I Confess

I Confess was an American biweekly pulp magazine aimed at young women readers that was published between 1922 and 1932 by Dell Publishing. The magazine contained stories that were marketed as being true first-person accounts of mostly middle-class women’s lives and scandals told in a confessional style, which was different from many other pulp magazines which were mainly marketed as cheap fictional magazines. It was the first magazine and title ever published by Dell, and its popularity helped launch over 700 magazine titles, making Dell Publishing the successful publishing house that it remains today. The Launch of Dell Publishing George T. Delacorte, Jr. founded Dell Publishing in 1921 after many years of working in the magazine publishing business, his last position being that of Advertising Director for Snappy Stories. He started out in one room in the Masonic Temple Building on West 23rd Street in New York, with only himself and two employees. I Confess, introduced as a bi-weekly magazine (on newsstands every other Friday) in 1922, was their first title, and it is considered one of the many imitation ‘Girlie Pulps’ launched due to the success of Snappy Stories (1912-1933) and was inspired by Bernarr McFadden’s magazine True Story, considered the first confessional magazine, which started in 1919 and is still published monthly. The format of Snappy Stories which was the standard for the ‘Girlie Pulp’ genre included stories of scandals and sex, and was meant to attract a mostly female readership due to the racy and intriguing pin-up style art found on the cover. I Confess was edited by Elizabeth Sharp, who influenced the tone of the magazine and chose which "true life submissions" were "clean" enough to be printed in the magazine. Because Delacorte "aimed the Dell magazines at the lower middle class audiences rather than at the upper middle-class readers of McCall’s and Ladies Home Journal", I Confess cost only ten cents a copy at first publication, although one year after its first issue, in 1923, the price rose to fifteen cents each ($3.00 for a yearly subscription). The price of I Confess was relatively inexpensive when compared to its inspiration and competitor, True Story, which was 25 cents per copy in 1921. Dell Publishing relied on newsstand sales of its magazines rather than profit from advertisements within its titles, and so its inexpensive price and mass appeal ensured that I Confess achieved success at the newsstand.