American parenting magazine
Parents
|
Editor in Chief
| Julia Edelstein
|
---|
Categories
| Parenting
|
---|
Frequency
| Monthly
|
---|
Publisher
| Dotdash Meredith
|
---|
Total circulation
(2011)
| 2,215,645
|
---|
Founded
| October 1926
|
---|
Final issue
| April 2022
|
---|
Country
| United States
|
---|
Based in
| New York City
[1]
|
---|
Language
| English
|
---|
Website
| www
.parents
.com
|
---|
ISSN
| 1083-6373
|
---|
Parents
was an American monthly magazine founded in 1926 that featured scientific information on
child development
geared to help parents in raising their children. Subscribers were notified of the magazine’s dissolution via a postcard mailing in March 2022.
History
[
edit
]
The magazine was started by
George J. Hecht
in 1926. The magazine was originally titled
Children, The Magazine for Parents
.
[2]
Hecht hired
Clara Savage Littledale
to be its first editor. The first issue was published in October 1926
[3]
[4]
and soon was selling 100,000 copies a month.
[5]
Beginning with the August 1929 issue, the name was changed to
Parents' Magazine
(with an apostrophe).
[6]
Littledale was followed as editor by Mary Buchanan. In 1937, the magazine was granted trademark registration for the mark
Parents' Magazine
.
[7]
From 1941 to 1965,
Parents' Magazine Press
published a line of
comic books
and magazines heavily featuring comics, including such long-running titles as
Calling All Girls
,
Children's Digest
,
Polly Pigtails
,
True Comics
, and
True Picture-Magazine
.
[8]
Parents Magazine Press also published
Humpty Dumpty
from the 1950s through the early 1980s, until it and
Children's Digest
were sold to
The Saturday Evening Post
company.
Parents' Magazine
was sold to
Gruner + Jahr
in 1978. At that time, the magazine was "relaunched" and its name was shortened, utilizing only the word "Parents", without an apostrophe.
[7]
Elizabeth Crow
became the magazine's editor for the next decade, before being replaced by Ann Pleshette Murphy, who was editor-in-chief between 1988 and 1998, and a contributing editor from 1998 to 2002.
[9]
In 1992, Gruner + Jahr filed suit against
Meredith
for trademark infringement of
Parents
when Meredith published
Parent's Digest
. With the court finding no actual confusion of the products (though there was testimony from managers and employees as to inquiries about a possible relationship between the publications), the case was dismissed.
[10]
Meredith acquired
Parents
magazine when Gruner + Jahr left the US magazine business in 2005. Sally Lee was the editor from 1998 to 2008. Dana Points was
editor-in-chief
from 2008 to 2016. The Meredith Corporation would later be acquired by
IAC
in 2021.
In February 2022, it was revealed that
Parents
would end print publication and switch to an all-digital format.
[11]
Profile
[
edit
]
Its editorial focus is on the daily needs and concerns of mothers with young children. The monthly features information about child health,
safety
, behavior,
discipline
and
education
. There are also stories on
women's health
, nutrition, pregnancy, marriage, and beauty. It is aimed primarily at women ages 18?35 with young children.
Columns include "As They Grow," which cover age-specific child development issues, as well as the reader-generated "Baby Bloopers," "It Worked for Me," and "Goody Bag." The magazine also produces a website,
[12]
an iPhone app for kids,
Parents
Flash Cards, and
GoodyBlog.com
, the now-defunct blog.
With its historical reach,
Parents
has frequently been used by academics, to document social and cultural shifts over time. Melissa Milkie and Kathleen Denny describe the prominence of the magazine:
The magazine's goal of disseminating scientific knowledge of all types concerning children's development and family life in general, proved to be very popular. The magazine was the only U.S. periodical whose circulation rose during the Great Depression, and during the 1930s and 1940s, it was proclaimed as the most popular advice periodical in the world (Schlossman, 1985).
[13]
By 1971,
PM
claimed in its pages to have counseled mothers and fathers in the 'rearing of more than 100 million children,' attesting to its prominence"
[14]
Despite its gender-neutral title, the magazine's advice has implicitly been directed toward women.
