3. MAGAZINES: VOICES FOR MANY INTEREST

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Dr. Mohammed IbahrineAL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITY in IFRANE

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCESCOMMUNICATIONS STUDIES PROGRAM

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Developing a Concise Definition

• Developing a Concise Definition

“Mass communication is a process in which professional communicators design and use media to disseminate messages widely, rapidly, and continuously in order to arouse intended meanings in large, diverse, and selectively attending audiences in attempts to influence them in a variety of ways”

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Structure of the Lecture

• 1. The DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES

1.1 BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENT IN THE EIGHTEE CENTURY

1.2 CATALYSTS FOR DEVELOMENT INTHE NINETEENTH CENTURY

1.3 AMERICAN MAGAZINE CHARACTERISTICS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

• 2. MAGAZINES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

2.1 MAZINES AS A FORCE FOR SOCIAL REFORM 2.2 THE CHALLENGE OF TELEVISION 2.3 THE GROWTH OF SPECIALTY MAGAZINES

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Structure of the Lecture

• 3. MAGAZINE AS THE TWENTIETH FIRST CENTURY MEDIUM

THE MAGAZINE AS AN INDUSTRY

HE INFLUENCE AND IMPORATNCE OF MAGAZINES

• 4. THE FUTURE OF MAGAZINES

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Introduction

• Magazines have entered the twentieth-first century in a state of confusion

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Introduction

• The word "magazine" entered the English language in the late 1500s, but it did not refer to a printed medium

• The term comes originally from the Arabic makhasin, which mean "storehouse."

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Introduction

• The first magazines were originally established in London, where they prospered in a great city inhabited by many urbane and educated residents

• Magazines played an important role in exposing unacceptable social conditions and stimulating social reform

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Introduction

• Between wars, before television became a household medium, they were one of the major mass media, advertising nationally distributed products

• After World War II, the growth of television had a significant influence on the magazine industry

• Large-circulation of general magazines were severely hurt financially, but new kinds of magazines were founded to meet new demands, and the industry thrives today

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Introduction

• The history of the magazine began in London in 1704 with the first issue of a small periodical called the Review

• In some ways this "little“ publication resembled a newspaper of the time

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Introduction

• The founder was the outspoken Daniel Defoe (who later wrote Robinson Crusoe)

• He wrote the first issue while in Newgate Prison, where He wrote the first issue while in Newgate Prison, where he was being held because of his he was being held because of his critical writingscritical writings denouncing certain policies of the Church of Englanddenouncing certain policies of the Church of England

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Introduction

• Magazine was thus born as an instrument of Magazine was thus born as an instrument of politicspolitics

• By the middle of the century, a number of rival magazines were being published successfully in England

• The concept was spreading to other parts of the world

• Hundreds of publication that we would recognize as magazines today were being produced in the major cities of Europe

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1. The DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES

• 1.1 BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENT IN THE EIGHTEE CENTURY

Benjamin Franklin, ever the innovator, tried to get one started in 1741

It had the awesome title of General Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, for All the British Plantations in America

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1. The DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES

• 1.1 BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENT IN THE EIGHTEE CENTURY

• There were four major conditions that created barriers to the successful establishment of magazines in America and caused their development to lag considerably behind that of their European counterparts

1. The size and dispersion of population 2. The economics of publishing of the time 3. The state of transportation and the postal system needed for

delivery 4. The characteristics of the readers themselves

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• BARRIERS TO DEVELOPMENT IN Morocco

1. The size and dispersion of population? 2. The economics of publishing of the time? 3. The state of transportation and the postal

system needed for delivery? 4. The characteristics of the readers themselves?

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1. The DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES

• 1.2 CATALYSTS FOR DEVELOMENT IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

1. Rapid population growth 2. Urbanization 3. Increasing education 4. The great issues

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1. The DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES

• 1.2 CATALYSTS FOR DEVELOMENT INTHE NINETEENTH CENTURY

4. The great issues Intellectual debates of monumental significance provided

unique content for magazines An example was the explosive issue of Charles Darwin's

explanation of the origin of species

Magazines were an important forum in the debate over evolution versus creation

Magazines also delved into topics like financial panics controversial discoveries in medicine, great religious revivals

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1. The DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN MAGAZINES

• 1.3 AMERICAN MAGAZINE CHARACTERISTICS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Numbers and circulation of magazines

A Magazine for every taste and interests

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Definition of a Magazine

• A magazine is a periodical that usually contains a miscellaneous collection of articles, stories, poems, and pictures and is directed at the general reading public

• Usually weekly or monthly• Popular (fiction, pictures, sports & games, travel & tourism, fashion, sex,

humor, comics, etc.)

• Popularized science, social, political & cultural affairs, etc.

• Opinion & criticism (social, political, literary, artistic, aesthetic, religious, etc.)

