ANALYSIS OF A REGIONAL MAGAZINE.

By Amy Hannah

The New Yorker magazine

Background context on the regional magazine:

The first regional magazine produced in America, 1925. The regional magazine has a primary audience of those living in The New York region, due to the context being centralised upon the
New York cultural life. However, it has branched out to other audiences internationally as it also includes content on popular culture and eccentric Americana.

The magazine has been alive and current for 92 years and has earned its success through recognisably not only branching out to one audience but multiple. Globally it has succeeded this
way due to beginning its content based on New York culture, however since has developed a knowledge for other cultures and political issues. The New Yorker is produced on a weekly basis.
Based upon this research it is evident that a regional magazine can rapidly gain success if producing the relevant and interesting content for its intended readers.

The publisher for the magazine is of great recognition, Conde Nast a premier media company that publishes high quality content for its audiences.

The print magazine has distributed both in print form and online, the online subscription reaching over 1million for their audience figures and as projected in June 2017, had a total circulation
figure of 1,236,041 for its print copies.
 DOMINANT IMAGE
The editor the magazine has followed typical conventions of MAIN HEADLINE/TYPOGRAPHY CHOICES
a magazine by including a main dominant image. However,
The main headline is located centrally to the top of the front
rather than using a photograph from reality. They have
page of the magazine. Having done this, this allows the
chosen to use illustration to attract their key audience for
audience to break the front cover up into the rule of thirds.
the magazine. The illustration denotation displays what
The audience, once after seeing the dominant image of the
appears to be a male living on the streets of New York with
page, will direct their attention to the name of the
robots passing him by. However, the connotations of using
publication. The typography choices the editor has made for
this illustration may be that New York is a city that is full of
the magazine recognisably, have complimented the
busy body individuals who ignore current issues in society as
dominant image. The font that has been used links visually
they are more invested in their own lives such as going to
with class and modernity, which readers could connote that
work and succeeding. From this, the audience could connote
New York is a city of class and sophistication, encouraging
that inside the magazine the content could have a leading
wider audiences to wish to read the publication, not just
focus on those living in poverty in the New York City and
New Yorkers alone.
how it is ignored as a current issue in society.

A LACK OF COVER LINES
There appears to be a lack of cover lines for the front
cover of this magazine, however this can be
demonstrated as challenging conventions for a regional
magazine. As the dominant image for the magazine is
illustrated, this gives the audience more opportunity to
connote what could feature inside this issue. However
if I was to produce my own magazine. Cover lines
would be a vital convention due to it being a new
release magazine for the intended audience, as The
New Yorker has been a print publication that has been
released for over 90 years. Its house style has become
recognisable, therefore challenging typical conventions
of a magazine would be acceptable due to the
publications success.
DATE/PRICE
Located at the top of the front cover, as fitted with typical
conventions. The date and price are stated clearly in a
smaller size in comparison to the main headline for the
magazine. Including these conventions are necessary to
allow audiences to understand the date of when the product
was published and the price to evaluate whether it is
substantial for the content that is produced inside of the
publication.
NOTE: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE: DAVID MORELY AND STUART HALL: DECODING AND ECODING.
From an audiences perspective, a process of encoding and decoding takes place. The publisher (The New Yorker) will
have encoded the front cover of the publication with certain conventions (as I have analysed) to allow the audiences to
decode them and make sense of them. Due to the fact this publication challenges typical conventions of a regional
magazine by only including specific conventions. This makes the publication more flexible for the audiences and it can be
described to be polysemic for this reason. The audience may take on a preferred meaning of the text taking its
dominant meaning as analysed through the dominant image (that the issue will raise an awareness on those living in
poverty in New York City. However, the audience may also take on a negotiated meaning whereby they only agree with
some of the dominant messages presented in the text due to their social background. This is something to consider
greatly if I was to choose the regional magazine brief myself as it can have an effect on how my intended audience
would consume my product marketed towards them.