CSP MAGAZINES the wider industry, key terms

I may spin off further posts, but I intend to build up hub posts on each CSP. On magazines there will be a post for Tatler; Reveal; and the wider industry/key terms.

BASIC DESCRIPTION:

KEY POINTS/THEMES/ISSUES:







DIGITISATION, DISRUPTION, CONVERGENCE; CIRCULATION DECLINE + AD MIGRATION:

Even the iconic Q magazine may go as Bauer considers 10/100 brands in the light of coronavirus losses. (May 2020)

Between the covers: how the British fell out of love with magazines

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/14/between-the-covers-how-the-british-fell-out-of-love-with-magazines?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

KEY THEORIES TO APPLY: 
CONVERGENCE/DISRUPTION/WEB 2.0:
GLOBALISATION:
CONCENTRATION OF OWNERSHIP:
TABLOIDISATION:







RESOURCES FOR INDEPENDENT READING/RESEARCH:
Conde Nast goes from 2017 profit to huge 2018 loss (Guardian).
Wiki list of UK mag sectors. Separate link for the Wiki A-Z mag listing. It doesn't actually list them all though - so: Tatler Wiki + Nat Mags list (owner of Reveal before Hearst UK)
Compare women's titles to men's like Maxim (Wiki), Esquire (Wiki; covers archive; Amazon kindle listing). GQ (Wiki; Amazon kindle edition).
MagForum - it hasn't been updated for a good while, but still an excellent resource (this link is for women's mags, there are more sections)
Wiki list of UK mags
Magazine.co.uk women's mags listings
Miss Vogue - teen brand
ABCs womens mags Aug 2018 (PressGazette)




THE CSP TEXT:








KEY CONCEPT MEDIA LANGUAGE:








KEY CONCEPT REPRESENTATION:









SAMPLE EXAM-STYLE QUESTIONS:








LESSON MATERIALS:

CSP MAGAZINES REVEAL downmarket women's gossip mag

I may spin off further posts, but I intend to build up hub posts on each CSP. On magazines there will be a post for Tatler; Reveal; and the wider industry/key terms.

BASIC DESCRIPTION:

A celebrity/gossip mass market (downmarket) women's magazine that was closed by publisher Hearst in Sept 2018 after circulation fell by 75%, though Hearst maintains a large portfolio of women's magazines. Originally published by NatMags (Wiki), which Hearst merged with another European acquisition, Hachette Filipacchi Médias (Wiki), in 2011 to form Hearst Magazines UK (Wiki).

CSP MAGAZINES TATLER upmarket ABC1 society mag

I may spin off further posts, but I intend to build up hub posts on each CSP. On magazines there will be a post for Tatler; Reveal; and the wider industry/key terms.

2020: 'Very Buckinghamshire': how 'society bible' Tatler fell out of royal favour.

Detail from the 2018 'Media pack' on the publisher site

THE WIKI DESCRIPTION:

Tatler is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications focusing on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper-middle class and upper class, and those interested in society events. Its readership is the wealthiest of all Condé Nast's publications.^[2] It was founded in 1901 by Clement Shorter. Tatler also has editions in local languages in mainland China, Taiwan and Russia. The editions in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines are in English. Tatler promotes indigenous British culture by arranging "debutante ball" events in these foreign countries.

KEY POINTS/THEMES/ISSUES:







DIGITISATION, DISRUPTION, CONVERGENCE; CIRCULATION DECLINE + AD MIGRATION:
Amazon Kindle edition







KEY THEORIES TO APPLY: 








RESOURCES FOR INDEPENDENT READING/RESEARCH:

Wiki.

Tatler. Their list of top 10 most read articles on tatler in 2017.

Conde Nast (publisher/brand owner) page with media pack link. Media packs detail audiences that advertisers can target through that media outlet. This is typically updated annually: 2018 pack;

Conde Nast goes from 2017 profit to huge 2018 loss (Guardian).

Conde Nast Wiki.

Mail - Tatler sacks a third of staff (2017)
Vice (2014) on Teen Tatler
Guardian on Posh People: Inside Tatler (2014 TV series)
How fashion brands targeted teens; great 2013 Guardian feature looks at new teen titles (all gone or online only [Teen Tatler!] by 2019) + how teens form a good chunk of adult titles readership. See also Tatler teen section, Miss Vogue + check on industry post
Is Tatler doomed? iNews, 2017





THE CSP TEXT:
The April 2017 front cover, accessible on the website.

KEY CONCEPT MEDIA LANGUAGE:








KEY CONCEPT REPRESENTATION:









SAMPLE EXAM-STYLE QUESTIONS:








LESSON MATERIALS:

DIGITISATION the NME of physical owned media

Home entertainment spending overtakes print sales for first time.

NME to close print edition after 66 years.

Out of print: NME’s demise shows pressure on consumer magazines.

