Time (stylized inall caps asTIME) is an Americannews magazine based inNew York City. It was publishedweekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week.[2][3] It was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923, and for many years it was run by its influential co-founder,Henry Luce.
A European edition (Time Europe, formerly known asTime Atlantic) is published inLondon and also covers the Middle East, Africa, and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition (Time Asia) is based in Hong Kong.[4] The South Pacific edition, which covers Australia,New Zealand, and thePacific Islands, is based inSydney.
Since 2018,Time has been owned bySalesforce founderMarc Benioff, who acquired it fromMeredith Corporation. Benioff currently publishes the magazine through the company Time USA, LLC.
Time has been based in New York City since its first issue published on March 3, 1923, byBriton Hadden (1898–1929) andHenry Luce (1898–1967). It was the first weekly news magazine in the United States.[5] The two had previously worked together as chairman and managing editor, respectively, of theYale Daily News. They first called the proposed magazineFacts to emphasize brevity so a busy man could read it in an hour. They changed the name toTime and used the slogan "Take Time – It's Brief".[6] Hadden was considered carefree and liked to tease Luce. He sawTime as important but also fun, which accounted for its heavy coverage of celebrities and politicians, the entertainment industry, and pop culture, criticizing it as too light for serious news.
Time set out to tell the news through people, and until the late 1960s, the magazine's cover depicted a single person. More recently,Time has incorporated "People of the Year" issues, which have grown in popularity over the years. The first issue ofTime featuredJoseph G. Cannon, the retiredSpeaker of the House of Representatives, on its cover; a facsimile reprint of Issue No. 1, including all of the articles and advertisements contained in the original, was included with copies of the magazine's issue from February 28, 1938, in commemoration of its 15th anniversary.[7] The cover price was 15¢ (equivalent to $2.77 in 2024).
Following Hadden's death in 1929, Luce became the dominant man atTime and a significant figure in the history of 20th-century media. According toTime Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise 1972–2004 by Robert Elson, "Roy Edward Larsen ... was to play a role second only to Luce's in the development of Time Inc". In his bookThe March of Time, 1935–1951, Raymond Fielding also noted that Larsen was "originally circulation manager and then general manager ofTime, later publisher ofLife, for many years president of Time Inc., and in the long history of the corporation the most influential and important figure after Luce".[citation needed]
Around the time, they were raising $100,000 from wealthyYale University alumni, including Henry P. Davison, partner ofJ.P. Morgan & Co., publicity man Martin Egan and J.P. Morgan & Co. banker Dwight Morrow; Henry Luce and Briton Hadden hired Larsen in 1922. Larsen was aHarvard University graduate, and Luce and Hadden were Yale graduates. After Hadden died in 1929, Larsen purchased 550 shares of Time Inc., using money he obtained from sellingRKO stock he had inherited from his father, who was the head of theBenjamin Franklin Keith theater chain inNew England. However, after Briton Hadden's death, the largest Time, Inc. stockholder was Henry Luce, who ruled the media conglomerate in an autocratic fashion; "at his right hand was Larsen", Time Inc.'s second-largest stockholder, according toTime Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise 1923–1941. In 1929, Roy Larsen was also named a Time Inc. director and vice president. J. P. Morgan retained a certain control through two directorates and a share of stocks, both overTime andFortune. Other shareholders wereBrown Brothers Harriman & Co., and the New York Trust Company (Standard Oil).[citation needed]
AfterTime began publishing weekly in March 1923, Roy Larsen increased its circulation by using U.S. radio and movie theaters worldwide. It often promoted bothTime magazine and U.S. political and corporate interests. According toThe March of Time, as early as 1924, Larsen had broughtTime into the infant radio business by broadcasting a 15-minute sustaining quiz show entitledPop Question which survived until 1925. Then in 1928, Larsen "undertook the weekly broadcast of a 10-minute programme series of brief news summaries, drawn from current issues ofTime magazine ... which was originally broadcast over 33 stations throughout the United States".[citation needed]
Larsen next arranged for the 30-minute radio programThe March of Time to be broadcast overCBS beginning on March 6, 1931. Each week, the program presented a dramatization of the week's news for its listeners; thusTime magazine itself was brought "to the attention of millions previously unaware of its existence", according toTime Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise 1923–1941, leading to increased circulation during the 1930s. Between 1931 and 1937, Larsen'sThe March of Time radio program was broadcast over CBS radio, and between 1937 and 1945, it was broadcast over NBC radio – except between 1939 and 1941, when it was not aired.People magazine was based onTime's "People" page.
