ROLLING STONE is a music magazine based in America. It mostly focuses on politics, culture and music, publishing every two weeks.

The highly s

uccessful an

d influentia

l magazine w

as founded i

n

no other tha

n San Franci

sco in 1967,

by editor J

ann Wenner,

as well as m

usic critic

Ralph Gleaso

n. (Jann hap

pens also to

the magazine

s publisher)

Rolling Stone is one of the most inspiring music magazines of all time, but also includes articles on changing politics and changing lifestyles. The social changes in the 1990’s required a change of house style, and so in this time the magazine changes it’s format to attract younger readers; and it paid off. From then on, anyone who was influential at that time appeared on the cover-mainly actors as well as singers.

In the first edition of the magazine Wenner write that Rolling Stone

“is not just about the music, but the things and attitudes the music embraces”

Like any

magazin

e, over

time Rol

ling Sto

ne

graduall

y change

s their

house st

yle and

format;

forgetti

ng the t

abloid

newspape

r format

, bar

codes be

gan appe

aring an

d

before a

nyone kn

ew it,

gloss pa

per was

the norm

.

From the first issue in 1967, with John Lennon as the front cover model, to a 2011 edition with singer Adele as the magazines selling point.

A changing society required a changing magazine…and so today’s Rolling Stone is different from the 60’s. The house style have changed, but the font of the masthead and the overall layout is quite similar.

OFFICIAL MISSION STATEMENT IS CLEAR:

“Rolling Stone goes beyond just taking the pulse of youth culture. Rolling Stone is the pulse of youth culture.Whether the subject is music, TV, movies or politics—over 12 million young Americans trust and turn to Rolling Stone every two weeks to keep them up on the subjects they care about most. Bold stories. Big interviews. Insightful commentary. All delivered with energy, passion, irreverence and a point of view that defines its audience.”

Rate cards refer to how much the magazine charges, per advertisement, per page! So in Rolling Stone magazine, if an advertisement fills half a page, it will cost $4570!

1 PAGE 182, 770

 2/3 PAGE

146,214

1/2 PAGE 109,663

1 PAGE 164,494

2/3 PAGE 131,597

1/2 PAGE 98,695

1/3 PAGE 65,799

From this rate chart, I can see just how expense advertising in a magazine is…especially a magazine as big as Rolling Stone!

Along with the magazine itself, Rolling Stone has successfully launched it’s website, featuring more than the magazine does. Blogs, MP3’S and articles are the main elements of the website; coinciding with today’s contemporary society and it’s culture.

Along with the changing times, Rolling Stone keeps up to date with pages on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook; all important to attract young music fans worldwide. These let the magazine and the audience interact like never before.

With 128K fans on Face book, and 319K onTwitter, it is clear Rolling Stone has succeeded in attracting in younger audiences; it is still one of the most influential music magazines of our time.

Rolling Stone magazine’s music awards are held annually; with the awards being decided by poll from it’s dedicated readers, as well as a critic’s

poll.

The event sees singers, actors,

celebrities, bands arrive each year- if

they are somebody, they are probably

there!

1998 saw John Colapinto win an award for “the true story of John/Joan”.

In 2006 journalist James Bamford won a prestigious award for a report named “Man who sold the War” featured in Rolling Stone.

Writing journalists have also been given

high praise for their work in Rolling

Stone; not just on featured stories

about the changing music industry but

politics, reviews and culture articles.

Such as David Lipsky and “The Lost Years

and Last Days of David Foster Wallace“.

http://www.srds.com/mediakits/rollingstone/index.html

Rolling Stone’s media kit is on this link; it was extremely useful when I was researching about the history of the magazine, as well as it’s rates, mission quote and demographics!