Impact Of The Mobile Web

On Magazine Publishing
a research essay

by

Dao Hai Son

Level 4
Internet Cultures
(4FDA0053)
Assignment 2
1,658 words

Submitted to

The School of Creative Arts

University of Hertfordshire, UK
in partnership with
The One Academy, Malaysia,

on 14 February, 2017
Table of Content Pages

Cover Sheet i

Title Page ii

Content Page iii

List of Essay Questions iv

Introduction 1

Effect of Mobile Devices 1

The Use of Front Covers 2

Changes in Page Layout 4

New Type of Print Ads 5

Conclusion 6

Reference List 7

Bibliography 8

iii
 List of Essay Questions

1. Investigate a major controversy that unfolded online. Discuss its relevance to creative

professionals.

2. Cyberspace is vital for protecting and spreading democracy. Explore this idea and

question its effectiveness.

3. How did mobile devices change the way people use the internet? Consider its

consumer impact and relate them to a specific creative industry/ profession.

4. Compare and contrast how two different communities or social groups use a specific

social media platform. Which of the two groups has more to gain from it and why?

5. Malaysians are so uncreative that they cannot even make ‘dank’ memes.

Argue for or against the statement.

6. Identify a figure who is generally known to have played a major role on the internet.

Evaluate if his/her contributions are justified or mythologize

iv
 Impact of The Mobile Web
On Magazine Publishing

Mobile devices have grown to become one of the most powerful assistants in
everyday life. They also play a major role in the way people use the internet today. Mobile
devices have moved the internet from a source of information, to a means of
communication and an integral part of daily life today. Mobile devices today have the
ability to allow users to perform a multitude of tasks ranging from simple tasks such as
sending an instant message to monitoring an entire computer system from the other side
of the globe. It is no doubt that mobile devices have brought a positive impact to society
and has changed consumer’s lifestyles for the better. However, there are negative
aspects that come together with this change. This essay will go into the issue of how
mobile devices have impacted consumer behavior towards the internet and the publishing
industry, specifically magazines.

Effects of Mobile devices

Statistics have shown that in the year 2016, the number of internet users globally have
hit a high of 50.1% and out of that, a total of 53.1% of internet users own mobile devices.
This phenomenon has affected many of the industries globally, and amongst them is the
print industry. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s quarterly services report, magazine
publishing revenues decreased about 4.3% between the year 2015 and 2016 (Sass,
2016). In contrary to this decrease, magazine analyst Samir Husni (2013 cited Lukovitz,
2013) states that the drop in sales of print does not indicate in any way the end of the
publishing industry. Supporting this statement is the personal testimony of Husni which
notes a record of 870 new magazine titles in the year 2012. With more than half of the
world’s internet users on mobile devices, the magazine publishing industry could not sit
still and watch consumers slowly pushing away printed materials. With mobile devices,
consumers are able to have access to reading materials at the tip of their fingertips
regardless of where they (Google, 2014). In order to ensure the continuation of the
relationship between customers and publishing bodies, many magazine publishers
started to digitize their content. The magazine publishers continued to print their hard

1
copy materials while providing digitalized content for their consumers both on desktop
and mobile devices. In January 2013, a total of 850, 000 magazine apps across various
mobile platforms were recorded as a result of this migration into the digital world (Lukovitz,
2013).
Just as how technology has changed over the years, human behavior has also evolved.
Medium was no longer the main factor in which whether consumers were attracted to, but
instead, the determining factor was within the consumer themselves. Studies have shown
that mobile devices have contributed in the shortening of the human attention span.
Microsoft’s research in 2013 proved that humankind has reached an attention span of
which is shorter than a goldfish, 8 and 9 seconds respectively (Microsoft, 2013). This was
a result of how the human brain was ‘overusing’ the element of anticipation. Each
notification that rang on a mobile device had cause a sense of excitement which in the
long run ‘abused’ the dopamine system in consumer minds (Weinschenk, 2009). Due to
the brain being accustomed to anticipation and excitement, dopamine is no longer
released when consumers are engaged in an activity that is less exhilarating. This then
results in a shorter attention span (Mandal, 2015).

