series VI. Marketing and Sales Files
Series VII. Public Relations Department Files
Series VIII. Circulation Director Files
Series IX. Newsstand Department Records

Scope and Contents

The Life Publishing and Business Records contain materials from the publishing and business sides of the magazine's operation. The majority of materials come from the publisher, and the advertising sales, business, market research, and circulation departments. The main focus of the collection is on advertiser information, advertising sales, magazine sales, the use of photographs owned by Life, joint ventures between Life and other companies, and with circulation challenges.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to qualified researchers with the exception of restricted materials. Restricted materials may include contracts and consent forms. Restricted boxes include R27 and R42. Materials in box 3317 are sealed due to mold.

Unreformatted audiovisual and digital material in the collection is not accessible.

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use.

Conditions Governing Use

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as Time Inc. Life Publishing and Business Records, MS 3009-RG 26, The New York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection are stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Time Inc. 2015.

Related Materials

This finding aid relates to just one record group of the Time Inc. Records. For information about the other record groups and for overall information about the archives, please see the Guide to the Time Inc. Records (MS 3009). The Henry Luce Papers (MS 3014) were acquired with the Time Inc. Records. The collection of books acquired with the records are cataloged as the Time Inc. Reference Library.

Information about the history of Life and additional records from the editorial offices can be found in the Time Inc. Subject Files (MS 3009-RG 1) and the Time Inc. Annex Files (MS 3009-RG 39). Records from the editorial offices are in the Time Inc. Life Editorial Records (MS 3009-RG 9).

Additional files regarding the rights and reproduction of Life photographs are in the Time Inc. Editorial Services Records (MS 3009-RG 47).

Collection processed by

Samantha Brown and Holly Deakyne

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:46 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English

Processing Information

The Time Inc. Life Publishing and Business Records were processed by Samantha Brown and Holly Deakyne in 2019. Deakyne processed additions to the Circulation Department in 2020. Deakyne processed additions to Business Manager Nancy Phillips files and the Business Office General Files in 2021.

The original folders were retained although some documents were transferred to archival containers in the instances of overcrowding or no original folder was present. The majority of materials in binders were rehoused. Branded binder covers were retained and housed near their contents while generic binder covers were not retained.

Brown and Deakyne created the inventory and other descriptive notes. Within series, materials were maintained in their original order unless otherwise stated. Files retained their original titles but folders with illegible writing or unclear titles were either assigned new titles or had information added to them to clarify the contents.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024