Jackie, the iconic weekly magazine for teenage girls, is now part of the British Newspaper Archive, a subscription service utilising the newspaper archive of the British Library.
The first ever edition of Jackie, for “go-ahead teens” has a cover date of Thursday 11th January 1964, priced at 6d. With a smiling Cliff Richard on its cover, it advertised a “free twin heart ring”, the first of many free gifts that would come with the magazine. Cliff would be covered again later on in the magazine, in “The Cliff Alphabet,” which, ‘just for kicks,’ would start with the letter ‘E’; one of many pop stars featured in the magazine.
A weekly title for girls, the magazine was published until mid 1993 running for a total of 1538 issues (not including Specials), the best-selling teen magazine in Britain for many years at its height in the 1970s, with sales of over one million copies a week.
While over its run the magazine included both picture strip, and, later, and photo stories (models on those including Fiona Bruce, now a BBC presenter, actor Hugh Grant and Blue Peter presenter Leslie Ash), it’s probably better known for its features – particularly the agony aunt pages.
Debuting alongside the publication in 1964 was the “Cathy and Claire Page“, where readers wrote in with their problems. It was so popular that by the 1970s Jackie was receiving 400 letters a week from readers. (The “Cathy and Claire Page” was retired in 1987, to be replaced by the “Dear Ellie” feature).
Offering a winning combination of picture strip stories, features, and pin-ups of popular heartthrobs, Jackie fast became the teen magazine of its day and each archived issue brims with nostalgia from bygone decades.
Jackie isn’t the only famous DC Thomson title featured in the Archive. It’s also home to the story magazine The People’s Friend, and the oldest magazine in the world still in publication, The Scots Magazine, as well as the company’s collection of Scottish newspapers.
The British Newspaper Archive is an online newspaper archive created by the partnership between Findmypast and the British Library. Findmypast has spent over ten years working with the British Library to digitise their vast newspaper collection and create an easy-to-use online search experience. Their combined continued commitment to this epic endeavour means there are now millions of pages of news available online to search and explore.
• Register now and explore The Archive
• Hot Off The Press – New Titles This Week – a Guide to Jackie by Rose Staveley-Wadham
Jackie © DC Thomson Media
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Magazines, Other Worlds
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