Magazines that Make History:: Their Origins, Development and Influence, by N. Angeletti and A. Oliva; The Layers of Magazine Editing, by M. R. Evans

* Angeletti, Norberto and Alberto Oliva (2004). Magazines that Make History: Their Origins, Development and Influence. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp. 408. * Evans, Michael Robert (2004). The Layers of Magazine Editing. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 353. The tortuous path that leads to the establishment of successful magazines is a generously littered one. Failed ideas, impoverished concepts, and, perhaps saddest of all, uncertain execution-poor writing, poor editing, and/or poor art direction- clutter the landscape. These are just a few of the problems, large and small, that can befall a magazine in gestation, and while they may be easy to identify long after the tragic fact, coming up with a workable cure, especially in real time, is a considerably more demanding task. Underlying it all, the most central question is: What makes a magazine work? It is a topic complex enough to warrant an entire book, and two new publications, Magazines that Make History and The Layers of Magazine Editing, lucidly and comprehensively tackle, from two very different perspectives, this very issue with clarity and verve. The unifying thread between them, however, is a deep-rooted reductionist faith in the fundamental idea so ably aphorized by Le Corbusier: God, most assuredly, is in the details. Norberto Angeletti and Alberto Oliva's Magazines that Make History: Their Origins, Development and Influence is a "how-to" manual disguised as a coffee-table book. Ten magazines, splashed in two bold rows across the book's cover, are dissected with surgeon's precision. Perhaps the book's best example, the analysis of Time magazine, offers an astonishing amount of information regarding the thinking (arguments as well as final decisions) behind the creation, development, launch, and impact of the title. In a section entitled "The Evolution of Time, " the authors accompany a historical rendering of the publication's cultural arc with scores of Time's covers from previous decades. In an homage to one of Time's most ingenious editorial inventions, the magazine's "Man of the Year" covers are placed separately in a special section. More tutorial sections, however, are equally compelling; for example, "How to Write an Article in 'Time Style'" offers an inside glimpse of the writing style. Every detail, from the magazine's mission statement to the artists who design the covers, is stylishly presented and gracefully revealed. For a useful comparison, an analysis of the German magazine Der Spiegel and French publication Paris Match lend a cosmopolitan touch. And the inclusion of Life provides an example of how changing times can negatively affect a once-successful magazine. The strongest element of the book is its wealth of practical information, crammed into sidebars, captions, charts, and graphs. The reading experience, which might begin as a casual flip-through, quickly turns into a dedicated scouring of every image and concept. People's cover-selection philosophy is a wonderful example. "Young is better than old, pretty is better than ugly, television is better than music, anything is better than politics" speaks volumes not only about the magazine itself, but the American audience to which it caters so successfully. The authors' ability to package so much information so efficiently makes reading straight through it a fascinating process. Each documented magazine reveals new issues, new information, and new ways of thinking. Far from an overview, each selection delves headfirst into the belly of the beast, and resurfaces with far more than a thorough chronology. Four-hundred pages and ten magazines later, the personality and individuality of each publication stands out with commendable vividness. …