The changing face of glossy magazines

1942

1897

2009

By: Santino Filoso

Outline

• This slideshow is a brief look at the current state of glossy magazines and where they are headed

• By framing my approach and examining if the medium is still the message one can begin to understand the relationship between glossy magazines and new interactive media

Future

• In the future all glossy’s will either exist entirely online or be extremely dependant on their websites for influencing of content, etc.

• Never will totally disappear, and those that do remain will undergo radical changes (on flights, etc.)

• Therefore the medium still is the message

Why the shift?• 5 billion less revenue, 27% less ads• 51 magazines folded in 2009, many

re-launched online, then make a comeback as a quarterly publishing (Vibes)

• 90% of magazine revenue comes from ads, there if two million people a day log onto a site and browse it, that is much more appealing to an ad company than a magazine bought one time by only a few hundred thousand

Why they will stick around

• Always exist in some form• Seen as cheap treat in tough economic times• Things such as innovate design can help to spur

sales• The design/layout/format of a glossy magazine is

the border between the medium and the message and this border is constantly being pushed, and defined. A good design can enrich the medium and facilitates people's reading, therefore strengthening the message.

Learning to read…again• Google is making us stupid• The way people read has changed;

concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. They get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do

• As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan said, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.

• The internet is chipping away our capacity for concentration and contemplation

• Users “power browse”

What does it mean?

• When it comes to the old model of making glossy magazines, it is clear that it must change in accordance with the times

• If media companies can't earn money, and everyone has internet access, it follows that "amateurs" will be part of a "decentralized" media

• Interactivity must be had!

Peer Production• mass colaboration• relies on self-organizing communities of

individuals who come together to produce a shared outcome (by Wikipedia)

• Wikipedia as an example of peer production• term used by professor Yochai Benkler(TED

Video)• kind of passion

Rules of Peer Production

• based on contributions (not on exchange)• no command hierarchies: Nobody can order

others to do something• people want to produce something • do tasks which they enjoy • give something to the community

Active Audience

• Treating audience as active readers and not passive recipients

• Active audience theory argue that media cannot tell people what to think or how to behave in any direct way. (Croteau&Hoynes, Chapter 8)

• Glossy magazines must tap into this concept going forward in order to remain relevant

Cold hard facts

• Glossys are not losing money because people are losing interest, but rather because they’re reading it online and not the physical manifestation of it

• Between 14 million and 22 million read nytimes.com every month; the print circulation of the weekday Times is just one million. In all, on any day, 32 million Americans read their news online

Digital Age

• Glossy’s will need to cope• Offer creative products online, either in lieu or in addition to the

normal magazine• Signs of change:e-subscriptions, or sites you have to pay to

browse

Example of change

College Humor was a popular humor magazine from the 1920s to the 1940s. Now the name is more famous for the website CollegeHumor.com

Glossy 2.0

• User generated• More pictures, videos• Longer Interviews• Forums• Online Communities• All of these allow magazines to see what’s

popular (What gets most hits)

What the future will look like

• Interlink cross media (tv channels, podcasts, etc.)• Readers say they want is to be able to post their

own content on sites of media companies. • Readers want to communicate with each and

have a sense of community, potential to link in social networking sites

How to bring about change

• Using surveys• Look at the top markets• Poll readers in target audience• Females aged 14-45

Type of Questions

• Comparing content• Presented online vs traditional magazine• Pros & Cons of each

Cost of Progress

• Researchers• Computer Programmers• Cost of surveys• Domain access• Cost of pitch

Conclusion• Medium is still the message• New mediums alter the way we interpret

messages and in order for glossy magazines to remain relevant they must either shift online or have an interactive website that allows users to be an active audience enabling peer production