1

Magazines

Chapter 5

© 2009, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2

CHAPTER OUTLINE

• History• Magazines in the Digital Age• Defining Features of Magazines• Organization of the Magazine Industry• Magazine Ownership• Producing the Magazine• Economics• Feedback

3

HISTORY

• Magazines have had a long history in the US

4

The Colonial period

• “Magazine”: warehouse or depository– Variety of opinion pieces, facts, human

interest stories

• Strong political bias

• Written to educated urban audience

• Encouraged literate and artistic expression

• Unified the colonies

5

After the Revolution

• Continue to target educate elite audience

• Present mix of topical and political articles

• Roots of modern news magazine

6

The Penny-Press Era

• 1820s-1860s -- Magazines appealed to mass audience

• Parallel strategies of penny press newspapers

• Target the middle class

7

The Magazine Boom

• 1860-1900 – many new magazines appeared– More available money– Improved printing techniques– Postal Act of 1879

• Special mailing rates for magazines

– Magazines could reach national mass audience

• Muckrakers – investigative reporting

8

Between the Wars

• Changing lifestyles influenced magazine development

• Three magazine types emerged– Digest– News weeklies– Pictorial magazine

9

The Postwar Period

• Publishers continued to specialize to satisfy readers who had– Increased leisure time– Liberalized views– New interests in urban lifestyles

10

Contemporary Magazines

• Challenges to magazine industry– Declines in single-copy sales– Sweepstakes competitions have nearly

disappeared– National do-not-call list– Cable TV and Internet

11

MAGAZINES IN THE DIGITAL AGE

• Magazines are still learning how to use the Internet

• Generating revenue from the Internet– Ad-supported web-only titles– Repackaged print content– Charging for access to archives– E-commerce

12

Replica Editions

• Replica editions are not online editions

• Replica editions mimic the print magazine

13

Mobile Magazines

• Magazines can be read on laptops, cell phones, PDAs

• Magazine podcasts are available

• Challenges with mobile magazine delivery– How long will readers stay with mobile

editions?– What about payment

14

User-Generated Content

• Publishers are cautiously exploring user-generated content– Want to retain control of content– Not sure how to generate revenue– Could be way to build audience base

15

DEFINING FEATURES OF MAGAZINES

• Specialized audiences

• In tune with social, economic, cultural trends

• Can influence social trends

• Convenient portable format

16

ORGANIZATION OF THE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY

• The magazine industry can be classified by the types of content presented in the magazine, or by the three traditional components of manufacturing.

17

Content Categories

• General consumer magazines

• Business publications

• Custom magazines

• Literary reviews and academic journals

• Newsletters

• Public relations magazines

18

Functional Categories

• Production

• Distribution– Paid circulation– Controlled circulation

• Retail

19

MAGAZINE OWNERSHIP

• The magazine industry is dominated by large corporations, many with holdings in other media.

• The five leading magazine publishers are Time Warner, Advance Publications, Hearst Corporation, Meredith Corporation, and Reader’s Digest Association

20

PRODUCING THE MAGAZINE

A variety of people work together to create a magazine

21

Departments and Staff

• Publisher

• Circulation Department

• Advertising Department

• Production Department

• Editorial Department

22

Publishing the Magazine

• Plan for upcoming issues

• Convert ideas into articles, pictures, illustrations

• Create dummy – conceptual plan or blueprint of final publication

• Assign work schedules and deadlines

• Begin the work

23

ECONOMICS

• Revenue sources– Subscriptions– Single-copy sales– Advertising– Ancillary services

• The magazine industry is facing tough times

24

FEEDBACK

• Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC)– Paid circulation– Rate base

• Business Publication Audit (BPA)• Mediamark Research, Inc (MRI)

– Primary audience– Pass-along audience

• Online readership– Audit Bureau of Circulation– Nielsen/NetRatings

25

Magazine Audiences

• 85% of US adults read at least one magazine per month

• Adults look through an average of 10 magazines per month

• Readers more educated and more affluent than non-readers

• Readers tend to be joiners