Examining the Magazine Industry Standard

POINT OF VIEW: EXAMINING THE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY STANDARD A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by CRISTINA DAGLAS John Fennell, Thesis Supervisor MAY 2009 © Copyright by Cristina Daglas 2009 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled POINT OF VIEW : EXAMINING THE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY STANDARD presented by Cristina Daglas, a candidate for the degree of master of arts, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor John Fennell Professor Jennifer Rowe Professor Amanda Hinnant Professor Maureen Stanton ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am immensely grateful to my thesis chair, John Fennell, who believed in both the necessity for and the feasibility of this research. When many doubted the ability to interview prominent magazine professionals, John provided support and guidance while always keeping setbacks and successes in perspective. John has been a mentor from first semester of graduate school when I enrolled in his writing course, and I am so pleased that I could pursue a topic I am incredibly passionate about with his guidance. However, this research would naturally not be what it is without the rest of my fabulous committee. Jennifer Rowe, my other mentor, adviser and friend, was an invaluable resource, as she provided big-picture edits, line edits and, most importantly, support. Amanda Hinnant provided advice in the earliest days of thesis conception as well as the scholarly perspective necessary in any academic work. Maureen Stanton was also a wonderful resource, imparting an outside, nonfiction mindset that added another dimension to this journalistic thesis. My committee allowed me to explore the myriad opportunities this topic presented with few restrictions. I appreciate that faith and the resulting independence. Finally, I would like to thank the 11 impressive and personable journalists who welcomed me to their cities and gave up hours of their time to talk about point of view. Without their kindness and knowledge, this thesis would not exist. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………….ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS……………………………………………………………...v ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...vi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...1 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE………………………………………….……3 An Abbreviated History of Magazines in the U.S. Objectivity as a Journalistic Standard Point of View as Explanatory Journalism Magazines as Community Builders Framing to Advance Points of View Previous Research III. METHODOLOGY………………………………………………….…………...23 High-End General-Interest Publications Newsweeklies City and Regional Magazines Niche Publications Men’s and Women’s Magazines IV. EXPLAINING POINT OF VIEW…………………………………..…………...34 Point of View is Personal Point of View Develops Communities Point of View and Credibility Point of View’s Broader Advantages Point of View’s Disadvantages The Point-of-View Continuum V. DOES HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?…………………..……………………….68 Abandoning the Objective-Subjective Continuum Differentiating Among Mediums Analyzing Historical Components VI. CONCLUSION………………………………………..…………………………80 Future Research APPENDIX A. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS……………………………………………….…88 John Byrne………………….…………………………………………………...…88 iii Lauren Collins……………………….………………………………………..……95 Garrett Graff…………………………………...………………………………….100 Vanessa Grigoriadis……………...…………………….………………………....106 Justin Heckert………………………………………………….……………….…117 Tom Junod……………………………………………………….……………….128 David Katz…………………………………………………………….………….138 Todd Purdum……………………………………………………………….….....145 Richard Stengel……………………………………………………………….…..159 Scott Stossel…………………………………………………………………....…165 David Von Drehle…………………………………………………………….…..175 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………188 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Point-of-View Continuum……………...……………………………………… 51 v POINT OF VIEW: EXAMINING THE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY STANDARD Cristina Daglas John Fennell, Thesis Supervisor ABSTRACT Point of view permeates every aspect of magazines. As a relatively modern concept, the journalistic device went previously unstudied in scholarly form. The research question, “How and why do U.S. consumer magazine writers and editors establish point of view in their publications?” was posed to 11 magazine professionals, including writers and editors, using in- depth interview techniques. What emerged was a definition of the concept: Point of view is a journalistic technique found primarily in magazines that incorporates framing, explanatory journalism, tone, voice and analysis. Apart from framing theory, the concept of pragmatic objectivity and the history of the medium were used to better understand point of view. Editors and writers were divided into five groups: high-end general-interest publications, newsweeklies, city and regional magazines, niche publications and men’s and women’s magazines. Two individuals were interviewed from each category, except for high-end general interest, which had three participants. Participants included the voice of the movement, Richard Stengel of Time magazine, as well as David Von Drehle of Time, John Byrne of BusinessWeek, Lauren Collins of The New Yorker, Garrett Graff of The Washingtonian, Vanessa Grigoriadis of Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and Vanity Fair, Justin Heckert of ESPN The Magazine, Tom Junod of Esquire, David Katz of Esquire, Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair and Scott Stossel of The Atlantic. vi Chapter I Introduction In August 2007, Journalism Studies devoted the entire issue to magazines to prove a point: Magazines are terribly underrepresented in mass media research, and one issue devoted to the medium could start filling the research gap. Tim Holmes’ guest editor’s introduction, “Mapping the Magazine,” explains the unfortunate scholarly neglect while also taking time to describe the eclectic field. Holmes (2007) writes: Magazines, then, are vectors of pleasure, they encourage the acquisition of knowledge, they may play an important role in the formation of identity, they are open to resistant readings, they easily encompass and incorporate flexible and varying conditions of consumption and production, and they form a readily accessible community focus. All this is rolled into a highly successful cultural form—yet it is a form which scholars have, with a few exceptions, tended to underestimate and overlook (p. 511). Scholars, however, have acknowledged the lack of attention in the past. Twelve years prior, David Abrahamson, who contributed to the 2007 Journalism Studies magazine issue, described research surrounding the field as fragmented and incomplete. He coined the phrase “brilliant fragments” to describe scholarly work at the time, which was well- researched but lacked ties to a larger framework. Abrahamson (1995) writes, “As a generalization about journalism scholarship, magazines as a research subject certainly have drawn less attention than either newspapers or television” (p. xviii). He continues and says that scholarship about U.S. magazines can be characterized as a chronicle that lacks broad historical interpretations. It also fails to define editorial and economic realities of the industry as well as the conflict between them (p. xix). “The principle 1 reason for this approach is that in most instances media scholars have generally chosen to study magazines as isolated journalistic artifacts, rather than as interesting products and catalysts of social, cultural, and economic change” (p. xix). What scholars are missing out on is the storied history that encompasses early partisanship leanings, eventual attempts at objectivity, the disappearing act of the general-interest publication, the rise of niche magazines and the changing styles of narrative writing. What also developed, however, is a concept that qualifies as media jargon and a magazine industry standard: point of view. Point of view is a storytelling technique employed by magazine writers and editors. It utilizes functions of framing in terms of selection and interpretation while challenging notions of objectivity. Just as scholarship regarding magazines is scant, so are specific studies on point of view. There is a substantial gap in the research, and to start filling it, this study sought an understanding of editors’ and writers’ motivations behind using point of view. The research question posed was, “How and why do U.S. consumer magazine writers and editors establish point of view in their publications?” By using the theoretical concepts of pragmatic objectivity and framing, the history of the medium, past framing studies, such as textual analyses, and, ultimately, in-depth interviews, an answer began to take shape. It’s a gradual process but one in which both practice and theory can coalesce for a greater understanding of the segmented medium scholars have chosen to ignore on the larger, more ideological scale. 2 Chapter II A Review of the Literature An Abbreviated History of Magazines in the U.S. In 1741, the first magazine was published in the United States. Whether Benjamin Franklin or Andrew Bradford gets credit for putting the first publication to press is debatable, but it is certain that they were entering into unchartered American territory with goals of influencing popular thought. Wood (1956) writes: “From the beginning the magazine’s intent was the widest possible dissemination of important information, a basic intent of today’s national magazines.

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