Time Inc. stock owned by Luce at the time of his death was worth about $109 million ($1.03 billion in 2024), and it had been yielding him a yearly dividend of more than $2.4 million ($22.6 million in 2024), according to Curtis Prendergast'sThe World of Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Changing Enterprise 1957–1983. The Larsen family's Time Inc. stock was worth around $80 million during the 1960s. Roy Larsen was both a Time Inc. director and the chairman of its executive committee, later serving as Time Inc.'s board's vice chairman until the middle of 1979. On September 10, 1979,The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Larsen was the only employee in the company's history given an exemption from its policy of mandatory retirement at age 65."
In 2000,Time became part ofAOL Time Warner, which reverted to the name Time Warner in 2003.
In 2007,Time moved from a Monday subscription/newsstand delivery to a schedule where the magazine goes on sale Fridays and is delivered to subscribers on Saturday. The magazine was published on Fridays when it began in 1923.
In early 2007, the year's first issue was delayed roughly a week due to "editorial changes", including the layoff of 49 employees.[9]
In 2009, Time announced it was introducingMine, a personalized print magazine mixing content from various Time Warner publications based on the reader's preferences. The new magazine was met with a poor reception, with criticism that its focus needed to be more broad to be truly personal.[10]
The magazine has an online archive with the unformatted text for every article published. The articles were indexed and converted from scanned images usingoptical character recognition technology. The minor errors in the text are remnants of the conversion to the digital format.
In January 2013, Time Inc. announced that it would cut nearly 500 jobs – roughly 6% of its 8,000 staff worldwide.[11]
AlthoughTime magazine has maintained high sales, its ad pages have declined significantly.[12]
Also in January 2013, Time Inc. named Martha Nelson as the first female editor-in-chief of its magazine division.[13] In September 2013,Nancy Gibbs was named as the first female managing editor ofTime magazine.[13]
In March 2018, only six weeks after the closure of the sale, Meredith announced that it would explore the sale ofTime and sister magazinesFortune,Money andSports Illustrated, since they did not align with the company's lifestyle brands.[18]
In October 2018, Meredith Corporation soldTime toMarc Benioff and his wife Lynne for $190 million. Although Benioff is the chairman and co-CEO ofSalesforce.com,Time was to remain separate from that company, and Benioff would not be involved in the magazine's daily operations.[19][20]
In late April 2023,Time announced the elimination of the website's paywall effective June 1, 2023.[21]
From 1942 until 1979,Time had a Canadian edition that included an insert of five pages of locally produced content and occasional Canadian covers. Following changes in the tax status of Canadian editions of American magazines,Time closed Canadian bureaus, except forOttawa, and published identical content to the US edition but with Canadian advertising.[22]
In December 2008,Time discontinued publishing a Canadian edition.[23]
During the second half of 2009, the magazine had a 34.9% decline in newsstand sales.[24] During the first half of 2010, another decline of at least one-third inTime magazine sales occurred. In the second half of 2010,Time magazine newsstand sales declined by about 12% to just over 79,000 copies per week.[citation needed]
As of 2012, it had a circulation of 3.3 million, making it the 11th-most circulated magazine in the United States, and the second-most circulated weekly behindPeople.[25] As of July 2017, its circulation was 3,028,013.[1] In October 2017,Time cut its circulation to two million.[26] Time currently has 1.3 million print subscribers and 250,000 digital subscribers.[21]
This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2024)
Time initially possessed a distinctively "acerbic, irreverent style", largely created by Haddon and sometimes called "Timestyle".[27] Timestyle made regular use ofinverted sentences, as famously parodied in 1936 byWolcott Gibbs inThe New Yorker: "Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind ... Where it all will end, knows God!"[28]Time also coined or popularized manyneologisms like "socialite", "guesstimate", "televangelist", "pundit", and "tycoon",[27] as well as some less successful ones like "cinemactress" and "radiorator".[29]Time introduced the names "World War I" and "World War II" in 1939, as opposed to older forms like "First World War" and "World War No. 2".[30] Thefalse title construction was popularized byTime and indeed is sometimes called a "Time-style adjective".[31][32][33][34]
Since its first issue,Time has had a "Milestones" section about significant events in the lives of famous people, including births, marriages, divorces, and deaths.[35][36] Until 1967, entries in Milestones were short and formulaic. A typical example from 1956:[37]
Died. Lieut, (j.g.)David Greig ("Skippy") Browning Jr., 24, star of the 1952 Olympics as the U.S.'s dazzling three-meter diving champion, national collegiate one-and three-meter diving champ (1951–52); in the crash of a North American FJ-3 Fury jet fighter while on a training flight; near Rantoul, Kans.
