Space and time on both producers' and consumers' parts

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intro to mass communication magazines February
6-8, 2007
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Which magazines do you read?

• And why?

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Why are magazines important?

• Or are they?

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What makes magazines unique among the mass media?
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Importance and uniqueness

• Americas earliest national mass medium
• In-depth, thoughtful reporting and opinion
  writing
• Space and time on both producers and
  consumers parts to explore broad, deep,
  complex issues
• And issues reaching beyond local/regional
  boundaries

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Importance and uniqueness (ctd.)

• Subject matter taboo (or too intellectual) for TV
• Subject matter simply not dealt with in
  mainstream media
• Reflector and shaper of national culture,
  identity, image
• And, not coincidentally, standards of beauty,
  consumption, wealth

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Importance and uniqueness (ctd.)

• Heritage of investigative, issues-oriented,
  political/social concern
• Forum for voices not heard elsewhere (TV,
  newspapers)
• Speak directly to/for specific consumer/ citizen
  groups
• Production quality
• All of which contribute to magazines longevity

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But magazines have always struggled for survival
(let alone success)

• As a category
• As individual titlesWhy?

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Among the challenges faced by magazines

• Retail cost
• Production costs
• Illiteracy (in 1800s)
• Threat from each successive medium
• Radio
• TV
• Internet

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Magazine specialization

• (As well see with radio), since 1950s, magazines
  have specialized in order to survive television
• TV Guide a perfect example
• Not a simple process
• Texas Monthly
• Arizona Highways
• Both started out as niche publications
• Both developed national audiences

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Magazine storehouse

• Defoes Review (1704)
• For elites
• Political commentary
• Looked like a newspaper
• Gentlemans Magazine (1731)
• Samuel Johnson
• Alexander Pope
• But early colonial storehouses only for elites!

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Other colonial magazines

• No middle class, raised cost issues
• No widespread literacy yet in colonies
• Colonial mags modeled on existing British titles
• Ben Franklin, in Philadelphia
• General Magazine
• Ruthlessly suppressed competition
• Used privileged position as Postmaster
• By 1776, about 100 magazines in colonies

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1800s the national magazine

• Better, cheaper technology
• Fed growing US literacy and education levels
• Better distribution and transportation
• Most targeted women
• Sara Josepha Hale Ladies Magazine (1828)
• Godeys Ladys Book (1830)
• But also Saturday Evening Post (1821) men and
  women
• The Nation, 1865
• Oldest continuously-published magazine

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The importance of national childrens magazines

• Youths Companion (1826-1929)
• What was its crucial 1892 contribution to
  American civic culture?(Hints Francis Bellamy.
  Christopher Columbus. Schoolchildren.)

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What fueled mags growth in mid-to-late 1800s?

• Railroads
• Increasing literacy rates
• Mass production (printing technologies)
• All lead to lowering of cover price
• 1870s most popular mags sell for 10 or 15 cents

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What really made mags USs first national mass
medium?

• The government!
• Postal Act of 1879
• Publishers allowed to mail mags at 2nd-class
  postage rates

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intro to mass communication magazines
(ctd.)February 8, 2007
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National medium?National advertising

• By late 1800s, advertising revenues soar.
• This builds (and builds upon) national
  marketplace for consumer goods.

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National medium?National(istic)
awareness/identity

• The magazine as an instrument of emerging,
  American nationalism

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Muckrakers (as T. R. dubs them in 1906)

• Early form of investigative reporting
• Newspapers at first, then magazines
• Not without personal risk to reporter
• Ida Tarbell takes on Standard Oil
• Lincoln Steffens takes on city hall
• Upton Sinclair exposes meat packing biz

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Other objects of muckrakers attention

• Corruption in business, government, local police
  forces
• Americas poor
• Immigrants living conditions
• Race relations

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Muckrakers results 1900s-1910s

• Congress passes
• Pure Food Drug Act
• Railroad Bill
• Clayton Anti-Trust Act
• Child labor laws
• 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Any guesses as to which mag led its charge?

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An anti-muckraking magazine

• Saturday Evening Post
• Popular fiction
• Text and visuals romanticizing American virtues
• Famous for (among other things) Norman Rockwells
  cover illustrations

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Through the first half of 20th century

• Magazines are general in their appeal
• By 1945, 32 million families subscribe to one or
  more mags
• Up from 200,000 families in 1900

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The biggies of General Interest

• Readers Digest
• Life
• TV Guide
• National Geographic
• More recently AARP the Magazine (f/k/a Modern
  Maturity)
• Time
• Founder Henry Luce journalistic objectivity is a
  myth better to be fair than objective

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The power of photojournalism

• Major factor in popularity of general interest
  mags in 1st half of 20th century
• Life, Look, Time
• And now People, Us, Entertainment Weekly
• Photographic images powerfully capture and
  communicate world events
• And often affect public opinion and even policy
• Examples?
• But whats the downside of photojournalism?
• Especially now?

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1950s onward decline of general interest
magazines

• Advertising money shifts to TV
• No mag can match TVs reach
• Paper costs rise in early 70s
• Life
• Look
• Saturday Evening Post
• all fail
• But many womens magazines survive

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Magazines success strategy post-1950

• Specialization!
• Appealing to small, clearly defined niche markets
• Unified internally by
• Geography
• Interests/hobbies
• Income level
• Occupation
• Lifestyle
• What else?

