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

“NUMBER VII. of The Royal American Magazine.”

The Royal American Magazine experienced a disruption in publication during the summer of 1774.  In a notice in the June issue, Isaiah Thomas, the founder of the magazine, reported that the “Distresses of the Town of Boston” that resulted from the Boston Port Act forced him to suspend publication for a few months.  He hoped to resume once “the Affairs of this Country are a little better settled.”  Not long after making that announcement, however, he took to the pages of his own newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, to inform subscribers and the public that he transferred the magazine to Joseph Greenleaf.  An address from Greenleaf appeared immediately below Thomas’s advertisement.  They were the latest entries in a marketing campaign that commenced when Thomas first revealed his intention to circulate subscription proposals in May 1773 and subsequent newspaper advertisements in June, July, August, September, October, November, and December 1773 and January, February, March, April, May, and June 1774.  The “Distresses” meant no newspaper advertisements for the magazine in July 1774, but they resumed with the notices from Thomas and Greenleaf in August.

Those notices each made four more appearances in September.  Not surprisingly, the Massachusetts Spy accounted for three of them.  For four weeks, Thomas used his own newspaper to advise subscribers and others of the change in publisher for the magazine.  The companion notices also ran once in the Boston Evening-Post on September 5.  Greenleaf’s address indicated that the July issue of the magazine “is now in the Press, and will be published without Delay.”  On September 15, the last day that they ran in the Massachusetts Spy, that newspaper also carried a new advertisement from Greenleaf, one that declared, “THIS DAY PUBLISHED … NUMBER VII. of The Royal American Magazine.”  The July issue finally became available in September!  Greenleaf’s advertisement was brief and restrained compared to many that Thomas had inserted.  It stated that the issue was “Embellished with an elegant Engraving,” but did not give a description or even a name for Paul Revere’s engraving of “Spanish Treatment at Carthagena,” nor did the advertisement incorporate an extensive list of the contents to entice readers.  Instead, it succinctly noted that the magazine was “Printed and Sold at GREENLEAF’S Printing-Office … where Subscriptions continue to be taken in.” The new publisher hoped to expand the magazine’s circulation despite a less ambitious advertising strategy than Thomas sometimes deployed.  The announcement about the July issue ran only once in the Massachusetts Spy.  It appeared in the Boston Evening-Post for the first time in its next edition four days later and again the following week.  Amid the “Distresses of the Town of Boston,” Greenleaf’s first issue of the Royal American Magazine had less fanfare than many of the issues that Thomas published.

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“To the Subscribers of the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE”

• September 1 – Massachusetts Spy (second appearance)
• September 5 – Boston Evening-Post (first appearance)
• September 8 – Massachusetts Spy (third appearance)
• September 15 – Massachusetts Spy (fourth appearance)

“To the PUBLIC, and in particular to the Subscribers”

• September 1 – Massachusetts Spy (second appearance)
• September 5 – Boston Evening-Post (first appearance)
• September 8 – Massachusetts Spy (third appearance)
• September 15 – Massachusetts Spy (fourth appearance)

“THIS DAY PUBLISHED … NUMBER VII”

• September 15 – Massachusetts Spy (first appearance)
• September 19 – Boston Evening-Post (first appearance)
• September 26 – Boston Evening-Post (second appearance)