A reader wrote a parody of the older form to announce the change:[38]
Died. Time's delightful but confusing habit of listing names, ages, claims to fame, and other interesting tidbits about the famous newly deceased in its Milestones notices; then the circumstances of, and places where, the deaths occurred; of apparent good sentence structure; in New York.
Until the mid-1970s,Time had a weekly "Listings" section with capsule summaries or reviews of current significant films, plays, musicals, television programs, and literary bestsellers similar toThe New Yorker's "Current Events" section.[39]
Time is also known for the red border on its cover, introduced in 1927. The iconic red border was homaged or satirized by Seattle'sThe Stranger newspaper in 2010.[40] The border has only been changed eight times since 1927:
The special issue released shortly after theSeptember 11 attacks on the United States had a black border to symbolizemourning. The next regularly scheduled issue returned to the red border.
On December 31, 2012, the cover had a silver border, celebratingBarack Obama's selection as Person of the Year.
On November 28 and December 5, 2016, the magazine had a silver border covering the "Most Influential Photos of All Time".
The issue from June 15, 2020, covering theprotests surrounding themurder of George Floyd, was the first time that the cover's border included names of people. The cover, by artistTitus Kaphar, depicts an African-American mother holding her child.[42]
The issues from September 21 and 28, 2020, covering the American response to thecoronavirus pandemic, had a black border.[43]
The issues from September 26 and October 3, 2022, covering thedeath ofQueen Elizabeth II, had a silver border.[44]
Former presidentRichard Nixon has been among the most frequently featured on the cover ofTime, having appeared 55 times from August 25, 1952, to May 2, 1994.[45]
In October 2020, the magazine replaced its logo with the word "Vote",[46] explaining that "Few events will shape the world to come more than the result of the upcoming US presidential election".[47]
In 2007,Time redesigned the magazine to update and modernize the format.[48] Among other changes, the magazine reduced the red cover border to promote featured stories, enlarged column titles, reduced the number of featured stories, increasedwhite space around articles, and accompanied opinion pieces with photographs of the writers. The changes were met with both criticism and praise.[49][50][51]
Time's most famous feature throughout its history has been the annual "Person of the Year" (formerly "Man of the Year") cover story, in whichTime recognizes the individual or group of individuals who have had the biggest impact on news headlines over the past 12 months. The distinction is supposed to go to the person who, "for good or ill", has most affected the course of the year; it is, therefore, not necessarily an honor or a reward. In the past, such figures asAdolf Hitler andJoseph Stalin have been Man of the Year.
In 2006, Person of the Year was "You", and was met with split reviews. Some thought the concept was creative; others wanted an actual person of the year. Editors Pepper and Timmer reflected that, if it had been a mistake, "we're only going to make it once".[52]
In 2017,Time named the "Silence Breakers", people who came forward with personal stories of sexual harassment, as Person of the Year.[53]
In recent years,Time has assembled an annual list of the 100 most influential people of the year. Originally, they had made a list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. These issues usually have the front cover filled with pictures of people from the list and devote a substantial amount of space within the magazine to the 100 articles about each person on the list. In some cases, over 100 people have been included, as when two people have made the list together, sharing one spot.
