Captains of Industry (ep26) Frank A. Munsey

Frank Andrew Munsey (August 21, 1854 – December 22, 1925) was an American newspaper and magazine publisher, banker, political financier and author. He was born in Mercer, Maine, but spent most of his life in New York City. The village of Munsey Park, New York is named for him, along with The Munsey Building in downtown Baltimore, Maryland at the southeast corner of North Calvert and East Fayette Streets.

Munsey is credited with using new, high-speed printing presses, supplied with inexpensive, untrimmed, pulp paper, to mass-produce magazines at significantly reduced costs. Each issue could be priced as low as 10-cents; less than half the lowest price then charged for similar publications. Munsey's publishing presented diverse genres; preferring fictional, action-adventure storytelling. His magazines were aimed at working-class readers who could neither afford, nor expect to read about, people like themselves, in the 25-cent "slick" magazines of the time.

Munsey's pulp magazine innovation, spawned a new line of publishing, one in which he was well positioned to profit, and from which he did become wealthy. If one of his magazine titles was no longer profitable, Munsey would stop his presses just long enough to typeset/promote one of many titles continuously being field tested. New titles can expand revenue or replace what has been lost when demand for an older title is much reduced.

Pulitzer. Tiffany. Vanderbilt. Westinghouse. All names you may recognize but what do they have in common? They were all late 19th and early 20th century business men who were very successful, most of them making millions.
In the 1930s, as the United States and Canada were beginning the early stages of recovery from the Depression, Atlas Radio Corporation of Canada created the show Captains of Industry. The purpose of the show was to inspire people with the stories of these self-made men.

The show dramatized the lives of these men who were not just businessmen but philanthropists. The 15-minute shows highlighted the spirit of entrepreneurship each of these men possessed and the good things they did with their money. Over the course of the show, 52 North American businessmen were profiled.