Magazine Publishers

Overview of the Magazine Industry

A Brief History of Magazines

The world’s first magazine, Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen (Edifying Monthly Discussions), was published in 1663 is Germany. The oldest magazine still in print, The Scots Magazine, was published in 1739. In 1770 the world’s first women’s’ magazine, The Lady’s Magazine, started with literary and fashion content plus embroidery patterns. In 1895 An American magazine, The Bookman, lists "Books in Demand" originating the idea of a bestseller list. Pulp fiction magazines were cheap fiction magazines published from 1896 to the 1950s, their name derived from the wood pulp paper they were printed on. In 1933 Esquire, the first men's magazine is published. Seventeen, the first magazine devoted to adolescents, is published in 1944. In 1953, Playboy, a classy magazine featuring ‘classy’ pornography, opens with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. In 1967, special-interest magazines such as Rolling Stone become more popular.

Advertising

                The cost of advertising in a magazine depends on the readership. For example, at the time of publication, a national woman's lifestyle magazine charged nearly $250,000 for a full-page ad while a niche gardening magazine only charged about $10,000.

Some magazines may charge less per ad if the ad is run in more than one issue; a one-time ad may cost $2,000 while the same ad run in six issues may only cost $1,500 per ad.

Some national publications have regional editions, where it costs less to advertise. This is because it would reach a smaller amount of readers.

Two colour ads (usually black and white) cost less than four colour ads. Sometimes smaller adverts can only be in black and white.  Advertising toward the front of the magazine costs more than toward the back of the magazine, with the exception of the back cover. For example, a West Coast magazine at the time of publication charged $141,800 for the inside front cover, while a full-page ad cost $118,400.

Facts and Figures

·         In 2013, one in 20 Brits purchased digital magazines, with this increasing to one in ten among the younger generation, primarily 18-24 year olds.

·         There were 367 new magazine launches in 2013, including 292 regular frequency titles, an increase of 16% from 2012.

·         79% of the uk population enjoy magazine content annually.

·         2,543 consumer magazines are in regular print production in the UK.

·         3m+ print magazines are distributed every day.

·         55% of tablet owners have read a digital edition of a magazine on their tablet device.

·         41 of the 50 highest grossing apps on Apple Newsstand are magazines.

·         4,395 business titles are in regular publication in the UK.

·         £5bn: the value of the magazine industry to the UK economy.

·         Global presence: 40% of digital editions downloaded across the world are British.

(http://www.ppa.co.uk/marketing/insightanddata/stats/)

Overview of NME Magazine

                NME Stands for ‘New Music Express’, and ensures that today’s youth culture can keep up to date with the latest music, bands, singers and downloads. It’s a British magazine music journalism magazine, and is published weekly.

                NME is published by Time Inc. UK (formerly IPC Media), who have three publishing divisions aimed at different audiences; Connect, targeting the mass market for women, Southbank, targeting upmarket women, and Inspire, targeting the market for men.  NME is part of Inspire, while Connect features a number of TV magazines and Southbank features home and style magazines.

                From a poll carried out in 2011, we know that 73% of NME’s readership is male, while 27% are female; we also know that the average age of a NME reader is 25. The target market for NME is men aged 17-30 years, which tells us that the magazine is successful in reaching out to their target audience. Also from the poll, we know that 80% of NME’s readers felt music was an important part of their lives, 49% preferred to listen to live bands, 52% were interested in taking a music-related course, 59% like to keep up to date with technology, 34% are working full time, 18% working part-time, 26% were students, almost half of all readers had been reading NME for at least 3 years, and 84% said that the magazine gives them what they want. From these figures we can connote that the readership for NME magazine is men aged about 25, probably single as they’re too young and busy to be married, and possibly C2 to B in regards to social status, as I feel the magazine is aimed more towards those who work or are still in education (as shown by the statistics, which tell us that 52% of the readers work, and 26% are students). In terms of psychographic profiles, I feel that the main readership of NME are possibly mainstreamers or individuals, as a lot of the readers are still young and developing their own psychographic profile. From the price of the magazine (£2.20), the publishing schedule (weekly), and the average age of the readers (25), we can connote that the lifestyle subset of the majority of the readers is yuppies, as they have a disposable income that can be spent on weekly magazines.

