Subscription Proposal for Magazine

October 31

Carl Robert Keyes Uncategorized , , , , ,

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

Boston-Gazette (October 25, 1773).

“American Magazine. ‘To be, or not to be.’”

In the summer and fall of 1773, Isaiah Thomas advertised widely in his efforts to attract subscribers for the Royal American Magazine, a proposed publication that would become the only magazine published in the colonies at the time if the printer managed to generate enough interest to make it a viable venture.  On October 25, he placed advertisements in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy with a secondary headline that proclaimed “To be, or not to be,” a familiar quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to indicate that the prospects of the publication remained uncertain.  In both newspapers, Thomas requested that anyone who recruited subscribers return the subscription papers with the lists of names by the middle of November “as by that Time he shall be able to determine, whether the said Magazine will be Published or not.”  The advertisement in the Boston-Gazette also included a nota bene in which Thomas confided that “by the Appearance of the Subscription papers, in his Possession, there is the greatest Probability of its going forward.”  Thomas would indeed publish the first issue in January 1774, though the magazine lasted only sixteen months due to the disruptions of the imperial crisis and, eventually, the war that began with the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

The Adverts 250 Project has traced the advertising campaign that promoted the Royal American Magazine in June, July, August, and September.  An even greater number of advertisements appeared in colonial newspapers in October than in any previous month, a total of twenty advertisements in ten newspapers in eight towns in six colonies.  Three of those advertisements ran in Thomas’s own Massachusetts Spy, while other newspapers carried the vast majority of them. Fourteen of the advertisements appeared in newspapers published beyond Boston.  Thomas sought subscribers who read newspapers published in Salem, Massachusetts; Portsmouth, New-Hampshire; Newport, Rhode Island; New Haven and New London in Connecticut; and New York and Philadelphia.  Previously, the Connecticut Courant, published in Hartford, and the Providence Gazette also carried the subscription proposals for the Royal American Magazine.  Thomas knew the number of prospective subscribers in Boston alone would not justify an investment of the time and resources required to publish a magazine.  He devised an advertising campaign that extended to all of the colonies in New England as well as New York and Pennsylvania.

Newport Mercury (October 4, 1773).

In October 1773, the subscription proposals appeared once again in the Connecticut Journal and the Pennsylvania Journal.  The printer’s update addressed “To the Public” made additional appearances in the Boston-Gazette and the Massachusetts Spy.  It also ran for the first time in the Essex Gazette, published in Salem, and had two more insertions during the month.  Having published the subscription proposals in July and August, the Newport Mercury carried a unique advertisement, likely devised by Solomon Southwick, the printer and Thomas’s local agent for collecting the names of subscribers, rather than by Thomas himself.  It announced, “SUBSCRIPTIONS taken in by the Printer hereof, FOR THE ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE: WHICH will soon be published by Mr. ISAIAH THOMAS, in Boston.  Price 10s4 per annum.”

Connecticut Journal (October 22, 1773).

That advertisement expressed greater certainty about the prospects for the magazine than Thomas’s “To be, or not to be” notice that ran in Boston later in the month, as did another update that Thomas placed in newspapers in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York near the end of the month.  That advertisement informed “Gentlemen and Ladies, who incline to encourage the Publication of the ROYAL AMERICAN MAGAZINE … that the Subscription Papers will be returned to the intended Publisher in a few Days, in order that he may ascertain the Number subscribed for.”  Those who had not yet submitted their names to the local printing office had only a limited time to do so.  As an enticement to those still contemplating whether they wished to subscribe, a nota bene promoted “two elegant Copper Plate Prints” that would accompany the first issue of the magazine.  The nota bene also indicated a publication date, “the first Day of January next.”  Along with the magazine, prospective subscribers did not have much time to qualify for these premiums.  If they decided to subscribe at some time in the future, they would miss out on the gift given to those who supported the magazine even before the first issue went to press.

Thomas hoped to publish the Royal American Magazine, but first he needed to determine if a market existed to support it.  His subscription proposals and other advertisements served a dual purpose: they incited demand for the magazine while also assessing interest and determining the total number of subscribers willing to pay for the publication.  Some subscription proposals, no matter how widely they circulated, never resulted in publishing the proposed book, magazine, map, or other item.  Over the course of several months, Thomas managed to identify and incite sufficient demand to publish the Royal American Magazine.

