Communication strategies of the publisher in V. Maykov's Podsnezhnik, a magazine "for children's and adolescents' reading" (1858-1862)

The journalism of the 1850s-1860s referred to the 19th century as to the time of professional children's magazine development. At this time, the number of children's magazines increases, they show differentiation and develop typical features. A magazine of the "new type" that laid the foundation for the professional children's periodical was Pods-nezhnik ("Snowdrop") (1858-1862). Its concept and place in the children's journalism was largely determined by the figure of its publisher, Vladimir Nikolaevich Maikov (18261885). Knowing well the literary and journalistic milieu of his time, he organized a children's magazine as a successful business enterprise using pragmatic and artistic communication strategies. The pragmatic strategy of the publisher was connected with the expansion of readership, distribution territory, price reduction, marketing moves (a gift for a subscription, advertising of books and bookshops), and so on. A pragmatic approach also determined the publishing paratext of the magazine. It primarily focused on the adult reader-buyer with literary and pedagogical expertise, familiar with the book culture of the, and concerned with the aesthetic and intellectual upbringing of the child. The publishing paratext was organized in order to convince an adult mentor in the authority of the magazine and in the usefulness of its purchasing for the young reader. This, according to the publisher, was evidenced by the censorship permission, pedagogical materials (instructive pedagogical articles, educational and aesthetic program of the magazine, educational notes of the editor to the popular scientific articles), the high quality of the published works of art (selection of authors the adult reader knew, selection of the best works written especially for children, part of children's reading, focus on the popular genres adult literature: a lyric poem, novel, short story), the visual appeal of the magazine, its usability (the rigor and clarity of design, selection of illustrations, etc.). The publisher had a different communication strategy for the child-reader, it can be called aesthetic, or artistic. It is related to the selection, method and sequence of materials placement in the metatext unity of the magazine. The strategy is designed for the upbringing of ideal readers from their introduction to reading to involvement in this process and participation in the receptive dialogue under the leadership of the adult reader-mentor. This publisher and author's position reveals primarily in the materials whose narrative structure integrates a narrative situation involving an adult and a child. It is no coincidence that materials with forms of conversation appear in virtually every issue of Podsnezhnik; and with every issue the communicative model becomes more complicated: from authoritarian forms where the child was guided to free ones, implying indirect influence, an aesthetic impact. It is the unity of the two opposing communication publishing strategies that determines the novelty of the children's magazine Podsnezhnik.

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