The magazine, born in eighteenth century England, first adopted illustrations in the 1830s. Initially confined to encyclopedism and popularization, the genre opened up to general news in the mid-nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century the word 'magazine'? was formally adopted into the French language to describe a modern publication, printed on quality paper, illustrated with photographs, and either covering general news or focused on specific topics or certain categories of readers. Magazines in the 1930s were characterized by dynamic page layouts and the conquest of paperspace by advertising. In the latter half of the century this vaguely defined press genre definitively conquered the teeming world of periodicals, including news magazines, women's magazines and a large number of specialized publications.