19th century s in
Center City Philadelphia, built in 1910 and designed by Edgar Seeler in the
Beaux Arts style '' in 1900 '' The Curtis Publishing Company was founded in 1891 by publisher
Cyrus H. K. Curtis, who published the ''People's Ledger
, a news magazine he launched in Boston in 1872, and then moved to Philadelphia, which was a major publishing center in the nation, four years later, in 1876. Curtis established the Tribune and Farmer'' in 1879. Curtis' wife,
Louisa Knapp Curtis, developed a
women's section to the magazine and the ''
Ladies' Home Journal'', which she edited from 1883 to 1889, all of which became part of Curtis Publishing Company. In 1897, Curtis bought
The Saturday Evening Post for $1000, and developed it into one of the nation's most popular periodicals. The magazine had its roots in
Benjamin Franklin's
Pennsylvania Gazette, which went back to 1728. The goal of the division was to understand their customers and was one of the first market research firms. Curtis spun off their market research division,
National Analysts, as an independent organization to provide market research services to business and government. The emergence of television in the late 1940s and early 1950s competed for people's attention and eroded the popularity of general-interest periodicals such as the
Post and the
Journal. The company's financials showed a loss of $4,194,000 on $178.4 million in revenue that year. Curtis received another loan of $5.5 million in 1964 to be used to make investments in new editorial properties.
Perfect Film loaned the company $5 million in 1968 at the request of Curtis's primary loan holder,
First National Bank of Boston, to extend its loans. Curtis sold its Philadelphia headquarters to real estate developer John W. Merriam for $7.3 million to pay off most of the First National loan; it
leased half of the building back for its operations. In 1968, Curtis Publishing sold the ''Ladies' Home Journal
and The American Home
to Downe Communications for $5.4 million in stock; it sold the stock for operating revenue. The list of six million Post
subscribers was sold to Life'' for cash, a $2.5 million loan, and a contract with Curtis' circulation and printing services subsidiaries. Despite these attempts to revive the
Saturday Evening Post, and failing to find a purchaser for the magazine, Curtis Publishing shut it down in 1969. In March 1969, the
Federal Trade Commission directed Curtis to offer cash refunds for unfulfilled portions of
Post subscriptions. Perfect Film purchased
Curtis Circulation Company that same year.
21st century In the 21st century, Curtis Publishing Company offers worldwide publishing and marketing to independent authors around the globe. == Properties and subsidiaries ==