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Newspaper Advertisements for October 1773

Subscription Proposals

  • October 8 – Connecticut Journal (second known appearance; fourth possible appearance)
  • October 20 – Postscript to the Pennsylvania Journal (second appearance)

“To the PUBLIC” Update

  • October 4 – Boston-Gazette (third appearance)
  • October 7 – Massachusetts Spy (third appearance)
  • October 12 – Essex Gazette (first appearance)
  • October 14 – Massachusetts Spy (fourth appearance)
  • October 19 – Essex Gazette (second appearance)
  • October 21 – Massachusetts Spy (fifth appearance)
  • October 26 – Essex Gazette (third appearance)

“SUBSCRIPTIONS” Notice

  • October 4 – Newport Mercury (first appearance)
  • October 11 – Newport Mercury (second appearance)
  • October 18 – Newport Mercury (third appearance)
  • October 25 – Newport Mercury (fourth appearance)

“Subscription Papers will be returned” Update

  • October 22 – Connecticut Journal (first appearance)
  • October 22 – New-Hampshire Gazette (first appearance)
  • October 22 – New-London Gazette (first appearance)
  • October 28 – New-York Journal (first appearance)
  • October 29 – Connecticut Journal (second appearance)

“To be, or not to be” Update

  • October 25 – Boston-Gazette (first appearance)
  • October 25 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (first appearance)

September 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (September 20, 1773).

“The Royal American Magazine is likely in a short Time to make its Appearance.”

Throughout September 1773, Isaiah Thomas, printer of the Massachusetts Spy, continued marketing the Royal American Magazine.  He hoped to attract enough subscribers to make the publication a viable venture.  Although printers from New Hampshire to Georgia supplied colonizers with more than two dozen newspapers, including five printed in Boston, none of them published a magazine.  Instead, printers, booksellers, and shopkeepers imported magazines from England.  Realizing that he likely needed subscribers from beyond Massachusetts if he wished to take the magazine to press, Thomas advertised in several colonies.

In the first half of September, Thomas ran the proposals for the Royal American Magazine six more times, inserting them in four newspapers in two colonies.  The proposals appeared for the first time in the Connecticut Journal, published in New Haven, on September 3 and in the Pennsylvania Journal, published in Philadelphia, on September 8. By the end of the month, they had their second and third insertions in the Connecticut Courant, published in Hartford, and the New-London Gazette.  The proposals may have run again in the Connecticut Journal on September 17 and 24.  Those issues are not available via America’s Historical Newspapers.  While Thomas may have sent subscription papers in the form of broadsides, handbills, or pamphlets to local agents in other colonies, he did not arrange to have the proposals printed in newspapers south of Pennsylvania.  The proposals did state that “the printers and booksellers in Americas” accepted subscriptions.

Starting on September 9, Thomas circulated an update, a much shorter notice that first appeared in the Massachusetts Spy and then in other newspapers published in Boston.  This announcement, addressed “To the PUBLIC,” advised readers that the magazine “is likely in a short Time to make its Appearance” as a result of the “generous Encouragement of a great Number of Gentlemen in this Province.”  Thomas requested that “those Gentlemen and Ladies, who incline to be Promoters of this useful Undertaking” submit their names “with all convenient Speed” because he planned to commenced publication “as soon as he hears what Numbers of Subscribers there are in the other Colonies.”  Subscribers did not need to send any payment “until the delivery of the first Number.”  Thomas published and distributed the first issue of the Royal American Magazine in January 1774.

The printer devised an extensive advertising campaign in preparation of launching the magazine, coordinating newspaper advertisements in several colonies and corresponding with printers and other local agents.  Other printers pursued similar strategies when they set about new projects, using subscription proposals to incite demand.  Those advertisements simultaneously served as market research, informing printers whether they should take a project to press and, if so, how many copies to produce.

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Subscription Proposals

  • September 3 – Connecticut Journal (first appearance)
  • September 3 – New-London Gazette (second appearance)
  • September 7 – Connecticut Courant (second appearance)
  • September 8 – Pennsylvania Journal (first appearance)
  • September 10 – New-London Gazette (third appearance)
  • September 14 – Connecticut Courant (third appearance)
  • September 17 – possible second appearance in Connecticut Journal
  • September 24 – possible third appearance in Connecticut Journal

“To the PUBLIC” Update

  • September 9 – Massachusetts Spy (first appearance)
  • September 13 – Boston Evening-Post (first appearance)
  • September 13 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (first appearance)
  • September 16 – Massachusetts Spy (second appearance)
  • September 20 – Boston-Gazette (first appearance)
  • September 20 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (second appearance)
  • September 27 – Supplement to the Boston-Gazette (second appearance)
  • September 27 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (third appearance)

September 12

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (September 9, 1773).

