A System Pathology of an Organization: The Rise and Fall of the Old Saturday Evening Post

Abstract

June 1976, volume 21 The peculiar circumstances surrounding the demise of mass circulation magazines, such as Life, Look, and the old Saturday Evening Post, are explained from a systems point of view. The methodology of System Dynamics together with a corporate framework is applied to modeling a typical large magazine publishing company. The advantages and pitfalls associated with this methodology are discussed. The assumptions built into the model are tested by an empirical study of the old Saturday Evening Post Experiments with a simulation version of the model lead to an understanding of how the system reacts, both in the short and long run, to changes to the management control variables such as subscription and advertising rates. This understanding of the dynamic relation among the parts of the publishing system is used as a basis for interpreting the phases of the rise and fall of the old Saturday Evening Post Similarities to other magazines are noted and some implications are drawn for this method of studying the systemic pathology of organizations.'