Life (magazine)

{{Short description|American photo newsmagazine (since 1936)}} {{Distinguish|Life (humor magazine)|Life (journal)}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | title = Life | logo = LIFE magazine logo.svg | image_file = Life magazine – Jaws 45th anniversary issue (2020-06-19).jpg | image_size = | image_caption = Cover of the issue from June 19, 2020, commemorating the 45th anniversary of ''Jaws'' | frequency = Weekly (1936–1972)<br />Monthly (1978–2000) | total_circulation = 1,000,000 | circulation_year = 1937 | category = News | company = {{ubl| Time Inc. (1936–2018)| Meredith Corporation (2018–2021)| People Inc. (since 2021)| Bedford Media (since 2024)}} | firstdate = {{start date and age|1936|11|23}} | country = United States | based = New York City, New York, U.S. | lastdate = {{start date|2000|5}} (print) | language = English | website = {{URL|www.life.com}} | issn = 0024-3019 }}

'''''Life''''' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American news magazine. ''Life'' was launched in 1936 as a weekly publication, in 1972 it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before returning as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since 2000, the magazine was published as irregular "special" issues.

Life was launched on November 23, 1936, after Henry Luce purchased the 1883 humour magazine ''Life'' for its name.<ref name=":12">{{Cite news |last=Tierney |first=John |date=1990-07-09 |title=George T. Eggleston, Leading Isolationist In World War II, 83 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/09/us/george-t-eggleston-leading-isolationist-in-world-war-ii-83.html |access-date=2025-07-10 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Originally published by Time Inc., since 2021 the magazine has been owned by Dotdash Meredith.

The magazine's place in the history of photojournalism is considered one of its most important contributions to the world of publishing.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brennen |first1=Bonnie |title=Picturing the past: media, history, and photography |last2=Hardt |first2=Hanno |date=1999 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0252067693 |location=Urbana}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kobré |first1=Kenneth |title=Photojournalism: the professionals' approach |last2=Brill |first2=Betsy |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1138101364 |edition=7th |location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The great Life photographers |date=2004 |publisher=Bulfinch Press |isbn=978-0821228920 |edition=1st |location=New York}}</ref> From 1936 to the 1960s, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging general-interest magazine known for its photojournalism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fernandez |first=Chantal |date=2024-03-28 |title=Karlie Kloss Is Relaunching Life Magazine |url=https://www.thecut.com/article/karlie-kloss-is-relaunching-life-magazine.html |access-date=2024-08-22 |website=The Cut |language=en}}</ref> During this period, it was one of the most popular magazines in the United States, with its circulation regularly reaching a quarter of the U.S. population.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Smee |first=Sebastian |date=20 October 2022 |title=The magazine that gave photography unprecedented power |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/10/20/life-magazine-exhibit-boston/ |access-date=22 August 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>

==History== ===20th century=== {{more citations needed section|date=June 2023}}

====Weekly news magazine==== thumb|19 West 31st Street [[File:LifeMagazine1966LSD.jpg|thumb|Cover of the issue from March 25, 1966, with the feature story on LSD]] thumb|A subscription offer from ''Life'' in 1970. The U.S. price was then $2.55 for 19 issues.

In 1936, publisher Henry Luce purchased ''Life'' magazine for US$92,000 {{USDCY|92000|1936}} because he wanted the name for his company, Time Inc., to use. Time Inc. sold ''Life''{{'s}} subscription list, features, and {{clarify|text=goodwill|reason=Goodwill (accounting) can't be sold|date=October 2023}} to ''Judge''. Convinced that pictures could tell a story instead of just illustrating text, Luce launched the new ''Life'' on November 23, 1936, with John Shaw Billings and Daniel Longwell as founding editors.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|title=Daniel Longwell, a Founder of Life; Chairman of Editors' Board Until 1954 Dies at 69| work=The New York Times |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/11/22/77427429.html?pageNumber=47|access-date=2021-08-28|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kcEAAAAMBAJ&dq=daniel+longwell+life+magazine&pg=PA13 |title=Life |date=1953-08-10 |publisher=Time Inc |language=en}}</ref> The third magazine published by Luce, after ''Time'' in 1923 and ''Fortune'' in 1930, ''Life'' developed as the definitive photo magazine in the U.S., giving as much space and importance to images as to words. The first issue of this version of ''Life'', which sold for ten cents (worth ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|0.10|1936|r=2}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}), had five pages of Alfred Eisenstaedt's photographs.

