Magazine Research Project
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MAGAZINE RESEARCH PROJECT STUART WELLS - AS MEDIA MAGAZINE INDUSTRY IN THE UK • The Periodical Publishers Association represents about 400 companies, accounting for some 2,300 magazines which is 80 per cent of the UK magazine market. There are more than 8,000 titles published in Britain. • With the growth in digital media, the UK magazine industry is shrinking because people can now read the media on their hand-held devices meaning they don’t need a physical copy of a magazine. • Circulation is a count of how many copies of a particular publication are distributed. • The best selling magazine title in the UK is TV Choice which is a TV listing magazine. • A consumer title is anything that isn’t a business title. • B2B means business-to-business focusing on news, issues and developments relevant to marketing professionals. • Challenges to the UK magazine industry are that readers are increasingly looking for free content as they don’t want to pay, and the digital magazine industry is taking over. • A Mainstream audience is one that is known to a wide range of people • A Niche audience being one that is particularly small, unpopular and only known to a small range of people HOW MAGAZINES ARE PRODUCED • A team of production artists work on the pages of the magazine. • Once the pages have been approved, a PDF file is used for the printing process. • A final check is done to check all the pages are correct. • Plates are then produced and put into one the printing press. • On the other side of the printing press the magazine pages have been created. • The magazines are collated, trimmed, folded, stitched and then ready for packing. FUTURE - MAGAZINE PUBLISHING COMPANY • Future was founded by Chris Anderson in 1985, it was first set up with only one magazine which was Amstrad Action. • The company has a portfolio of over 80 brands in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photography, and knowledge. • They have operations in London, Bath, Bournemouth, Leamington Spa, New York, San Francisco and Sydney. • It is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index. MAINSTREAM MAGAZINE – TOTAL FILM • Total Film is published by Future. • Its circulation figure is 66,397 (January – June 2012) • Target Demographic is 75% Male with the average age of 26. • The Total Film website is part of the Website GamesRadar+. Total Film does have a digital edition. • Its website has 2.5 million users and 40 million page views a month. Its social media presence continuously grows, with an audience of over 450k followers across Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. • The magazine is only available in print and iPad editions. • Adverts from Mini, PS4, HMV and Gillette are in the magazine, this is because the target audience is men averagely aged at 26. The target audience like film and game related media which is why HMV and PS4 are advertised. Gillette is a male shaving company and men are more likely to buy Minis which is why those companies are advertised. • Total Film’s main competitors are Empire, Sight & Sound and Cineaste. NICHE MAGAZINE – COMIC ARTIST • Comic Artist is a magazine which branched off from ImagineFX, Imagine FX is a digital art magazine published by Future. • Since Comic Artist was branched off from ImagineFX, the magazine only had 3 issues so I will be finding the data for ImagineFX magazine because the demographics and circulation will be very similar. • The circulation figure for ImagineFX is 13,137. • The magazine has a digital edition with a circulation figure of 2,708. I can’t find the viewing figures for the website. • There were no brands advertised inside the Comic Artist Magazine. • Comic Artist’s main competitor is Comic Art which is edited by Todd Hignite. THE FUTURE OF MAGAZINES • I think that magazines could become non-existent with the growth with digital editions and free content on the website. Those who say the smartphone is now their MAIN device has risen from 15% to 27% since 2013. • People now look for more free content like on websites and they no longer feel they should have to pay for a magazine to get the same content. • The impact on the magazine industry because of free content means that many printed magazines are stopping productions and just becoming online magazines. Only the big mainstream magazines will remain in production. • Magazines will become retro and people reading them will be seen as a hipster. Magazine content will become predictable due to the amount of online content. Only the generation that grew up with magazines will still read them as the younger generation have been born into the digital world. • Circulation figures will drop by a lot for print magazines, this is visible as 10 years ago there were more magazines on shop shelves than there are now. Digital editions figures are slowly increasing aswell. • As magazines decline in interest, advertisers won’t feel the need to place adverts into magazines meaning magazine companies wont be able to fund the production of magazines and will go out of business. Advertisers will aim their adverts towards online editions and websites. .