McClure’s goal for the magazine was “to deal with important social, economic, and political questions, to present the new and great inventions and discoveries, to give the best in literature,” and to become “a power in the land–a power for good.”
To do this, McClure planned to hire the best writers and pay them a regular salary.
Most magazines and newspapers of the time paid their writers by the word or column inch. This meant reporters could not take a lot of time researching their articles. To get paid, they had to keep churning out copy. With a regular salary, “McClure’s” writers could spend weeks, months, or even years researching an article without going broke.