Lifestyle journalism - Session 1 - Introduction to Lifestyle Journalism

LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM

INTRODUCTION

Soft News: primarily focuses on audiences as

consumers, providing them with factual

information and advice, often in entertaining ways, about goods and services they can use in their daily

lives.

SOFT NEWS vs HARD NEWS

SOFT NEWS vs HARD NEWS


Magazines have always strived to inform and entertain.


The rise of lifestyle journalism can be traced back as far as the 1950s and 1960s and the

emergence of consumer culture.

LIFESTYLE JOURNALISMModern Lifestyle

Journalism was pioneered in part by Clay Felker, who launched New York in 1968. Published among lengthy investigative and literary pieces were tips and features on fashion, food, and travel.


As newspapers increase the number of pages they need to fill and the arrival of

satellite and cable TV with the requirement for ever more content – leads

to the establishment of dedicated channels, magazines and newspaper

sections.


Health and fitness, food and drink, fashion, property and home improvement, children and education, computers and gaming, gardening, entertainment, leisure, music,

arts.

DEFINING LIFESTYLE JOURNALISMDefinitions of journalism help us better understand

what Lifestyle Journalism is all about.

“Journalism is the business or practice of producing and disseminating information

about contemporary affairs of general public interest and importance”

“It is in the arena of political affairs that part journalism makes the strongest claim

to public importance”

DEFINING LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM

In contrast Lifestyle Journalism is seen as almost unworthy of the term

journalism – thus it is often held in contempt by those who practice journalism in the

service of Hard News.

DEFINING LIFESTYLE JOURNALISMA broader definition

An account of the existing real world as appropriated by the journalist and processed in accordance with the

particular requirements of the journalistic medium through which it will be

disseminated to some section of the public.

Allows for other forms of journalism that still document the real world – for example travel journalism as

distinct from travel writers.

DEFINING LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM

Another definition sees Lifestyle Journalism as

‘‘news you can use” or

‘‘the way the news media provide their audiences with information, advice and help about the

problems of everyday life”.

THREE DIMENSIONS OF LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM

Providing advice. A review function. And

commercialisation.

THREE DIMENSIONS OF LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM

Lifestyle journalists see themselves: as cultural mediators, critics,

entertainers, information providers and travellers.


THE BEATS

Travel, fashion, style, health, fitness, wellness, entertainment, leisure, lifestyle,

food, music, arts, personal technology, gardening and living.

These may be found in individual sections of newspapers, entire magazines,

programs on radio or television, or even dedicated websites.

COMMERCIALISM AND LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM

The strong market-orientation of Lifestyle Journalism is certainly a defining aspect of the field.

COMMERCIALISM AND LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM Commercialism has

always been an integral component of journalism.

Johann Carolus, who published the world’s first newspaper, Relation, in 1605, is said to have had no journalistic motives for changing his production of handwritten news sheets to the new technology of mass printing.

COMMERCIALISM AND LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM Similarly, commercial motives were primarily responsible for the introduction of women’s pages and women’s magazines and a slow increase in the number of female journalists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.


The expansion in women’s pages in newspapers during the 1950s and 1960s can also be traced back to an attempt to attract female readers in order to open new markets.


The rise of a consumer culture in the West in 1950's onward and increased amounts of individual leisure time, has led to a demand for information about how to best spend the free time.

UK MARKET PLACE

Did you know?

• 75% of all adults buy magazines

• There were over 250 new launches last year

• 10,000 magazines are sold every minute

• The UK magazine market is worth an astonishing £4billion

UK LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE MARKET UPDATE 2013

DECLINE IN PRINT CIRCULATION Sales of magazines have declined over the past decade

- by 4.8% between 2008 and 2012. Women's lifestyle titles continued to account for the

majority of sales in the lifestyle category. The strongest performing example being the health and

fitness title Women's Health. Men's lifestyle titles observed a small increase in

circulation between 2012 and 2013. Categories such as music and film, sports and motoring

observing particularly poor circulation figures during 2013.

UK LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE MARKET UPDATE 2013

INCREASE IN DIGITAL CIRCULATION Some publishers introducing new digital-only specialist titles to

appeal to the growing digital audience. Men's lifestyle magazine How it Works revealed that around 21.8%

of its total circulation was accounted for by digital editions for the 6-month period ending June 2013.