MAGAZINE your drafts

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2016 17 mag drafts jan 2017 from DB3igs

Missed HI's (click to expand):

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MAGAZINE audience research - get the advertiser profiles!

Just above this caption you'll see 'Media Pack' - this is for advertisers, detailing the readership of the magazine (Conde Nast Britain)

Most magazines take in more revenue from advertising than from the cover price (from which, don't forget, distributors and retailers get their cut!).

In a very real sense, if you go out and buy a magazine, you're not buying anything ... you're being sold to advertisers!

Giant multinational conglomerate Time Inc. UK boast to advertisers of their music mag Uncut readership's spending habits

At A-Level we look at theories such as Noam Chomsky's 'propaganda model' which argues advertisers play a highly ideological role in the media industry, acting as a 'filter' to keep out radical ideas that might threaten the rich and powerful.

Part of Dennis Publishing's blurb on 1 of their many titles

For GCSE, just be aware that they play a key role in magazine branding: every title is seeking to attract an audience that will appeal to certain advertisers. This might be niche (narrow, specific, highly selective) or mainstream (broad, general) but the bottom line is that advertisers will not risk wasting valuable resources paying for space in a magazine that doesn't fit their customer profile. They MUST know who they'll be reaching with their ads - the age range, gender and income levels at a minimum.

Part of Haymarket Media's advertiser pitch for glossy footie mag FourFourTwo

Therefore, magazine publishers are under pressure to provide detailed information, including demographic data (the % of readers within categories such as age, gender, income) to advertisers. This can often be found on the main websites of publishers, and accessing some examples should help you make your own audience analysis much more sophisticated.

Bauer, one of the leading UK publishers, provides advertisers with an interactive tool to match their needs to magazine brands!

Just a few of the many magazine brands owned by Time Inc. UK

To find these you need to know who the major magazine publishers are. In the UK, the focus for this blog, these change over time as there are mergers, closures and launches of new titles and categories too, but at the time of writing that includes (with examples of their publications):

Future (MacFormat, PC Gamer - here's a full list)

Bauer UK (Empire, Grazia, Kerrang! - audience finder; case studies)

Conde Nast Britain (Vogue, GQ - here's the GQ Media Pack)

DC Thomson (WWE Kids Magazine, Shout - Shout [girls mag] Media Pack - scroll to the bottom of main site for full list of titles)

Dennis Publishing (Cyclist, Cross Stitcher, PC Pro)

Haymarket Media Group (Autocar, FourFourTwo, Senior Living)

Hearst Magazines UK (Good Living, Hello, Cosmopolitan, Inside Soap - rate card for Elle)

Time Inc. UK (NME, Golf Monthly, Yachting World, Women's Weekly)

Find more magazines by using online shops such as this.

MAGAZINE the key steps to a good cover

You need to clearly evidence engagement with the KEY CONCEPTS of Media Language and Audience. That means knowing the technical terms, understanding design conventions, and how each media language decision can impact on the likely target audience. This is a task about branding, and the media language choices that enables an institution a specific target audience that can be sold to advertisers! In a declining market suffering from digital disruption, with plenty of titles closing or going web-only, the 'migration' of ad revenue to online (especially Google and Facebook) is a massive blow for the magazine industry.

STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE COMPONENTS OF A MAGAZINE COVER
There are many terms to learn, from straplines to masthead to hyperbole ... you need to be able to apply the correct, accurate industry label to each of these common elements of cover design.

STEP 2: BEGIN TO EXAMINE HOW EXISTING MAGAZINES VARY THESE COMPONENTS FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES
Throughout your Media Studies journey you'll be asked to research existing examples to learn industry conventions before constructing your own. You need to learn how media language choices are made to target different audiences.

STEP 3: RESEARCH A MAGAZINE SECTOR
Gather details of what magazines are available (we will focus on the UK market) in print of a magazine sector you think you would like to focus on for your own production. That might be music (if so, any specific genre?), fashion (men's, women's, girls?), technology (gaming - which console/platform?; futurism; general computing - or Windows, Mac, Linux...), consumer/lifestyle (homes, holidays, boats...), celebrity (usually considered women's magazines), film/TV (genre, time period...), sports/hobbies ... there are magazines covering most things you can think of.

See what ideas these examples give you - you might decide it does not seem such a good choice after all!

STEP 4: WRITE UP ANALYSES OF TWO MAGAZINE COVERS
You should by now have an idea of what type of magazine you will work on, so should pick two from your sector. You need to carefully and accurately apply a wide range of relevant terms. You also need to use the full range of audience terms, and engage with any theories that help to explain how audiences make their choices.




STEP 5: DEVELOP + PITCH YOUR MAGAZINE IDEA

MAGAZINES Institution - how digital disruption is transforming the print industry

You can find details of the many closures with a simple google.