                NME started publishing in March 1952, and was created by Theodore Ingham to be a British weekly music magazine. In the November 1952 edition, it became the first British paper to include a singles chart. In the 60s, NME started to mimic the psychedelia trend; the popular culture music at the time, with a range of genres. Popular bands of the 60s such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones owe some of their success to NME, as they were frequently featured on the cover, exposing them to NME’s young influenced audience. NME only became a magazine during the 1980s and 90s, changing from newspaper format in 1988. In the 1980s, sales of NME were dropping due to tension between journalists who wanted to write about hip-hop, and those who wanted to write about rock music. Due to the low sales and uninteresting topics, dedicated readers began switching to other magazines like The Face, and Smash Hits. However, Alan Lewis, a new editor, and new writers were brought in to save the failing magazine, and NME took a new direction and gained a strong identity.

                As NME is such an old magazine, it already has its own identity, but to set itself apart from other music magazines, NME have a band index on every contents page of every issue and are the only magazine to do this, making it something original to NME.

                In 1996, NME set up their website NME.com, which has grown to become Europe’s biggest music website with an average 4 million users across the world. The website allows NME’s readers to become involved and state their opinions of the changing of music style. NME also have facebook, twitter, YouTube, Myspace and many more accounts, allowing them to interact with readers. NME also have NMETV (replaced Minx in November 2007), NME Radio (first aired in 2008), the brand’s live events and also The NME Awards (first show held in 1953).

Textual Analysis of a Double Page Spread #2 - NME

Textual Analysis of a Double Page Spread #1 - Q Magazine

Textual Analysis of a Contents Page #2 - NME

Textual Analysis of a Contents Page #1 - Total Film

Textual Analysis of a Magazine Cover #3 - Cosmopolitan Magazine

Textual Analysis of a Magazine Cover #2 - Q Magazine

Textual Analysis of a Magazine Cover #1 - EMPIRE Magazine

My Initial Ideas

    My intention for my AS Media coursework is to make an indie music/fashion magazine in a sort of combination of Q Magazine and fashion magazines such as Lone Wolf.

    I like to colours and composition of Q Magazine, as I think the simple image makes it look more 'classy' than other music/lifestyle magazines. The red, white and black colour scheme stands out against other magazines on the stand. I also really like the feminine yet simple style of Lone Wolf, and I think a combination of the two would look really interesting.

    For my magazine, I want it to look similar to Lone Wolf and Q in regards to composition and colour, as I think it's very effective for the independent music and fashion genres. The magazine's mastehead will be short, maybe even an abbreviation, in the upper left corner as I've noticed this style repeated in the magazines I've looked at.
    However, while Q and NME are aimed towards men aged about 20-40, I want my magazine to be aimed the specific market of women aged about 20-30 who are interested in indie music and fashion.

Construction Schedule

My College Magazine Contents Page

My College Magazine Cover

Original Photo

I did a mid-shot of a student for my front cover to show his body language as well as his facial expression. The books in the background are to show the school environment.

Typography

Before I mocked up my magazine cover, I decided to do a mood board of typography to see which one would be best for my cover. My target audience is general students in the college who would read the magazine for entertainment, so I think a simple font would help portray this. I think a font such as "Freestyle Font Regular" would be quite fun yet simple.

Magazine Cover Analysis

Questionnaire Analysis

    We made up a questionnaire to ask students around the college to help us create our college magazine covers. Only a third of the people we asked were male, so the results we've collected are probably more female orientated. Two thirds of the people we asked said that they would buy a college magazine. Everyone we asked said they would either pay nothing or 50p for a college magazine, so the magazine would have to be quite cheaply made. Half of the people we asked said that they would buy a monthly college magazine, and slightly less than half said they would buy a fortnightly magazine, suggesting that the magazine should be published in quite spaced out intervals. The most popular subjects for the magazine were food, gaming and music, which tells us how to cater specifically to our target audience.
    The three most popular colours that would attract students to the magazine were red, white and black, which would stand out and not exclude any of our audience. Most of the students asked said that freebies such as vouchers and offers would encourage them to buy the magazine.When asked what kind of offers they'd like, the majority of the people said food, which links in with the interests of the students.
    Almost a third of the students said that they'd be interested in an e-mag, however less than a quarter said that they would want email updates on the magazine. About three quarters of the students asked said that they wouldn't like to contribute to a college magazine.

Questionnaire Summary