A continued rise in the number of people utilising Internet-connected mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets and e-readers, should help to boost digital subscription sales over the coming years.

Over half of the UK population is expected to own a tablet by 2017, while nearly two-thirds will have access to a smartphone.

As a result expenditure on men's and women's lifestyle titles is expected to observe growth of approximately 6.3% between 2013 and 2017.

5 REASONS TO LOVE LIFESTYLE JOURNALISM

Lifestyle and Service Journalism dominates the news stands yet is still considered

second rate – audiences, it seems would disagree.


1. Quality is still just as important and a lifestyle feature takes as much research as a hard news piece.

Freelancer David Hayes recalls the first service piece he wrote for Toronto Life in the ’80s; it was on home renovation.

“You treat this exactly like you’d treat any feature. You do research the same way, you do interviews the same way, you do everything the same way.”

The feature ran as the cover story for a Toronto Life supplement. Hayes says, “It felt very much like I could have been doing any story.”

Charlotte Empey, former editor of Homemakers and Canadian Living, agrees that when it comes to process, service isn’t all that different.

“Bad copy, lazy copy, stories with no concept―they’re not good enough for service,” she says. “Service needs to adhere to the same standards of excellence as any other kind of journalism.”


2. Selling copies doesn’t mean selling out.

Even Ravary, one of service journalism’s biggest champions, acknowledges that magazines have to be careful not to disservice their readers by selling out to advertiser demands.

But her solution is simple: “If we rewrite press releases, if we pay homage to the big beauty advertisers, then we deserve all the scorn that’s heaped upon us,” she says. “Do your work with integrity.”


3. Check the “best before” date. Women’s magazines are often accused of recycling ideas,

information and articles―a charge editors don’t necessarily deny.

Lifestyle Journalism grows wearisome when we read, for the third time, to drink lots of water (Chatelaine: January 1999, April 2000, August 2001); how to get your body beach-ready (Flare: July 1998, April 2000, June 2001); and to always eat breakfast (Canadian Living: April 2004, September 2005, March 2008). Service doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, repetitive.

For example, every year Chatelaine runs a feature on foods, but each time it incorporates new medical research and focuses on a new angle.

It’s not an exaggeration to say the genre’s success relies on the enthusiasm and creativity of writers and editors.


4. Packaging is more than just a pretty wrapper. Walrus won silver for “The Teenage Brain,” a story about

“why adolescents sleep in, take risks and won’t listen to reason.”

Although the article fell into the service category simply by being “explanatory” i.e. it didn’t feature any of the characteristic structural elements of a service story―there were no instructional subheadings or advice.

The Canadian Living article published five years earlier, “Hardwire Your Teens’ Brain for Success,” by Kristin Jenkins, was a sharp contrast to Underwood’s.

As well as presenting the information in narrative form, Canadian Living offered a guide for parents.

Accompanying the story were sidebars featuring conversations with real-life teenagers and parents, information on why adolescents need more sleep, as well as an explanation of the MRI studies conducted on teens.


5. It doesn’t hurt to offer food: readers can’t think on an empty stomach.

While advertisers indisputably play a role in the content that appears in magazines, it’s clear that the women’s books and city magazines answer to a more powerful god.

“There’s no doubt that most readers want service,” “It’s the crack cocaine of the magazine industry world.” Ultimately, readers determine content by voting with

their cash. The numbers say it all: in 2006, Canadian Living, for

example, earned nearly $5 million on newsstands, and in 2007 maintained 388,953 subscriptions over a six-month period.

Meanwhile, the Walrus maintained 37,106 subscriptions for an entire year.

CONCLUSION

Lifestyle Journalism doesn’t appear in magazines

because editors or publishers are enthusiastic about it, but

because it’s what readers want.

Sources

Hanusch, F. (2012) BROADENING THE FOCUS. Journalism Practice, 6:1, 2-11.

Lockhart, J. (2008). 5 Reasons to Love Service Journalism. Available online:

http://www.rrj.ca/m4129/ [accessed 19-02-2014].

Research & Markets (2013). Lifestyle Magazines Market Update 2013. Available online:

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/2704895/

[accessed 19-02-2014].

http://www.rrj.ca/m4129/



Education

Lifestyle journalism - Session 1 - Introduction to Lifestyle Journalism