Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts[specify] that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis.

History

Billboard was founded in Cincinnati on November 1, 1894, by William H. Donaldson and James H. Hennegan. Originally titled Billboard Advertising it was a trade paper for the bill posting industry, hence the magazine's name. Within a few years of its founding, it began to carry news of outdoor amusements,a major consumer of billboard space.From 1961 until 2005, Billboard was devoted entirely to the music industry. In 2005, the magazine and its web sites were repositioned to provide coverage ofall forms of digital and mobile entertainment.Amusement Business prospered for a few decades, but was struggling by the beginning of the new century. Shortly after that its frequency of publication  was reduced to monthly, and it finally ceased publication altogether following its May 2006 issue.

NAME	Billboard
FREQUENCY	Weekly
FIRST ISSUE	1894
COMPANY	Prometheus Global Media
CIRCULATION	16,327
COUNTRY	United States
LANGUAGE	English
WEBSITE	www.billboard.com
SPECIAL	Billboard Hot 100 , Billboard 200

Billboard charts

On January 4, 1936 The Billboard published its first music hit parade, and on July 20, 1940 the first Music Popularity Chart was calculated.Since 1958 the Hot 100 has been published, combining single sales and radio airplay.Billboard currently puts out over 100 charts each week, the most popular ones being Hot 100, Billboard 200, and Hot 100 Airplay.

Radio countdown programs

For many years, the weekly syndicated radio program American Top 40, hosted by Casey Kasem (July 4, 1970 to August 6, 1988), and Shadoe Stevens  (August 13, 1988 to January 28, 1995), played the top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in reverse order; in late November 1991, it switched to using the top 40 portion of the Hot 100 Airplay chart. Later, in early 1993, it began using the Top 40 Mainstream chart until it temporarily went off the air in 1995. When the show returned in 1998, it no longer used Billboard charts as its source.

Billboard today

Billboard Publications became a major trade magazine publisher, acquiring The Hollywood Reporter, Kirkus Reviews, Adweek and Mediaweek. It was acquired by Dutch publisher VNU (later renamed the Nielsen Company) in 1993, but later sold in 2009 along with the other Nielsen Business Media properties to the new company e5 Global Media.

Billboard Books

he group behind the magazine has an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group (itself a part of Random House) known as Billboard Books, who bought theimprint from Nielsen in 2008. Their publishing agency describes itself as "a leading publisher of music and entertainment titles".