Every media industry has faced massive, often brutal, change as a result of digitisation. New forms of distribution are transforming ways of operating, with new names like Spotify and Netflix rising to threaten the old, established giants.

The term used to describe this phenomenon and process is disruption, or digital disruption - the smooth ways of doing business have been challenged, changed ... disrupted.

USEFUL TERMS: DIGITISATION; DISRUPTION

INDUSTRY AWARENESS: Because of the challenge of digitisation (young people preferring screens to print, and advertisers moving online, taking their money away from magazines), many titles have closed recently, unable to survive the double whammy of falling circulation (sales) and loss of advertising revenue*. If you really can't find current, ongoing titles, then you can use titles that were published during this current decade.       *magazines generally rely more on advertiser fees than the cover price to make money!


The story seems simple: digitisation means that print magazines are doomed - but there is, possibly, one exception - luxury magazines ... [article link]

MAGAZINES specialist or hobby examples: martial arts

A quick look at the variety of examples available even within what may seem like a niche area: martial arts. A very simple google unearthed these resources within the first 5 hits - there is much more to be found.

1: USADOJO.COM listing of martial arts magazines (now updated here)

2: Google Images results - the variety is clear, though so are a number of stylistic/design themes, not least the cover shot...

3: Blitz mag - an Australasian martial arts title; note the emphasis on digital platforms...

MAGAZINE Teen mags and digital disruption

This article is a few years old; the trends (digital disruption; changing nature of teen life, especially for females) it noted have accelerated further since it was published. The general analysis certainly still holds true though...

Teenzines mags, marketing, messaging from DB3igs

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MAGAZINE research: publishers and audience profiles

To research your market, you need to look at rival PUBLISHERS, not just specific magazine titles.

Magazine websites are consumer-focused, but publisher sites are advertiser-centred. Therefore, they will usually provide clear information on the audience of their brands, vital information for any company considering advertising with the title.

Here are some links to get you started, but look out especially for Bauer, TimeIncUK (formerly IPC Media), Future, NatMags and Emap as major names.

MagForum.com

Wiki.

TASK OUTLINE (type up in Word):

1: List at least 5 of the major magazine publishers operating in the UK, then identify at least 3 currently published UK magazines in your sector (eg gaming, music, fashion). This quote from an analysis of the magazine industry (see post) should help...

Overall print circulation at seven of the major publishers - Future, Dennis, Condé Nast, Bauer, Immediate, Hearst UK, and Time Inc UK - fell 2.47 percent. 

2: Find and save as a picture AND copy into your document at least 1 recent example of their covers.

3: Crop these pictures in Word/Pages to show only the masthead.

4: Identify the publisher and make their name a hyperlink in your document to the publisher website page on the magazine, separately noting the magazine website if there is one.

5: See what you can find about the target audience from their site, and write this up.
Some publishers put very clear briefings on their sites to help inform potential advertisers, who need to be very clear on who reads the title so they can make an informed choice on whether that fits with their own target market. You can always email them to ask for an audience breakdown (usually called an advertiser pack) to help you with school research - check if anyone else is looking at this title, so only one email is sent to each company.

6: Analyse the mastheads - do you see any pattern or design techniques common to your magazine sector?
Also identify any individual design aspects from these examples you think might help you design a convincing masthead for a new magazine within your sector.

HOMEWORK: Complete the above as necessary for Friday. On Friday you should have 3+ masthead designs, 3+ possible slogans [previous homework], and 3+ possible cover images for your proposed new magazine.
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MAGAZINE COVER Kick it into shape

DECONSTRUCTION to CONSTRUCTION, and the 4 KEY CONCEPTS

ASSIGNMENT ONE introduces two of the four Key Concepts for GCSE Media: MEDIA LANGUAGE (what) and AUDIENCE (why/who). In all 3 assignments you will be analysing existing media texts, and detailing what is in them (the media language used) as well as why those choices were made.

When we consider AUDIENCE, age and gender are the minimum requirements, although wealth is among other factors we can consider.

Follow the steps below. You have 3 periods to work on this. If you don't complete STEP SIX in lesson time this must be done as homework for the next lesson. We will do STEP SEVEN together when I return. Note: you can start designing your actual magazine idea NOW!

THE MAGNIFICENT 7...STEPS [make sure you click on the read more link!!!]

STEP ONE: LABEL THE FEATURES OF THE KiCK COVER
A3 sheets have been provided; these are on the teacher desk beside the Mac.

Kick mag and terms from DB3igs

As before, you're not just identifying where you see these features (MEDIA LANGUAGE), but also considering and writing why you think these are designed in the way they are (who they're aimed at: AUDIENCE, being clear on how means accurately describing [denoting] the media language choices made).

