General Trends:
How do both Vogue and Jewelry Artist fit into the larger trend of what the magazine industry is experiencing today? A look at these larger trends can help provide some answers.
‘‘Until recently, magazines on the whole failed to cross a very fundamental point that lies at the heart of making the transition to multiplatform,’’ Forbes editor Paul Maidment said. ‘‘What they produce every day is not a physical product, it’s our journalism. How you present that is entirely driven by the needs of your audience. If they want it on a big screen, a small screen, whatever medium they need to consume that journalism in, you need to provide that. Once you got that basic point, things start to fall into place more easily and you start to realize that the traditional formats have to be upended and delivered appropriately.’’[1]
This quote addresses the problems magazines may have faced recently in regards to moving online. For a long time moving online was resisted. Today there is a fine line between what is too little or too much content to place on a website for readers to access for free. If there is no information available online, the magazine risks isolating the segment of the audience that views content online. If all the content is available online, magazines could lose out on revenue. Magazines still need to make money off their product, but providing no content online can force readers to go elsewhere for the information.
Magazines should not exclude all content from being online, or even keep their online site separate. After their separate website was bought by NBC, the Hearst Corporation was forced to revamp their website internally. Because the website started from scratch, and was part of the corporation instead of its own separate entity, the end result for Hearst was a more modern website.[2]
Conde Nast publishes Vogue, not Hearst. What the Hearst case shows is an effective website can be a great asset to a magazine, a concept which can be applied to any magazine.
Conde Nast is the second largest magazine publisher in the country. The publisher realized an online component is indispensable to print since it allows a magazine to gain wider audiences and more loyalty from subscribers by expanding online.[3] Conde Nast even dappled in websites without magazine names associated with them. Style.com was one example, combining information from Vogue and W two magazines published by the company.[4]
Another goal of Conde Nast was to create an online platform where readers could expand the experience of print onto the web. Readers could interact with editors and each other in forums including video online.[5]
In some cases the website complements the magazine in the content it provides. In other cases, like that with Teen PeopleMagazine, the online website is the only option for readers. Ultimately, websites can affect magazines in two important fields: advertising dollars and subscription numbers. This raises the question of how these two areas have been affected by the move online.
[1] Joseph Galarneau, “Digital Continues Upward Ascent in the American Consumer Magazine Industry,” Publishing Research Quarterly 25 (June 2009): 89-93.
[2] Joseph Galarneau, “Digital Continues Upward Ascent in the American Consumer Magazine Industry,” Publishing Research Quarterly 25 (June 2009): 89-93.
[3] Katharine Steelye, “As Magazine Readers Increasingly Turn to the Web, So Does Conde Nast,” The New York Times (April 3, 2006):C1-C2. ProQuest.
[4] Katharine Steelye, “As Magazine Readers Increasingly Turn to the Web, So Does Conde Nast,” The New York Times (April 3, 2006):C1-C2. ProQuest.
[5] Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin and Bettina Fabos, Media and Culture: an introduction to mass communication (United States: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2008), 338.
‘‘Until recently, magazines on the whole failed to cross a very fundamental point that lies at the heart of making the transition to multiplatform,’’ Forbes editor Paul Maidment said. ‘‘What they produce every day is not a physical product, it’s our journalism. How you present that is entirely driven by the needs of your audience. If they want it on a big screen, a small screen, whatever medium they need to consume that journalism in, you need to provide that. Once you got that basic point, things start to fall into place more easily and you start to realize that the traditional formats have to be upended and delivered appropriately.’’[1]
This quote addresses the problems magazines may have faced recently in regards to moving online. For a long time moving online was resisted. Today there is a fine line between what is too little or too much content to place on a website for readers to access for free. If there is no information available online, the magazine risks isolating the segment of the audience that views content online. If all the content is available online, magazines could lose out on revenue. Magazines still need to make money off their product, but providing no content online can force readers to go elsewhere for the information.
Magazines should not exclude all content from being online, or even keep their online site separate. After their separate website was bought by NBC, the Hearst Corporation was forced to revamp their website internally. Because the website started from scratch, and was part of the corporation instead of its own separate entity, the end result for Hearst was a more modern website.[2]
Conde Nast publishes Vogue, not Hearst. What the Hearst case shows is an effective website can be a great asset to a magazine, a concept which can be applied to any magazine.
Conde Nast is the second largest magazine publisher in the country. The publisher realized an online component is indispensable to print since it allows a magazine to gain wider audiences and more loyalty from subscribers by expanding online.[3] Conde Nast even dappled in websites without magazine names associated with them. Style.com was one example, combining information from Vogue and W two magazines published by the company.[4]
Another goal of Conde Nast was to create an online platform where readers could expand the experience of print onto the web. Readers could interact with editors and each other in forums including video online.[5]
In some cases the website complements the magazine in the content it provides. In other cases, like that with Teen PeopleMagazine, the online website is the only option for readers. Ultimately, websites can affect magazines in two important fields: advertising dollars and subscription numbers. This raises the question of how these two areas have been affected by the move online.
[1] Joseph Galarneau, “Digital Continues Upward Ascent in the American Consumer Magazine Industry,” Publishing Research Quarterly 25 (June 2009): 89-93.
[2] Joseph Galarneau, “Digital Continues Upward Ascent in the American Consumer Magazine Industry,” Publishing Research Quarterly 25 (June 2009): 89-93.
[3] Katharine Steelye, “As Magazine Readers Increasingly Turn to the Web, So Does Conde Nast,” The New York Times (April 3, 2006):C1-C2. ProQuest.
[4] Katharine Steelye, “As Magazine Readers Increasingly Turn to the Web, So Does Conde Nast,” The New York Times (April 3, 2006):C1-C2. ProQuest.
[5] Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin and Bettina Fabos, Media and Culture: an introduction to mass communication (United States: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2008), 338.
