Saturday Review
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The Saturday Review in the 1990s held a position in the American (and global) magazine landscape roughly equivalent to that occupied by the New Yorker today. It differs only in offering a blend of long-form serious articles along with high-gloss sections to do with high-culture, more than the New Yorker's popular culture. Serious journalism was, however, the feature which brought in subscribers from around the world -- in global sales it was third to Readers Digest and National Geographic.
It was also noted for having a superior standard of community morality and it became seen as the 'bible of good taste'. Like the Readers Digest, the Saturday Review under Norman Cousins the magazine refused to carry cigarette advertising. Even worse, from the viewpoint of the cigarette industry, the magazine's highly respected editor actively campaigned against smoking -- mainly on health grounds. However the ownership changed a couple of times, and new publishers and editors accepted, then rejected, cigarette advertising.
This threat to their ability to recruit smoker was compounded by th epotential loss of television advertising. Around the world legislators were moving to block television advertising and this meant the loss of the essential (to the companies) of image advertising -- the Marlboro cowboy riding the range who had a macho appeal to young men; Joe Camel who developed a following among early teenagers; images of sophisticated life in the snowfield attracted young women to Kool and Alpine. Benson & Hedges with its gold pack, was promoted to people who aspire to be involved in the high-class Art-culture market.
In April 1984 The Saturday Evening Post stops accepting tobacco advertising. The Post's publisher is Cory SerVaas, MD.Philip Morris became increasingly furious with interference in its right to advertise, and the suggestion was made at one conference that it move into the media business itself through buying magazines (Omni magazine was suggested) The came to focus on the glossy pages of the "Saturday Review."
To cut a long story short, the tobacco industry used its influence to reduce advertising support, and eventually the magazine ceased publishing for about nine months.
After a couple of quick sales, eventually it became owned by wealthy Californian couple, Jeffrey and Deborah Gluck. They had no editorial or magazine experience, and despite reintroducing cigarette advertising, the contents suffered and the magazine went into an obvious terminal decline. The Glucks were willing to sell but they were trying to buy a medium-sized city newspaper which they thought would give them some political clout.
Shook Hardy & Bacon, the Kansas City law firm which did many of the tobacco industries more underhand deals, heard that the magazine was about to go under again, and Philip Morris decided to step in and take it over. But they wanted to maintain a veil of secrecy over their control. Shook Hardy & Bacon eventually worked out an effective triangular agreement,
- The xx family had run the St Louis Despatch for a few generations, but its profits were limited by a cut-rate competitor in the St Louis xxxx,
- Eventually the St Louis xxxx got into financial problems and came on the market, The xx family bought it, but then ran into problems with the monopolies law. They were allowed to keep the paper (no one else wanted it), and they could print the two papers on the same presses -- thus increasing the overall efficiency. But they were not allowed to consolidate the editorial controls and they must maintain separate journalistic and advertising staff. Real competition must be maintained.
- This marginally improved the financial load on the family, but they really wanted the second paper to collapse - which would shift the total advertising revenue to their primary St Louis Despatch and a halve the salary of journalists and ad salesmen. Prices could then rise along with subscription costs because St Louis readers and advertisers would have no option.
The triangular deal that Shook Hardy devised was to convince the Glucks to swap the magazine for the St Louis xxxx, which could be acquired cheap since the xx family's expectation was that general editorial incompetence would soon result in its demise. This would satisfy the family without the monopolies authorities being able to take action. In exchange, Philip Morris would acquire the Saturday Review with their ownership hidden by Shook Hardy and some hidden contracts. A new experienced editorial and publishing group could be brought in as, and be promoted as the new owners. It worked like clockwork and everyone got what they wanted; the Glucks moved to Palo Alto to run a local newspaper after the xxx collapsed
This circle of exchange was cleverly engineered by Shook Hardy, and Philip Morris found an editorial group used by both themselves and the Tobacco Institute. It was based on Paul G. Dietrich a well-established tobacco and political lobbyist with the right connections. Dietrich ran an operation called the National Center for Legislative Research (NCLR) which published a number of small newsletters on Republican politics and foreign policy. Dietrich had a peak team consisting of Frank Gannon -- the well-known boyfriend of TV personality-newswoman Dianne Sawyer -- and vvv who was
The magazine ran with moderate success for another three years under this arrangement with considerable subsidies, and strong advertising support from all the tobacco companies. The days of this sort of magazine were over however, and eventually they reached the limit of Philip Morris's financial generosity and xxx was sent to pull the plug.
The editorial team, however, was on a long-term contract, so they couldn't just be fired. They were transferred to Philip Morris's new York office, and given the task of revamping and reformatting Philip Morris's own magazine. This was circulation through office waiting and lunch rooms, and free-mailed to anyone who signed up to one of the industry's Smoker's Rights operations -- usually along with a complementary carton of fags.
Documents & Timelines
1951 The Saturday Review magazine cost 25¢ at news stands
1956 Everette Lee DeGolyer (grandfather of Valerie McGhee) turned over his ownership of the SR to Cousins, who kept 51% and distributed the rest to members of the magazine staff.
1961 Cousins and the staff owners sold the magazine to McCall Corporation - for stock worth about $3 million. Cousins was given a 10 year contract and complete editorial freedom. He had become a liberal crusader, a co-chairman of SANE, the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy in 1957 - promoting A-Bomb test ban treaty, etc.
