At the end of the 19th century, a great change in written newsreels took place. The new Printing Law of 1883, more liberal and with much more lax authorization requirements for new publications, stimulated the appearance of new periodicals full of literary creation and photography. At the beginning of the 20th century, almost a total of 1,400 magazines were sold on Spanish streets.

These new magazines offered the reader information different from that of the usual newspapers. It was about offering complementary content with articles on fashion, sports, politics, show reviews, current affairs... In short, a lot of literary and miscellaneous content (although, on occasions, it overlapped, explaining the content in another way and giving greater importance to the image). The objective of these publications was to emphasize the literary content with drawing, linked to caricatures and comic strips when they were critical.

"New World" is an illustrated magazine published between 1894 and 1933, considered one of the most important in Spain at the time, which used photographs and photojournalists. It suffered a split in 1911, from which “Mundo Grafico” emerged, cheaper (20-30 cents) and, therefore, popular.

Very striking are their covers. Those of "New World" used to be full color illustrations, while those of "Graphic World" were always photographs with a touch of color starring famous people of the moment, such as actresses and/or bullfighters. The inside pages were occupied almost 100% by photographs, caricatures, humorous vignettes... Also by short stories, verses, riddles and hobbies, in addition to many advertisements. The great popularity of these magazines lay, therefore, in the unconditional use of the image.

This type of magazine continued to compete with the more classic ones, such as “La Ilustracion Española y Americana” (1869-1921), a publication with a marked European style with a lot of text, engravings and illustrations.

“La Unión Ilustrada” (Málaga, 1909-1931) and “Around the world” (1888-1930) are other examples of illustrated magazines. Special mention deserves "Black and White" -founded by Torcuato Luca de Tena in 1891-, for its long duration (it closed in 2000) and for being the first to use color.

Author: Marian Tristán, coordinator of the School Museum.