“The Royal American MAGAZINE is likely in a short time to make its appearance.”

Isaiah Thomas, printer of the Massachusetts Spy, continued his efforts to solicit subscribers for a new endeavor, the Royal American Magazine, in the fall of 1773.  Like many other projects proposed by printers, publishers, and booksellers, he would not take the magazine to press until his subscription proposals garnered sufficient interest to justify further investment.  Thomas began with a brief announcement in his own newspaper on May 27, declaring that he would soon publish “PROPOSALS for printing by Subscription, The ROYAL American MAGAZINE.”  On June 24, the proposals appeared in the Massachusetts Spy.  Thomas may have also distributed the proposals as a separate broadside or handbill.

After inserting the proposals in his own newspaper, Thomas set about disseminating them to an even broader market by placing them in all of the newspapers printed in Boston as well as newspapers published in other colonies.  In July, the proposals ran fourteen times, appearing in seven newspapers printed in Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, and Providence.  In August, the proposals appeared thirteen more times in eight newspapers.  They ran for the first time in newspapers published in Hartford and New London.  Along the way, Thomas, who had achieved a reputation for opposing the British government with the news and editorials in the Massachusetts Spy, issued a separate clarification that the Royal American Magazine “will never be GUIDED or INFLUENCED by any PARTY whatever,” despite allegations to the contrary.  However, when Thomas began publishing the magazine in January 1774, it quickly became a vehicle for delivering propaganda that favored the patriot cause.

In September 1773, Thomas dispensed with running the lengthy proposals in the Massachusetts Spy in favor of a shorter notice that encouraged the public, presumably familiar with the project, to become “promoters of this useful undertaking” by “send[ing] in their names with all convenient speed.”  He required “NO Money” until subscribers received the first issue, which he planned to publish “as soon as he hears what number of subscribers there are in the other colonies.”  Thomas pledged that the magazine “is likely in a short time to make its appearance” thanks to “the generous encouragement of a great number of gentlemen in this province.”  Through reporting that the magazine already had so many subscribers, Thomas leveraged existing demand in hopes of generating more demand among those who had not yet subscribed.  To increase the likelihood that prospective subscribers would see and take note of this shorter advertisement, he gave it a privileged place immediately after the news in the September 9 edition of the Massachusetts Spy.

August 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Connecticut Courant (August 24, 1773).

“PROPOSALS, For printing by SUBSCRIPTION, A NEW Periodical Production, entitled, The ROYAL American Magazine.”

Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, continued his efforts to garner subscribers for a new publication, the Royal American Magazine, in August 1773.  He previously disseminated subscription proposals in his own newspaper, first on June 24 and then in four of the five issues published in July.  By the end of that month, he inserted the extensive proposals in two other newspapers published in Boston (the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boyand the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter) as well as both newspapers published in Rhode Island (the Newport Mercury and the Providence Gazette) and one each in New York (the New-York Journal) and Philadelphia (the Pennsylvania Chronicle).  In total, subscription proposals for the Royal American Magazine appeared fourteen times in seven newspapers in five towns in July.

In August, those proposals ran another thirteen times, as listed below.  Thomas inserted them in his own newspaper three more times.  He also concluded the cycle in three other newspapers.  Most printers charged a set rate for an advertisement to run three times and then additional fees for each insertion after that.  The proposals made their second and third appearances in both the Newport Mercury and the Pennsylvania Chronicle in August (and already made three appearances in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy in July).  According to the colophon for the New-York Journal, advertisements ran four times before the printer assessed additional fees.  The proposals made their third and fourth appearances in the New-York Journal in August 1773.  They also ran for the first time in the Boston Evening-Post and the Boston-Gazette.  That meant that all of the newspapers published in Boston carried the proposals at least once, reaching readers in that city and beyond who did not regularly read the Massachusetts Spy.  Thomas may have struck a deal with his fellow printers in town since three of those newspapers printed the proposals only once.  Thomas also added another newspaper to the roster of those that disseminated the subscription proposals.  The Connecticut Courant, published in Hartford, carried them on August 24, the first time for a newspaper in that colony.  The proposals filled nearly two columns (out of twelve) in that issue.  Three days later, the proposals ran in the New-London Gazette.