The Use of Front Cover

Today, users are so caught up with their mobile devices and hardly have any time left to
notice other mediums such as the printed mediums. The publishing industry is facing a
very huge challenge in trying to grab consumer’s attention and with the sales of printed
materials such as magazines. Richard Kingerlee (n.d cited Davies, 2016) Circulation
Director at Conde Nast Britain quotes “digital distractions have increased the importance
of impulse purchases… This means that covers have to shout even louder on the shelves
to attract the same level of attention”. In contrary to the popular saying of “Don’t judge a
book by its cover”, Editor in chief of Empire Magazine refers to magazine covers as the
key to getting consumers to purchase magazines today (White, n.d cited Davies, 2016).
In other words, the cover of a magazine determines the sales of that month issue. This
has resulted in a change in the designing side of magazines till today.

2
 Figure 2 GQ Magazine UK January 2008 issue Figure 1 GQ Magazine UK January 2017 issue
front cover (Source: GQ, 2008). front cover (Source: GQ, 2017).

For instant the comparison between new and old covers of GQ magazine (Figure 2
and 1), the amount of information on covers have reduced, fonts that were used
previously were replaced with bolder fonts. This was all to increase the readability of the
covers to ‘attract’ customers to purchase the magazines in order to fully digest all the
information (Anthony, 2014). The use of monochromatic colors and photographic
elements were pieced together with other elements such as text to ensure that the cover
would be pleasing to the eyes (Cousins, 2015). The two magazine covers shown have
the similar elements of a large sized masthead in contrasting colors. The name of featured
celebrities is also in the same color to draw consumer attention. This way consumers are
able to recognize the title of the magazine and know which celebrity is to be featured in
that particular issue. The secondary information is then put in cover lines without causing
a clash of elements on the magazine cover. Large established bodies such as GQ, Vogue
or Times Magazine have tried to keep their distinguished styles through the years but
have also improvised and redesigned their covers to have better visual aesthetics and
legibility in order to attract customer attention. Another trump card in which some
magazine publishers use is the shock factor. As an example, Newsweek magazine used
the image of former U.S President Barack Obama with a colorful halo representing the

3
LGBT community above his head. Together with the misleading cover line, the magazine
would have probably been able to trick consumers into purchasing one copy of this issue
just to have a second look at this magazine to see if their president was indeed a gay
president.
Changes in Page Layout
Besides having a well-designed cover to attract consumers, White (n.d cited Davies,
2016) mentions that it is also as important to have a magazine which has the power to
keep readers engaged with every single page. As mentioned above, the human attention
span makes it harder for consumers to engage in an activity as slow-paced as reading.
As a result, publishers need to arrange the layout of magazines in a way where the
content fits consumer behaviors and assures that readers will be well entertained. Then
can consumers feel that their money was well spent when purchasing an issue of a
magazine.

Figure 3 The New York Time Magazine new page layout (Source: Brownlee, 2015)

. The New York Times magazine had redesigned their page layout in 2015 in order to
adapt to this change in consumer behavior. In figure 3, one of the notable changes were
made were a reduce in the columns from 12 to 7. This resulted in a cleaner and organized
look to the page layout. It also provided enough space for “interesting pockets” to be
inserted into the page design which gave space for the content to ‘breathe’ (Silverstein
cited Brownlee, 2015). The longer text lines made the pages look less dense which allow
smoother reading (Shaikh, 2005).

4
Throughout the layout of the pages, the designers had applied the design concept of
negative space to enhance the reader experience without having a page layout that is too
busy. Tim Leong (2015 cited the SPD, 2015), director of Entertainment Weekly mentioned
that negative space as “a little shift that had a big effect”. In the same year, Maxim
Magazine relaunched their magazines with an extra of 20 percent white space (Steigrad,
2015). The white space may sound redundant at first but in actual fact, the white space
allows a sense of depth in pages and supports legibility. With this, all the elements in a
page have equal amount of attention from readers (Bradley, 2014). On top of that, studies
have shown that with proper use of white spaces, one’s reading experience can be
improved (Chaparro, 2004).
These attributes are not only found in established and classic magazines but also in
fairly younger magazines. As an example, Kinfolk Magazine is a relatively younger and
more independent magazine which applies the concept of negative space in the layouts
as well. By separating images and text with the negative space, a strong visual hierarchy
is formed in every page.

