Magazines had been around since the late $1600$s in Europe. But they were virtually nonexistent in the United States until after the Civil War in $1865.$ Why?

Magazines were so partisan, so politically oriented before and during the Civil War that their content didn't interest most Americans.

Reading magazines was considered an "English thing to do$"$ and thus was rejected by Americans who saw themselves as being much more practical and down to earth.

Americans didn't have either the money to subscribe to them nor the time to read them. They were generally working dawn to dusk and had to use most of their income to survive.