Magazines

Production log help

Your idea

You dont want to create a niche

magazine that targets audiences of
people who would rather use the
internet than read magazines.

Sales of MOST magazines have been in a

steady decline over the last 10 years, and
some magazines have suffered such serious
drops in readership that they have had to
close down and cease publishing all together.

Here is a list of just a FEW of the womens & mens

magazines that have been forced to shut down in the
last few years because of a drop in sales
Sugar

(now an online only magazine

www.sugarscape.com )
New Woman
Modern Bride
Cosmo Girl (a teen version of Cosmopolitan)
Elle Girl (a teen version of Elle)
Teen
Teen People
Jane
Mens Vogue

Production log Week 1

Week 1 What your planning to do and what you did
understand task - Aim Produce a specialist
magazine aimed at a niche audience
Assessed on.
Understanding of codes and conventions, through
selections and integration of appropriate
illustration/ design/ Photos
Accurate use of language
Effective construction and manipulation of images.
Research magazines common conventions,
difference between niche and mainstream examples

Week 1
What

is a magazine?
Definition
Magazines are printed and bound
publications offering in-depth coverage of
stories, often with a timeless nature. Their
content may provide opinion and
interpretation as well as advocacy. They
are geared to a well-defined, specialised
audience, and they are published
regularly, with a consistent
format.(Johnston and Prijatel, 1999:13)

Looked at selection of
magazines
Examples?
Help

decide? Gap in the market?

Codes and conventions
Key terminology

Front covers have in common?

(looked at selection of magazines)
Dominated by photograph of celebrity/person looking
directly at the camera
Coverlines cover the mix of subjects expected (lifestyle
relationships, fashion. Food tec)
Sense of direct address to the reader photo and
language
Title (masthead) at the top of page
Barcode at the bottom
Shape of the page
The one or two word title
The mix of fonts
Which others did you note?
Place the

Difference between Mainstream and Niche

Definitions

and examples

Week 2
Before I could sketch out ideas I needed to
investigate/ research
Idea of what kind of magazine/ genre/ type why?
Think about the audience is it viable? Asked
questions to? Or would rather use internet (use
questions from Mondays print out).
Mag cover Features (media terminology) upload
Elle mag or one of your own (features)
Textual analysis genre How did you do this,
what elements did you look at? (upload image of
annotated magazines to page and Textual analysis
worksheet)

Textual Analysis
Pick

2 different magazines
In pairs carry out comparative textual
analysis
Complete worksheet

Key terminology

Types of magazines
What type have you chosen?
There

are currently 8000+ magazines regularly published in the

UK.They can be categorised into the following genres:
Consumer general interest and special interest, sold in
newsagents and supermarkets;
Business, trade and professional for people at work;
Contract publishing produced by publishing agencies for client
organisations to give to customers as a form of marketing;
Staff magazines internal company magazines, used to inform
employees and to promote corporate unity;
Newspaper supplements a free magazine accompanying a
(usually) weekend national newspaper;
Part works a limited number of issues that build up into an
encyclopedia on a special interest topic. Often includes a gift
each issue.
Academic journals for academic discussion around specific
subject areas.

The British Magazine Industry

Consumer magazines have three
different revenue streams advertising,
single issue purchase price and
subscriptions.The industry is dominated
by major publishing companies who
produce many titles. The most notable
are:

 IPC

American owned, part of conglomerate AOL Time

Warner. Publishes Now, Nuts, Sugar, Marie Claire, Loaded,
NME, TV Times, Womans Weekly, Pick Me Up and InStyle.
Bauer German owned, publishes FHM, New Woman,
Empire, Closer, Heat, More, Bella, Real, Spirit and Destiny,
In the Know, Take a Break, Thats Life and Grazia.
Conde Nast Titles include Vogue, Easy Living, Glamour,
Tatler, GQ and House and Garden.
The National Magazine Company Owned by global
publishing giant Hearst, publishes Good Housekeeping,
Cosmopolitan, She, Prima, Zest, Country Living, Esquire,
Best, Reveal and Mens Health.
BBC Magazines Many titles are spin-offs from popular
BBC programmes (commercial intertexuality & synergy)
like Dr. Who Adventures, Gardeners World, Top of the
Pops and Top Gear. They also publish the Radio Times; a
television listings magazin

 Many

popular titles are published

internationally with national variations.
FHM has 28 different editions and
Cosmopolitanhas 59.
These global titles are increasingly
homogenised, but niche titles offering
specialist content is a growing area of
the industry. Titles like Trout and Salmon
or Practical Caravan have an
established and growing
audience.

Industry
Find

publisher who would publish the

type of magazines you intend on doing.
IPC/ Bauer
Key facts and rate cards
Circulation figures
Target market
Average age
Build up a profile of the audience
Research state of the industry.

What state?

Traditionally, magazine publishing has been

regarded as a growth industry. However, in recent
years the industry has been experiencing more
insecurity, especially in relation to youth
audience titles. As younger audiences move
away from traditional forms of media and towards
digital and social media, the publishing industry,
like all media sectors, are having to reassess their
business models to integrate digital
technologies. Most publishers offer digital
versions of their titles now and encourage an
increased level of interactivity with their
audiences through social media.

Extract Industry info

Make

sure you include industry info

Clearer target audience?
Weekly, monthly?
Elements to include?
Online/ social networking links?
Collage

of Audience?

Magazine cover features

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