June 2007 cover
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Editor | Stellene Volandes |
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Former editors | Frank Zachary |
Photographer | Ronny Jaques |
Frequency | Monthly |
Total circulation (2015) |
486,297 |
Founder | Nathaniel Parker Willis and George Pope Morris |
Year founded | 1846 |
Company | Hearst Magazines |
Country | United States |
Based in | New York City |
Website | www |
ISSN | 0040-9952 |
Town & Country, formerly the Home Journal and The National Press, is a monthly American lifestyle magazine. It is the oldest continually published general interest magazine in the United States.
It was founded by poet and essayist Nathaniel Parker Willis and New York Evening Mirror newspaper editor George Pope Morris, as The National Press in 1846. Eight months later, it was renamed The Home Journal. After 1901, the magazine title became "Town & Country" and it has retained that name ever since.
Throughout most of the 19th century, this weekly magazine featured poetry, essays, and fiction. As more influential people began reading it, the magazine began to include society news and gossip in its pages. After 1901, the magazine continued to chronicle the social events and leisure activities of the North American landed aristocracy such as debutante or cotillion balls, and also reported on the subsequent "advantageous marriages" that came from people meeting at such social engagements.
The magazine's earlier readership initially consisted of members of the Establishment. This includes older wealthy families of New York City, Boston Brahmins or those people in other parts of the United States whose surnames may have appeared in the Social Register.
Willis owned and edited the magazine from 1846 until his death in 1867.
After Willis's death, the magazine went through several owners and editors until William Randolph Hearst acquired ownership in 1925. The first editor under Hearst ownership was Harry Bull. He edited the magazine from 1925 through 1949. Henry B. Sell became Bull's successor.
The magazine is still owned and published by the Hearst Corporation.
Today, the magazine is published monthly, and its readership is composed of mainly younger socialites, café society, and middle class professionals.