Jackie was a weekly British magazine for girls. The magazine was published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd of Dundee from 11 January 1964 until its closure on 3 July 1993 - a total of 1534 issues.
The name was chosen from a list of girls names; although the name was nearly dropped due to the association with Jackie Kennedy following her husband's assassination in 1963. An urban legend exists that it was named after Jacqueline Wilson who worked there at the time, before she became a notable children's author. Although the author has attempted to perpetuate this claim,[1] this has been denied by those who were involved in the launch.
Ex-RAF Engine Fitter Gordon Small was the first editor. TV critic Nina Myskow was a former editor. The best selling period was the 1970s, with the best ever selling issue the 1972 edition which was a special edition to coincide with the UK tour of American singer David Cassidy. During the 1970s, "Jackie" published a mix of fashion and beauty tips, gossip, short stories and comic strips. The latter were usually illustrated with line drawings or posed photographs, especially if the story involved a "reader's true life experience". Both the comics and the short stories invariably dealt with either romance or family issues. The centre pages of the magazine usually contained a pull-out poster of a popular band or film star.
"Jackie" became very popular with young teenage girls not least because of the "Cathy and Claire" problem page, which received 400 readers letters a week and dealt with rather controversial issues that were nonetheless relevant to the readership. However, the subjects covered in the column were not reflective of the majority of readers letters, which focused on sexually related issues - DC Thompson as a result kept the editorial brief and stance, but created a series of help leaflets which they sent to writers. In 1974 the NHS made the pill free on prescription, and so under editor Myskow the magazine introduced a "Dear Doctor" column, which covered what were termed as "below the waist issues."
In light of changing times, by 1993 circulation had dropped to 50,000 weekly. Deciding not to follow the more sexually and high-fashion orientation of other teenage magazines that were appearing, DC Thomson choose to shut the magazine down. It was one of several Thomson papers to close that year. More recently, the company has started issuing every year an historic "Jackie" annual. BBC Radio invited Jackie Clune to do an epitaph for Jackie Magazine.
Models
Jackie's models and feature story characters included:
- Shirley Manson - Singer of band Garbage, Actress
- Fiona Bruce — BBC newsreader[2]
- Leslie Ash - Actress
References
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