ESSENCE MAGAZINE ANALYISIS

For the Love of Black Women!

SYSTEM OF INFORMATION FOR EDITORIAL PRODUCTS

Type of Editoral Product Essence is a periodical black or African American women's magazine, that publishes twelve issues a

year (one for each month) and is dedicated to the style as well as emotional and physical well being

of this niche but still very diverse group of women.

Publishing House: Time Inc.

Time Incorporated boasts an extended family of over 90 brand names that are widely distributed and include an copious variety of niches. Essence has been a member of this publishing house since 2000 when Time Inc. purchased 49 percent of Essence Communications Incorporated. This marked the "black ownership of the media company" and was met with controversy.

Co-founder Ed Lewis emphasized that the change in power was required for the further expansion of the brand and ensured the preservation of the magazines cultural integrity.

"Time Inc. has distinguished itself by recognizing the impact of African-Americans on a global scale, and their influence within the cultural landscape. Thanks to our partnership with Time Inc., Essence Communications is a stronger, more competitive publisher. Once the deal has been approved and we become a full-fledged member of the Time Inc. family, we're looking forward to aggressively broadening the scope of the Essence brand and penetrating new markets around the world. It will give me great pride and comfort to know that Essence will be secure for generations to come and that its prospects for even greater success will be brighter than ever."

Editorial Line

Slogan: " Fierce, Fun, and

Fabulous"

Essence readers can be summed up in about three words: Professional Black Women. Their coverage is highly intellectual with regular information packets such as Issues and Money&Power, which cover both current events and financial responsibilty, but is balanced with light hearted Style and Beauty&Hair sections.

EDITORIAL PRODUCTION STRATEGIES

Demographic Niche

Essence audience profile has a

median age of 42 years old and a

median house hold income of

$46,209. College educated home

owners and single women have the

time and luxury to subscribe to

publications so the demand for the

magazine has been relatively steady.

Content and Section Design

Any given issue of Essence is made up of sections for Style, Beauty and Hair, Scene (Soft News), Issues, Money and Power (Hard News). Sex and Love, Healthy and Happy and Life (Hybrid News) are the sections that are covered in every issue.

Also in the table of contents under In Every Issue you will find; Let's Talk, In-Box/Contributors, Where to Buy, Horoscope, and Exit Interview.

Agenda of Contents (Monthly Theme)

The twelve themes are typical of most

women's magazines, tying closely with

the month and time of year, but being

a Black woman's magazine it has the

added cultural flair of issues like Love

& Legacy, for February's Black History

Month and June's The Vacation

Issue/Essence Festival to honor and

promote the magazine's annual

festival celebrating Black woman and

their many accomplishments.

Circulation

Subscriptions make up 91% of

Essence circulation and single

copy sales 9%, and though the

magazine doesn't track the "Pass

Along" statistics, Essence

Magazine is a Beauty shop favorite

as well as a commonality in the

offices of dentists and doctors.

Circulation (cont.)

Essence Magazine has taken full

advantage of the new windows of

opportunities that have opened with

readers becoming increasingly

technologically advanced. Apps for

tablets as well as accounts on a

variety of media platforms including

Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and

Facebook have kept Essence a step

ahead of genre that has been

making the move from paper to

screen.

DNA Under the slogan "For the love of black

women!", ESSENCE magazine is made

for a modern black woman, no age

distinction, who is looking for its voice

representation, believes in equality,

supports her own comunity and looks

up to other black females who made a

distincted and succesfull career.

ADMINISTRATION OF EDITORIAL PROJECTS

■ Ruth Ross (1975)

■ Ida Lewis (1970–71)

■ Marcia Ann Gillespie (1971–80)

■ Susan L. Taylor (1981–2000)

■ Monique Greenwood (2000)

■ Diane Weathers (2000–05)

■ Angela Burt-Murray (2005–10)

■ Constance C. R. White (2011–13)

■ Vanessa K. Bush (2013–present)

Editor in Chief

The latest Editor in chief of the publication comes after a long line of short lived

editor in chiefs with no one maintaining the position for longer than five years.

The current Creative Director is Erika N. Perry, the Deputy Managing Editor is

Dawnie Walton and the Editorial Projects Director is Patrik Henry Bass.

