Periodicals and Periodicity

Summaries:
*"hunger for information" is considered a timeless occurrence, as the periodical was not necessarily a "new" institution, but rather resulted from a change in reading practice, cultural production, and the shift from intensive to extensive reading. The periodical gained popularity, and surpassed the book as the dominant textual medium of intellectual exchange around the Enlightenment period and age of revolution.

*The newspaper was seen as a "basic need", intended for lighter reading for mass audiences, regarding local happenings, politics, and other various topics. They "Embodied and celebrated leisure." Journals were perceived as being scholarly, particularly used for experimental scientific research. "One reads newspapers not in order that one may become learned and skilled in judgment, but only in order to learn what is going on"

*The general appearance and character, as well as the price of periodicals shifted, as advertising became more adamant. Printing was cheaper because advertising income allowed publishers to sell below cost, publishers were targeting specific consumers, and advertising space would sometimes occupy 35-50% of a given issue.

Comment:
I really took to the line that read "periodicals fostered the rise of professional writers, incidental writers, and professionals who wrote." It's interesting to think that not only was textual production evolving, but the idea of the author was evolving too. It was mentioned that "our view of authorship has been distorted based on the scholarly emphasis associated with the book", which I think is a very fair venture. Periodicals provided a lightened form of writing, as well as a "lightened" sense of authorship, which in my opinion doesn't negate the importance of the author's work, but rather insinuates the idea that "anyone", regardless of their "scholastic value" could venture into the world of printed text.

Question:
There's a quote in the article that reads: "For the comfort of those who are too busy or too lazy to read entire books... a means of satisfying their curiosity and of becoming wise at little expense." It's mentioned that many women (British, Victorian, Soviet) were turning to periodicals for entertainment and self-improvement, as well as the fact that by 1912, a single edition of the Ladies Home Journal or the Saturday Evening Post consumed four square miles of paper and 60,000 pounds of ink, and required 65 railway carts to distribute it. In regards to periodicals, were newspapers/magazines targeted more toward women, as they were just "light" reading on non-scholarly subjects? Were journals therefore targeted more towards a male reader, as they weren't focused on self-improvement tips? Is this relevant today, in regards to male/female targeted periodicals?