STEP TWO: ADD MISSING FEATURES
This cover is missing some of the features we'd expect to see (and therefore you must include when you design your own magazine concept and cover). Use an arrow/line to show where these would go on the KiCK cover, with details of the actual MEDIA LANGUAGE you think the designer should use (phrases etc) and a short explanation of why (how you think this will appeal to the target audience)

STEP THREE: AUDIENCE SUMMARY
Write one or more paragraph/s (in your books or on the back of this A3 sheet) on who you think this magazine is aimed at, being clear on why (provide at least 3 pieces of evidence from the text to support your argument). You should cover the gender/s and age range you think it targets (and any other details, or demographics* you think are useful).    *categories of people, eg nationality

MAGAZINE COVER initial research

(TBC)

Examples new woman nme from DB3igs

Conventions list from DB3igs

Conventions your example from DB3igs

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MAGAZINE COVER the masthead

The single most important detail of any magazine cover is the masthead, as this is a consistent representation of the BRAND. From month to month nothing will change (size, position, font etc) other than possibly the colour to fit with that month's main image.

When considering mastheads you have to think about:

• position: along the top (think about newsagents and how they're displayed)
• size: usually the largest text on the cover (again, think about how they're stacked on shelves)
• colour: brighter colours work well for younger audiences, darker or duller colours are more likely to appeal to an adult, mature (older) audience. Gender can be a factor too (pink...)
• font style: handwriting styles typically target a female audience; serif fonts (like this one) may signify or connote an older, sophisticated audience; bubble fonts (thick lettering) work well for younger audiences, though might be necessary for older audience if the title is a short word!
• case: upper case (capitals) typically indicates older, though Sentence Case can be seen as elegant and suiting a sophisticated, wealthy audience. Using ALL lower case can be seen as informal; this and MiXiNg CaSe is unlikely to appeal to an older audience,  lead us to the point below...
• breaking rules of grammar: intentional mis-spelling, slang, shortened words ... all will help appeal to a younger audience: eg Old Skool; Lux (for Luxembourg)
• graphic element within the word/s: the dot of the i is often targeted for a graphic element (eg KiCK! I'd use a football for the dots)
• length of the name: you wouldn't use a long name for a youth magazine; if you do, you're limited in the size of your font

The RiDE example:

Ride mag and terms from DB3igs

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MAGAZINE assignment 1 Intro to Media marking criteria

Below you can find the official marking criteria for the cross-media assignment.

Click image to enlarge.

Click read more to see the assessment criteria (how marks/grades are awarded) for THIS assignment.

These are the 'Assessment Objectives' that marks are awarded for on the coursework unit

A reminder of how this fits in to the overall coursework unit:

How the exam board describe this assignment.
Note - the Key Concepts of Media Language and Audience are highlighted ... but you can reflect on Representation and Institution too!

This is the exam broad brief for the magazine task we work on:

The 'EXPLANATION'
This should be around 150 words of an overall 700 word maximum.

The key goal is to detail (denote) your Media Language choices and analyse WHY you chose these: how your media language would attract a specific audience/s (primary, secondary).

To help back up your analysis, you can reference examples of magazine covers - this doesn't have to be just the one you have submitted.

You should use SMALL images to help illustrate your points: parts of your/existing mag covers to directly illustrate a point.

Remember that Media Language includes terms specific to magazines; shot types, angles, lighting, mise-en-scene; fonts; semiotics; audience terms/theories, etc.

Below - click read more for the actual assessment criteria:

MAGAZINE Yr10 drafts 2016

From January  15th:
MISSING: Christelle, Oliver St., Charlotte

Christian S

Harry E - before he did a thorough re-draft...

Harry's new version!

Hilmir I

Neo R

Oliver Sv.

Ruslan G

Simon S

Yanis A

Zak E

Charlotte W

Oliver St.

Christelle

...

MAGAZINE Some fresh ideas for design features

Having considered the sample range of magazine covers, just some of the ideas we picked up on are:

• allowing the subject to cover part of the masthead; the Look example adds the idea of partly doing this but also bringing the title back on top of the subbject (the 'loo' and 'k' are different layers)
• using 4 colours (more gets messy, but may be appropriate for tween/younger audiences)
• varying font, size, case and colour within a story trail
• using lines to separate story trails - Rolling Stone takes this a step further with nice graphic design effects
• using sticker-style circles, including to highlight price
• using solid shapes (we saw triangles as well as circles and squares, rectangles...) to put trails in
• using colour outlines around fonts
• making a font 'see-through'
• framing the trail linked to the cover star over their body
• creating a shape/3D effect with text, as with the di Caprio Empire cover
• highlight numbers as a means of emphasizing value

MAGAZINE Some sample covers

From a very simple google search of 'magazine front cover' I found all of these - many of which are linked to analysis, and some of which are actually student productions ... do you think your research is as good as it can be?

We learnt a lot from this - look at the font variety: case, size and colour!

An example of a student production - see their blog guide here.