Magazines for All
A major source of information and entertainment was the illustrated magazine, of which The Graphic and the Illustrated London News were the most popular. The first was the least innovative, with rigid layout and brief captions barely related to its illustrations. The Illustrated London News had a wider scope, in its Christmas 1930 number including colour images of paintings, and illustrated fiction, yet its presentation was still moderately rigid. Picture Post, begun in 1938 brought words and images together through skilful layout and imaginative photography, attracting readers with a greater variety of social, political and artistic articles. Its use of images without borders gave energy lacking in the earlier magazines. It used these features to satirise some ministers and praise others, and attacked Government policies, including unemployment and early-war censorship. Yet many of its visual techniques were adopted by Government in its publications of the war years.