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December 30

Carl Robert Keyes

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Massachusetts Spy (December 30, 1773).

“THE Editor of the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE, presents his most respectful Compliments.”

After advertising the Royal American Magazine more widely than in any previous month in November 1773, Isaiah Thomas placed fewer advertisements in December.  In total, he ran twenty advertisements in seven newspapers in six towns in five colonies, compared to the forty-three advertisements he published in November.  The success of his marketing efforts in June, July, August, September, October, and November likely explains the decline in the number of advertisements for December.  Thomas distributed subscription proposals to determine whether or not he could entice enough subscribers to make the magazine a viable venture and, if so, how many copies he needed to print.  Once he determined that sufficient interest existed to merit moving forward with the project, he did not need to disseminate the subscription proposals or notices about submitting them to his printing office as widely.  He could instead devote more attention to launching a newspaper, the Essex Journal, in Newburyport in partnership with Henry-Walter Tinges.

Thomas also shifted his attention to the production of the magazine, including gathering contents.  His advertisement addressed to the “generous Patrons and Promoters of useful KNOWLEDGE throughout AMERICA” solicited “the Favour of their LUCUBRATIONS” or essays to publish in the magazine.  In November, that notice appeared only in Boston, but in December it ran in newspapers published in Boston and Newburyport, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and Newport, Rhode Island.  Still, Thomas’s own publications carried the notice six of the twelve times it ran in December, five times in the Massachusetts Spy, where it originated, and once in the free inaugural issue of the Essex Journal.  That advertisement included a request for “PRINTERS of all the Public Papers in America” to insert it “as soon as may be,” but fewer took note of it than a notice asserting that “subscription papers will be returned to the intended publisher in a few days.”  That advertisement appeared five times in October, thirty-two times in November, and eight more times in December.  Only two newspapers, the Maryland Gazette and the Norwich Packet, carried it in December.  Having commenced publication the previous month, the Norwich Packet may have been eager for both the content and, especially, advertising revenue.

Thomas continued to advertise the Royal American Magazine in 1774.  He regularly announced the publication of new issues each month.  He did not, however, place such advertisements as widely as the subscription proposals and other notices calling on subscribers to submit their names as soon as possible or risk missing out on the magazine.  His marketing campaign concentrated on establishing the magazine rather than promoting it once it began publication.

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“Subscription Papers will be returned” Update

“generous Patrons” Update

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