‘Cheap as well as Good’: The Economics of Publishing

Abstract

The monthly circulation of Parish Magazine reached 15,000 in its first year when it was localised in 55 parishes.¹ Erskine Clarke acknowledged that this result was

extremely minute when put beside the 450,000 of the British Workman — minute, too, when compared with the vast issues of the … Leisure Hour [80,000 in 1855], and woefully minute when compared with the weekly penny numbers of the Family Herald and Reynold’s Miscellany [260,000 in 1858 and 200,000 in 1855 respectively].²

Two years later, the circulation of Parish Magazine had reached 17,000,³ and, in 1872, advertisements announcing the popularity of the magazine both in Britain and the colonies threatened publishers with litigation if they adopted its name, thereby usurping its copyright status.⁴ By 1885, when a speaker at the Church Congress described the taking of localised parish magazines as ‘almost universal’, the combined monthly circulation of the 15 insets on the market was half a million; by 1893, it was said to have reached a million and a half: Clarke had tapped a rich vein.⁵ This chapter explores the important economic dimension of publishing, distributing and selling these popular magazines, noting through descriptions of the careers of their major editors and proprietors that inset publishing was as competitive as any secular alternative. Individual localities had pronounced inset preferences, which may be traced to their clergy’s adherence to church parties, a preference eagerly served by inset editors. Despite their popularity, however, parish magazines often sold at a loss, leading inset and local editors alike to turn to commercial advertising, as a means of remaining solvent.