“Magazine-making is not like an ordinary business. It is so mixed up with humanity that after a time the editor comes to learn that other people’s affairs are his. The effect of even the slightest word scattered among a million and a half readers is so pronounced that he comes to weigh with utmost care every sentence and page, for which he must stand responsible.” — Cosmopolitan magazine, 1897. The article, which bears no byline, has been attributed to John Brisben Walker, a serial entrepreneur and then some, who was the magazine’s owner and editor at the time.
Walker sold Cosmopolitan to William Randolph Hearst in 1905 and left magazine-making behind him.
Walker died in 1931. Cosmopolitan, now a very different magazine, lives on.