Thomas realized that to successfully attract enough subscribers to make the only magazine published in America at the time a viable venture, he needed to market the proposed publication widely.  That meant saturating the market in Boston as well as establishing a network that included towns in other colonies.  Advertisements in newspapers published in New York, Philadelphia, Providence, New London, Newport, and Hartford reached even wider audiences than the Massachusetts Spy and its counterparts in Boston.  Thomas engaged “the printers and booksellers in America,” near and far, to act as local agents who collected subscriptions for the Royal American Magazine on his behalf.

  • August 2 – Boston-Gazette (first appearance)
  • August 2 – Newport Mercury (second appearance)
  • August 2 – Pennsylvania Chronicle (second appearance)
  • August 5 – Massachusetts Spy (sixth appearance)
  • August 5 – New-York Journal (third appearance)
  • August 9 – Newport Mercury (third appearance)
  • August 9 – Pennsylvania Chronicle (third appearance)
  • August 12 – Massachusetts Spy (seventh appearance)
  • August 12 – New-York Journal (fourth appearance)
  • August 16 – Boston Evening-Post (first appearance)
  • August 19 – Massachusetts Spy (eighth appearance)
  • August 24 – Connecticut Courant (first appearance)
  • August 27 – New-London Gazette (first appearance)
Connecticut Courant (August 24, 1773).

July 31

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

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

Providence Gazette (July 31, 1773).

“SUBSCRIPTIONS for the Royal American Magazine are taken in by the Printer hereof.”

Although it took longer for Isaiah Thomas to publish the subscription proposals for the Royal American Magazine than he first anticipated, once they appeared in his newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, on June 24, 1773, he set about building an advertising campaign to attract subscribers from Boston and beyond.  In the month of July, the subscription proposals appeared in newspapers fourteen times.  In the initial insertion, Thomas declared that he accepted subscriptions, as did “many gentlemen in the country whose name will short be published” and “the printers and booksellers in AMERICA.”  He had plans to create an extensive network.

By the end of July, the subscription proposals ran in the Massachusetts Spy four more times (July 1, 8, 15, and 29) and in six other newspapers.  They first appeared in another newspaper published in Boston and then in newspapers in four other cities.

  • July 12 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Bost-Boy
  • July 19 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy
  • July 22 – New-York Journal
  • July 24 – Providence Gazette
  • July 26 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy
  • July 26 – Newport Mercury
  • July 26 – Pennsylvania Chronicle
  • July 29 – Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter
  • July 29 – New-York Journal
  • July 31 – Providence Gazette

Booksellers throughout the colonies imported magazines from England, but no other colonial printers published magazines.  Thomas intended that the Royal American Magazine would serve all of the colonies rather than one city or region.  He also realized that he needed to enlist subscribers from beyond Boston and the surrounding towns if he wanted to make the magazine a viable venture.  Printers had attempted about a dozen magazines in the colonies over the past thirty years, but most of them folded within a year.  None lasted longer than three years.  Thomas marketed a monthly publication of “essays, instructive and entertaining to all classes of men,” that “men of the greatest abilities in the literary world” would collect and preserve in their libraries, unlike newspapers “only noticed for a day, and then thrown neglected by.”  At ten shillings and four pence, the Royal American Magazine cost more than a subscription to the Massachusetts Spy, at six shillings and eight pence, for only twelve issues rather than fifty-two weekly issues throughout the year.  Even if the contents appealed “to all classes of men,” only certain colonizers could afford to subscribe.  That meant that Thomas needed to widen his marketing efforts far beyond Boston.  Inserting the subscription proposals in newspapers published in New York and Philadelphia, two of the largest cities in the colonies, as well as Newport and Providence, two more busy ports, helped the printer reach the sorts of genteel and affluent colonizers likely to have an interest in supporting an American magazine that catered to them as an alternative to imported English publications.

July 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy (July 19, 1773).

“THE ROYAL American MAGAZINE, Or UNIVERSAL REPOSITORY.  [To be published monthly.]”

Nearly three weeks after Isaiah Thomas inserted “PROPOSALS For printing by SUBSCRIPTION, A NEW Periodical Production, entitled, THE ROYAL American MAGAZINE, Or UNIVERSAL REPOSITORY,” in his own newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, those proposals appeared in the July 12, 1773, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy and continued throughout the rest of the month.  In those iterations, the proposals did not benefit from the same privileged place.  Thomas ran the lengthy advertisement in the first two columns on the first page of the Massachusetts Spy.  Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks, in contrast, used smaller type and condensed the proposals to a single column on the final page of their newspaper.  The proposals ran alongside all sorts of other advertisements.  Still, they appeared in their entirety.

