Steeger realized that people wanted escapist fiction, allowing them to forget the difficulties of daily life.
Around the same time, they purchased a number of titles from Clayton Publications such as Ace-High Magazine and Complete Adventure Novelettes.
In a 1973 interview, Steeger stated that to the best of his knowledge Popular Publications published no magazine in the old pulp size format after 1953.
He believed that "the Pocketbooks were probably the main factor that contributed to the ultimate fading of pulps from the publishing field--then television came along and administered the 'coup de grace'.
[9][10] In 1981, they sold the rights to Joel Frieman who established Blazing Publications, which in 1988 renamed itself Argosy Communications, Inc.
In 2014 most of its titles–including all copyrights and associated intellectual property–were acquired by Steeger Properties, LLC,[11] with Argosy Communications retaining only a few pulp heroes such as The Spider, G-8, and Operator #5.