This document provides an overview of a presentation on a case study magazine. It includes details about the magazine such as its name, publisher, year founded, and past changes. It also discusses the magazine's history, including how its style changed over time from a family magazine to focusing on women. Additional sections cover the magazine's main rival, publisher, ownership, audience, and how the magazine has evolved online. The document concludes with notes on theories related to the future of magazines, including synergies between companies and the impacts of web technologies.

1. Presentation Template
(name)Magazine Case Study (can be used
for both the chosen magazine and the sample – the NME)

2. Magazine
• This is the front cover of my case
study magazine
• It is published by
• Hearst Corporation
• It first started in 1886 as a family
magazine
• Then became a women’s magazine
in the late 1960’s

3. The Past
• This is how the magazine used
to look.
• It changed its style in the late
1970’s, as the magazine went
from being a family
magazine, to a women’s
magazine.
• It is unique because the
magazine does not display the
characteristics of a regular
magazine and its conventions.

4. History in General
• The magazine began in 1886 and is still going.
• Major changes in its history include the overall
cover and style of the magazine, as the
magazine went from being a family and home
magazine to focusing more towards women
and what they would want to see.

5. Biggest Rival
•
•
•
•
•
•
The main rival of our case study magazine is Marie Claire
It is Published by IPC media
Its circulation is (NRS)
Its readership profile is women between the ages of 25-49
The publisher part of a larger company
The other magazine titles published by the
company include, Look, Now, Chat, Nuts, NME

6. Publisher
• Other Titles Published by this company are

7. Ownership
• The Publishing company is independent.
• These are some of the other companies owned by the
same publisher, ESPN, A+E Networks, Elle, The News-Times.
• The company began March 4th 1887, when William
Randolph Hearst placed his name on the masthead of a
newspaper, the company is still running now.
• A documentary was made called ‘Citizen Hearst’ about the
company, and premiered at the Hamptons International
Film Festival.
• Walt Disney company is the biggest media conglomerate.
It’s revenue in 2010 was $38 billion.
• Time Warner are now the second largest media
conglomerate with $28-29 billion.
• Reputation is effected by scandal

8. Globalisation
• Globalisation – When a company expands to
operate internationally.
• Aggregation – Being in charge of the searches
through a search facility.
• The Google Takeover Model describes that
Google will eventually take over the world, as
it becomes more powerful day to day, with
more people desiring it a search engine, and
for the use of their emails etc.

9. Globalisation
• The ‘brand / logo’ of my magazine is
• The magazine has 64 international editions, is printed in 35
languages and is distributed in more than 100 countries
• Magazines usually make profit from advertisements,
subscriptions, and the general sale of the magazine from
newsstands
• The survival of the magazine depends greatly on the
attraction of the intended audience, if the magazine keeps
the intended audience interested, they are more likely to
stay faithful with purchasing the magazine. If it strays from
the original idea, audiences will be lost, losing sales.
• Consider the questions on slide 13 of lesson 3

10. Theory Notes Section
Week One Institutions and
Globalisation
• The Walt Disney Company, News
Corp, and Time Warner are all examples
of media conglomerate.
• Cross Media Ownership – When one
company owns media outlets from
different types of media. For example
News Corp own television companies
like Sky, newspapers like The Sun, and
websites like Myspace.
• ‘The Big Six’
• Pluralism – Most of the major media
outlets are owned by a small number of
companies rather than a large number.
• Media Mogul – A very important person
that owns a media company

11. Audience
• It is aimed at mainly woman from the ages of 18-35
• Their lifestyle involves being interested in fashion etc.
• Magazine Sales of Cosmpolitan in the first half of 2012 Cosmopolitan : 353,413 - % change y/y: -8.6 - Sold copies:
353,097