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Another mag survival strategyconvergence

• When one medium takes on the function of other(s)
• And may support/work with others
• Most obvious forms of convergence in the magazine
  world today
• online versions of magazines
• webzines

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Examples of other types of media convergence in
the mag world

• Magazines themselves!
• PC World
• Stereo Review
• Rolling Stone
• Magazine versions of TV shows (Oprah, Rosie,
  Martha)
• TV Guide since owned by News Corp. (Murdoch),
  supports Fox programming
• The TV Guide channel
• HGTV

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Classifications of (print) magazines

• Business/Trade/Profession
• Industrial/Company/Sponsored
• Consumer
• Literary Reviews/Academic Journals
• Newsletters

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Consumer magazine sub-categories

• Alternative Mother Jones, The Utne Reader
• Business/money Money, Black Enterprise
• Celebrity and entertainment People,
  Entertainment Weekly
• Childrens Highlights, Ranger Rick
• Computer Internet, PC World
• Ethnic Hispanic, Ebony
• Family Fatherhood, Parenting

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Consumer sub-categories (ctd.)

• Fashion Bazaar, Elle
• General interest Readers Digest, Life
• Geographical Texas Monthly, Bay Area Living
• Gray Modern Maturity
• Literary Atlantic Monthly, Harpers
• Mens GQ, Field Stream, Playboy

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(ctd.)

• News Time, U.S. News World Report, Newsweek
• Political opinion The Nation, National Review
• Sports Sport, Sports Illustrated
• Sunday newspaper Parade, USA Weekend
• Womens Working woman, Good Housekeeping, Ms.
• Youth Seventeen, Tiger Beat

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Another way of looking at this

• Interpellation
• (Louis Althusser, 1918-1990 French Marxist
  philosopher)

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The act of interpellation, or hailing, you

• Makes availableor thrusts upon youa subject
  position for you take up
• Thus, creates you as a subject

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The questions, then

• How do magazines interpellate their readers?
• This goes beyond the question of how magazines
  (merely) address their readers
• Do magazines reflect or shape/create the identity
  of their readers?
• And, by extension, their culture?

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Online magazines

• Often divided into two subcategories
• Purely online (online only) Slate, Salon
• Online versions of print mags Time,
  Entertainment Weekly, The Nation
• Not huge hits at first
• Only now are some coming into their own
  financially
• Purely online mags have yet to be profitable!

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Magazine research services

• Standard Rate and Data (SDRS)
• Collects info about mags
• Sells info to ad agencies
• Audit Bureau of Circulations (since 1914!)
• Measures mags circulations
• Keeps mags honest!
• Why would this be necessary?

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What determines advertising rates?

• Actual circulation number of copies of a
  magazine that are sold
• Not controlled circulation
• Free copies given away
• Not pass-along readership
• Copies read that were bought by others (friends,
  roommates, doctors, libraries)

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Circulation issue subs vs. single-copy sales
(pros/cons?)
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Chains
ADVANCE PUBLICATIONS Conde Nast Group Allure,
Architectural Digest, Bon Appetit, Brides,
Conde Nast Traveler, Glamour, House Garden,
Modern Bride, New Yorker, Jane, W, Golf Digest,
Gourmet, GQ, Self, Teen Vogue, Vanity Fair,
Vogue, Wired
BERTELSMANN Child, Family Circle, Fitness,
Parents, YM
HACHETTE FILIPACCHI Car and Driver, Cycle World,
Elle, Elle Décor, Metropolitan Home, Premiere,
Road Track, Womans Day
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Chains
HEARST CORPORATION Cosmopolitan, Country Living,
Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harpers Bazaar,
House Beautiful, Marie Claire, O The Oprah
Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Redbook, Town
Country
PRIMEDIA American Baby, American History, Hot
Rod, Motor Trend, Seventeen, Snowboarder, Soap
Opera Weekly, Truckin
TIME, INC. Asiaweek, Entertainment Weekly,
FORTUNE, InStyle, Life, Money, Parenting, People,
SI for Kids, Sports Illustrated, Sunset, Teen
People, This Old House, Time
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Fewer than 90 U.S. magazines have circulations of
1,000,000

• The other nearly 22,000 U.S. magazines struggle
  to find a niche

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Magazine structure

• Editorial content writing quality publication
  focus and mission
• Production machines and paperlayout and
  design----------------(Chinese
  wall)----------------
• Advertising and sales manage the income stream
  from ads.
• Circulation and distribution (either paid or
  controlled)

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Magazine editions another survival strategy!

• Regional
• Split-run
• DemographicWhy?

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Advertising issues

• Why is advertising important to magazine
  publishers?
• What is complementary copy
• And why is it controversial?
• Whats the unique status of advertising in the
  magazine world (compared to, say, the TV or radio
  world)?

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Advertising issues (ctd.)

• Why would some magazines NOT accept advertising?
• Either selectively or entirely?
• What are advertorials?
• And why do some people object to them?

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Magazines and democracy?

• How do/might magazines contribute to a stronger
  democracy?
• Magazines arent the important national medium
  they once were
• Moreover, magazines interpellate their readers as
  consumers more frequently than as citizens
• How might magazines strengthen democracy?

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Mags and democracy (ctd.)

• Individualization/specialization
• More groups targeted and represented
• Ownership issues
• Not as concentrated as newspapers or TV outlets
• More voices represented
• More open/appropriate venue for in-depth analysis
  criticism than other media

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Magazines and democracy

• How do magazines interpellate their readers as
  consumers? As citizens?
• Which do they do more often?
• How do/might magazines contribute to a stronger
  democracy?
• Magazines arent the important national medium
  they once were
• How might magazines strengthen democracy?

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Mags and democracy (ctd.)

• Individualization/specialization
• More groups targeted and represented
• Ownership issues
• Not as concentrated as newspapers or TV outlets
• More voices represented
• More open/appropriate venue for in-depth analysis
  criticism than other media