• Published for a general or mass market to promote those groups' services or products (i.e., airline magazines found in the pocket on an airplane)

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2. MAGAZINES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

• 2.1 MAGAZINES AS A FORCE FOR SOCIAL REFORM

It was a time when a limited number of magazines took the lead in what we would now call investigative reporting

At the time it was called muckraking, a term coined by President Theodore Roosevelt to characterize journalists who instead of extolling the virtues of America were determined to expose its dark and seamy side

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2. MAGAZINES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

• 2.1 MAGAZINES AS A FORCE FOR SOCIAL REFORM

Roosevelt compared such journalists to the "man with the muckrake" in John Bunyan’s classic, Pilgrim's Progress, in which the central figure would not look up from the filth on the floor even when offered a glittering crown

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2. MAGAZINES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

• 2.1 MAGAZINES AS A FORCE FOR SOCIAL REFORM

– Postal Act of 1879 permitted publishers to mail magazines at second-class postage rates

– Magazines were America’s first national mass medium

• Served as important force in social change, especially in muckraking era of the first decades of the 20th century

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3. THE MAGAZINE AS A TWENTIETH-FIRST-CENTURY MEDIUM

• 3.1.1 Types of Magazines

– Assignment in the class

A Short History of Magazines

• Between 1900 and 1945, number of families who subscribed to one or more magazines grew from 200,000 to more than 32 million

A Short History of Magazines

• The Era of Specialization– World War II further urbanized and

industrialized America• Public had more leisure and money to

spend on wider array of personal interests and on magazines catering to those interests

• The magazine industry adopted specialization and a lifestyle orientation

Magazines and Their Audiences

• 94% of people with some college read at least one magazine and average more than 11 different issues a month

• 61% of readers have a positive attitude toward magazine advertising

• 72% of readers say ads do not interfere with their magazine reading enjoyment

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

• The number of magazines exceeds 22,000, with 17,000 general interest consumer magazines– In 1950, there were 6,950 magazines

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

• Contemporary magazines typically divided into 3 types:– Trade, professional and business magazines– Industrial, company and sponsored magazines– Consumer magazines

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

• Categories of Consumer Magazines– Alternative: Mother Jones, The Utne Reader– Business/money: Money, Black Enterprise– Celebrity and entertainment: People,

Entertainment Weekly– Children’s: Highlights, Ranger Rick– Computer: Internet, PC World– Ethnic: Hispanic, Ebony– Family: Fatherhood, Parenting

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

• Categories of Consumer Magazines– Fashion: Bazaar, Elle– General interest: Reader’s Digest, Life– Geographical: Texas Monthly, Bay Area Living– Gray: Modern Maturity– Literary: Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s– Men’s: GQ, Field & Stream, Playboy

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

• Categories of Consumer Magazines– News: Time, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek– Political opinion: The Nation, National Review– Sports: Sport, Sports Illustrated– Sunday newspaper: Parade, USA Weekend– Women’s: Working woman, Good Housekeeping, Ms.– Youth: Seventeen, Tiger Beat.

Scope and Structure of the Magazine Industry

1. Automobiles

2. Apparel and Accessories

3.Home Furnishings and Appliances

4. Toiletries and Cosmetics

5. Drugs and Remedies

6. Media

7. Direct Response Companies

8. Retail

9. Financial, Insurance, and Real Estate

10. Food and Food Products

Top 10 Magazine Advertiser Categories, 2001.Source: Magazine Publishers Information Bureau 2002.

Magazine Advertising

• Magazine specialization succeeds because demographically similar readerships attract advertisers seeking to target products and services to those most likely to respond to them.

Split runs: special versions of given issue in which editorial content and ads vary according to specific demographic or regional grouping

Magazine Advertising

• Types of Circulation

– Magazines price advertising space in their pages based on circulation: total number of issues sold

– Controlled circulation: Providing a magazine at no cost to readers who meet some specific set of advertiser-attractive criteria. For example: Hotel Magazines, Airline Magazines

Magazine Advertising

• Measuring Circulation– 1914: Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC)

established to provide reliability to announced circulation figures

– 85% of all magazine sales are subscription

Trends and Convergence in Magazine Publishing

1. New Models of measurement will replace traditional methods

2. Online Magazines– Webzines—online magazines made possible by

convergence of magazines and the Internet

Trends and Convergence in Magazine Publishing

• Custom Magazines– Brand magazines—consumer magazines

published by a business for readers having demographic characteristics similar to those of consumers with whom it typically does business

– Magalogue—designer catalogue produced to look like a consumer magazine

Magazines’ Advantages

1. Internationalization

2. Technology

3. Sales of subscribers’ lists and a magazines’

own direct marketing of product

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6. The Future of Magazines

• See the chapter on the Internet

The term E-zines has come to identify magazines available online

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Futurists have been predicting “the death of print” Such forecast have not come true

• 1. Portable

• 2. Predictable

• 3. Accessible

• 4. Cost Effective

• 1. Perishable

• 2. Appeal to middle-age and older readers

• 3. They cause smudges on hands from the ink