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Chapter 5

Magazines

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A Short History of Magazines

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A Short History of Magazines

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A Short History of Magazines • By mid-1700s, magazines a favorite medium of

the British elite

Ø  Two prominent colonial printers—Andrew Bradford and Benjamin Franklin—tried to duplicate that success in the New World

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• The Early Magazine Industry

Ø  Saturday Evening Post (1821) appeared; continued for 148 years

Ø  Harper’s (1850)

Ø  Atlantic Monthly (1857)

A Short History of Magazines

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• The Mass Circulation Era

Ø  Postal Act of 1879 Ø  Railroad helped to fuel growth of mass

circulation magazines

Ø  In the 1870s, magazines sold for as little as 10 and 15 cents

A Short History of Magazines

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• The Mass Circulation Era

Ø  Magazines were America’s first national mass

medium Ø muckraking

Ø  Between 1900 and 1945, the number of families who subscribed to one or more magazines grew from 200,000 to more than 32 million

A Short History of Magazines

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• The Era of Specialization

Ø  World War II further urbanized and industrialized America

Ø Public—more leisure and money to spend

Ø Magazines more specialized and lifestyle orientated

A Short History of Magazines

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Magazines and Their Audiences

• 94% of people with some college education read at least one magazine

• 48% trust magazine advertising

• 40% trust Internet advertising

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Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

• The number of magazines exceeds 20,590, and 7,300 of them are general interest consumer magazines

•  In 1950, there were 6,950 magazines

•  In 2011 alone, new magazines being launched totaled 231

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• Contemporary magazines typically divided into three types:

Ø  Trade, professional, and business magazines Ø  Industrial, company, and sponsored

magazines Ø  Consumer magazines

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

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• Categories of Consumer Magazines

Ø  Alternative: Mother Jones, The Utne Reader Ø  Business/money: Money, Black Enterprise Ø  Celebrity and entertainment: People,

Entertainment Weekly Ø  Children’s: Highlights, Ranger Rick Ø  Computer: Internet, PC World Ø  Ethnic: Hispanic, Ebony Ø  Family: Fatherhood, Parenting

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

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• Categories of Consumer Magazines

Ø  Fashion: Bazaar, Elle Ø  General interest: Reader’s Digest, Life Ø  Geographical: Texas Monthly, Bay Area Living Ø  Gray: AARP The Magazine Ø  Literary: Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Ø  Men’s: GQ, Field & Stream, Playboy

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

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• Categories of Consumer Magazines

Ø  News: Time, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek Ø  Political opinion: The Nation, National Review Ø  Sports: Sport, Sports Illustrated Ø  Sunday newspaper: Parade, USA Weekend Ø  Women’s: Working Woman, Good

Housekeeping, Ms. Ø  Youth: Seventeen, Tiger Beat

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

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Categories of Consumer Magazines

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Magazine Advertising

• Success of magazine specialization

• Split runs

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Magazine Advertising

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Magazine Advertising

• Types of Circulation

Ø  Magazines price advertising space in their pages based on circulation

Ø  Controlled circulation

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Magazine Advertising

• Measuring Circulation

Ø  1914: Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) established to provide reliability to announced circulation figures

Ø  Circulation data are augmented by measures of pass-along readership

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Trends and Convergence in Magazine Publishing

• New Models of measurement will replace traditional methods

Ø  Online Magazines

Ø  Recently reached profitability

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Trends and Convergence in Magazine Publishing

• Smartphones, Tablets, and e-Readers

Ø  Readers enthusiastic about mobile magazines

Ø  QR codes

Ø  NFC chips

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Trends and Convergence in Magazine Publishing

• Custom Magazines

Ø  Brand magazines

Ø  Magalogue

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• Meeting Competition from Cable Television

Ø  Cable television threatens magazines as a specialized advertising medium

Ø  Internationalization Ø  Technology Ø  Sales of subscribers’ lists and a magazines’

own direct marketing of product

• Advertorials

Trends and Convergence in Magazine Publishing

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• Advertiser Influence Over Magazine Content

Ø  Advertisers’ interests shape content in placement of ads

• Complementary copy

• Ad-Pull Policy: Demand for an advance review copy of the magazine by advertisers

Trends and Convergence in Magazine Publishing

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Developing Media Literacy Skills

• Recognizing the Power of Graphics

Ø  Graphics and other artwork provide the background for interpreting stories

Ø  Will viewers and readers question the veracity of unaltered images and reports that employ them?