1. + Introduction to Communications Media Ch5 Magazines

2. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2 Magazine Evolution Most historians agree that media go through three stages of development over time: 1. Elite stage: only the richest and best-educated members of society make use of them. 2. Popular stage: a truly mass audience takes advantage of them. 3. Specialized stage: media tend to break up into segments for audience members with diverse and specialized interests. Magazines seem to demonstrate this process most clearly. A Brief History of Magazines

3. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 The First Magazines By 1776, a hundred magazines had started and failed. Ladies’ Magazine was a special interest magazine that began publishing in 1828, under the editorship of Sarah Josepha Hale, a widow who took up writing and editing to support her family. Ladies’ Magazine was the predecessor for Ladies’ Home Journal, which was founded in 1883 and expanded the area of women’s interests to include sheet music and popular fiction. A Brief History of Magazines

4. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 4 The Golden Age of Magazines The first magazine to achieve a general interest, mass audience was the Saturday Evening Post. During 1885 to 1905, the number of magazines published doubled from 3,500 to 7,000. Magazines also became a national advertising medium. A Brief History of Magazines

5. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 The Golden Age of Magazines This golden age was made possible due to: The U.S. had made a commitment to free universal education, which resulted in an increase in literacy. The Postal Act of 1879 reduced magazine rates to a penny a pound, making it economical for magazines to be distributed by mail. The Rural Free Delivery postal system was established in the 1890s, enabling magazines to be delivered in out-of-the-way farms and country homes. A Brief History of Magazines

6. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6 The Muckrackers: Journalism that inspired social change The beginning of the 20th century saw newspapers and magazines getting serious about crusading for social reform. Muckraking articles of this period helped bring about child labor laws, workers’ compensation and the first congressional investigations. Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 partially because of the influence of muckraking reporting. A Brief History of Magazines

7. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 A Brief History of Magazines Mass Circulation Magazines Cultural magazines included the New Yorker, founded in 1925 by Harold Ross, style magazines, and pulps such as True Confessions. Reader’s Digest, published in 1922 by Dewitt and Lila Wallace, was a digest featuring brief versions of articles that were informative, well-written, and stressed conservative middle class values.

8. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 8 A Brief History of Magazines Mass Circulation Magazines The true golden age of photojournalism began in the 1930s with the introduction of the 35 mm Leica camera, which made it possible for photographers to move with the action, taking shots of events as they were unfolding. This golden age lasted until the decline of the great general-interest magazines.

9. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 A Brief History of Magazines Magazines were America’s only national medium until the 1920s, when radio networks were established. By the 1960s advertisers interested in reaching the wide and diverse audiences of general-interest magazines moved to television. Ethnic and business magazines flourished as the U.S. became more culturally diverse in the post- industrial information age. Special interest magazines include Latvian Dimensions, Filipina, and Lefthander Magazine.

10. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 10 A Brief History of Magazines Adapting to New Media Magazines have always adapted to new media. When movies became popular the industry developed magazines about movies. Magazines publish their content on the Internet which is cheaper because of no investments in paper, ink, or presses, no printing overruns or underruns, or postal rates. Online publishing also provides an interactivity with readers that is appealing to advertisers. Webzines Internet-based, web-only magazines.

11. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 A Brief History of Magazines Global Endeavors Many U.S. publishers are moving to international editions to take advantage of new markets, especially in former iron curtain countries and in Latin America.

12. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 12 Top Magazines by Revenue

13. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 13 Top Magazines by Circulation

14. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 14 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry Trade magazines are those that focus on a particular business, and are usually essential reading for people in those businesses. Billboard is the trade magazine for the music industry. Public relations magazines are put out by organizations, corporations, and institutions with the sole intent of making their parent organization look good. Colors was a public relations magazine for Benetton clothing.

15. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 15 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry Professional journals are periodicals that doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals rely upon for the latest research and information in their fields. Professional journals are expensive. For example, a subscription to Brain Research costs $14,919 a year. Libraries are cutting back on professional journals and academic journals to save money. They are reinvesting in digital online databases instead. A little magazine publishes promising and established poets and authors of literary essays and fiction. Most of them, including The Antioch Review and The Paris Review, have tiny circulations.

16. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 16 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry Types of Magazines A consumer magazine is released at least three times a year, with a circulation of at least 3,000 general readers, and containing at least 16 pages of editorial (as opposed to advertising) content.

17. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 17 Major Types of Consumer Magazines

18. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 18 Types of Magazines

19. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 19 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry Comic books don’t contain much advertising and have a smaller revenue stream than other types of magazines. But comics, like the superhero monthlies published by Marvel and DC comics, have been an important part of American culture. Zines are small, inexpensive publications put out by people who are enthusiastic about a specific, usually obscure, topic. Zines, were important parts of the beat movement of the 1950s and the hippie movement of the 1960s. Today’s zines continue to be self-published outlets for counterculture voices, but they are now produced with desktop publishing.

20. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 20 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry The Players Many publishers are entrepreneurs with a deep interest in the topic, a small amount of money and a high tolerance for risk. The publisher is often the magazine’s founder. A mission statement is a grief accounting of how the magazine will be unique and what will make it successful.

21. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 21 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry The Players Celebrity founded magazines is a recent trend. O, The Oprah Magazine has been one of the most successful. Thalia, named after the Mexican pop singer, launched her own magazine in 2004. Supermarket chains have been the corporate publishers of several successful women’s magazines including Family Circle (Piggly Wiggly) and Women’s Day (A&P). National Geographic is an example of a sponsored magazine, i.e. published by associations.

22. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 22 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry The Staff The editor, editor-in-chief, or executive editor is in charge of the magazine’s overall direction. There is usually a managing editor, several deputy editors, senior editors or associate editors. Magazine editors work mostly with freelance writers because only the largest magazines have primarily full time writers. The title contributing editor is generally given to the magazine’s highest paid freelance writers. Tom Wolfe, a well-known and highly respected author, is a contributing editor at Harper’s.

23. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 23 The Magazine Staff

24. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 24 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry In the extremely competitive magazine business advertising sales staffs sell the personality of the magazine and the worth of the target reader to advertisers. The advertiser needs the magazine to enhance its product sales and its overall image. The magazine needs the advertiser for content as well as income. The circulation department is responsible for finding and keeping subscribers, manage the subscriber list, and to promote single-copy sales.

25. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 25 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry Most publishers also rely on blow-in cards and subscription fulfillment companies such as Publishers Clearing House. Magazine publishers now put out demographic and regional editions, known as split-run editions. Demographic editions of the same magazines go out to different zip codes. Regional editions allow local advertisers to run ads in prestigious national magazines.

26. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 26 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry Single-copy sales are mostly of interest to paid circulation magazines whose readers actually pay subscription fees and newsstand charges. Controlled circulation magazines are sent free to readers who qualify. The production department coordinates the actual printing of the magazines with outside companies, including those that specialize in high-speed color printing and the use of glossy paper. The publicist’s job is to make headlines (in newspapers, radio, television and Internet news services) with news from the cover of the magazine’s current issue.

27. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 27 Understanding Today’s Magazine Industry The Reader The magazine industry claims that 90 percent of American adults read 12 issues a month on average, and that the more education and income people have, the more they read magazines. Magazines have a healthy pass-along circulation, which means that several more people than the original buyer or subscriber typically read them.

28. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 28 Controversies Fashion magazines define the ideal female beauty as having perfect facial features, long legs, a long neck and terrific body tone. She must also be 5’ 10” tall and weigh less than 120 pounds. The average woman is around 5’ 4” and weighs 144 pounds. As fashion magazines continue to promote this unrealistic body size surveys show that women are increasingly unhappy with their bodies. Many critics insist that men’s ideas about women are shaped by images such as Playboy’s centerfold and editorial content such as Penthouse Forum.

29. + Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 29

30. + Teen Magazines and Websites A research study of magazines and their websites geared towards teen girls showed: A focus on beauty to attract males A focus on cosmetics and other consumer products to increase beauty A focus on “what’s wrong” with the individual physically and how can it be “fixed” (see Critical Culture Issues on p114)

31. + Problems Facing the Industry Harder to market magazines Publisher’s Clearinghouse no longer effective Cable TV and the Internet provide competition for specialized markets New magazines continue to be launched, but 60% fail to last a year

32. + Magazines in the Digital Age Magazines are still learning how to use the Web Originally just posted same content as print edition Often expanded and supplementary coverage is available now Often magazine websites try to create communities of readers through forums and chat rooms

33. + Magazine Classification Six basic categories General Consumer Business Custom Literary reviews and academic journals Newsletters Public Relations publications

34. + General Consumer People Time Reader’s Digest TV Guide

35. + Business Forbes Money Kiplinger’s Fortune Barron’s

36. + Custom Lexus (Lexus automobiles) Sky (Delta Airlines)

37. + Literary Reviews and Academic Journals Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly Poultry and Egg Marketing The Lancet The Kenyon Review

38. + Newsletters Aerospace Daily Oil Spill Intelligence Report Media Monitor Communication Booknotes

39. + Public Relations Magazines Designed and published by a company or industry Internal versions designed to communicate with workforce External ones designed to communicate with stockholders, potential customers

40. + Magazine Organization Circulation Advertising and Sales Production Editorial