The Multidisciplinary Team

■ Editorial Operations Director - Denolyn Carroll

■ Beauty and Style Director - Pamela Edwards Chrisitiani

■ Editor- At- Large - Mikki Taylor

■ Entertainment Director- Cori Murray

■ Chief in Photography - Andrea M. Jackson

■ Executive Editor of Essence.com - Abby West

Content Agenda ■ ESSENCE works under a calendar

agenda, which covers interviews,

reports, punctual and monthly

events that were already planned in

an information order .

■ Each month is known what the

magazine will publish.

Hierarchy of Content Although the different departments of information are all taken very seriously at Essence there is an undeniable hierarchy of content that that are listed as follows on Essence's main website:

(The Hierarchy should be read most important to least important).

Each month the BEAUTY section offers the latest in hairstyles, hair care, skin care, makeup and fragrances-and provides tips that enhance and simplify the lives of ESSENCE readers. We want to help Black women feel as beautiful as they are.

The FASHION pages celebrate and support the African American woman's undeniable fashion sense. CULTURE covers the latest and hottest in music, movies, television, theater, dance and art. It includes intimate conversations with notable entertainers and artists. The BOOKS section is a favorite among our literature-loving readers. The section showcases new works by African American authors and includes our exclusive Booklist-a monthly list of best-selling Black books. In WORK & WEALTH, we present essential advice and information on personal finance, wealth building and career coaching.

HEALTHY LIVING focuses on the total well-being of Black women and their families. RELATIONSHIPS gets to the heart of those challenges African-American couples face in building more perfect unions. Single Man of the Month, Dating Guide and What Men Think-all dedicated to providing sister-friendly tips to getting good love.

OUR NEWS is an upbeat front-of-book section that offers information about omen in the news, political updates, national and international news briefs and calls to action on issues affecting Black people.

EDITORIAL ENGINEERING AND LAYOUT

Editorial Ingineering Analysis and information packs

As many other women magazines, ESSENCE tends

to use large, elegant, colorful and flamboyant titles

in order to atract the attention of the reader, but its

body typography is minimalistic and really clear.

Also, infographies and sidebars are used in many

articles, to make them look dynamic and visual. The

majority of the advertising pictures are big sized

(one page) and show dark skinned models, which at

the same time makes the DNA message of the

magazine stronger.

Typography Analysis

The Essence logo is a copy righted variant of the Tahoma, ESSENCE Magazine brand was designed by James A. Miller IV in Adobe Illustrator format. The current status of the logo is active. The font is a strong stable font that speaks volumes and gives off a no nonsense vibe that makes for perfect fit considering the magazines reader demographic.

The contents of the magazine is accented with delicate Tahoma and elegant Times New Roman with heavy set upper case letters, accented serifs, and all just the slightest bit italicized. The Times New Roman is used only on headers.

Cover concept, inside pages and visual lecture ESSENCE cover always uses calls for the inside information, all of

those are in various styles of typographies, but there's monotony

within its color scheme. The cover photography tends to play with

the information content, its result is a dynamic mix of size and

shape that leads the lecture's eyes from the top (where the title is

located) to the end (where less information is displayed).

The inside pages, as it is said before, follow the characteristics of

any other women's magazine, but they vary depending in content

(reports, infographics, interviews or news). The inside design isn't

innovative, but simple and well displayed, the lecture is

comfortable, since the main titles are big and noticiable, and the

body is small, simple and minimalistic.

Persuasive because... This magazine shows a new

product, based on dark skinned

women and their lifestyle reflected

basically in its outside and inside

good quality portait photography.

EDITORIAL IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL

Extended Platforms

Another potentially lucrative way

to extend the brand might be the

use of platforms such as Tumblr.

Exposure to the large black,

natural hair, and socio-political

communities on the platform

might prove to be a step in the

right direction.

Globalization A great way for ESSENCE to stay one step ahead and keep their content competitive as

well as captivating is to make and effort to connect with potential readers outside of

the United States. Although African Americans are a unique population to the North

America, they are not the only blacks (or potential market) looking for a source of news,

media, and culture that is unique to their complexion. Taking greater care to include

and connect with our roots and extended family in mind might be a great way to

expand ESSENCE's frontier and create a stronger more connected black population

world wide.

Our Marketing team will focus on

reaching the globalized niche markets of

French, Caribbean, German, Nigerian, and Latin American Black women who

also seek representation in the media as

well as outlets for the advertising of

black products to markets all over the

world. With our multi-national, multilingual team we'll help direct

marketing on a global scale and create a

platform for growth so ESSENCE

Magazine can reach it's full potential

audience.

How can the Spence-Lang

marketing team help make

ESSENCE Magazine better

than ever?