Unit Overview - the essential info

OCR AS Media Exam G322: Key Media Concepts, Section B: Institutions and Audiences

Unit topic: A Media Industry
Our chosen industry: the Magazine Industry

Exam date:  ??? May 2015
Time: 2 hours
Essay 1: TV Drama (30 mins viewing + 45 mins writing) = 50 marks
Essay 2: Media Industry (45 mins) = 50 marks


Assessment Objectives:
AO1 – Explanation and analysis + terminology (30 marks)
AO2 – Use of examples (20 makes)


Case Study: Magazine Industry
Through specific case studies of successful magazines within the British magazine market, you should demonstrate understanding of institutional processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange/exhibition at a local, national or international level as well as British audiences’ reception and consumption. This should be accompanied by study of the use of online magazine editions and the issues that they raise for the production, marketing and consumption of a magazine brand. There should also be some emphasis on your own experiences of being audiences for magazines.

You should be prepared to understand and discuss:
1. The process of production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to the contemporary magazine industry;
2. The nature of audience consumption and the relationships between British audiences and institutions.

In addition, you should be familiar with:
3. The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
4. The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
5. The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
6. The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
7. The importance of technological convergence for institution and audiences;
8. The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
9. The ways in which the students’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.


Quality of Written Communication
The quality of written communication will be taken into account in the Media Studies exam so take care with your handwriting, spelling, punctuation and grammar. You should write in formal sentences and paragraphs and use appropriate terminology.

Vital Statistics

The Vital Statistics

There are more than 8000 titles published in Britain which can be categorised as follows:

1.    consumer (general and specialist) sold in newsagents and available online;

2.     business / trade / professional / B2B - for people at work;

3.     customer magazines that organisations to give to their customers as a form of marketing;

4.     staff magazines to inform staff about their company

5.     newspaper supplements - come free as part of daily or Sunday paper;

6.     part works - a set number of issues builds up into an 'encyclopaedia' on a specific topic;

7.     academic journals - for university-level discussion of all sorts of arcane topics.

Consumer magazines make up the bulk of the titles for sale in newsagents.
They may be general titles that aim to entertain and inform (such as Loaded, Elle, Radio Times)
or consumer specialist titles aimed at a specific interest or hobby (Car, Total Film, Gardeners’ World).

The biggest consumer magazine publishers (by 2008 sales revenue in newsagents):

Update: Immediate Media bought out BBC Magazines in October 2011

Today in the UK:

•          There are over 3,200 different consumer titles (in 1980 there were only 1,383)

•          1.4 billion magazines are sold each year (it was 2.1 billion in 1970 and 1.2 billion in 1992)

•          85% of the population reads a magazine

•          Advertisers spent £745 million in magazines (in 2008)

•          Consumers spend £2 billion on magazines annually

•          An average of 500 new magazines have been launched every year in the past decade

•          Only 3 in 10 titles survive for more than 4 years

Sources:           www.magforum.com,
                        www.ipcadvertising .com  

A brief history of magazines

  

Magazines are EPHEMERAL (transitory, throw away), they are of their time, reflecting or perhaps in part creating the society in which they exist. They have the power to both PERPETUATE (maintain and continue) as well as CHALLENGE  contemporary cultural and gender ideologies.

They will be successful if they pick up on the spirit of the times, or ZEITGEIST.

It is important to note that all media products emerge from a cultural context and from  IDEOLOGY around in society at the time.  Some may become part of the struggle to challenge the culturally dominant ideology, while others just reinforce the status quo. 

  

1950s:       Launched in 1953, Playboy mixed high commerce, sex and glamour explosively for the first time.

1960s:       First published in 1967, Rolling Stone was an emblem of the spirit of dissent and lack of deference that marked the 1970s.

 1970s:       The 1972 UK launch of Cosmopolitan offered women entry to a previously male world of power-play and sexual freedom.

  

1990s:       In 1994 Loaded ushered in the era of neo-traditional lads who drank, laughed and shagged. (related cultural products: Men Behaving Badly, Liam Gallagher, Gazza, Chris Evans)

2000s:       Today Heat, Hello, OK, Grazia etc. offer an 'in-depth' look at the shallow celebrity culture of the new century.

2001:         Glamour (2001) is way out in front as the leading women’s monthly glossy. (Related cultural product: Sex and the City.) “We launched at a time when it was OK to be glamorous again.” Elvin, Editor

  

2004:         Zoo (motto ‘Beer, breasts and Footy) (EMAP) and Nuts (supposed to be more up-market) (IPC) The world’s first ever Men’s Weekly Magazines

2005:         Psychologies (launched 2005) “What we’re like, not just what we look like” for women 30 – 55, glossy but not fashion-led.

2009:         Eat In Recession bites? Comfort food to make yourself.

Do you read magazines?                                                                        

1. How many magazines can you name?

2. In your class, what are the most well-known magazines?

3. How many do you read?

4. How many do you look at on-line?

5. What about others in your class?

Production – Distribution – Exhibition - Exchange

PRODUCTION

Content decisions are made, articles, images, layout and advertising is assemble, the EDITOR signs-off the finished magazine, ready for printing or uploading.

DISTRIBUTION

Once it has been produced it needs to attract its target audience through advertising, marketing and then distribution to point of sale outlets. 90% of consumer magazines in the UK are purchased from newsagents and supermarkets. Only 10% are sold via subscription. (Subscription is much more popular in Europe and the US.)

With 100s of magazines available and such limited self space at W.H.Smith how do you get your magazine onto the shelf?

You use an expert distribution company such as Marketforce (UK) Ltd (which is a division of IPC) – if they think your magazine will be successful commercially, that is.

These days all magazines also have an online presence. Some magazines are only distributed online.  One magazine is distributed by homeless people. Can you name it?

EXHIBITION

Once it’s on the shelf it’s all down to the promises and image on the cover and whether it has a USP to make it stand out from the rest of its competitors.

USP means:  Unique Selling Point                                   

EXCHANGE

This means buying the magazine, for which you pay the cover price.

Interesting article I recommend you read

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662326/how-the-magazine-industry-can-save-itself