New Type of Print Ads

Traditional advertising is getting less effective on consumers, when 86% of
consumers suffer from banner blindness (Infolinks, 2013) when print ads nowadays do
not have the “stopping power” to attract consumer attention (Sawyer, 2010), interactive
ads were born. Incentive theories about motivation explains that human behavior is not
only motivated by pure primary need of surviving, but also by an external goal such as
reward (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2003 cited Cherry, 2016), like a dopamine drop which
brings the feelings of rewarded and happy when consumers interact with mobile devices
and are responded immediately (Weinschenk, 2009). In 2013, Motorola ran an interactive
ad in Wired magazine which allowed readers to interactive with by pushing the color
buttons in the bottom of the page to change the color of the new smartphone above. This
is not the only one example of interactive ads, other major brands have been
experimenting the new trend like Lexus or CW network.

5
 Conclusion
Despite the fact that the development of technology and mobile devices has a strong
influence in the magazine publishing business revenue and push them to adapt with the
new technology era. The main focus of publisher and magazine layout designers is not
on how to fit with the new developed technology but to design the magazine which is
suitable with the changes of consumer behaviors and at the end of the day audiences are
always the priority not digital or print.

(1,649 words)

6
 Reference List

1. Internet World Stats (no date) INTERNET GROWTH STATISTICS. [Online] Available at:
http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm (Accessed: 25 November 2016).
2. Sass, E. (2016) Newspaper, magazine revenues fall again. [Online] Available at:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/284312/newspaper-magazine-revenues-
fall-again.html (Accessed: 12 February 2017).
3. Lukovitz, K. (no date) Perception vs. Reality: Print’s power in a digital age. [Online]
Available at: http://www.magazine.org/node/25206 (Accessed: 12 February 2017).
4. Google. (2014) Understanding Consumers’ Local Search Behavior. [Online] Available at:
https://think.storage.googleapis.com/docs/how-advertisers-can-extend-their-relevance-
with-search_research-studies.pdf (Accessed: 10 December 2016).
5. Microsoft. (2015) Microsoft Attention Span. [Online] Available at:
https://advertising.microsoft.com/en/WWDocs/User/display/cl/researchreport/31966/en/
microsoft-attention-spans-research-report.pdf (Accessed: 17 December 2016).
6. Weinschenk, S. (2009) 100 things you should know about people: #8 — Dopamine
makes you addicted to seeking information. [Online] Available at:
https://www.blog.theteamw.com/2009/11/07/100-things-you-should-know-about-people-
8-dopamine-makes-us-addicted-to-seeking-information/ (Accessed: 17 December 2016).
7. Mandal, A. (2015) Dopamine functions. [Online] Available at: http://www.news-
medical.net/health/Dopamine-Functions.aspx (Accessed: 18 December 2016).
8. Davies, G. (2016) Cover story: Does the front page of a magazine still matter? [Online]
Available at: https://www.themediabriefing.com/article/do-magazine-covers-still-count
(Accessed: 12 February 2017).
9. Anthony (2014) Do’s and don’ts of using light typefaces. [Online] Available at:
http://uxmovement.com/content/dos-and-donts-of-using-light-typefaces/ (Accessed: 12
February 2017).
10. Cousins, C. (2015) Monochromatic color: How to use it effectively. [Online] Available at:
https://designshack.net/articles/inspiration/monochromatic-color-how-to-use-it-
effectively/ (Accessed: 12 February 2017).
11. Brownlee, J. (2015) The New York times magazine Redesigns with web readers in mind.
[Online] Available at: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3042590/the-new-york-times-
magazine-redesigns-with-web-readers-in-mind (Accessed: 12 February 2017).
12. Brownlee, J. (2015) The New York times magazine Redesigns with web readers in mind.
[Online] Available at: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3042590/the-new-york-times-
magazine-redesigns-with-web-readers-in-mind (Accessed: 12 February 2017).
13. Shaikh, A.D. and Chaparro, B.S. (2005) THE EFFECTS OF LINE LENGTH ON
READING PERFORMANCE OF ONLINE NEWS ARTICLES. [Online] Available at:
http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/72/pdf/Usability%20News%2072%20-
%20Shaikh.pdf (Accessed: 12 February 2017).
14. Chaparro, B., Baker, J. R., Shaikh, A.D., Hull, S., & Brady, L. (2004). Reading Online
Text: A Comparison of Four White Space Layouts. Usability News, v. 6.2, [Online]
Available at: http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/62/whitespace.asp
(Accessed: 12 February 2017).
15. SPD (2015) Inside the entertainment weekly redesign. Available at:
http://www.spd.org/2015/08/inside-the-entertainment-weekl.php (Accessed: 12 February
2017).
16. Bradley, S. (2014) Design principles: Space and the figure-ground relationship –
smashing magazine. [Online] Available at:

