+ Introduction to Communications Media Ch5 Magazines

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Introduction to Communications MediaCh5 Magazines

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Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Magazine Evolution Most historians agree that media go through three

stages of development over time:1. Elite stage: only the richest and best-educated

members of society make use of them.2. Popular stage: a truly mass audience takes

advantage of them.3. Specialized stage: media tend to break up into

segments for audience members with diverse and specialized interests.

Magazines seem to demonstrate this process most clearly.

A Brief History of Magazines

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The First Magazines By 1776, a hundred magazines had started and failed. Ladies’ Magazine was a special interest magazine

that began publishing in 1828, under the editorship of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widow who took up writing and editing to support her family.

Ladies’ Magazine was the predecessor for Ladies’ Home Journal, which was founded in 1883 and expanded the area of women’s interests to include sheet music and popular fiction.


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The Golden Age of Magazines The first magazine to achieve a general interest, mass

audience was the Saturday Evening Post. During 1885 to 1905, the number of magazines

published doubled from 3,500 to 7,000. Magazines also became a national advertising

medium.


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The Golden Age of Magazines This golden age was made possible due to: The U.S. had made a commitment to free universal

education, which resulted in an increase in literacy. The Postal Act of 1879 reduced magazine rates to a

penny a pound, making it economical for magazines to be distributed by mail.

The Rural Free Delivery postal system was established in the 1890s, enabling magazines to be delivered in out-of-the-way farms and country homes.


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The Muckrackers: Journalism that inspired social change The beginning of the 20th century saw newspapers and

magazines getting serious about crusading for social reform.

Muckraking articles of this period helped bring about child labor laws, workers’ compensation and the first congressional investigations.

Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 partially because of the influence of muckraking reporting.


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7A Brief History of MagazinesMass Circulation Magazines

Cultural magazines included the New Yorker, founded in 1925 by Harold Ross, style magazines, and pulps such as True Confessions.

Reader’s Digest, published in 1922 by Dewitt and Lila Wallace, was a digest featuring brief versions of articles that were informative, well-written, and stressed conservative middle class values.

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8A Brief History of MagazinesMass Circulation Magazines

The true golden age of photojournalism began in the 1930s with the introduction of the 35 mm Leica camera, which made it possible for photographers to move with the action, taking shots of events as they were unfolding.

This golden age lasted until the decline of the great general-interest magazines.

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9A Brief History of Magazines Magazines were America’s only national medium until

the 1920s, when radio networks were established. By the 1960s advertisers interested in reaching the

wide and diverse audiences of general-interest magazines moved to television.

Ethnic and business magazines flourished as the

U.S. became more culturally diverse in the post-industrial information age.

Special interest magazines include Latvian Dimensions, Filipina, and Lefthander Magazine.

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10A Brief History of MagazinesAdapting to New Media

Magazines have always adapted to new media. When movies became popular the industry developed magazines about movies.

Magazines publish their content on the Internet which is cheaper because of no investments in paper, ink, or presses, no printing overruns or underruns, or postal rates. Online publishing also provides an interactivity with readers that is appealing to advertisers.

Webzines Internet-based, web-only magazines.

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11A Brief History of Magazines

Global Endeavors Many U.S. publishers are moving to international

editions to take advantage of new markets, especially in former iron curtain countries and in Latin America.

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12Top Magazines by Revenue

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13Top Magazines by Circulation

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14Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry

Trade magazines are those that focus on a particular business, and are usually essential reading for people in those businesses. Billboard is the trade magazine for the music industry.

Public relations magazines are put out by organizations, corporations, and institutions with the sole intent of making their parent organization look good.

Colors was a public relations magazine for Benetton clothing.

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Professional journals are periodicals that doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals rely upon for the latest research and information in their fields.

Professional journals are expensive. For example, a subscription to Brain Research costs $14,919 a year.

Libraries are cutting back on professional journals and academic journals to save money. They are reinvesting in digital online databases instead.

A little magazine publishes promising and established poets and authors of literary essays and fiction. Most of them, including The Antioch Review and The Paris Review, have tiny circulations.

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Types of Magazines A consumer magazine is released at least three

times a year, with a circulation of at least 3,000 general readers, and containing at least 16 pages of editorial (as opposed to advertising) content.

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17Major Types of Consumer Magazines

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18Types of Magazines

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Comic books don’t contain much advertising and have a smaller revenue stream than other types of magazines. But comics, like the superhero monthlies published by Marvel and DC comics, have been an important part of American culture.

Zines are small, inexpensive publications put out by people who are enthusiastic about a specific, usually obscure, topic. Zines, were important parts of the beat movement of the 1950s and the hippie movement of the 1960s.