In planning the weekly news magazine, Luce circulated a confidential prospectus<ref>{{cite web|url=https://life.tumblr.com/post/17551327132/to-see-life-to-see-the-world-to-eyewitness|title= Life: A Prospectus for a New Magazine|website=life.tumblr.com}}</ref> within Time Inc. in 1936, which described his vision for the new ''Life'' magazine, and what he viewed as its unique purpose. ''Life'' magazine was to be the first publication with a focus on photographs that enabled the American public:

<blockquote>To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things—machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see man's work—his paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to; the women that men love and many children; to see and take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed... :—Prospectus for a New Magazine<ref name = Smee>Sebastian Smee, "In Life, as in art, every picture had stories to tell", ''The Washington Post'', October 23, 2022, p. E12.</ref><ref>[https://time.com/3875143/life-in-2012-the-year-in-12-galleries/ Life in 2012: The Year in 12 Galleries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104233716/https://time.com/3875143/life-in-2012-the-year-in-12-galleries/ |date=January 4, 2016 }}. Retrieved September 24, 2015</ref></blockquote>

Luce's first issue cover depicted the Fort Peck Dam in Montana, a Works Progress Administration project, photographed by Margaret Bourke-White.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Very First Issues of 19 Famous Magazines|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/50299/very-first-issues-19-famous-magazines|last=French|first=Alex|work=Mental Floss|date=9 August 2013|access-date=12 August 2013|archive-date=August 10, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810181820/http://mentalfloss.com/article/50299/very-first-issues-19-famous-magazines|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The format of ''Life'' in 1936 was a success: the text was condensed into captions for 50 pages of photographs. The magazine was printed on heavily coated paper and cost readers only a dime {{USDCY|0.10|1936}}. The magazine's circulation was beyond the company's predictions, going from 380,000 copies of the first issue to more than one million a week four months later.<ref>"[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930895,00.html Pictorial to Sleep]", ''Time'', March 8, 1937.</ref> It soon challenged ''The Saturday Evening Post'', then the largest-circulation weekly in the country. The magazine's success stimulated many imitators, such as ''Look'', which was founded a year later in 1937 and ran until 1971.{{citation needed|date = July 2022}}

Luce moved ''Life'' into its own building at 19 West 31st Street, a Beaux-Arts building constructed in 1894. Later ''Life'' moved its editorial offices to 9 Rockefeller Plaza.{{Citation needed|date = October 2022}}

A co-founder of the new ''Life'' magazine, Longwell served as managing editor from 1944 to 1946, and as chairman of the board of editors until his retirement in 1954.<ref name=":0" /> He was credited for publishing Winston Churchill's ''The Second World War'' and Ernest Hemingway's ''The Old Man and the Sea''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wainwright|first=Loudon|title=The Great American Magazine: An Inside History of Life |publisher=Knopf|year=1986|isbn=0394459873|location=New York|pages=106}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Dunlap|first=David W.|date=2016-08-11|title=1948-1953 {{!}} Have a Few Years to Curl Up With a Book?|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/insider/1948-1953-have-a-few-years-to-curl-up-with-a-book.html|access-date=2021-08-28|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last1=Kale|first1=Verna|title=Correspondence and the Everyday Hemingway|date=2020|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/new-hemingway-studies/correspondence-and-the-everyday-hemingway/58CD1891726807774A2985D6358F94C3|work=The New Hemingway Studies|pages=47–62|editor-last=Curnutt|editor-first=Kirk|series=Twenty-First-Century Critical Revisions|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-49484-7|access-date=2021-08-28|last2=Spanier|first2=Sandra|editor2-last=del Gizzo|editor2-first=Suzanne}}</ref>

Luce also selected Edward Kramer Thompson, a stringer for ''Time'', as assistant picture editor in 1937. From 1949 to 1961, Thompson was the managing editor, and served as editor-in-chief for nearly a decade until his retirement in 1970. His influence was significant during the magazine's heyday, which was roughly from 1936 until the mid-1960s. Thompson was known for the free rein he gave his editors, particularly a "trio of formidable and colorful women: Sally Kirkland, fashion editor; Mary Letherbee, movie editor; and Mary Hamman, modern living editor."<ref>Dora Jane Hamblin, ''That Was the 'Life', '' New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1977, p. 161.</ref>

When the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, ''Life'' covered the war closely. By 1944, seven of the 40 ''Time'' and ''Life'' war correspondents were women: Americans Mary Welsh Hemingway, Margaret Bourke-White, Lael Tucker, Peggy Durdin, Shelley Smith Mydans, and Annalee Jacoby, as well as Englishwoman Jacqueline Saix (Saix's name is often omitted from the list, but she and Welsh were the only women listed as part of the magazine's team in a ''Times''{{'s}} publisher's letter from May 8, 1944).<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Prentice|first=P.I.|date=8 May 1944|title=A Letter From The Publisher|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,933313,00.html|magazine=Time|page=11}}</ref>

''Life'' backed the war effort each week. In July 1942, it launched its first art contest for soldiers, which drew more than 1,500 entries submitted by all ranks. Judges sorted out the best and awarded $1,000 in prizes. ''Life'' picked 16 for reproduction in the magazine. The National Gallery in Washington, D.C. agreed to put 117 entries on exhibition that summer. ''Life'', also supported the military's efforts to use artists to document the war. When Congress forbade the armed forces from using government money to fund artists in the field, ''Life'' privatized the programs, hiring many of the artists being let go by the Department of War (which would later become the Department of Defense). On December 7, 1960, ''Life'' managers donated many of the works by such artists to the Department of War and its art programs, such as the United States Army Art Program.<ref name="mcnoughten">{{cite book|author=Marian R. McNoughten|title=A Guide to the Stude and Use of Military History|chapter=The Army Art Program|chapter-url=http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/download/csipubs/jessup/jessup_ch14.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507123129/http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/download/csipubs/jessup/jessup_ch14.pdf|archive-date=May 7, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Each week during World War II, the magazine brought photographs of the war to Americans, with photographers from all theaters of war. The magazine was imitated in enemy propaganda using contrasting images of ''Life'' and ''Death''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Life and Death propaganda|url=http://www.psywar.org/product_NZAI-145-10-44-F.php|date=March 30, 2011|work=Psywar|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100703153058/http://www.psywar.org/product_NZAI-145-10-44-F.php|archive-date=July 3, 2010|access-date=September 25, 2014}}</ref>

