Westminsterresearch Managing Creativity in Magazine Publishing
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WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Managing creativity in magazine publishing: the 4Ps of creativity Das, S. This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © Mr Simon Das, 2019. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. University of Westminster School of Media and Communication MANAGING CREATIVITY IN MAGAZINE PUBLISHING: THE 4PS OF CREATIVITY Simon Das A thesis submitted in partial FulFilment oF the requirements For the degree oF Doctor oF Philosophy September 2019 London Abstract With deep historical roots in culture and even myth, ‘creativity’ travels from its first formal English dictionary entry at the end of 19th Century (Kaufman & Glaveneau 2019) to becoming central in the re-branding of cultural industries as creative (Hesmondhalgh & Baker 2011) in the proceeding century. However, despite being studied with academic rigour since the 1950s (Sawyer 2012), there is no agreed theory of creativity (Sternberg & Lubart 1999, Hennessey & Amabile 2010). Given this epic rise in its cultural and industrial importance, there have been many attempts in recent decades at explaining the nature of creativity, including whether it can be aided or even managed from an economic perspective. This thesis aims to join this this specific and on-going challenge by looking at creativity in the industrial context of magazine publishing: an established cultural industry and one on the cusp of what could be called ‘digital change’ in the last decade. In an attempt at adding to the definitional and methodological understanding of creativity in media, this thesis adopts a componential or holistic ‘4 Ps’ conceptualisation (first discussed by Mel Rhodes, 1961), by considering creativity in People, Process, Place and Products. A key element of this work, the ‘4Ps’ model developed is used to interpret a theorised relationship between four variables by way of proximal ‘measures’ – ones instrumentalised by reviewing cultural theory (such as genius and ‘Big C’ creativity of Weisburg 1993 and Csikszentmihaly 1988) and the social psychology confluence theories of ‘Small C’, everyday creativity (Sternberg & Lubart 1991, Amabile 1983, 1996). Through qualitative research methods, individual and group interviews, as well as organisational autoethnographic accounts from magazine publishers, editors, entrepreneurs and employees (including two ‘historical’ magazines cases), nine case study findings have been used to form structured qualitative datasets, aiding interpretation of interrelatedness of the ‘4 Ps of creativity’. A primary contribution of the thesis is therefore located within the ontological contention of empirical ‘measurement’ – and its approach to creativity judgement in the fields of cultural studies, the emerging field of media management (Malmelin & Virta, 2016, Virta & Malmelin 2017) and creative industries study (Kung 2008a, 2008b). In addition to the research’s approach, the creativity and media management insights aim to shine a light on an industry facing an existential threat from the digital shift. Where magazines today are shown to perhaps need less ‘heroic’ personality-defined People creativity (unlike the 1990s), creativity in the digital era is important in other ways. In nuancing different types of ‘Big C’ and ‘Small C’ creativity in contemporary magazine work, the study makes a case for adapting creativity management models such as Amabile’s (1996 and Amabile & Pratt 2016) and Tan (1998) by focusing on Process aspects of skills and knowledge development, aided through differentiated environmental Place culture factors suited to magazine genres, clients and audiences in changing fields with new domains of knowledge. Keywords: Creativity, Creativity theory, Media management, Managing creativity, Magazine publishing, Magazine media, innovation, publishing, 4 Ps of Creativity 1 Table oF Contents Page No Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Rationale for research 7 1.1.1 Magazines in crisis and creativity as a solution 8 1.1.2 The clarion call for creativity: magazine media 9 1.1.3 The ‘philosophical’ approach to this work: drawing theory Together 10 1.1.4 Why creativity and media management? Some questions 11 1.2 Outline of specific research aims 12 Chapter 2 A creative industry: magazine publishing 13 2.1 Research on magazine publishing 13 2.1.1 What is a consumer magazine? 