12. The
magazine
had a
circulation of
25,000
1887
In 1889 John
Brisben Walker
purchased
Cosmopolitan. He
employed top
writers including
Theodore Dreiser,
Rudyard Kipling,
Annie Besant,
Ambrose Bierce,
Jack London and
Edith Wharton
William Randolph Hearst
purchased Cosmopolitan
for $400,000 in 1905.
Hearst recruited the wellknown investigative
journalist, Charles
Edward Russell, to work
for the magazine.
In the early 1940s
Cosmopolitan began to call
itself "The Four-Book
Magazine". The first section
contained one novelette, six or
eight short stories, two
serials, six to eight articles, and
eight or nine special features.
The other three sections
contained a complete short
novel, a normal length novel
and a digest of current nonfiction books. Sales of
Cosmopolitan during the
Second World War reached
over 2,000,000 copies.
1889
1905
1940
1886
Cosmopolitan
magazine was
founded by
Schlicht &
Field, the
magazine revolved
mainly around
household
decoration, cookin
g and the caring of
children
March
1888
Schlicht & Field
went out of
business and a
new editor E.D.
Walker, who
had previously
worked for
Harpers
monthly
became the
new editor.
Helen Gurley
Brown became
chief editor in 1965
and remodelled
the magazine as
New Cosmopolitan.
The UK edition
of
Cosmopolitan,
began in 1972.
1965
1972
1897
1930
1950
1967
In 1897 Walker
announced that
Cosmopolitan
would sponsor a
free
correspondence
school
In the 1930s
Cosmopolitan offered
three serials and ten
short stories. Many of
America's novelists By the
1930s the magazine had
a circulation of 1,700,000
and an advertising
income of $5,000,000.
In the 1950s there was a
decrease in the demand
for fiction. Sales of the
magazine dropped
dramatically. The size of
the Cosmopolitan was
reduced and although
circulation was only just
over a million in
1955, the magazine was
still a profitable concern.
The magazine was
renamed again
Cosmopolitan in
1967, and it was
refocused as a
magazine for women.
The magazine
eventually adopted a
cover format
consisting of a usually
young female model
typically in a low cut
dress or bikini. The
magazine focused on
young women and
published articles that
openly talked about
sexual issues.

13. Content & Style
• The Cosmopolitan magazine has changed significantly throughout years.
As when the magazine was first produced, it revolved mainly around
women, cooking, furniture and how to take care of children. Whereas, the
more modern Cosmopolitan magazine revolves mainly around women and
women’s health with things such as fashion and sex facts.
• ‘Cosmopolitan is the life stylist for millions of fun fearless females who
want to be the best they can in every area of their lives’
• The magazine persuades the intended audience to purchase it by using
phrases such as ‘fun fearless female’ and ‘who want to be the best they
can be in every area of their lives’.
• The overall changing of the magazine throughout years has changed with
the way in which woman are seen. As, in the beginning issues, the
magazine revolved mainly around housewives, and included articles about
caring for children etc. Whereas when the editor Helen Gurley began to
style the magazine, she changed it so the magazine now revolved around
what women want.

14. Audience: History & Traditions
Find or cut / paste:
• Changes in the subject matter of the magazine
• Examples of language use and register
• Links to press releases from the publisher and
newspaper or blog articles about the magazine
including any major stories / controversies
surrounding it (use Media Guardian)
• Evidence of sales and web hits increasing or
decreasing and any reasons or ideas why

15. Evolution of the Web
• Insert pictures of how, if at all, the printed
magazine looks now along with samples of how
the website looks
• What is available in each form (printed / online)?
• Which types of content and service is offered and
which appears most popular?
• What form would some of the web content take
if it were printed? Is any of it impossible to do in
printed form?
• In what ways has the magazine become more
than ‘just a magazine’?

16. Evolution of magazines
• Here are some more facts about e-technology
and the evolution of magazines and the issues
related to it…..

17. Web 3.0 & the Future
• What the internet offers for the future of
magazines in general includes...
• If you were the editor of the magazine what
would you do to ensure survival and success
of the title?
• How do you see the title developing in the
next 5 years?

18. • Web 1.0 static webpages
you can’t edit them or
search for them.
Week Two –
Audience, Content, • Web 2.0 social networking
History & Tradition
sites such as Myspace &
Facebook, Youtube and
Google
• Web 3.0 personalisation
and accessibility, artificial
intelligence helps
personalise your searches
Theory Notes Section

19. Synergy in the Media
In media economics, synergy is the promotion and sale of a
product (and all its versions) throughout the various subsidiaries
of a media conglomerate e.g. films, soundtracks or video games.
Walt Disney pioneered synergistic marketing techniques in the
1930s by granting dozens of firms the right to use his Mickey
Mouse character in products and ads, and continued to market
Disney media through licensing arrangements. These products
can help advertise the film itself and thus help to increase the
film's sales. For example, the Spider-Man films had toys of web
shooters and figures of the characters made, as well as posters
and games. The NBC sitcom 30 Rock often shows the power of
synergy, while also poking fun at the use of the term in the
corporate world.