In February 2016,Time mistakenly included the male authorEvelyn Waugh on its "100 Most Read Female Writers in College Classes" list (he was 97th on the list). The error created much media attention and concerns about the level of basic education among the magazine's staff.[59]Time later issued a retraction.[59] In aBBC interview withJustin Webb, ProfessorValentine Cunningham ofCorpus Christi College, Oxford, described the mistake as "a piece of profound ignorance on the part ofTime magazine".[60]
During its history, on seven occasions,Time has released a special issue with a cover showing an X scrawled over the face of a man, a year, or a national symbol. The firstTime magazine with an X cover was released on May 7, 1945, showing a red X overAdolf Hitler's face which was published the week followinghis death. The second X cover was released more than three months later on August 20, 1945, with a black X (to date, the magazine's only such use of a black X) covering theflag of Japan, representing the recentsurrender of Japan and which signaled the end ofWorld War II. Fifty-eight years later, on April 21, 2003,Time released another issue with a red X overSaddam Hussein's face, two weeks after the start of theInvasion of Iraq. A third red X issue was that of June 19, 2006, afterAbu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed,[61][62] and a fourth red X cover issue was published on May 20, 2011, after thedeath of Osama bin Laden.[2][63] A fifth red X cover issue, that of Dec. 14, 2020, had a red X scrawled over the pandemic-hit year2020 and the declaration "the worst year ever".[3][4][64] As of 2024[update], the most recent and seventh X cover issue ofTime, that of Nov. 11, 2024, features a red X over the face ofYahya Sinwar followinghis killing by theIsrael Defense Forces.[65]
The November 2, 2020, issue of the U.S. edition of the magazine, published the day before the2020 United States presidential election, was the first time that the cover logo "TIME" was not used. The cover of that issue used the word "VOTE" as a replacement logo, along with artwork byShepard Fairey of a voter wearing a pandemic face mask. The issue included information on how to vote safely during the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The magazine's editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal explained this decision for a one-time cover logo change as a "rare moment, one that will separate history into before and after for generations".[47]
Time for Kids is adivision magazine ofTime that is specially published for children and is mainly distributed in classrooms.TFK contains somenational news, a "Cartoon of the Week", and a variety of articles concerning popular culture. An annual issue concerning theenvironment is distributed near the end of the U.S. school term. The publication rarely exceeds ten pages front and back.
Time LightBox is a photography blog created and curated by the magazine's photo department that was launched in 2011.[66] In 2011,Life picked LightBox for its Photo Blog Awards.[67]
In 1940,William Saroyan (1908–1981) lists the fullTime editorial department in the playLove's Old Sweet Song.[75]
This 1940 snapshot includes:
Editor: Henry R. Luce
Managing Editors: Manfred Gottfried, Frank Norris, T.S. Matthews
Associate Editors: Carlton J. Balliett Jr., Robert Cantwell, Laird S. Goldsborough, David W. Hulburd Jr., John Stuart Martin, Fanny Saul, Walter Stockly, Dana Tasker, Charles Weretenbaker
Contributing Editors: Roy Alexander, John F. Allen, Robert W. Boyd Jr., Roger Butterfield, Whittaker Chambers, James G. Crowley, Robert Fitzgerald, Calvin Fixx, Walter Graebner, John Hersey, Sidney L. James, Eliot Janeway, Pearl Kroll, Louis Kronenberger, Thomas K. Krug, John T. McManus, Sherry Mangan, Peter Matthews, Robert Neville, Emeline Nollen, Duncan Norton-Taylor,Sidney A. Olson, John Osborne, Content Peckham, Green Peyton, Williston C. Rich Jr., Winthrop Sargeant, Robert Sherrod, Lois Stover, Leon Svirsky, Felice Swados,Samuel G. Welles Jr., Warren Wilhelm, and Alfred Wright Jr.
Editorial Assistants: Ellen May Ach, Sheila Baker, Sonia Bigman, Elizabeth Budelrnan, Maria de Blasio, Hannah Durand, Jean Ford, Dorothy Gorrell, Helen Gwynn, Edith Hind, Lois Holsworth, Diana Jackson, Mary V. Johnson, Alice Lent, Kathrine Lowe, Carolyn Marx, Helen McCreery, Gertrude McCullough, Mary Louise Mickey, Anna North, Mary Palmer, Tabitha Petran, Elizabeth Sacartoff, Frances Stevenson, Helen Vind, Eleanor Welch, and Mary Welles.
^Ross, Harold Wallace; White, Katharine Sergeant Angell (1936).The New Yorker.Archived from the original on August 14, 2021. RetrievedJanuary 26, 2014.
"Elegant and commanding, intimate and worldly,Time magazine's beautifully designed LightBox blog is an essential destination for those who appreciate contemporary photography. Much more than photojournalism, Lightbox (which, like LIFE.com, is owned by Time Inc.) explores today's new documentary and fine art photography from the perspective of the photo editors at Time – arguably the strongest editors working in their field today. LightBox offers fascinating dispatches from every corner of the world".
Elson, Robert T.Time Inc: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1923–1941 (1968); vol. 2:The World of Time Inc.: The Intimate History, 1941–1960 (1973), official corporate history.vol 1 online alsovol 2 online
Herzstein, Robert E.Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American Crusade in Asia (2006)online
Herzstein, Robert E.Henry R. Luce: A Political Portrait of the Man Who Created the American Century (1994).online