[15]
On the February 2019 issue it features a same-sex male couple, the first in its history.
[16]
The magazine has received criticism for featuring a bored white child who appears to be screaming, dressed in a toy headdress on its January 2016 cover. Dr. Debbie Reese of American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) called the depiction racist, as it implies a "wild Indian" stereotype.
[17]
Medal for "Movie of the Month"
[
edit
]
Each month,
Parents' Magazine
would award a medal to a "Movie of the Month". The image of the "Movie of the Month" Medal was subsequently used on movie posters and lobby cards.
Past recipients include:
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Dave Eisenstadter (May 28, 2015).
"Family Fun magazine leaving Northampton; jobs moving to New York City"
.
GazetteNet
. Retrieved
December 12,
2015
.
- ^
Marten, James (August 24, 2002).
Children and War: A Historical Anthology
. NYU Press.
ISBN
9780814756676
.
- ^
"Magazines in Alphabetical Order"
.
Radcliffe Institute
. Retrieved
October 19,
2015
.
- ^
"Top 100 U.S. Magazines by Circulation"
(PDF)
.
PSA Research Center
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on November 15, 2016
. Retrieved
February 6,
2016
.
- ^
Selig, Diana.
"Parents Magazine"
.
Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
. Retrieved
December 12,
2011
.
- ^
Hudson, Robert Vernon (1987).
Mass Media: A Chronological Encyclopedia of Television, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines, Newspapers, and Books in the United States
. Garland Publishing, Incorporated.
ISBN
9780824086954
.
parents' magazine apostrophe.
- ^
a
b
"Gruner+ Jahr USA Pub. v. Meredith Corp., 793 F. Supp. 1222 (S.D.N.Y. 1992)"
,
Justia
, July 14, 1992.
- ^
Parents Magazine Press
, Grand Comics Database. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
- ^
"Ann Pleshette Murphy"
.
ABC News
. Retrieved
2023-05-02
.
- ^
"GRUNER + JAHR USA PUB. v. MEREDITH CORP."
,
Leagle
, 1993.
- ^
Bruell, Alexandra (February 9, 2022).
"Barry Diller's Media Group Ends Print Versions of InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, Others"
. Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
May 10,
2022
.
- ^
"Parents"
. parents.com
. Retrieved
December 12,
2011
.
- ^
Schlossman, S. (1985), "Perils of Popularization: The founding of
Parents' Magazine
".
Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development
, 50, 65?77.
- ^
Milkie, M. and K. Denny (2014), "Changes in the Cultural Model of Father Involvement: Descriptions of Benefits to Fathers, Children, and Mothers in Parents' Magazine, 1926?2006".
Journal of Family Issues
, 35:223?53.
- ^
Strathman, T. (1984). "From the quotidian to the utopian: Child rearing literature in America, 1926?1946".
Berkeley Journal of Sociology
, 29, 1?34.
- ^
Leighton-Dore, Samuel (January 21, 2019),
"'Parents' magazine features same-sex dads on its cover"
, SBS.
- ^
"Tell Parents Magazine This is NOT an Acceptable Cover"
. 10 December 2015.
- ^
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Award Medal from Parents Magazine"
. Heritage Auction.
- ^
Fricke, John (November 7, 2013).
The Wonderful World of Oz: An Illustrated History of the American Classic
. Down East Books.
ISBN
9781461744771
.
- ^
Sammond, Nicholas (July 20, 2005).
Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Making of the American Child, 1930?1960
. Duke University Press.
ISBN
0822386836
.
- ^
"Shirley Temple - Kathleen Award Medal from Parents Magazine"
, Heritage Auctions.
- ^
Heritage Music & Entertainment Auction #7006
. Heritage Capital Corporation.
ISBN
9781599673691
.
- ^
"Son of Lassie Award Medal from Parents Magazine"
, Heritage Auctions.
- ^
"Parents magazine September 1951"
, September 1, 2014.
- ^
Full text of "Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1954)"
. Internet Archive.
External links
[
edit
]