Editing Scientific American (section)

== History ==
[[File:Interior of the Scientific American Office at 361 Broadway, New York, 1887, restored.jpg|thumb|Interior of ''Scientific American''{{'}}s office at 361 [[Broadway (Manhattan)|Broadway]] in New York City]]
[[File:361 Broadway - James White Building (51522453870).jpg|thumb|''Scientific American''{{'s}} early office at [[361 Broadway]] in Manhattan]]
[[File:Woolworth Building 2a (6164626633).jpg|thumb|upright|A 2011 photo of ''Scientific American''{{'s}} office at the [[Woolworth Building]] in New York City, built in 1913 by [[Frank Winfield Woolworth]]<ref name="On the Move" />]]
[[File:Scientific American Building, 1926.jpg|thumb|upright|The ''[[Museum of the Peaceful Arts|Scientific American building]]'' at 24-26 West 40th Street, commissioned by [[Alfred Ely Beach#Munn & Co.|Munn and Co.]] in 1924<ref name="On the Move" />]]

''Scientific American'' was founded by inventor and publisher [[Rufus Porter (painter)|Rufus Porter]] in 1845<ref name="scientificamerican1">{{Cite magazine |date=August 17, 2009 |title=Press Room: About Us |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/pressroom/aboutus.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119195853/http://www.scientificamerican.com/pressroom/aboutus.cfm |archive-date=January 19, 2012 |access-date=January 24, 2012 |magazine=Scientific American}}</ref> as a four-page weekly newspaper. The first issue of the large-format New York City newspaper was released on August 28, 1845.<ref name="scientificamerican2022">{{Cite magazine |last=Yam |first=Philip |date=August 17, 2009 |title=The Origin of Scientific American |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-origin-of-scientific/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828042624/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-origin-of-scientific/ |archive-date=August 28, 2022 |access-date=August 27, 2022 |magazine=Scientific American}}</ref>

Throughout its early years, much emphasis was placed on reports of what was going on at the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office|U.S. Patent Office]]. It also reported on a broad range of inventions including [[perpetual motion]] machines, an 1860 device for buoying vessels by [[Abraham Lincoln]], and the [[universal joint]] which now can be found in nearly every automobile manufactured. Current issues include a "this date in history" section, featuring excerpts from articles originally published 50, 100, and 150 years earlier. Topics include humorous incidents, wrong-headed theories, and noteworthy advances in the history of science and technology. It started as a weekly publication in August 1845 before turning into a monthly in November 1921.<ref>{{Cite web |editor-last=Ockerbloom |editor-first=John Mark |title=Scientific American archives |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=sciam |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240919020611/https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=sciam |archive-date=September 19, 2024 |access-date=July 21, 2020 |website=Penn Libraries |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]]}}</ref>

Porter sold the publication to [[Alfred Ely Beach]], son of media magnate [[Moses Yale Beach]], and [[Orson Desaix Munn]], a mere ten months after founding it. Editors and co-owners from the [[Yale (surname)|Yale family]] included [[Frederick Converse Beach|Frederick C. Beach]] and his son, [[Stanley Yale Beach]], and from the Munn family, [[Charles Allen Munn]] and his nephew, [[Orson Desaix Munn II]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beach |first=Stanley |title=Archives at Yale, Stanley Yale Beach papers |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/850 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331233228/https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/850 |archive-date=March 31, 2023 |number=GEN MSS 802, 1911 – 1948, under "Additional Description" section : Stanley Yale Beach (1877 – 1955)}}</ref> Until 1948, it remained owned by the families under [[Alfred Ely Beach#Munn & Co.|Munn & Company]].<ref name="scientificamerican1" /> Under Orson Munn's grandson, Orson Desaix Munn III, it had evolved into something of a "workbench" publication, similar to the 20th-century incarnation of ''[[Popular Science (magazine)|Popular Science]]''.

