Australian Special-Interest Magazines: A Case Study in Community Formation and Survival

Abstract

Special-interest titles represent a dynamic sector of the Australian magazine industry, yet few studies have been undertaken on them or their histories. Quilt-making titles serve as a case study of one of the most successful special-interest categories - craft - and special-interest magazines more generally. By tracing the evolution of magazines for quilters and by taking as its premise the rhetorical function of magazines in forming communities, this article illustrates the symbiotic interaction between publishing histories, including the exploitation of new technologies, and the sense of self engendered by magazines. In quilters' magazines, this sense of self is most recently pronounced in content describing the 'modern quilter', for whom digital media literacy is characteristic. The article's findings are used to advocate further research into the rhetorical and practical responses made by special-interest titles to a competitive publishing environment that is no longer dependent on paper-based delivery of content.