Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a music and entertainment magazine that is published every week in the United States by Penske Media Corporation. This publication covers topics pertaining to the music business such as music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, which keep tabs on the albums and songs that are the most popular throughout a variety of musical subgenres. In addition to that, it manages a number of other television programmes, runs a publishing company, and puts on events.

William Donaldson and James Hennegan established Billboard in 1894 as a trade journal for bill posters. Billboard's first issue was published in 1895. In subsequent years, Donaldson paid $500 to purchase Hennegan's portion in the business in 1900. During the early years of the 20th century, it oversaw the entertainment sector, which included things like fairs, burlesque acts, and circuses. Additionally, it established a postal service for travelling artists. As jukeboxes, phonographs, and radios were more widely available to the public, Billboard started to concentrate more on the music business. In order for it to be able to concentrate on music, several of the issues that it covered were split off and published in other publications, such as Amusement Business in 1961, which covered outdoor entertainment. After Donaldson's death in 1925, his children and Hennegan's children took ownership of Billboard until it was sold to private investors in 1985. Since that time, the publication has been held by a number of different individuals and organisations.

On November 1, 1894, William Donaldson and James Hennegan were the ones to print the inaugural edition of Billboard. It was done so in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its original name, Billboard Advertising, reflected its focus on the advertising and bill posting sector at the time. The most common forms of public advertising at that time were billboards, posters, and paper ads that were positioned in public places. Donaldson was in charge of editing and advertising, while Hennegan, owner of Hennegan Printing Co., was in charge of the production of the magazine. The very first publications had just eight pages total. The newspaper included pieces with titles such as "The Indefatigable and Tireless Industry of the Bill Poster" and "The Bill Room Gossip." 1896 was the year that saw the birth of the department responsible for agricultural fairs. 1897 saw the periodical formerly known as The Billboard Advertising being rechristened simply as The Billboard.