In August 1942, writing about labor and racial unrest in Detroit, ''Life'' warned that "the morale situation is perhaps the worst in the U.S. ... It is time for the rest of the country to sit up and take notice. For Detroit can either blow up Hitler or it can blow up the U.S."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v04EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15|title=Detroit is Dynamite|magazine=Life|date=August 17, 1942|access-date=November 20, 2011|page=15}}</ref> Mayor Edward Jeffries was outraged: "I'll match Detroit's patriotism against any other city's in the country. The whole story in ''Life'' is scurrilous ... I'd just call it a yellow magazine and let it go at that."<ref>Mansfield (Ohio) ''News Journal'', August 17, 1942.</ref> The article was considered so dangerous to the war effort that it was censored from copies of the magazine sold outside North America.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rU4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA12|title=Letters to the Editor | magazine=Life | date=September 7, 1942|access-date=November 20, 2011|page=12}}</ref>

In July 1943, the magazine hired war photographer Robert Capa to cover the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. A veteran of ''Collier's'' magazine, Capa accompanied the first wave of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, and returned with only a handful of images, many of them out of focus. The magazine wrote in the captions that the photos were fuzzy because Capa's hands were shaking. Capa denied this and claimed that the darkroom had ruined his negatives. Later he poked fun at ''Life'' by titling his war memoir ''Slightly Out of Focus'' (1947). In 1954, Capa was killed after stepping on a landmine while covering the First Indochina War. ''Life'' photographer Bob Landry also went in with the first wave at D-Day, "but ''all'' of Landry's film was lost, and his shoes to boot."<ref>''The Great Life Photographers'', Thames and Hudson, paperback ed. 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-500-28836-8}}, p. 294</ref>

A notable mistake appeared in ''Life''<nowiki/>'s 1 November 1948 issue, the day before the U.S. presidential election, when the magazine printed a full-page photograph showing candidate Thomas E. Dewey and his wife riding across the harbor of San Francisco, California with the caption "The next President travels by ferry boat over the broad waters of San Francisco Bay."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ekoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA30&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false "Campaign Windup," ''LIFE'' (magazine), 1 November 1948 (scroll down to page 37).] Retrieved 25 February 2026.</ref> Incumbent President Harry S. Truman won the election;<ref>Abels, Jules, ''Out of the Jaws of Victory'', New York: Henry Holt and Company (1959), p. 261.</ref> Dewey was expected to win the election, and the ''Chicago Tribune'' made a similar mistake with the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman".

On May 10, 1950, the council of ministers in Cairo banned ''Life'' from Egypt forever. All issues on sale were confiscated. No reason was given, but Egyptian officials expressed indignation over the magazine's April 10 story about King Farouk of Egypt, entitled the "Problem King of Egypt". The government considered it insulting to the country.<ref>{{cite web|title=Life magazine is banned in Egypt after publishing an unflattering article about King Farouk|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/life-magazine-banned-egypt-after-publishing-unflattering-article-about-king-farouk|work=South African History Online|access-date=November 27, 2013}}</ref>

In the 1950s, ''Life'' earned a measure of respect by commissioning work from top authors.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} After its publication of Ernest Hemingway's ''The Old Man and the Sea'' in 1952, the magazine contracted with the author for a 4,000-word piece on bullfighting. Hemingway sent the editors a 10,000-word article, following his last visit to Spain to cover a series of contests between two top matadors in 1959. The article was republished in 1985 as the novella ''The Dangerous Summer''.<ref>Michael Palin, "Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure", ''PBS'', 1999.</ref>

In February 1953, just a few weeks after leaving office, President Harry S. Truman announced that ''Life'' magazine would handle all rights to his memoirs. Truman said it was his belief that by 1954 he would be able to speak more fully on subjects pertaining to the role his administration played in world affairs. Truman observed that ''Life'' editors had presented other memoirs with great dignity; he added that ''Life'' had also made the best offer.{{Citation needed|date = October 2022}}

Beginning in 1953, a Spanish-language edition was published, titled ''Life en español''. It had a circulation of over 300,000 in Latin America.