Today’s zines continue to be self-published outlets for counterculture voices, but they are now produced with desktop publishing.

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The Players Many publishers are entrepreneurs with a deep

interest in the topic, a small amount of money and a high tolerance for risk.

The publisher is often the magazine’s founder. A mission statement is a grief accounting of how the

magazine will be unique and what will make it successful.

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The Players Celebrity founded magazines is a recent trend. O,

The Oprah Magazine has been one of the most successful. Thalia, named after the Mexican pop singer, launched her own magazine in 2004.

Supermarket chains have been the corporate publishers of several successful women’s magazines including Family Circle (Piggly Wiggly) and Women’s Day (A&P).

National Geographic is an example of a sponsored magazine, i.e. published by associations.

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The Staff The editor, editor-in-chief, or executive editor is in

charge of the magazine’s overall direction. There is usually a managing editor, several deputy editors, senior editors or associate editors.

Magazine editors work mostly with freelance writers because only the largest magazines have primarily full time writers.

The title contributing editor is generally given to the magazine’s highest paid freelance writers. Tom Wolfe, a well-known and highly respected author, is a contributing editor at Harper’s.

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23The Magazine Staff

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In the extremely competitive magazine business advertising sales staffs sell the personality of the magazine and the worth of the target reader to advertisers.

The advertiser needs the magazine to enhance its product sales and its overall image. The magazine needs the advertiser for content as well as income.

The circulation department is responsible for finding and keeping subscribers, manage the subscriber list, and to promote single-copy sales.

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Most publishers also rely on blow-in cards and subscription fulfillment companies such as Publishers Clearing House.

Magazine publishers now put out demographic and regional editions, known as split-run editions.

Demographic editions of the same magazines go out to different zip codes.

Regional editions allow local advertisers to run ads in prestigious national magazines.

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Single-copy sales are mostly of interest to paid circulation magazines whose readers actually pay subscription fees and newsstand charges.

Controlled circulation magazines are sent free to readers who qualify.

The production department coordinates the actual printing of the magazines with outside companies, including those that specialize in high-speed color printing and the use of glossy paper.

The publicist’s job is to make headlines (in newspapers, radio, television and Internet news services) with news from the cover of the magazine’s current issue.

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The Reader The magazine industry claims that 90 percent of

American adults read 12 issues a month on average, and that the more education and income people have, the more they read magazines.

Magazines have a healthy pass-along circulation, which means that several more people than the original buyer or subscriber typically read them.

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28Controversies Fashion magazines define the ideal female beauty as

having perfect facial features, long legs, a long neck and terrific body tone. She must also be 5’ 10” tall and weigh less than 120 pounds.

The average woman is around 5’ 4” and weighs 144 pounds. As fashion magazines continue to promote this unrealistic body size surveys show that women are increasingly unhappy with their bodies.

Many critics insist that men’s ideas about women are shaped by images such as Playboy’s centerfold and editorial content such as Penthouse Forum.

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+Teen Magazines and Websites

A research study of magazines and their websites geared towards teen girls showed: A focus on beauty to attract males A focus on cosmetics and other consumer products to

increase beauty A focus on “what’s wrong” with the individual

physically and how can it be “fixed” (see Critical Culture Issues on p114)

+Problems Facing the Industry

Harder to market magazines Publisher’s Clearinghouse no longer effective Cable TV and the Internet provide competition for

specialized markets New magazines continue to be launched, but 60% fail

to last a year

+Magazines in the Digital Age

Magazines are still learning how to use the Web Originally just posted same content as print

edition Often expanded and supplementary

coverage is available now Often magazine websites try to create

communities of readers through forums and chat rooms

+Magazine Classification

Six basic categories General Consumer Business Custom Literary reviews and academic journals Newsletters Public Relations publications

+General Consumer

People

Time

Reader’s Digest

TV Guide

+Business

Forbes

Money

Kiplinger’s

Fortune

Barron’s

+Custom

Lexus (Lexus automobiles)

Sky (Delta Airlines)

+Literary Reviews and Academic Journals

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly

Poultry and Egg Marketing

The Lancet

The Kenyon Review

+Newsletters

Aerospace Daily

Oil Spill Intelligence Report

Media Monitor

Communication Booknotes

+Public Relations Magazines

Designed and published by a company or industry

Internal versions designed to communicate with workforce

External ones designed to communicate with stockholders, potential customers

+Magazine Organization

Circulation

Advertising and Sales

Production

Editorial

Documents

+ Introduction to Communications Media Ch5 Magazines