Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Iana Felicia
Iana Felicia
THE MAGAZINE
INDUSTRY
03 MAGAZINE
a collection of materials (stories, ads,
poems, and other items) that editors
believe will interest audiences
8 ISSUE
all the copies of a periodical with the
same cover date and distributed at the
same time
9 MAGAZINE
PUBLISHER
the chief executive of a magazine,
who is in charge of its financial health
10 MAGAZINE
DISTRIBUTION
the channel through which a
magazine reaches its exhibition point.
12
SUBSCRIPTION
a long-term order, paid in advance, for
the receipt of a magazine for a
predetermined period of time or
number of issues
HISTORY
"THERE MIGHT BE NEW
TECHNOLOGY, BUT
TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
ITSELF WAS NOTHING NEW -
AND OVER THE YEARS IT
of Magazines
Nowadays, it seems that magazines shape our lives, By the 1700s, magazines were being published
telling us what to wear, what to eat and what to regularly in England, as the growing power of
think about. Although this is the age of the internet, Parliament allowed for more public arguments
we continue to enjoy magazines, admire their about governing than in the past.
pages, photos, illustrations and headlines. This
popularity is due to the fact that magazines cater to Political magazines and literary magazines made
all sorts of interests and passions. Most magazines their debuts. Some, such as the famous Tatlerand
look more or less the same at first glance, but they Spectator served up both politics and literature by
target different audiences. famous writers of the day. Of course, these
magazines were aimed at, and were read by,
The word magazine comes from French; it means England’s wealthy elite. The same was true in the
storehouse. Magazineswere, and still are, American colonies of England.
collections of materials (stories, ads, poems, and
other items) that their editors believe will interest Similar to newspapers, magazines aimed at
their audience. relatively wealthy people, often merchants or
plantation owners with literary and/or political
inclinations.
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THE
TRANSFORMATION
OF MAGAZINES INTO
MASS MEDIA
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During the 1960s and 1970s, the magazine industry
again found itself in an environment that demanded
MAGAZINES
fundamental change, thanks to the new medium of
television. By the late 1950s, most U.S. homes (86
LATER IN THE
percent) had at least one television set; that number
had jumped to 93 percent by 1965. The huge popularity
of the television began to hurt mass circulation
TWENTIETH
magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post. Large
advertisers abandoned magazines for TV because it
could help them reach even larger portions of the U.S.
CENTURY
population than mass-circulation magazines at a
comparable cost. Not only that, but television allowed
for dynamic ads with moving pictures and sound,
features that print media couldn’t offer.
N
seems to be general agreement that if a periodical
fits into one of the following five categories, it is to ewsletters
be considered a magazine:
B usiness or trade
magazines
C omic books
L iterary reviews
and academic journals
C onsumer magazines
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BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MAGAZINES/
TRADE MAGAZINES
A business-to-business (B-to-B) magazine, also called a trade magazine, focuses on topics
related to a particular occupation, profession, or industry. Published by a private firm or by a
business association, it is written to reach people who are involved with that occupation,
profession, or industry. Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS), a firm that collects
information about magazine audiences and ad rates and sells it to advertisers and ad
agencies, devotes an entire reference directory to business magazines. The directory divides
business specializations into over 200 categories. Examples are: advertising and marketing,
automotive, banking, building, ceramics, computers, engineering and construction, healthcare,
and hotels, motels, clubs, and resorts.
CONSUMER MAGAZINES
Consumer magazines are aimed at people in their private, nonbusiness lives (magazines aimed
at the general public). They are sold both by subscription and on newsstands and magazine
racks in stores. They are called consumer magazinesbecause their readers buy and consume
products and services that are sold through retail outlets and that may be advertised in those
magazines.
NEWSLETTERS
A newsletteris a small-circulation periodical, typically four to eight pages long, that is
composed and printed in a simple style, unlike the large, sometimes glossypage periodicals we
have discussed until now. Part of the reason is cost. Newsletters typically go to small numbers
of people at a frequency that would make a more production-heavy publication too expensive.
The rather plain look of a newsletter often matches its editorial purpose: to convey needed
information in a straightforward way. People receive these publications by mail, by fax
machine, or, increasingly, online.
COMIC BOOKS
As you may well know, many comic books are neither comical nor books. The term comic book
for a periodical that tells a story through pictures as well as words developed in the 1930s as
publishers of cheap (“pulp”) magazines that presented detective, romance, action, and
supernatural-science stories tried to take advantage of the popularity of newspaper comic
strips to boost sagging sales. They put their material into comic-strip form and sold it in a
complete story unit as a comic book.
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PRODUCTION AND
THE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY
In the magazine industry, the term publisher refers not to
the company making the magazine, but to a person who
works there. A magazine publisheris the chief executive
of a magazine and is in charge of its financial health.
Under the publisher are the business departments (in
charge of advertising and circulation), the technical
production department, and the editorial department.
The magazine’s editor-in-chief works for the publisher;
several editors may, in turn, work for the editor-in-chief.
MAGAZINE PRODUCTION
GOALS
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CREATING A CONDUCIVE
ENVIRONMENT
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DIGITAL
MAGAZINES
FUTURE OF MAGAZINES IN THE
DIGITAL ERA
Increased competition, penetration of Until around 2001, magazine That is the case with trade (business-
online and e-formats and cross media companies hardly used the Internet or to-business) magazines, as well as
ownership negatively affect the print any other digital platform. Publishers consumer magazines. Even though
media sector. didn’t think it was cost-effective to the Web still contributes only a very
create material just for the Web, and small portion of revenues (around 5
News magazines join the market they were afraid that if they posted percent with consumer magazines, 8
regularly and the existing ones their magazine content online, it percent with business-to-business),
disappear for want of readers, lack of would discourage readership of the executives see it as key to their
finance or due to take over. This hard copy magazine issues. future. Most observers believe that
tendency is called 'magazine churn'. consumer magazines have not been
Advertising revenue (much more than In the next few years, though, their as aggressive as trade magazines in
circulation revenue) seals the fate of attitude changed drastically. They reaching out to their audiences online
most consumer magazines. realized that their audiences were and drawing advertisers.
increasingly using the Internet,
The shift of advertising revenue to sometimes to the detriment of reading The Web has become a big selling
the web is the biggest problem faced magazines. point with advertisers. The digital
by broad-circulation magazines magazine has a lot of undeniable
today. While they are becoming Advertisers noted that too, and advantages. It brings about more
increasingly adept at generating magazine executives began to worry earnings, more readers and
revenue from their web sites, web- that they might lose readers and environmental sustainability.
only publishing models substitute print money to the Web. The result was
magazines. that many magazine firms are moving
strongly to use the Web to extend
Therefore, digital magazines are set relationships with their readers
to grow fast over the next several beyond the printed page.
years in the magazine industry as
publishers begin to enter the digital Page | 12
arena.