Munsey, Frank Andrew

Frank Andrew Munsey, (born Aug. 21, 1854, Mercer, Maine, U.S.—died Dec. 22, 1925, New York City), newspaper and magazine publisher, a dominant figure in the trend toward journalistic consolidation in the United States. Viewing his publications purely as moneymaking enterprises, Munsey administered them in detail, maintained an inoffensive and colourless editorial policy, and acquired numerous papers in order to suppress them in favour of stronger competitors also owned by him.

After managing a telegraph office in Augusta, Maine, he went to New York City in 1882 and immediately founded the Golden Argosy, a magazine for children. Six years later it was renamed the Argosy Magazine and converted into an adult magazine. Munsey’s Magazine (founded 1889; called Munsey’s Weekly until 1891) was the first cheap (originally ten cents a copy) general-circulation, illustrated magazine in the United States. His most important newspaper purchases were the Baltimore News (1908) and several papers in New York City: the Star (1891), the Press (1912), The Sun and the Evening Sun (1916), the Herald and its associate, the Evening Telegram (1920), and The Globe (1924). Between 1916 and 1924 some of these papers disappeared in a series of profitable mergers. On his death most of his fortune (estimated at $20,000,000) went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.