The end of Life as we know it

Henry Luce, founder of Time magazine took over Life on November 23, 1936 and turned it around into a publication with strong emphasis on photojournalism.

Life was the third magazine published by Luce after Time in 1923 and Fortune in 1930. Life gave birth to the first photo magazine that gave as much space and importance to words as to pictures. Life appeared as a weekly till 1972, as a sporadic special until 1978, a monthly from 1978 to 2000 and a weekly newspaper supplement from 2004 to 2007.
Life was the first ever all-photographic US magazine that dominated the market for more than 40 years. Its place in the history of photojournalism is considered its most important contribution to publishing. The first issue of Life, which was priced for 10 cents (by today’s standards equivalent to $1.40) featured five pages of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s pictures. The format of Life was a classic; the text was condensed into captions for 50 pages of pictures. The magazine’s circulation skyrocketed beyond the company’s prediction going from 380,000 copies of the first issue to more than one million a week, four months later.
The magazine sold more than 13.5 million copies a week at one point and was so popular that President Harry Truman, Sir Winston Churchill and General Douglas MacArthur all serialised their memoirs in its pages. Perhaps one of the most popular pictures printed in the magazine was photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt’s shot of a nurse in a sailor’s arms, snapped on August 27, 1945 as the US celebrated Victory over Japan Day in New York City.
The iconic magazine printed works of famous photojournalists of the time like the distinguished war photographer, Robert Capa and Margaret Bourke-White. In its heyday, it was one of the most powerful voices in US and international journalism. It was wildly successful for two generations before its prestige was diminished by economics and changing tastes. Since 1972, Life has ceased publications twice, only to be brought back to readers in different incarnations.
But Time announced on March 26, 2007 that it will cease publishing Life from April 20, 2007 the last day for Life’s print issue. Anne Moore, Time’s chief executive said, “The market has moved dramatically since October 2004 and it is no longer appropriate to continue publication.” The title would continue to live on the Internet with photographs from its back issues.