History
The company was formed in 1891 by publisher Cyrus Curtis, who published the People's Ledger, a news magazine he had begun in Boston in 1872 and moved to Philadelphia in 1876. He had also established the Tribune and Farmer in 1879, from the women's section of which he fashioned the Ladies' Home Journal under the editorship of his wife, Louisa Knapp in 1883. These publications were taken under the imprimatur of the new company.
In 1897, Curtis spent $1,000 to buy The Saturday Evening Post, which would become one of the nation's most popular periodicals, known for its timely articles and stories and frequent cover illustrations by Norman Rockwell. In 1946 Curtis Circulation Company is created as an official subsidiary of Curtis Publishing Company. The advent of television in the late 1940s and early 1950s encroached upon the popularity of general interest periodicals like the Post and the Journal, and in March, 1962, Curtis Publishing's president Robert A. MacNeal announced that the company had lost money for the first time since its incorporation, more than 70 years before.
Perfect Film loaned $5 million into Curtis Publishing in 1968 at the request of Curtis' primary loan holder, First National Bank of Boston to exend its loans. Curtis sells for $7.3 million its Philadelphia headquarters to a real estate developer, John W. Merriam, and lease half the buildings back to pay off most of the First National loan. Perfect's owner, Martin S. Ackerman was appointed president. In 1968, Curtis Publishing sold the Ladies' Home Journal, along with The American Home, to Downe Communications for $5.4 million in stock. Ackerman has Curtis sell the Downe stock for operating cash. 6 million Post subscribers are sold to Life for cash, a 2.5 million dollar loan and become a customer of Curtis' subsidiaries for circulation and printing services. With all these attempts to revive the Post and lack of a purchaser, Curtis Publishing shut down the Evening Post in 1969. In March 1969, the Federal Trade Commission directs Curtis to offer cash refunds for unfulfilled portions of Evening Post subscriptions. Perfect Film purchased Curtis Circulation Company that same year. In 1976, The Saturday Evening Post Society was spun off from Curtis to publish its flagship magazine and U.S. Kids was formed which publishes their portfolio of childrens' magazines.
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