ABSTRACT
The growth of print media is closely tied to the evolution of transportation and print technologies and infrastructure. The technological innovations of the 19th century made significant contributions to the rise of newspapers, but the lack of progress in transportation and print technology led to an overall increase in costs for the industry. Many early newspaper publishers were printers and editors who added the publishing of pamphlets—predecessors to magazines—to their printing businesses in an effort to increase their income. Prior to the advent of the penny press, newspaper publishers featured advertisements that focused primarily on products or services provided by the publisher or its financiers. The Industrial Revolution heralded the invention of numerous machines that set in motion innovations in the production of printed mass media. While American magazines owed much of their rising popularity to their intriguing content, the economics of the business made an even bigger contribution to their growth.