For his 1955 Museum of Modern Art traveling exhibition ''The Family of Man'', which was to be seen by nine million visitors worldwide, curator Edward Steichen relied heavily on photographs from ''Life'': 111 of the 503 pictures shown, constituting more than 20% as counted by Abigail Solomon-Godeau.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Solomon-Godeau, Abigail | author2=Parsons, Sarah (Sarah Caitlin)| title=Photography after photography : gender, genre, and history | date=2017 | publisher=Duke University Press | isbn=978-0-8223-7362-9 }}</ref> His assistant Wayne Miller entered the magazine's archive in late 1953, and spent an estimated nine months there. He searched through 3.5 million images, most in the form of original negatives (only in the last years of the war did the picture department start to print contact sheets of all assignments), and submitted many that had not been published in the magazine to Steichen for selection.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Sandeen, Eric J | title=Picturing an exhibition : the family of man and 1950s America | date=1995 | publisher=University of New Mexico Press | edition=1st | pages=40–41 | isbn=978-0-8263-1558-8 }}</ref>

In November 1954, actress Dorothy Dandridge became the first African-American woman to be featured on the cover of the magazine.{{Citation needed|date = October 2022}}

In 1957, R. Gordon Wasson, a vice president at J. P. Morgan, published an article in ''Life'' extolling the virtues of magic mushrooms.<ref>{{cite web|author=Joaquim Tarinas|url=http://www.imaginaria.org/wasson/life.htm|title=Robert Gordon Wasson Seeking the Magic Mushroom|work=Imaginaria|access-date=January 15, 2012|archive-date=January 14, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114143839/http://www.imaginaria.org/wasson/life.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> This prompted Albert Hofmann to isolate psilocybin in 1958 for distribution by Sandoz alongside LSD in the U.S., further raising interest in LSD in the mass media.<ref>{{cite magazine|date=June 16, 1958|title=Medicine: Mushroom Madness|magazine=Time|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,863497,00.html|url-status=dead|access-date=May 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131160856/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,863497,00.html|archive-date=January 31, 2011}}</ref> Following Wasson's report, Timothy Leary visited Mexico to try out the mushrooms, which were used in traditional religious rituals.{{Citation needed|date = October 2022}}

''Life''{{'}}s motto became<ref>{{cite news|last=Ronk|first=Liz|date=December 2, 2012|title=Life in 2012: The Year in 12 Galleries|magazine=Time|url=https://time.com/3875143/life-in-2012-the-year-in-12-galleries/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104233716/https://time.com/3875143/life-in-2012-the-year-in-12-galleries/|archive-date=January 4, 2016}}</ref> "To see Life; to see the world." The magazine produced many popular science serials, such as ''The World We Live In'' and ''The Epic of Man'' in the early 1950s. The magazine continued to showcase the work of notable illustrators such as Alton S. Tobey, whose contributions included the cover for a 1958 series of articles on the history of the Russian Revolution.{{Citation needed|date = October 2022}}

As the 1950s drew to a close and television became more popular, the magazine was losing readers. In May 1959, ''Life'' announced plans to reduce its regular news-stand price from 25 cents a copy to 20. With the increase in television sales and viewership, interest in news magazines was waning, and ''Life'' had to try to create a new form.{{Citation needed|date = October 2022}}

In the 1960s, the magazine was filled with color photos of movie stars, President John F. Kennedy and his family, the war in Vietnam, and the Apollo program. Typical of the magazine's editorial focus was a long 1964 feature on actress Elizabeth Taylor and her relationship with actor Richard Burton. Journalist Richard Meryman traveled with Taylor to New York, California, and Paris. ''Life'' ran a 6,000-word first-person article on the screen star.{{Citation needed|date = October 2022}}

<blockquote>"I'm not a 'sex queen' or a 'sex symbol,{{'"}} Taylor said. "I don't think I want to be one. Sex symbol kind of suggests bathrooms in hotels or something. I do know I'm a movie star and I like being a woman, and I think sex is absolutely gorgeous. But as far as a sex goddess, I don't worry myself that way... Richard is a very sexy man. He's got that sort of jungle essence that one can sense... When we look at each other, it's like our eyes have fingers and they grab ahold.... I think I ended up being the scarlet woman because of my rather puritanical upbringing and beliefs. I couldn't just have a romance. It had to be a marriage."<ref>"[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830964,00.html Our Eyes Have Fingers]", ''Time'', December 25, 1964.</ref></blockquote>

In the 1960s, the magazine printed photographs by Gordon Parks. "The camera is my weapon against the things I dislike about the universe and how I show the beautiful things about the universe," Parks recalled in 2000. "I didn't care about ''Life'' magazine. I cared about the people," he said.<ref>''The Rocky Mountain News'', November 29, 2000, page 1.</ref>

Paul Welch's ''Life'' article "Homosexuality in America", published in June 1964, marked the first time a national mainstream publication reported on gay issues. ''Life''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s photographer was referred to the gay leather bar in San Francisco called the Tool Box for the article by Hal Call, who had long worked to dispel the myth that all gay men were effeminate. The article opened with a two-page spread of the mural of life-size leathermen in the bar, painted by Chuck Arnett in 1962.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2000/yax-192.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050120222835/http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2000/yax-192.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2005-01-20 |title=yax-192 Life in 1964, part 1 |publisher=Yawningbread.org |date=1964-07-27 |access-date=2012-05-18 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web|url=http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Folsom_Street:_The_Miracle_Mile|title=Folsom Street: The Miracle Mile|last=Rubin|first=Gayle|author-link=Gayle Rubin|date=1998|website=FoundSF|access-date=2016-12-28}}</ref> The article described San Francisco as "The Gay Capital of America", and inspired many gay leathermen to move there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline1.htm#1964 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421175041/http://www.leatherarchives.org/exhibits/deblase/timeline1.htm#1964 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-04-21 |title=Leather Archives & Museum Leather History Timeline |access-date=2019-12-30}}</ref>

