Discuss the success of the Magazine Industry

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Discuss the success of the Magazine Industry

It is undeniable that the Magazine Industry has undergone extensive changes within the past century, some which can be attributed to its success and some which can account for instances of failure. Whether it is loyalty to long-established magazine titles or its exploitation of popular culture, the industry is constantly evolving to meet the demands of its environment in order to stay afloat.

Firstly, whilst the first magazines such as ‘The Spectator’ focused extensively on educational content for men, a drastic technological change has affected the format of all magazines on the market today. Colour photography has been the catalyst for these essay-filled booklets to become the high-resolution glossies on the shelves today, which ultimately has transformed magazines to focus on image rather than content. The February 2008 issue of ‘Vogue’ features Sasha Piviovarova clad in a delicate silk dress, seeming to be aesthetically flawless. Katz suggests that the relationship between the audience and lifestyle magazines such as this is ‘complex and intimate’, offering a ranges of ‘Uses and Gratifications’ to the reader. To experience the beautiful - and to find models to imitate, are two prominent uses and gratifications the readers of Vogue may relate to especially. As one of the longest running women’s glamour and lifestyle magazine, Vogue must be achieving ample success through this extensive use of imagery – but how long for? It must also be considered that although the audience may be active in choosing its uses for its media, the subliminal effects magazines like this may be quite negative. Recent awareness of size zero models featured within women’s magazines especially has caused uproar within today’s society, instigating various petitions on websites such as onlinepetition.com to attempt to stop ‘false’ imagery of magazine models. Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ has also brought attention to the fallacy of ‘Photoshopped’ models, broadcasting internet video adverts filming the process of the ‘real’ model’s transformation, and the end result. Such public awareness may threaten this aspect of many magazines’ continued success in the future, especially as these models are used in both women’s and men’s titles, with the February 2008 issue of FHM featuring a scantily clad Alesha Keys. Sweeting’s explanation for this is simply that ‘sex sells’ and that ‘magazines such as Loaded are becoming increasingly pornographic in their content’ (MediaMagazine, September 2005).

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Furthermore, technological changes such as cable and satellite TV and broadband internet have allowed magazines to synergise their brand with other forms of media. Stewart Williams suggests, when commenting on the success of Kerrang! magazine, that if one person is watching Kerrang!’s TV station, ‘three other people in the room will watch and like what they see’. He also refers to the exploitation of social networking websites such as MySpace.com, on which the magazine holds over forty thousand ‘friends’. To him, he states it is simple as posting ‘Hey guys, what shall we put into Kerrang! this week?” Not ...

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