PITCH

 I plan to create a lifestyle magazine targeted at a 16-25 year old middle market aspirational audience. I have decided to create my first edition around fashion with an equestrian rising star, and one about summer and festival culture. My contents pages will include travel, hair, beauty, fashion, horoscopes and horse riding. The audience are of the target age for festivals and celebrities to be appealing to them, making them likely to be interested to read 

 This past week I have begun to catch up on the research elements of my coursework that i had to restart due to changing my brief. I planned my first edition, edited the photos that I took for the cover the week before and have started to create a mock up. I also came up with an idea for my second edition magazine and took the photos for this and edited them. I came up with a name for my magazine, began to plan my cover lines and mapped out my first contents page to go with my first edition cover.

I have also written my pitch, studied some case studies of both contents pages and front covers for inspiration and to see what similar magazines are like, as well as planned and identified what I need to do and prioritise:

- Take more footage for contents pages and website 

- Write my statement of intent

(hair article, festival images, music article, travel article and potentially some more fashion images too)

- Articulate my cover line ideas and focus mainly on my first edition

- Create a first draft of my second edition and contents page (cover first)

- Plan my 30 second audiovisual for my website

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS 3

 

NOTICEABLE CONVENTIONS:

- Minimal cover lines - describes what the issue is about and that is all

- Close up of cover star and celebrity 

- Masthead at top

- Date

- Price

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS 2

 

NOTABLE CONVENTIONS:

- Direct mode of address from model

- Minimal cover line providing a summary on the issue. readership are likely to be loyal, so lots of description may not be necessary

- Masthead at top

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS 1

NOTABLE FEATURES:

- Model and horse looking in same direction

- Cover lines frame the image and do not cover up the models

- Mode of address (rider)

 

MOOD BOARD

 

HISTORY OF MAGAZINES - Industrial Context

1663 - the first magazine was invented in Germany

1704 - The Review.                                                                                                                                           The first English magazine was called The Review and was printed from 1704-1714. Magazines started off as a place for educated people to write their opinions, which is what the Review was used for.

1741 - Magazines reached America.                                                                                                           American Magazine was the first magazine published in America, however only circulated for 3 months.

1828 - First women's magazine                                                                                                                       Sarah Hale published the first magazine directed at women, 'Ladies Magazine'

1830s - mass circulation magazines in the US arrived                                                                                Publishers began offering affordable magazines to a wider audience

1880s - Popularity rising                                                                                                                          During this time, magazines were targeted and read by the wealthy due to their high price (the technology required for production was very expensive) and a lack of education of the general public. Poor people read tabloids and newspapers

1887 - Hearst Corporation founded

1892 - Vogue magazine founded

1936 - William Hearst purchased the National Enquirer                                                                               Hearst used the Enquirer to establish the first supermarket tabloids, and used it to push boundaries

1931 - Gentlemans Quarterly (GQ) magazine launched

1954 - Sports Illustrated founded

1963 - TI media founded                                                                                                                               One of the largest producers of magazines, with a portfolio selling over 350m copies of magazines a year. They became defunct in 2020

2000s - Digitalisation of magazines                                                                                                                Magazines are being pushed into a digital format, with issues being readily accessible on the internet, apps and on social media.

HEARST MEDIA - Industrial context

 HEARST COMMUNICATIONS (est. 1887)

founded by William Hearst as an owner of newspapers. He built up the largest newspaper chain in the US

Founded in 1887 by William Randolph Hearst in San Francisco, Hearst became the largest newspaper chain in the US and is now worth £15.4bn, with over 2,600 employees. They describe themselves as 'a premium content and experience business with an overarching purpose: to help people get more out of life'.

Hearst own a variety of newspapers, magazines, TV channels and TV stations. They have around 4 million magazines in circulation every month, as well as 26 million digital users. Their portfolio is very broad, with nearly 250 magazine titles, 33 television stations, and 76 newspapers (24 daily, 52 weekly), as well as an interest in financial services. Hearst is a digitally convergent brand, being the first magazine publisher to make all of its titles available to read on every major tablet device in 2010.

Magazines owned by Hearst:

• Cosmopolitan
• ELLE
• CountryLiving
• delish
• GoodHousekeeping
  
  
• BAZAAR
• MensHealth
• WomensHealth
• Red
• RunnersWorld

Example covers of Hearst owned magazines:

 

FOCUS GROUP - Audience Research

Katie

Age - 17

Interests - horse riding

Occupation - barmaid, student

Tomi

Age - 17

Interests - Rollerskating

Occupation - football coach, student

Kiki

Age - 16

Interests - reading, music

Occupation- student

Sarah

Age - 17

Interests - Dancing, fashion

Occupation - student

How often do you read magazines?

Katie: Sometimes

Tomi: Sometimes

Kiki: Sometimes

Sarah: Sometimes

What would draw you to a magazine in a shop?

Katie: if the photo was striking

Tomi: if the cover photo was of someone I know/follow

Kiki: the colours 

Sarah: the photo

Would you read a magazine if it had a wide range of articles suited to the time of year it was released?

All: yes

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

The intended audience is a 16-25 year old middle market aspirational audience. This audience can also be labelled as Generation Z, and are technologically convergent, using a variety of platforms and devices. 

Examples of platforms commonly used by the intended audience:

- TikTok

- Instagram (very widely used by this demographic)

- Twitter

- Snapchat

- Facebook (for the slightly older end of the band)

The intended audience are technologically literate, and often consume small pieces of information - 15 second TikTok videos, 140 character tweets, Instagram photos to name a few. The audience tend to be socially and politically aware of issues such as the feminist movement and BLM, meaning that they will are accepting of other cultures and people and advocate for diversity.

The audience is not particularly rich or poor; they fall into the middle class category, and due to the age of the intended audience, may be unemployed or in education such as sixth form, college, university or apprenticeships, however are aspirational and may be preparing for their future and goals.

As the audience falls into the aspirer psychometric group, they seek inspiratiom from social platforms and influencers in order to copy and seek status. however, they may also hold some mainstreamer traits by seeking security from technology and society. Magazines aimed at the target audience often feature 'trendy' things and up-to-date features that are popular at the time such as celebrities and role models.