Who Are the Entrepreneurs: The Elite or Everyman?

We trace the evolving social positions of the people who found new enterprises over the course of industry history. Sociological theory suggests two opposing hypotheses. First, pioneering entrepreneurs are socially prominent individuals or those from related industries while later entrepreneurs are from an increasingly broad range of social positions. Second, the earliest entrepreneurs come from the social periphery while later entrepreneurs include more industry insiders and members of the social elite. To test these hypotheses, we trace the social positions of entrepreneurs in the magazine industry in America over the first 120 years of the industry’s history, from 1741 to 1860. We find that magazine publishing was originally restricted to industry insiders, elite professionals, and the highly educated, but by the time the industry became well established, most founders came from outside publishing and more were of middling stature – mostly smalltown doctors and clergy without college degrees. We also find that magazines founded by industry insiders remained concentrated in the three biggest cities, while magazines founded by outsiders became geographically dispersed. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of grounding studies of entrepreneurship in this and other industries in historical context. Our analysis of this “old” new media industry also offers hints about how “new” new media industries will evolve.