- Paper Magazine is an independent New York City-based magazine that focuses on fashion, popular culture, music, art and film. It was founded in the 1980s. - The analyzed issue of Paper Magazine features drag queen RuPaul on the cover. The layout follows magazine conventions but includes some unique elements like white borders. - The cover uses a pastel rainbow color palette and photo of RuPaul that relates to the Pride issue's focus on the LGBTQ+ community.

1. Textual Analysis-
Paper Magazine
Olivia Turner

2. Paper Magazine
‘Paper’ Magazine is a New York City-based
independent magazine. It focus’ on fashion,
popular culture, music, art and film. It has
featured models like Kim Kardashian, Prince
and Marylin Manson. It was founded by Kim
Hastreiter and David Hershkovits in as a
black and white 16-page fold-out. The
magazine has now developed into a quarterly
print magazine.
Here is the ‘Paper’ Magazine cover I will be
analysing for my research. I chose to analyse
Paper because I personally like the aesthetic
of the magazine and want to incorporate
elements of this in my product.

3. Layout
The layout of this magazine follows most codes
and conventions of a fashion magazine – it has a
prominent masthead, which is the same through
each magazine, and anchors the house style and
creates a strong, iconic brand identity for Paper
Communications.
However, it includes ‘New York’ on the front cover,
and has white borders around the image which is
unusual for magazines – although it is iconic to
Paper, therefore creates brand identity.
It also features one celebrity in the centre of the
magazine, drag queen RuPaul, which is
endorsement of fans and very effective in terms of
engaging the audience, and broadening the
audience to fans of Rupaul, and also the the
LGBTQ+ community, as he is a strong advocate for
the transgender and gay community.

4. Typography
In terms of typography, Paper follows codes and
conventions of a magazine by keeping the same font
for their masthead in every issue. They also include
the same typography in the cover lines, which
match the masthead – another convention I have
found to be common in my research.
However, this issue goes against codes and
conventions regarding layout as it has only one
cover line “RuPaul - Pride”. This is unusual for a
magazine as there is only two words to engage the
reader, however this minimalistic approach is part
of Paper’s brand identity and has become quite
iconic to them.

5. Language
This issue adheres to codes and conventions by
having one model, central, and making eye
contact with the camera. The ‘over the
shoulder pose’ is quite feminine and sexy, which
links with the brand identity of RuPaul, as he is
a drag queen icon. This direct mode of address
is quite effective as it engages the audience on
a personal level, which is going to make them
more likely to purchase the product, especially
the fans of RuPaul and the LGBTQ+ community.
RuPaul also holds the same expression as he has
in the images of his TV series, ‘Drag Race’. This
‘mouth open, teeth-bearing’ look is quite iconic
to RuPaul. Fans of him will recognise this as it
will adhere to his brand identity and engage the
consumer on a stronger level.

6. Images In terms of images, Paper uses a pastel
rainbow colour palette. This connotes pride as
it is the colour of the LGBTQ+ flag, which is a
main topic in the issue. The pink background
also connotes a sense of girliness and
femininity, which again links with RuPaul
because he represents the feminine element of
masculinity in terms of being a drag queen.
This is also part of Paper’s brand identity, to
use bold colours, therefore this issue anchors
the house style of the magazine. Aesthetically,
the colours are also quite eye-catching and will
help engage the audience in terms of standing
out against the other magazines.
The afro that RuPaul is wearing also fits in with
him being a queer Black icon, as he has had to
deal with struggles from being Black and being
a gay Drag icon. An afro is a typical Black
hairstyle and would represent the Black fan
base he has.

7. Paper Online
This is a screenshot of the website of Paper Magazine.
I will be analysing the website as a whole and would like to include some
elements of this website in my digital one

8. Layout
The layout of this magazine
website adheres to most
codes and conventions of an
online magazine.
It features a main article
about Sensen Lii, using their
picture to endorse fans.
Above this, there is a menu bar witch subcategories that the audience can easily
navigate. The one labelled ‘Break The Internet’ relates to the 2018 issue featuring
Kim Kardashian, who the media claimed ‘broke the internet’ after posing with her
famous bare bottom on the cover of Paper. This gained Paper a lot of publicity, so
shows that they have created a brand in light of this, which will entice the massive
fan base of Kim Kardashian.
In terms of layout, website is quite simplistic and easy to digest – which is common
for a fashion magazine, and effective in the sense that audiences can be easily
engaged, and not overloaded with content, and can easily find their way around.

9. Navigation
In the top left there is a
menu bar for the
magazine, which when
clicked on gives more links
to other subcategories of
the magazine. This is really
effective in terms of
engagement because it allows the audience to select the category that
relates to them, but also allows them to discover other categories that
interest them. It is unusual for a fashion magazine to have subcategories
such as ‘Famous People’ and ‘Politics’. It even has an LGBTQ category.
This links to Paper’s brand identity of being highly politically motivated.
It even has a ‘Sports’ category, which is very rare for a fashion magazine
but again broadens the audience reach and gives the sense that there is
something for everyone on Paper.

10. Language
The main image is sportsperson Sensen Lii,
who is making eye contact with the camera
– which is a direct mode of address to
entice the audience.
On the menu bar there is a ‘subscribe’
category which allows readers to easily
interact with the site and subscribe-
creating brand loyalty.
There is also a link to the brand’s social
media platforms, which is common for a
fashion magazine to have, however it is at
the very bottom of the page, which is
unusual as this is normally easy to spot and
engage with.

11. Use of images/audio/text/video
Paper uses bold images to entice the
audience and anchor the house style
of their magazine. The images often
feature celebrities, which is a good
use of endorsement and also gives
paper a sense of superiority- they are
so successful they have contact to all
these big names.
The articles are very representative
to a wide range of audiences from lots
of cultures – for example, there is an
article about Black women’s hair, as
Black women are one of the most
underrepresented demographic in the
media, this representation will gain
brand loyalty from Black women. This
also applies to Troye Sivan, a gay icon,
and the LGBTQ+ society.

12. My Response
Researching this magazine, I have found elements I wish to include in my
product, and some I would wish to disregard.
I found the girly, colourful images for the front cover very effective and would
like to include this in my product.
I also like the minimalism of the cover lines, and representation of LGBTQ+ .
I like the artsy, more cultural side of the content, however I won’t include any
‘politics’ or ‘sports’ subcategories because I would like the focus of my magazine
to be more on fashion and art and celebrities rather than more controversial
topics as I feel this would strengthen the popularity of my brand.