On March 25, 1966, ''Life'' featured a cover story on the drug LSD. The drug had attracted attention among the counterculture and was not yet criminalized.<ref>{{cite web |author=Life Magazine |url=http://www.psychedelic-library.org/magazines/lifelsd.htm |title=LSD - Cover |publisher=Psychedelic-library.org |access-date=2010-04-20 |archive-date=2020-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824110154/http://www.psychedelic-library.org/magazines/lifelsd.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In March 1967, ''Life'' won the 1967 National Magazine Award, chosen by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} Despite the industry's accolades and its coverage of the U.S. mission to the Moon in 1969, the magazine continued to lose circulation. In January 1971, Time Inc. announced its decision to reduce the magazine's circulation from 8.5 million to 7 million in an effort to offset shrinking advertising revenues. The following year, ''Life'' cut its circulation further to 5.5 million beginning with the issue from January 14, 1972. The magazine was reportedly not losing money, but its costs were rising faster than its profits. ''Life'' lost credibility with many readers when it supported author Clifford Irving, whose fraudulent autobiography of Howard Hughes was revealed as a hoax in January 1972. The magazine had purchased serialization rights to Irving's manuscript.{{Citation needed|date = October 2022}}

Industry figures showed that some 96% of ''Life''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s circulation went to mail subscribers, with only 4% coming from the more profitable newsstand sales. Gary Valk was publisher when, on December 8, 1972, the magazine announced it would cease publication by the end of the year and lay off hundreds of staff.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}} The weekly ''Life'' magazine published its last issue on December 29, 1972.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.mcknight360.com/dwda0bm3/life-magazine-final-issue |title="Life magazine final issue" |access-date=2021-10-20 |archive-date=2021-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020124148/https://www.mcknight360.com/dwda0bm3/life-magazine-final-issue |url-status=dead }}</ref>

From 1972 to 1978, Time Inc. published ten ''Life Special Reports'' on such themes as "The Spirit of Israel", "Remarkable American Women" and "The Year in Pictures". With a minimum of promotion, these issues sold between 500,000 and 1 million copies at cover prices of up to $2.{{citation needed|date = October 2022}}

Beginning in October 1978, ''Life'' was published as a monthly publication with a new logo; although it remained a familiar red rectangle with the white type, the new version was larger, the lettering was closer together and the box surrounding it was smaller.

''Life'' continued for the next 22 years as general-interest, news features magazine. In 1986, it marked its 50th anniversary under the Time Inc. umbrella with a special issue showing every cover since 1936, which included issues published during the six-year hiatus in the 1970s.

The circulation in this era hovered around 1.5 million. The cover price in 1986 was $2.50 ({{Inflation|US|2.50|1986|r=2|fmt=eq}}). The publisher was Charles Whittingham; the editor was Philip Kunhardt.

In 1991, ''Life'' sent correspondents to the first Gulf War and published special issues of coverage. Four issues of this weekly, ''Life in Time of War'', were published during the war.

''Life''{{'}}s online presence began in the 1990s<ref>{{cite web | title=Life Magazine Home Page | publisher=pathfinder.com | date=1998-02-16 | url=http://www.pathfinder.com/Life/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980216071228/http://www.pathfinder.com/Life/ | archive-date=1998-02-16 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-10}}</ref> as part of the Pathfinder.com network. The standalone Life.com site was launched on March 31, 2009, and closed on January 30, 2012. Life.com was developed by Andrew Blau and Bill Shapiro, the same team who launched the weekly newspaper supplement. While the archive of ''Life'', known as the Life Picture Collection, was substantial, they searched for a partner who could provide significant contemporary photography. They approached Getty Images, the world's largest licensor of photography. The site offered millions of photographs from ''Life'' and Getty Images' combined collections.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.life.com |title=Life.com |publisher=Life.com |access-date=2012-01-15}}</ref> On the 50th anniversary of the night Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday" to John F. Kennedy, Life.com presented Bill Ray's iconic portrait of the actress, along with other rare photos.

Life.com later became a redirect to a small photo channel on Time.com. Life.com also maintains Tumblr<ref>{{cite web|url=http://life.tumblr.com |title=Tumblr |publisher=Life.tumblr.com |date=1940-12-13 |access-date=2012-01-15}}</ref> and Twitter<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.twitter.com/life |title=Twitter |publisher=Twitter |access-date=2012-01-15}}</ref> accounts and a presence on Instagram.

The magazine struggled financially and, in February 1993, ''Life'' announced the magazine would be printed in a smaller format starting with its July issue, which reintroduced the original ''Life'' logo.

''Life'' reduced advertising prices by 34%{{when|date=December 2020}} in a bid to attract more advertisers. In July 1993, the magazine reduced its circulation guarantee for advertisers by 12%, from 1.7 million to 1.5 million copies. The publishers in this era were Nora McAniff and Edward McCarrick, and Daniel Okrent was the editor. ''Life'' now used the smaller size used by its longtime Time Inc. sister publication, ''Fortune''.