7
 https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/05/design-principles-space-figure-ground-
relationship/ (Accessed: 12 February 2017).
17. Sawyer, P.W. (2010) Why print advertising Isn’t working. [Online] Available at:
http://adage.com/article/media/media-print-advertising-working/145281/ (Accessed: 12
February 2017).
18. Infolinks (2013) Study: 86% of consumers suffer from banner blindness. [Online]
Available at: http://www.infolinks.com/press/study-86-percent-of-customers-suffer-from-
banner-blindness/ (Accessed: 12 February 2017).
19. Evans, R. (2011) Why we’re all addicted to texts, Twitter and Google. [Online] Available
at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/why-were-all-addicted-
texts-twitter-and-google (Accessed: 17 December 2016).
20. Cherry, K. (2016) The incentive theory of motivation. [Online] Available at:
https://www.verywell.com/the-incentive-theory-of-motivation-2795382 (Accessed: 13
February 2017).
Image
Fig. 1 GQ Magazine UK. (2008) GQ Magazine UK January 2008 issue front cover. [Image
Online] Available at: http://www.gotceleb.com/wp-content/uploads/pics/lily-allen/gq-
magazine-uk-january-2008/lily-allen-gq-magazine-uk-january-2008-01.jpg (Accessed: 13
February 2017).
Fig. 2 GQ Magazine UK. (2017) GQ Magazine UK January 2017 issue front cover. [Image
Online] Available at: https://gq-images.condecdn.net/image/NK2kBeaz1Dm/crop/405
(Accessed: 13 February 2017).
Fig. 3 Brownlee, J. (2015) The New York Time Magazine new page layout. [Image Online]
Available at:
https://b.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/inline/2015/02/3042590-inline-i-1-
relaunch-ff-2-copy.jpg (Accessed: 13 February 2017).

Bibliography List

1. Keim, B. (2014) Why the Smart Reading Device of the Future May Be … Paper.
[Online] Available at: https://www.wired.com/2014/05/reading-on-screen-versus-paper/
(Accessed: 12 February 2017).
2. Inc, B.H. (2009) History of cellular technology: The evolution of 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G
phone networks. [Online] Available at: http://www.brighthub.com/mobile/emerging-
platforms/articles/30965.aspx (Accessed: 5 December 2016).
3. Lambrea, M. (2016) Mobile vs desktop: 13 essential user behaviors. [Online] Available
at: https://www.appticles.com/blog/2016/03/mobile-vs-desktop-13-essential-user-
behaviors/ (Accessed: 10 December 2016).
4. Bowling, M., Litsa, T., Sentance, R., Lawson, S. and Charlton, G. (2008) What exactly is
local search? [Online] Available at: https://www.clickz.com/what-exactly-is-local-
search/60390/ (Accessed: 10 December 2016).
5. Sparrow, B., Liu, J. and Wegner, D.M. (2011) Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive
Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips. [Online] Available at:
http://science.sciencemag.org.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/content/333/6043/776.full (Accessed:
12 December 2016).
6. Bergin, C. (2015) 5 reasons why mobile content consumption differs from desktop.
[Online] Available at: https://www.mirumagency.com/blog/5-reasons-why-mobile-
content-consumption-differs-desktop (Accessed: 12 December 2016).