The magazine's subject matter ranged over a number of genres, although it tended somewhat towards men's adventure stories, particularly in the waning years of the publication when the vogue for hardboiled fiction was strong.

[1][2] The Popular Magazine was published by Street & Smith and edited by Henry Harrison Lewis from 1903 to 1904, and Charles Agnew MacLean from 1904 to 1928.

In October 1931, The Popular Magazine was merged with another Street & Smith pulp, Complete Stories.

Wells, Rafael Sabatini, Zane Grey, Beatrice Grimshaw, Elmer Brown Mason, James Francis Dwyer and William Wallace Cook.

[5] The Popular Magazine published Craig Kennedy stories by Arthur B. Reeve, and other crime fiction by Frederick William Davis[5] and Lemuel de Bra.