There are now also magazines for pretty much every stage in a woman’s life. As a woman goes through each phase, like marriage or pregnancy, there will a magazine to supply her with advice on the issues that she is facing. This shows a diversification of the market. ‘Company’ began when a gap in the market was noticed for a younger target audience than that of ‘Cosmopolitan’, which is aimed at women aged 23-29. ‘Company’ aimed for a target audience of age 18-26. Magazine’s started to look for small, niche markets. ‘Red’ was launched in 1998 for women at about the age of thirty who possibly had partners or were married, who possibly had children, who had career interests but also interests in the house and garden. Women with responsibility who still wanted to have fun. This was criticised for having too small a market but as it is still going today it appears to have been successful. In 1998 women’s magazines grew by 4%, the most popular being Cosmopolitan with 500,000 sales per month. Women’s magazine sales have increased by over a third in ten years.
Because technology has improved and is cheaper the magazine improves with it. Market research is also more easily accessible. ABC provides readership profiles and figures so there is a clear profile for each magazine. This makes what the audience wants clearer and easier to provide for.
Other magazines available for women are the gossip, weekly magazines like ‘Bella’ and ‘Best’. These originated in Germany but were brought to this country, in 1987, when a gap in the market was spotted. They contain real life dramas, recipes, competitions and puzzles. These have changed since they first started as they didn’t want long stories but that is no longer the case although a lot of the real life stories are quite short. Some of these don’t feature celebrities as they focus more on ‘real’ people. Chequebook journalism is frequently used to get stories. Adverts appear at the end of real life stories offering money if the readers send in a story, more if they allow their photograph to be printed. These magazines go to the reader rather than letting the reader come to them. They are popular because they are cheap and allow the reader to drift off into other people’s problems. Magazine’s such as ‘Woman’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ are more career orientated but are still in the same group.
Teenage girls’ magazines are very similar to women’s magazines with similar front covers and content. There has been a change in the content since magazines such as ‘Jackie’ which specialised in boys and romance. Information on sex or jobs would never be featured. Newer magazine’s such as Sugar, Bliss and J17 now contain more modern subjects such as pop music, fashion, television, health, beauty, style, problems, real-life stories, self-improvement and information on drugs, stars, food etc. Independence and strong-mindedness is encouraged along with equality. Visuals and slang are widely used, as for teenagers; it’s the image that is important. Pop also dominates the magazines and can be seen throughout, using icons as fashion models, to answer problems etc.
Of course it’s not only women who have magazines. They are also widely available for men too, although, they never used to be. Up until the late 80s it was assumed that men did not want magazines. It was realised that not all men wanted to read porn. Before then the only ‘decent’ magazines were special interest like ‘Autocar’ and ‘Which Hi Fi’ and other hobby magazines. Women were told how to be women but it was assumed that men already knew how to be men. ‘GQ’ and ‘Arena’ appeared and featured educated men, successful role models and fashion. But these were too elitist so then came ‘Loaded’, which was like a backlash. The market was diversifying and extensive market research was being conducted. Next came Maxim and Men’s Health with a similar format containing ‘topics’ such as women, fashion, cars, gadgets, music, television, computers, alcohol and reports on real life stories. These were very popular and the elitist magazines who once said that they’d never show female flesh on the cover were forced to change or dumb down. Most recently ‘Front’ has been launched which is aiming for a younger audience with even more ‘hardcore’ content. In 1997 ‘FHM’ and ‘Loaded’ were experiencing record. In 1998 men’s magazines grew by 6% with ‘FHM’ being the most popular monthly magazine with around 750,500 sales per month. Now ‘Men’s Health’ is moving away from the ‘laddish’ image.
The change in magazines has also changed other media such as the Internet. Magazines have started building their own websites and in 1999 ‘OK!’ launched its own television program on ITV. Magazines such as ‘Hello’ and ‘OK!’ have began to get exclusives on celebrity occasions, banning the tabloids from covering them. In 1999 ‘Hello’ paid £400,000 for an exclusive of James Major and Emma Noble’s wedding. In the same year ‘OK!’ bought an exclusive of Victoria Addams and David Beckham’s wedding.
As well as men and women’s magazines there are also special interest magazines dedicated to every fad going. From television-‘Take a Break’, to computers-‘Official Playstation’, to minority magazines-‘Diva’, to music-‘Muzik’, to tabloid types-‘Now’, to decorating-‘House Beautiful’. Magazines can now be produced much more cheaply because of new technology so these magazines are now easier to produce. So it is easier to start up a magazine to supply the latest fad. Computer and Internet magazines are extremely popular so there are a lot of them about as there are ‘clubbing’ magazines to coincide with the fad of the so-called ‘superclubs’. Advertisers like specific magazines as they know what type of audience they will be reaching and as there are so many magazines they can afford to go where is best for them so these magazines are likely to be successful as they have the support of advertisers. Very controversial magazines do not have this luxury, as advertisers don’t like their products to be associated with such publications.
Magazines have grown and developed so much in the last fifty years that where is there to go now? Will even smaller niche markets be targeted? Sales are likely to continue to rise and possibly the introduction of new men and women’s magazines will increase.
