Introduction to Mass Media Magazines Targeting the Audience

Introduction to Mass Media Magazines: Targeting the Audience

Questions before class • What is the last time you read magazine? • What magazine? • When we talk about magazine, which ones come to your mind?

Magazine: targeting the audience • Henry Luce’s (owner of the well established Time and Fortune) experience • The launch of Sports Illustrated (1923), ranked among the most profitable magazine in US (Time Warner, Inc. ) • Specialty: magazine target to a specific audience

Magazine reflect trends and culture • top 10 woman’s magazine, 2 million readers most successful family magazine Ad cost $200, 000/page • Maxim: aim at young male adult aged 21 -34 • Fact: magazine reflect culture and society

Case of Reader’s Digest • Founded in 1922, • a general interest family magazine • The best-selling consumer magazine in US, losing the distinction in 2009 to Better Homes and Gardens.

Case of Reader’s Digest • Global editions reach 40 million people in over 70 countries, with 49 editions in 21 languages. • A global circulation of 10. 5 million, the largest paid circulation magazine in the world. • The first Reader's Digest publication in the Arab World was printed in Egypt in September 1943.

Case of Reader’s Digest • In 2009, file for bankruptcy protection as the Internet upends the magazine industry's traditional business models. • Cut the circulation guarantee it makes to advertisers from 8 million to 5. 5 million, and lower its frequency from 12 to 10 issues a year.

1741: Start of Magazine Industry • A race between Benjamin Franklin and Andrew Bradford for whose American’s first magazine publisher • Bradford issued American Magazine on Feb. 13, 1741 • Franklin’s General Magazine issued 3 days later

1800 s: Magazine Travel Beyond Local Boundaries • In 1800 s, Newspapers flooded large cities, mainly local news • Magazine was America’s only national medium to travel beyond local boundaries • The Saturday Evening Post started in 1821 first reached a large public, affordable with 1/4 th ad, cost one nickel

1800 s: Publishers Locate New Readers • In 1800 s, four subjects expanded magazine audience ▫ Woman’s issues: morals, manners, literature, fashion, diet and taste ▫ Social Crusade: crusade against dangerous medicines, Congress passed Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906. ▫ Fostering literature: Harper’s and The Atlantic in mid 1800 for literature criticism ▫ Political Commentary: critical arguments for progressive change • Postal Act of 1879, a cheap mailing rate, magazine grow

1900 s: Investigative journalism • 1900 s: journalists investigated big business like the Standard Oil Company of John D. Rockefeller. • Investigative magazine journalists who targeted abuses by government and big business is called Muckrakers. • Mc. Clure’s Magazine founded in 1893 by Samuel S. Mc. Cure is a representative.

Media/Impact politics • Mc. Clure’s Magazine called an end to the close relationship btw government and big business • By 1910, many reforms sought by Muckrakers had been adopted, this particular magazine declined afterwards. • The muckrakers are America’s original investigative journalists.

Media/Impact politics • What is investigative journalism? • An example from • 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

1900 -1950: The New Yorker and Time Succeed Differently • Two basic choices for magazine publishers: 1. Seek a definable, targeted loyal audience --The New Yorker (1925): • commentary, fiction, humor, cartoons, • Target a sophisticated wealthy audience

2. Seek a broad, general readership • Times (1923) by Henry Luce: the largest possible audience • 28 pages with 6 ad, • half an hour’s reading ▫ “It was of course not for people who really want to be informed” ▫ “It was for people who willing to spend half an hour to avoid being entirely uninformed”

• Henry Luce: the singular giant of 20 th-century magazine publishing

1950 s: Specialized Magazine Take over • TV began offer the same type of general interest features that the magazines provided • general interest magazine collapse • Readers want specialized information from Magazines • magazine excels at targeting audience until today

1980 s: companies consolidate ownership and define readership • 1984, magazines are being gathered under big organizations, continues today • Condé Nast publish over 200 magazines each month • ITP Publishing Group: publish over 75 magazines, dominate middle east

Three Types of Magazine 1. Consumer magazine ▫ All magazines sold by subscription or at newsstands, supermarkets and bookstores 2. Trade, technical and professional magazines ▫ dedicated to a particular business or profession 3. Company magazines ▫ ▫ ▫ Produced by businesses by their employees, customers and stockholders

Magazine at Work • Five divisions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. • Editorial: editors, designers, artists, photographers Circulation sales Advertising Sales Manufacturing and distribution Administration Freelancers: writers who are not on the staff of a magazine but who are paid for each individual article published

Magazine compete for readers • Newsweekly • Business:

• Young men’s magazine

• Woman is the single most lucrative audience for magazine • Among top 10 magazines in US, 5 are woman’s magazine

Readers Represent a valuable audience for advertisers • Magazine appeal to advertisers for 1. pass-along readership ▫ People keep each issue for 17 weeks, at least 4 adult reader (by MPA: the Association of Magazine Media) 2. Magazine has more targeted audience by geography, income, interest.

Internet Editions Offer New Publishing Outlets • Many magazine have launched internet edition to expand readership • Webzine: online magazine • Magazine’s future is on the Internet: ▫ Complement other media ▫ Personal product ▫ Expand on internet, create partnership, find new niche audience