In 1999, the magazine, despite its financial troubles, still made news by compiling lists to round out the 20th century. ''Life'' editors ranked their "Most Important Events of the Millennium" and a list of the "100 Most Important People of the Millennium"; however, this list was criticized for focusing on the West. Thomas Edison's number one ranking was challenged since critics believed that other inventions, such as the internal combustion engine, the automobile, and electricity-making machines, had greater effects on society than Edison's. The top 100 list was also criticized for mixing world-famous names, such as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, and Leonardo da Vinci, with figures largely unknown outside of the United States (18 Americans compared to 13 Italian and French, and 11 English).{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

===21st century=== In March 2000, Time Inc. announced it would cease regular publication of ''Life'' with the May issue.

<blockquote>"It's a sad day for us here," Don Logan, chairman and chief executive of Time Inc., told CNN.com. "It was still in the black," he said, noting that ''Life'' was increasingly spending more to maintain its monthly circulation level of approximately 1.5 million. "''Life'' was a general interest magazine and since its reincarnation, it had always struggled to find its identity, to find its position in the marketplace."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://money.cnn.com/2000/03/17/bizbuzz/life/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218214237/http://money.cnn.com/2000/03/17/bizbuzz/life/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 18, 2007|title=Time Inc. to cease publication of Life magazine|date=March 17, 2000|work=CNN}}</ref></blockquote>

The magazine's last issue featured a human interest story. Its first issue under Henry Luce in 1936 featured a baby named George Story, with the headline "Life Begins"; the magazine had published updates about the course of Story's life over the years, as he married, had children, and pursued a career as a journalist. After ''Time'' announced its pending closure in March, Story happened to die of heart failure on April 4, 2000. The last issue of ''Life'' was titled "A Life Ends", featuring his story and how it had intertwined with the magazine's history.<ref name="Sumner2010">{{cite book|author=David E. Sumner|title=The Magazine Century: American Magazines Since 1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J7g9PgL_No0C&pg=PA89|year=2010|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-1-4331-0493-0|pages=89–}}</ref>

For ''Life'' subscribers, remaining subscriptions were honored with other Time Inc. magazines, such as ''Time''. In January 2001, these subscribers received a special ''Life''-sized format of "The Year in Pictures" edition of ''Time'' magazine; it was a ''Life'' issue disguised under a ''Time'' logo on the front. Newsstand copies of this edition were published under the ''Life'' imprint.

While citing poor advertising sales and a difficult climate for selling magazine subscriptions, Time Inc. executives said a key reason for closing ''Life'' magazine was to divert resources to the company's other magazine launches that year, such as ''Real Simple''. Later that year, its owner, Time Warner, struck a deal with the Tribune Company for Times Mirror magazines, which included ''Golf, Ski, Skiing, Field & Stream'' and ''Yachting''. AOL and Time Warner announced a $184 billion merger, the largest corporate merger in history, which was finalized in January 2001.<ref>{{cite web | title=Who Owns What: Time Warner Corporate Timeline | website=cjr.org | date=2006-08-18 | url=http://www.cjr.org/_deprecate/timewarner-timeline.asp | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060818051718/http://www.cjr.org/_deprecate/timewarner-timeline.asp | archive-date=2006-08-18 | url-status=dead | access-date=2019-08-10}}</ref>

In 2001, Time Warner began publishing special newsstand "megazine" issues of ''Life'' on topics such as the September 11 attacks and the Holy Land. These issues, which were printed on thicker paper, were more like softcover books than magazines.{{Clarify|date=April 2021}}

Beginning in October 2004, ''Life'' was revived for a second time. It resumed weekly publication as a free supplement to U.S. newspapers, competing for the first time with the two industry heavyweights, ''Parade'' and ''USA Weekend''. At its launch, it was distributed with more than 60 newspapers with a combined circulation of approximately 12 million. Among the newspapers to carry ''Life'' were the ''Washington Post'', ''New York Daily News'', ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Chicago Tribune'', ''Denver Post'', and ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch''. Time Inc. made deals with several major newspaper publishers to carry the ''Life'' supplement, including Knight Ridder and the McClatchy Company. The launch of ''Life'' as a weekly newspaper supplement was conceived by Andrew Blau, who served as the President of ''Life''. Bill Shapiro was the founding editor of the weekly supplement.

