Industrial Context of the Fashion Magazine Industry and the Bauer Media Group

2. 1731: ’The
Gentleman’s
Magazine’ created by
Englishman Edward
Cave, Contained
essays, poems, stories
and political musings.
In 1842, the first
illustrated
magazine was
created ‘The
Illustrated
London News’
Harpers Bazaar
began in the US
in 1867
In the middle of the 19th
century, the magazine as a
text profited from
improvements in printing
methods, lower paper
costs, lower taxation.
Literacy levels had risen,
and so readership
increased.
Oscar Wilde edited
‘Women’s World’
in 1896. The
content was
educational and
featured fictional
pieces. Provided
escapism for
women
In 1891, ‘Forget
Me Not,’ a
fashion
periodical was
released, aimed
at working class
women
Fashion
magazines
began to feature
photography
In the 1920s, American
fashion magazines
expand content to
feature journalism
articles, about women’s
suffragettes and
socialites
In 1892, Vogue
was founded in
the US
Advances in technology,
printing, and paper making in
the 20th century resulted in an
explosion of magazine
production. Women’s
magazines reflected radical
social change; the teenager
was a new market to be
tapped.

3. In 1875, lithographer
Ludolph Bauer laid the
foundation for the
global media company
with a print shop for
business cards in
Hamburg, Germany.
Ludolph also
launches local
advertising
newspaper
‘Rothenburgsrorter
Zeitung.’
The publishing house
worked its way to the
top after the Second
World War, with listing
guides and youth
magazines
In the 1970s,
Bauer Media
Group launches
its first women’s
weekly magazine,
with Tina and
Bella
Ludolph’s great-grandson Heinz
Heinrich Bauer drove the
internationalism of the company. In
1981, the publisher launches
‘Women’s World’ as the first weekly
women’s magazine in the USA. The
British and Polish markets followed in
1987 and 1991
Bauer Media Group enters
the digital era in the 1990s.
Successful magazine
concepts are extended to
the Internet to establish
cross media platforms.
Bauer Media publish
more than 600 magazines
in 20countries, with
around 11,500 employees.
Leading players in the
Industry in UK, USA, New
Zealand, Australia

4. •
Owned by Condé Nast, who purchased
the magazine in 1909. Its print version
has a UK readership of 1,147,000
people, and its audience is 35% AB,
67% ABC1. It is mainly financed by
advertising, and has a large appeal to
advertisers as 90% of Vogue readers
pay attention to the advertising they
see in print. Online, vogue.co.uk has 2.9
million monthly unique users. The
profile of the UK online audience is
81% female, 80% ABC1 with an average
age of 33. 56% read on their mobile.
Elle is owned by the Lagerdère Group of
France. Its print version has an audience
of millennials, with 42% of its audience
being 18-34, while elle.com has a 54%
audience of millennials ages 18-34. The
print copy has 1,012,635 paid
subscriptions, 91% of its total circulation
1,113,166. Elle is also mainly financed by
advertising; advertisers having to pay
$185,740 for a full page, coloured
advert. Elle.com has 28 million users,
fans and followers.
Harper’s Bazaar is owned by the Hearst
Corporation in the US, and The National
Magazine Company in the UK. The
magazine describes their audience as
‘affluent, educated, professional
women.’ The median age of their
audience is 42, with 40.2% of their
audience aged 35-54. Also funded
through advertising; in 2018, it costs
$168,345 for a full page advert. Its
biggest market in America is in New
York, and the magazine has a total
circulation of 765,490