75 Years of Esquire Magazine

Founders and publishers David A. Smart and Arnold Gingrich started the men’s magazine in 1933. In the 1940s Gingrich focused the content of the magazine from salacious to literature recruiting contributing writers like now literary icons Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In the 1960s Esquire magazine blazed a new trail in both content and design. The magazine helped pioneer the writing trend called new journalism featuring articles by now legendary writers like Norman Mailer, Gay Talese and Tom Wolfe.

In the design department Esquire magazine may be the most influential in modern print history. In the 1960s Esquire magazine’s designer rocked society with his stark magazine cover subjects and designs. Recently Lois’s designs were presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Some classic Esquire magazine cover subjects are boxer Muhammed Ali, President Richard Nixon and artist Andy Warhol. Recent Esquire cover subjects include actors like Johnny Depp, Mike Myers and George Clooney and politicians like Barack Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The magazine also did a feature on women called “75 Years of Women” that featured Victoria’s Secret models re-creating three iconic poses for the kick-off of the magazine’s anniversary year.

After several years of floundering in the 1980s and 1990s Esquire magazine has regained success in the men’s magazine market with a monthly circulation of 750,000. Unlike many of its niche competitors like Men’s Health, Maxum, Jet and Vibe, Esquire magazine has conquered the catch-all men’s magazine genre. Esquire magazine’s biggest competitors are GQ magazine, Men’s Journal, Men’s Vogue and Best Life. Current Esquire magazine writers include Ted Allen, Stacey Grenrock Woods, Chuck Klosterman, Thomas P.M. Barnett and many more.

Esquire magazine also recently made headlines by annoucing that its 75th anniversary cover will be embedded with digital technology so that the headline "The 21st Century Starts Now" will flash. This is the first of its kind--digitally enhanced--cover in magazine history.

While some critics are labeling the move a gimmick, others including the editor in chief of Esquire magazine deem it a much-needed innovation to revive the medium of magazines, which is currently a struggling industry.
The 75th anniversary issue with the digitally-enhanced cover will hit stands in September.