This version of ''Life'' retained its trademark logo but sported a new cover motto, "America's Weekend Magazine." It measured 9½ x 11½ inches and was printed on glossy paper in full color. On September 15, 2006, ''Life'' was 19 pages of editorial content. The editorial content contained one full-page photo, of actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and one three-page, seven-photo essay, of Kaiju Big Battel. On March 24, 2007, Time Inc. announced that it would fold the magazine by April 20, although it would keep the web site.<ref name="timetoclose">{{cite press release |title=Time Inc. to Close Life Magazine Newspaper Supplement |date=March 26, 2007 |publisher=Time Warner |url=https://www.warnermediagroup.com/newsroom/press-releases/2007/03/26/time-inc-to-close-life-magazine-newspaper-supplement |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110105133059/http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1602884,00.html |archive-date=January 5, 2011}}</ref><ref name="usatoday">{{Cite news |date=March 26, 2007 |title=End comes again for 'Life', but all its photos going on the Web |url=https://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2007-03-26-life-end-online_N.htm |work=USA Today}}</ref>

On November 18, 2008, Google began hosting an archive of the magazine's photographs, as part of a joint effort with ''Life''.<ref name="google">{{cite news|author=Ewen MacAskill in Washington |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/nov/18/google-life-magazine-photographs-images |title=Google makes Life magazine photo archives available to the public |newspaper=Guardian |date= November 18, 2008|access-date=2012-01-15}}</ref> Many images in this archive had never been published in the magazine.<ref>{{cite news |title=Google gives online life to Life mag's photos |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hpwZcZap0g13zNOf8SxhiGlxYYCQD94I7JBO0 |quote=Google Inc. has opened an online photo gallery that will include millions of images from ''Life'' magazine's archives that have never been seen by the public before. |agency=Associated Press |date=2008-11-19 |access-date=2008-11-19 }}{{dead link|date=June 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> The archive, consisting of over six million photographs, is also available through Google Cultural Institute, allowing for users to create collections, and is accessible through Google image search. The full archive of the issues of the main run (1936–1972) is available through Google Book Search.<ref name="Browse all issues">{{cite web|title=Life magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFAEAAAAMBAJ|website=Google Books|date = 14 December 1942|access-date=10 December 2016}}</ref>

Special editions of ''Life'' are published on notable occasions, such as a ''Bob Dylan'' edition on the occasion of his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, ''Paul at 75'' when Paul McCartney turned 75 in 2017, and ''"Life" Explores: The Roaring '20s'' in 2020.<ref>''"Life" Explores: The Roaring '20s: The Decade that Changed America'' (2020), New York: Meredith.</ref>

''Life'' is currently owned by Dotdash Meredith,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://websupport.meredith.com/hc/en-us/categories/4410289678103-LIFE|title=Meredith Customer Support-LIFE|publisher=Dotdash Meredith|access-date=December 5, 2023}}</ref> which owns most former Time Inc. and Meredith Corporation assets.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/iacs-dotdash-buy-magazine-publisher-meredith-27-bln-deal-2021-10-06/|title=IAC's Dotdash to buy magazine publisher Meredith in $2.7 bln deal|first=Subrat|last=Patnaik|publisher=Reuters|date=October 6, 2021|access-date=December 5, 2023}}</ref>

In 2024, ''LIFE. Hollywood'', a two-volume 2024 photo book collection from ''Life'' magazine<ref name=H/> was published by Taschen and captured Hollywood's Golden Age from 1936 to 1972.<ref name=H>{{cite web|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/classic-hollywood-stars-photos-coffee-table-book-1235973301/|title=The Most Indelible Pics of Classic Hollywood Stars All In One Book|author=Abramovitch, Seth|date=August 17, 2024}}</ref>

In 2024, it was announced that Bedford Media (owned by Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner) would be reviving the magazine in an agreement with Dotdash Meredith (now People Inc.).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spangler |first=Todd |date=2024-03-28 |title=Karlie Kloss Is Relaunching LIFE Magazine |url=https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/karlie-kloss-relaunching-life-magazine-1235954452/ |access-date=2024-03-28 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> Bedford Media owns ''i-D'' magazine and Kloss partially owns W Media.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mohammed |first=Hikmat |date=2025-03-06 |title=Under Karlie Kloss, i-D Magazine Is Still Punk |url=https://wwd.com/business-news/media/karlie-kloss-i-d-magazine-reluanch-print-1237025499/ |access-date=2025-07-10 |website=WWD |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Contributors== Notable contributors have included:

* Edward K. Thompson, managing editor (1949–1961) and editor (1961–1970)

Photojournalists:

{{Div col|colwidth=15em}} * Harry Benson * Berry Berenson * Walter Bosshard * Margaret Bourke-White * Brian Brake * Larry Burrows * David Burnett * David Douglas Duncan * Robert Capa * Henri Cartier-Bresson * Loomis Dean * John Dominis * Alfred Eisenstaedt * Eliot Elisofon * Bill Eppridge * Andreas Feininger * Ron Galella * Alfred Gescheidt * Bob Gomel * Allan Grant * Dirck Halstead * Marie Hansen * Bernard Hoffman * Henri Huet * Isaac Kitrosser * Peter B. Martin * Hansel Mieth * Lee Miller * Gjon Mili * John G. Morris * Ralph Morse * Carl Mydans * Gordon Parks * John Phillips * Bill Ray * Co Rentmeester * David E. Scherman * Paul Schutzer * Art Shay * George Silk * George Strock * W. Eugene Smith * Peter Stackpole * Pete Souza * John Vachon * Jeff Vespa, editor * Leigh Wiener * Tony Zappone, Europe edition * John G. Zimmerman {{Div col end}}

Film critics:

* Brad Darrach * Wheeler Winston Dixon

Fashion:

* Howell Conant, fashion photographer * Clay Felker, sportswriter, founder of ''New York'' magazine * Sally Kirkland, editor, fashion