13 2.1.2 The scarcity and sources of magazine research 15 2.2 Magazine publishing History 17 2.2.1 The birth of the magazine: the early years 17 2.2.2 Victorian magazines 18 2.2.3 Illustrated magazines 19 2.2.4 Woman’s magazines 21 2.2.5 Men’s lifestyle magazines 23 2.2.6 Customer magazines 25 2.2.7 Experimental and independent magazines 27 2.3 The changing magazine publishing industry 30 2.3.1 Industrial structure: publishing empires of the 19th Century 30 2.3.2 Industrial structure: fragmentation in the 20th Century 31 2.3.3 The changing revenue model of magazine publishing 34 2.3.4 The economics of being specialist and niche in the 21st Century 37 2.4 Creativity as an economic imperative 39 Chapter 3 A cultural history of creativity theory 42 3.1 Myths, beliefs and ‘locations’ of creativity 42 3.2 Creativity as a modern phenomenon 43 3.3 Creativity and inspiration 45 3.4 The origins of genius 46 3.4.1 Solitary artistic imagination 47 3.4.2 Intelligence, divergent thinking and psychology 51 Chapter 4 The 4 Ps of creativity 54 4.1 The 4 Ps as a model to examine creativity theory 54 4.2 P for people 4.2.1 Confluence theories of creativity 56 4.2.2 Amabile’s confluence model 56 4.2.3 The investment model of creativity 59 2 4.3 P for process 4.3.1 Small c creativity: the cognitive process of creativity 60 4.3.2 The myth of genius 62 4.3.3 Group creativity 64 4.3.4 Brainstorming 64 4.4 Big c creativity: sociological process 66 4.4.1 The systems model of creativity 66 4.4.2 Emergent and ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ creativity 68 4.5 P for products 4.5.1 Definitions of creativity production 70 4.5.2 Products: big c, small c and pro-c 70 4.5.3 Rating creativity 71 4.5.4 Consensual rating 72 4.6 P for place 4.6.1 Amabile’s model for managing the work environment 72 4.6.2 A critique of Amabile’s model – the focus on intrinsic motivation 74 4.6.3 Tan’s model of organisation ‘intervention’ 75 4.7 Challenges to management and creativity 77 4.7.1 Manageable creativity 77 4.7.2 Media management 78 4.7.3 The role of serendipity and media creativity 80 Chapter 5 Methodology and research design 82 5.1 Introduction and restatement of research questions 82 5.2 The ontological approaches of creativity study 82 5.3 Overall approach: assessment of creativity through the 4 Ps framework 83 5.4 Theoretical apparatus: using the 4 Ps as proxies for creativity 84 5.5 Case study design as a qualitative method 85 5.5.1 Validity and consideration for case study research 87 5.5.2 Creativity measures: developing proximal 4 Ps measures 88 5.6 The interpretative 14 ‘proximal’ measures of creativity 88-90 5.7 Research Design 90 5.7.1 Sample: justification of magazine case studies 90 5.7.2 Stratification and diversity of magazine case studies 91 5.7.3 Sample cases selected 91 5.7.4 Instruments of measurement: key people as interviewees 93 5.7.5 Variation to methodology: historical case study 3 93 5.8 Methods, data collection and procedure 95 5.8.1 Semi-embedded ethnography 95 5.8.2 The role of curiosity and journalistic storytelling 95 5.8.3 Procedure: coding, measures and narrative-making 96 5.8.4 Validity of methods employed: case study interviews 97 5.8.5 Ethical considerations, confidentiality and limitations 98 Chapter 6 Nine magazine case studies 100 6.1 Case study analysis: Smash Hits 100 3 6.2 Case study analysis: Rouleur Magazine (Interview 1) 106 6.2.1 Case study analysis: Rouleur Magazine 2 (Group Interview) 111 6.3 Case study analysis: Touch Magazine (Interview 1) 115 6.3.1 Case study analysis: Touch Magazine 2 (Autoethnographic account) 121 6.4 Case study analysis: Style at Home, Time Inc. 128 6.5 Case study analysis: Cycling Weekly 133 6.6 Case study analysis: Stylist Magazine (Interview 1) 138 6.6.1 Case study analysis: Stylist Magazine (Group Interview) 143 6.7 Case study analysis: The UpComing 147 6.8 Case study analysis: ASOS magazine 151 6.9 Case study analysis: Hole & Corner Magazine (Interview 1) 155 6.9.1 Case study analysis: Hole & Corner Magazine (Group Interview) 159 Chapter 7 Case study Narrative Analysis 164 7.1 Case 1. Smash Hits 164 7.2 Case 2. Rouler 170 7.3 Case 3. Touch Magazine 176 7.4 Case 4. Style at Home 184 7.5 Case 5. Cycling Weekly 189 7.6 Case 6. The Stylist (ShortList Media) 194 7.7 Case 7. The UpComing 200 7.8 Case 8. ASOS Magazine 205 7.9 Case 9. Hole & Corner Magazine 209 Chapter 8 Findings and discussion 215 8.1 Restatement of the conceptualisation from the methods chapter 215 8.2 Discussion of findings in relation to research questions 215 8.2.1 Finding 1 215 8.2.2 Finding 2 220 8.2.3 Finding 3 223 8.2.4 Finding 4 226 8.2.5 Finding 5 230 Chapter 9 Conclusions and limitations 233 9.1 Summary of the research, aims, methods and results 233 9.2 Contribution to Knowledge and Implication of findings 234 9.2.1 Original Contribution to knowledge 234 9.2.2 Personality and creative ‘genius’ in the pre-digital era 235 9.2.3 Experience and creative ‘talent’ in the digital era 236 9.2.4 Creative processes: training