In the years after World War II, the magazine fell into decline. In 1948, three partners who were planning on starting a new popular science magazine, to be called ''The Sciences'', purchased the assets of the old ''Scientific American'' instead and put its name on the designs they had created for their new magazine. Thus the partners{{mdash}}publisher [[Gerard Piel]], editor Dennis Flanagan, and general manager Donald H. Miller Jr. essentially created a new magazine.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lewenstein |first=Bruce V. |year=1989 |title=Magazine Publishing and Popular Science after World War II |journal=American Journalism |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=218–234 |doi=10.1080/08821127.1989.10731208}}</ref> Miller retired in 1979, Flanagan and Piel in 1984, when Gerard Piel's son Jonathan became president and editor; circulation had grown fifteen-fold since 1948. In 1986, it was sold to the [[Holtzbrinck Publishing Group]] of Germany, which has owned it until the [[Springer Nature|Springer-Nature]] merger. In the fall of 2008, ''Scientific American'' was put under the control of Holtzbrinck's [[Nature Research|Nature Publishing Group]] division.<ref name="FOLIO">{{Cite web |last=Fell |first=Jason |date=April 23, 2009 |title=Scientific American Editor, President to Step Down; 5 Percent of Staff Cut |url=http://www.foliomag.com/2009/scientific-american-editor-president-step-down-5-percent-staff-cut |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407193643/http://www.foliomag.com/2009/scientific-american-editor-president-step-down-5-percent-staff-cut/ |archive-date=April 7, 2016 |access-date=April 26, 2009 |publisher=FOLIO }}</ref>

Donald Miller died in December 1998,<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 27, 1998 |title=Donald H. Miller |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/27/classified/paid-notice-deaths-miller-donald-h.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240919020611/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/27/classified/paid-notice-deaths-miller-donald-h.html |archive-date=September 19, 2024 |access-date=July 7, 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |quote=Miller-Donald H., Jr. Vice President and General Manager of the magazine Scientific American for 32 years until his retirement in 1979. Died on December 22, at home in Chappaqua, NY. He was 84. Survived by his wife of 50 years, Claire; children Linda Itkin, Geoff Kaufman, Sheila Miller Bernson, Bruce Miller, Meredith Davis, and Donald H. Miller, M.D.; nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild; and brother Douglas H. Miller. The memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 30, at 2 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Westchester in Mount Kisco, NY.}}</ref> Gerard Piel in September 2004 and Dennis Flanagan in January 2005. [[Mariette DiChristina]] became editor-in-chief after [[John Rennie (editor)|John Rennie]] stepped down in June 2009,<ref name="FOLIO" /> and stepped down herself in September 2019. In April 2020, [[Laura Helmuth]] assumed the role of [[editor-in-chief]].

The magazine is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Edmonds |first=Rick |date=August 27, 2015 |title=Can a magazine live forever? Scientific American, at 170, is giving it a shot |url=https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2015/can-a-magazine-live-forever-scientific-american-at-170-is-giving-it-a-shot/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009192813/https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2015/can-a-magazine-live-forever-scientific-american-at-170-is-giving-it-a-shot/ |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |access-date=October 9, 2022 |website=[[Poynter.org|Poynter]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Edmonds |first=Rick |date=August 31, 2020 |title=Scientific American, the oldest U.S. magazine, hits another milestone as the appetite for science news heats up |url=https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/scientific-american-the-oldest-u-s-magazine-hits-another-milestone-as-the-appetite-for-science-news-heats-up/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009192823/https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2020/scientific-american-the-oldest-u-s-magazine-hits-another-milestone-as-the-appetite-for-science-news-heats-up/ |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |access-date=October 9, 2022 |website=[[Poynter.org|Poynter]]}}</ref>

In 2009, the publisher notified collegiate libraries that yearly subscription prices for the magazine would increase by nearly 500% for print and 50% for online access to $1,500 yearly.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Howard |first=Jennifer |date=October 13, 2009 |title=College Library Directors Protest Huge Jump in 'Scientific American' Price |url=http://chronicle.com/article/College-Library-Directors/48794/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015062228/http://chronicle.com/article/College-Library-Directors/48794/ |archive-date=October 15, 2009 |access-date=October 14, 2009 |work=Chronicle of Higher Education}}</ref>

Offices of the ''Scientific American'' have included 37 [[Park Row (Manhattan)|Park Row]] in [[Manhattan]] and the [[Woolworth Building]] in 1915 when it was just finished two years earlier in 1913.<ref name="On the Move" /> The Woolworth Building was at the time one of the first skyscrapers in the city and the tallest one in the world.<ref name="On the Move">{{Cite web |title=Scientific American, on the Move 170 Years, 11 locations – A map of Scientific American's wanderings around Manhattan |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/at-scientific-american/scientific-american-on-the-move |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206051834/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/at-scientific-american/scientific-american-on-the-move/ |archive-date=February 6, 2023 |access-date=February 6, 2023}}</ref>