1969 July Ad in New York Magazine for Saturday Review "The Thought-Weekly" at 380 Madison Ave, New York, 34 issues for $2.97 (normal price for a subscription was $5.88) The magazine claims to have 1.7 million readers and that circulation had more than doubled since 1960. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=bdYCAAAAMBA
1971 Nov 22 Time magazine reports on "Revamping the Review"
As editor and onetime owner of the Saturday Review (circ. 662,000), Norman Cousins was for 31 years the undisputed boss of his profitable, determinedly middle-brow magazine. Cousins, 56, agonized last summer (TIME, July 19) when the Review was sold by Norton Simon, Inc., to a pair of young publishing entrepreneurs, Nicolas Charney and John Veronis, who had made a success of Psychology Today. Cousins eventually decided that he could get along with the new owners; last week, though, they revealed plans to revamp the Review and use it as a springboard to something Cousins may have trouble recognizing, let alone running.
| Starting next year, the Saturday Review will become a five-sided magazine enterprise—a weekly and four separate monthlies. The weekly's current special sections will be expanded in size and realigned topically to cover education, the arts, science and "the society," a catch-all description of politics, business and what Charney calls "the system." The new sections will run on a rotating basis in the weekly along with the magazine's usual editorial mix. Each special section will also serve as core for one of the specialized monthlies. |
New Name. The weekly will be sold by subscription only, and its title will change from week to week according to the special section it carries—Saturday Review of Science, for example, or Saturday Review of Education. The monthlies will be sold both by subscription and on newsstands. The editorial budget for the five Reviews will be beefed up by $4,000,000, and some of the magazine's operations will be moved from Manhattan to San Francisco.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905549,00.html#ixzz1PUO9l7zu
[None of this seems to have happened.]
1972 Jun 19 New York Magazine has an article about Norman Cousins and the take-over of the company by the group from Psychology Today for $5.5 million. Cousins had been seriously affected by the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 -- and had become fiercely opposed to President Johnson and the on going war in Vietnam
1973 July 2 New Yorker magazine has an article on its rival:
Norman Cousins had made a speech that the Society of Magazine writers billed as referring to the SR's recent bankruptcy as a "$30 million Publishing Boo-Boo" He was now the publisher of World Magazine.
1974 Aug 9 Watergate resignation. Frank Gannon and his girlfriend Diane Sawyer are living in basement flat of "well-known Georgetown hostess", Kay Halle. Nixon's greatest strengths were his political resilience and his foreign policy prescience. Gannon who served in the White House as a special assistant to the president flew with Nixon to California aboard Air Force One following his resignation in 1974. Gannon spent the next four years organizing the researching and writing of the former president's memoirs RN: [1]
1976 July 19 New York Magazine has an advertisement for Saturday Review. Norman Cousins was editor. Subscription department was in Des Moines, Iowa Trial rate for 13 biweekly issues cost $7. [3]
1978 June: At a Philip Morris strategy conference, the suggestion had been made that the industry should buy newspapers, news agencies, and magazines like the Saturday Review (specifically mentioned) in order to improved their media coverage. The call was renewed at later industry strategy conferences.
1978 Oct 10 Advertising proposal letter to American Brands: The Saturday Review now has as its own special "Tobacco Advertising Executive", Jay Stelzer, and he is actively canvassing the cigarette companies. The magazine is now offering special rates for double page color spreads. They want $9400 for the back page. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/mcu65f00/pdf
1978 Nov 6 Saturday Review publishing a cartoon "Thank you for not smoking" ridiculing the ban on restaurant smoking. . http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/oup88d00/pdf
1978 Dec- Nov 1980 Simpson sued over Reed Ranch oil lease. He settled for $225,000 ("Spitcaufsky litigation") Bold was Simpson's lawyer. http://openjurist.org/802/f2d/314/bold-v-l-simpson-ii-r-bold
The collapse of the magazine coincides exactly with this report from the Tobacco Institute's PR head, Bill Kloepfer to its President Sam Chilcote. It has an intriguing one-line cryptic reference which only makes sense when you understand the Philip Morris connection. It says:
Dietrich: Visit to KC scheduled 4/18
[Translation: Paul Dietrich is being sent to Shook Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City on April 18th to work out the details on the abandonment of the Saturday Review magazine project.]
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/lon40c00/pdf
1982 The Saturday Review again became insolvent in 1982 and was sold to Missouri entrepreneur Jeffrey Gluck. It was later sold to a group of investors in 1984. Publication ended in 1986 and Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione acquired the rights to the magazine in 1987. He used the title briefly for an online publication on AOL in the early 1990s.
1982 Philip Morris are using the Saturday Review for Parliament brand cigarettes. Labled "Special Interest" magazine (PM also promoted culture and arts) http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ess05d00/pdf
1984 Apr
The March-April issue of Saturday Review has been cancelled, and the publication is for sale. Jeffrey Gluck, who bought the publication in 1982 and converted it from a monthly to a bimonthly, cites preoccupation with
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/bne05e00/pdf
1982 Aug 16 Dan Rather on CBS Evening News "Saturday Review" reported suspending publication today. " The Financial World publisher Robert Weingarten pulled the plug on his investment in the magazine. It went bankrupt.
1982 Sept 12 The Saturday Review has suspended publication! It had financial troubles in 1970 or 71; it tried a new format which did not work, and the new format lost them their editor, Norman Cousins,
Diary of her mother, by Allegra Wong
- ↑ The Memoirs of Richard Nixon 1978