That included an address “To the PUBLIC” in which Thomas encouraged prospective subscribers to contemplate the value, not just the utility, of the magazine.  He contrasted magazines with newspapers, “only noticed for a day; and then thrown neglected,” asserting that magazines contained literature, a category that encompassed all manner of inquiry, that merited preserving and passing down from generation to generation.  Thomas lamented, “Before the art of printing was known, the sons of science suffered greatly; and it is beyond a doubt that for the want of that useful vehicle the PRINTING PRESS, in those days, many very valuable essays of the ancients have been buried in oblivion.”  In his role as printer, Thomas could play a part in preventing that from happening again, but he needed subscribers as partners in that endeavor.  He explained to prospective subscribers that “In this polite age when printing flourishes, the man of genius may hand his performances to the public, who may give them to their children, and so transmit them down to posterity.”  Subscribers thus played as important a role as any “man of genius” who composed essays and the printer who served as a broker in disseminating them.

Thomas also asserted that the colonies had a particular need for a “NEW Periodical Publication” in the form of a magazine so “the productions of men of genius might be more universally known.”  Colonial printers produced other periodicals – weekly newspapers and annual almanacs – but the lack of monthly magazines, according to Thomas, “has long been complained of by men of the greatest ingenuity in the American world.”  The printer imagined that those men “would undoubtedly much oftner favour the public with essays, instructive and entertaining to all classes of men, if there was a suitable periodical publication for their insertion.”  Booksellers imported magazines from London that featured works by European authors, but those magazines rarely included essays composed by colonizers in North America and the West Indies.  For the most part, they did not capture distinctively American perspectives or experiences.

The Royal American Magazine provided a forum for both American and European authors.  “Several gentlemen of know abilities,” Thomas announced, “have kindly promised to favour the public through THIS channel, with essays on various subjects for instruction and amusement.”  He pledged that “Their productions will no doubt fill a considerable part of this work,” but also acknowledged that he would draw content from “British Magazines, [and] Reviews.”  Thomas emphasized that this involved “selecting from the labours of our European brethren,” but he wished to prioritize American content.  To that end, he requested “the assistance of the learned, the witty, the curios and the candid of both sexes throughout this extensive continent, and hopes they will favour him with their correspondence for the public benefit.”  Thomas apparently imagined a place for women as both readers and contributors to “this American performance” or magazine.

The call for subscribers and contributors eventually radiated out from Boston, appearing in newspapers published in other cities.  The Adverts 250 Project will examine other aspects of the lengthy subscription proposals while tracing their dissemination in American newspapers.  Thomas expected the proposals to circulate so widely that “printers and booksellers in AMERICA,” from New England to Georgia, would compile lists of local subscribers on his behalf.

June 24

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (June 24, 1773).

“SUBSCRIPTIONS are taken in by I. THOMAS the printer and publisher.”

Near the end of May 1773, Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, placed a notice in his own newspaper to announce that the following week he would publish “PROPOSALS for printing by Subscription, The ROYAL American MAGAZINE.”  He may have meant that he would distribute the proposals as as a broadside or handbill separate from the newspaper or he may have meant that they would appear in the next issue of the Massachusetts Spy.  Perhaps he did print separate subscription papers, though none have survived.  I frequently argue that newspaper notices provide evidence of a greater number of advertising ephemera circulating in eighteenth-century America than have been preserved in research libraries, historical societies, and private collections.  On the other hand, the busy printer may have delayed publishing the proposals by several weeks.  When they did appear in the Massachusetts Spy on June 24, they ran on the front page.  The savvy printer gave the proposals a privileged place.

Extending nearly two columns, the proposals included Thomas’s purpose for publishing the new magazine, a “PLAN” for the contents, and the “CONDITIONS” or details about the price, the paper, the type, and delivery options.  Subscription proposals for books, newspapers, and magazines usually included all those elements, though not necessarily at such great length.  Thomas, however, exerted significant effort in convincing readers to subscribe.  In explaining his purpose for publishing the magazine, for instance, he declared that “Newspapers are known to be of general utility, but not so fit to convey to posterity the labours of the learned, as they are, most commonly, only noticed for a day and then thrown neglected by.”  In contrast, “Monthly Publications are preserved in the libraries of men of the greatest abilities in the literary world.”  In the last decades of the eighteenth century, many magazine subscribers in America saved each issue for six months and then had them bound into a single volume to display on the bookshelves of their permanent libraries.  Thomas acknowledged how subscribers treated magazines and their specialized content differently than newspapers in that regard.