20. What is a brand and why is it important?
• A brand is a type of product manufactured by a company under a
particular name.
• In marketing terms, the definition of branding is the sum total of a
company’s value, including
products, services, people, advertising, positioning and culture.
• Branding is important, as it simplifies the ability of distinguishing a
certain product from a range of several other similar products.
• Brands give potential clients a firm idea of what they are buying
before they buy it, making the purchasing decision easier.
• Customers trust strong brands because they know what to expect.

21. Convergence
•
•
•
•
Convergence – Coming together
All of the media is coming together as one
Multi media involves being multi skilled
The Digital Threat – Trust and reliability with
magazines, unlike the internet, e.g. Twitter.
• Aggregation – All of the sources that you use, and
sorting through things so you have all of the best
sources.
• http://stevesmags.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/futur
e-of-print-industry-lecture-notes.html

22. Synergy and the Online Age
• The use of the internet and being able to find things immediately.
• The internet updates immediately where as you have to wait
weeks/months for the publish of a magazine. (Twitter)
• Competition from bloggers
• Audience interaction
• New technical standards
• Piracy and intellectual copyright
• Free creativity – the idea that you can use somebody else’s work
and make something new
• Piracy has a serious affect on the music industry. How the subject
matter of my magazines is affected by the online age includes….

23. Advertising/Sponsorship
• Examples of advertising, sponsorship and
promotions in case study title include……..
• Convergence has or could enhance this in the
following ways……….
• An example of synergy is………

24. Synergy
• What other companies do your owners own?
• What other companies is your magazine
associated with in some way?

25. Why magazines die
• In the past, the following magazines have disappeared
Nickelodeon "Nick" Magazine, Modern
Bride, Television Week and Official Playstation
Magazine.
• This is because the magazines may not be generating
enough profit due to competitor magazines or a
decrease in the fan base.
• The biggest threat to my magazines’ survival is
competitor magazine Marie Claire, as both of these
magazines display the same material.
• Ways it can survive might be to entice the fan base
more with certain articles.

26. Theory Notes Section
Week Three –
Technology &
Convergence

27. Online Magazines
• Proliferation – ‘growth’. The internet has seen all kinds of
new media emerge with new trends being born and dying
off in a short space of time.
• The original aim of the internet was to have free
information on everything.
• Due to nobody owning anything on the internet, piracy is a
lot stronger and more likely in existing. This is as nobody
can stop this from happening or control it happening.

28. How the Web Changes Print
• Facebook can be seen as revolutionary as it involves the
audience it has achieved, with the ability to create
events and partake in them.
• Journalists need to be good at generating content.
• Journalists work with television as they generate the
content, and then try to provide information for the
news channels to show. Enabling a stronger future.
• As long as people can recognise where the information
comes from the industry will go on.

29. Webzine Case Study
• Examples of webzines in • I have chosen to focus
the same genre as my
on...........
case study are.....
• (screen shot??)

30. Description of Webzine
• Content..specialist or
broad ranging
• Examples of
articles/features
• Target audience is....
• Look/style
• Ease of use/navigation
• What services /uses are
on offer?
• Who advertises on the
site?
• Any specific offers
sponsorship/promotion

31. Webzine Study Conclusions
•
•
•
•
The webzine is independent or part of..........
The owner is.........
Subscriptions cost
How does this compare to Case Study magazine
in terms of cost value for money?
• Could you see this taking off?
• Pros and Cons of Print vs. Webzine
(Vfm, services, spinoffs, style, articles, reports, ease of
use, accessibility, interactivity, aggregation)

32. Rivals and Webzines
• Compare any rival publications or rival
webzines with either of your magazines (use
the list in the last bullet point of the last slide)
• Which is likely to be the most successful?

33. Theory Notes Section
Week Four –
Synergy, Productio
n & Distribution

34. How Magazines Use Their
Audience
Print on Demand – The idea that you
have an internet enabled photocopier
in news agents, you can request the
magazine you want and it will be
printed out for you there and then.
Flash Crowds
Virals
Social Networking Events such as
festivals
Perfect Storm
• Long tail theory – Where all
of the main stream
products are worth as
much as the proliferation
of all of the free online
content put together.
• Symbiosis – Benefits two
things that come together.