Photographers:

{{Div col|colwidth=15em}} * John Florea * Henry Grossman * Philippe Halsman * Dorothea Lange * Nina Leen * Mark Shaw * Edward Steichen, portraits * André Weinfeld, portraits {{Div col end}}

Illustrators:

{{Div col|colwidth=20em}} * Mary Hamman, modern living editor * Richard Edes Harrison, cartographer * Jane Howard, journalist and correspondent * Will Lang Jr. (bureau chief) * Henry Luce, publisher and editor-in-chief * Gerald Moore, reporter {{Div col end}}

Writers:

* Normand Poirier * Ronald B. Scott * Thomas Thompson, writer and editor

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite journal |last1=Bissonette |first1=Devan L. |year=2009 |title=Between Silence and Self-Interest |journal=Journalism History |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=62–71 |doi=10.1080/00947679.2009.12062786 |s2cid=140850931 }} * Bussard, Katherine A.; Gresh, Kristen, eds. (2020). ''Life Magazine and the Power of Photography''. New Haven: Yale UP. * {{cite journal |last=Centanni |first=Rebecca |year=2011 |title=Advertising in ''Life'' Magazine and the Encouragement of Suburban Ideals |journal=Advertising & Society Review |volume=12 |issue=3 |doi=10.1353/asr.2011.0022 |s2cid=154297703 }} * {{cite book |editor-first=Erika |editor-last=Doss |date=2001 |title=Looking at Life Magazine |url=https://archive.org/details/lookingatlifemag0000unse/ |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |isbn=978-1-56098-989-9}} A collection of essays. * {{cite journal |last=Grady |first=John |year=2007 |title=Advertising Images as Social Indicators: Depictions of Blacks in ''Life'' Magazine, 1936–2000 |url=http://vissoc.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/2010/02/4-grady-ads-and-race.pdf |journal=Visual Studies |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=211–239 |doi=10.1080/14725860701657134 |s2cid=35722845 }} * {{cite book |last=Keller |first=Emily |year=1996 |title=Margaret Bourke-White: A Photographer's Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BXgNCY5QZlwC |publisher=Twenty-First Century Books |isbn=978-0-8225-4916-1}} * {{cite journal |last1=Lester |first1=Paul |last2=Smith |first2=Ron |date=March 1990 |title=African-American Photo Coverage in ''Life'', ''Newsweek'' and ''Time'', 1937–1988 |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED310460.pdf |journal=Journalism Quarterly |volume=67 |pages=128–136 |doi=10.1177/107769909006700119 |s2cid=145442771 }} * {{cite book |last=Moore |first=Gerald |authorlink=Gerald Moore |year=2016 |title=Life Story: The Education of an American Journalist |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JwdjgEACAAJ |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-5677-2 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Vials |first1=Chris |date=2006 |title=The Popular Front in the American Century: ''Life'' Magazine, Margaret Bourke-White, and Consumer Realism, 1936–1941 |journal=American Periodicals |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=74–102 |doi=10.1353/amp.2006.0009 |s2cid=144607109}} * {{cite book |last=Wainwright |first=Loudon |date=1986 |title=The Great American Magazine: An Inside History of Life |url=https://archive.org/details/greatamericanmag00wain |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-394-45987-5}} * {{cite journal |last1=Webb |first1=Sheila |date=April 2006 |title=A Pictorial Myth in the Pages of ''Life'': Small-Town America as the Ideal Place |journal=Studies in Popular Culture |volume=28 |issue=3 |jstor=23416170 |pages=35–58 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Webb |first1=Sheila |year=2010 |title=Art Commentary for the Middlebrow: Promoting Modernism & Modern Art Through Popular Culture—How ''Life'' Magazine Brought 'The New' into Middle-Class Homes |journal=American Journalism |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=115–150 |doi=10.1080/08821127.2010.10678155 |s2cid=152990744 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Webb |first1=Sheila M. |date=June 2016 |title=Creating ''Life'': 'America's Most Potent Editorial Force' |journal=Journalism & Communication Monographs |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=55–108 |doi=10.1177/1522637916639393 |s2cid=147872092 }} Evolution of photojournalism, centered on the magazine. * {{cite journal |last1=Webb |first1=Sheila |date=Spring 2012 |title=The Consumer-Citizen: ''Life'' Magazine's Construction of a Middle-Class Lifestyle Through Consumption Scenarios |journal=Studies in Popular Culture |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=23–47 |jstor=23416397}}

==External links== {{Commons}} * [https://www.life.com ''Life''] website * [https://books.google.com/books?id=N0EEAAAAMBAJ ''Life''] at Google Books * [https://archive.org/details/life_magazine?sort=-date ''Life'' magazine] and [https://archive.org/details/pub_life?sort=-date ''Life''] at the Internet Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Life (Magazine)}} Category:Life (magazine) Category:Magazines established in 1936 Category:Magazines disestablished in 2000 Category:Magazines published in New York City Category:Photojournalistic magazines Category:Online magazines with defunct print editions Category:News magazines published in the United States Category:Newspaper supplements Category:Weekly magazines published in the United States Category:Monthly magazines published in the United States Category:Defunct magazines published in the United States