In outlining the “PLAN,” Thomas described how he would go about acquiring items to publish in the Royal American Magazine.  He declared that he “has engaged all the British Magazines, Reviews, &c. and all the Periodical publications in America” and “from those will be selected whatever is new, curious, and entertaining.”  He did not intend merely to reprint content from those “British Magazines.”  Instead, he emphasized a process of discernment in “selecting from the labours of our European brethren,” but promised prospective subscribers that he “shall not fail of making the strictest searches after curious anecdotes, and interesting events in British America.”  To that end, he engaged in an eighteenth-century version of crowdsourcing: “the publisher now requests the assistance of the learned, the witty, the curious, and the candid of both sexes, throughout this extensive continent, and hopes they will favour him with their correspondence for the public benefit.”  Although the magazine would carry some European content, Thomas aimed to produce a distinctively American publication.

In addition, Thomas offered a premium or gift to subscribers “to complete this PLAN,” a free copy of “Governor HUTCHINSON’S History Of the MASSACHUSETTS-BAY.”  That book alone “will be worth the cost of the magazine.”  However, subscribers would not receive a copy at the outset.  Instead, they would receive a portion of the book with each issue of the magazine, “printed in such a manner as to be bound up by itself, and on a larger type than the magazine.”  Thomas planned to insert the first pages of Hutchinson’s History “at the end of the first number” or issue and continue “until the whole is finished.”  To make the premium even more enticing, subscribers would also receive, gratis, “copper plate prints, exclusive of those particularly for the magazine.”  Thomas hoped that the free gift would make subscribing to the magazine even more attractive.

Although the subscription proposals for the Royal American Magazine included many of the same elements as proposals for books, newspapers, and magazines that circulated in the colonies in the eighteenth century, Thomas introduced innovative methods of encouraging colonizers to subscribe.  Among those, he pledged to make pieces written in America a priority for publication.  He also promoted a premium for subscribers, asserting that the free gift alone covered the cost of a subscription.  Even with these marketing efforts, it took some time for Thomas to launch the magazine.  He published the first issue in January 1774.

May 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Massachusetts Spy (May 27, 1773).

“Thursday next will be published … PROPOSALS for printing by Subscription, The ROYAL American MAGAZINE.”

Isaiah Thomas, the printer of the Massachusetts Spy, inserted a brief notice in the May 27, 1773, edition to advise the public that he would soon publish and distribute “PROPOSALS for printing by Subscription, The ROYAL American MAGAZINE.”  Those proposals, a description of the purpose, contents, and price of the magazine, likely appeared on a handbill or broadside, though the printer may have also devised a circular letter to send directly to likely subscribers.  Yet again, a newspaper notice provides evidence of other forms of advertising that circulated in early America in the absence of those materials surviving in research libraries, historical societies, and private collections.  Thomas eventually inserted the proposals in the Massachusetts Spy and other newspapers, providing a glimpse of the handbills or broadsides.  The Adverts 250 Project will examine those newspaper notices in the coming weeks and months.   Despite Thomas’s promotional efforts, he did not publish the first issue of the Royal American Magazine, or Universal Repository of Instruction and Amusement until eight months later in January 1774.

At the time, readers had access to more than two dozen newspapers printed throughout the colonies, including five in Boston, but imported magazines from London.  As Frank Luther Mott explains in A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850, “At the time the first number of the Royal American was issued, there had been no magazine of any kind in the colonies for more than a year and a half, and no general magazine for more than four years.”[1]  According to the “Chronological List of Magazines” that Mott compiled, the Royal American Magazine was only the sixteenth magazine published in the colonies (and that included the Censor, a newspaper-magazine hybrid published in Boston for less than six months from late November 1771 through early May 1772).  Thomas later recollected that his magazine “had a considerable list of subscribers.”[2]  Even so, it lasted for only fifteen months, the last issue published in March 1775. Thomas did not publish the magazine the entire time.  He suspended it in the wake of disruption caused by the Boston Port Bill and later relinquished it to Joseph Greenleaf.  The publication did not continue after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord.

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[1] Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1939), 83.

[2] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 286.