Main Task: Case Study Of a Publishing house

Publishing House Case study

My chosen publishing house is called Curtis. Curtis has been running now since 1876. They first started in Philadelphia after successfully publishing “The people’s lodge2 for six years in Boston. Curtis founded the Tribune and farmer.

After becoming very successful in editorial direction of his wife Louis Knapp Curtis, in 1883 it expanded to Ladies home journal.

In 1890, Cyrus Curtis formed the Curtis Publishing Company and in 1897, purchased The Saturday Evening Post for $1,000.

In 1911, Curtis acquired Country Gentleman, which also became a profitable addition. Jack and Jill for Children and Holiday were launched in 1938 and 1946, respectively. These five publications formed the nucleus of one of the most influential and profitable publishing ventures of the early twentieth century.

The Curtis Publishing Company circulation department became a separate subsidiary company, Curtis Circulation Company, in October 1946. Curtis Circulation Company continues to be an organisation whose expertise is still widely recognised today and whose market share has grown from 6% in 1982 to over 33% today.


The company “Curtis” publishes more than one big branded magazine. These include:
· The Saturday Evening Post
· Country Gentleman
· Jack and Jill for Children
· Holiday


The magazines that Curtis produces and sells are aimed around the age range of 25+. The magazines they produce are not really about gossip that most magazines do. The ones they produce are mainly about politics and usual things like how to cook or generally about something that will benefit you from reading it. The magazines are very intellectual and to must have a pretty good reading level to understand most of them.


Which each magazine Curtis makes they always switch it around. Sometimes they will focus on their male magazines and put themselves far out to make them the main attraction of Curtis. For instance one magazine they publish is called “country gentlemen” clearly by the name alone we know that this magazine is aimed at males only. But another way Curtis is so successful is because they produce magazines for both sexes. Also they produce magazines and books for young children; this will defiantly pull in more money due to the good standard of the books/magazines.

Looking at their website they seem to be happy and most of all successful enough and don’t seem to have plans to do anything more then what they’re doing.

Here are some examples of the magazines they have made: