Friday, November 18, 2011
Woman’s Weekly: 100 not out
To celebrate the centenary of Woman’s Weekly, Radio Wales invited me to contribute to a breakfast show slot discussing the magazine. Naturally I said yes even though I know next to nothing about the title. My first reaction was to rush out and buy a copy (good move – the 1911 launch issue is replicated inside) and my second was to email Diane Kenwood, the editor, to ask her what the secret is.
Diane was kind enough to refer me to the editor’s letter in that first issue. At considerable length the editor had set out a manifesto for the magazine, which was to be a practical publication for ordinary women, not the lady in the mansion. Down the years, the editors had stuck to that mission until the line reached Diane, who was clearly doing the same – Woman’s Weekly was one of two titles in the sector to increase its ABC figure in the most recent audit (the other being Hello, which is interesting).
But sticking to the last does not mean turning out the same style of shoes – clearly editors had adapted the magazine to reflect the changing needs of its readers. Open the centenary issue and the first thing you see is a QR code that takes you to a mini-documentary charting the development of the publication you have in your hands – these readers are not stuck in the past.
That was two useful reminders of the principles I posited in my last post:
1) a kiss-me-quick pitch (“A practical magazine for ordinary women”)
2) having a clear mission and fulfilling it.
An even more useful reminder came in the Swansea studio I shared with a lady who had been featured on the cover in 1941, when she was three years old. She looked like a “typical” white-haired granny; it was easy to imagine her staying at home and making jam. However, while we were talking off air I learned that she and her husband had, after retiring, gone to Albania to run an orphanage. They had been there all through the Balkan war and through the Kosovan uprising. Out of their pensions they were still supporting two of their former charges through university.
Listening to her story made my life seem about as purposeful as something from an obsolete Innovations catalogue but I took a third great magazine precept from it:
3) never underestimate your readers.
Diane was kind enough to refer me to the editor’s letter in that first issue. At considerable length the editor had set out a manifesto for the magazine, which was to be a practical publication for ordinary women, not the lady in the mansion. Down the years, the editors had stuck to that mission until the line reached Diane, who was clearly doing the same – Woman’s Weekly was one of two titles in the sector to increase its ABC figure in the most recent audit (the other being Hello, which is interesting).
But sticking to the last does not mean turning out the same style of shoes – clearly editors had adapted the magazine to reflect the changing needs of its readers. Open the centenary issue and the first thing you see is a QR code that takes you to a mini-documentary charting the development of the publication you have in your hands – these readers are not stuck in the past.
That was two useful reminders of the principles I posited in my last post:
1) a kiss-me-quick pitch (“A practical magazine for ordinary women”)
2) having a clear mission and fulfilling it.
An even more useful reminder came in the Swansea studio I shared with a lady who had been featured on the cover in 1941, when she was three years old. She looked like a “typical” white-haired granny; it was easy to imagine her staying at home and making jam. However, while we were talking off air I learned that she and her husband had, after retiring, gone to Albania to run an orphanage. They had been there all through the Balkan war and through the Kosovan uprising. Out of their pensions they were still supporting two of their former charges through university.
Listening to her story made my life seem about as purposeful as something from an obsolete Innovations catalogue but I took a third great magazine precept from it:
3) never underestimate your readers.
Labels: Cardiff School of Journalism, Diane Kenwood, magazine craft, magazine history, magazines, Woman's Weekly
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
How to have fun ... on the Magazine option
1) Think creatively
2) Set yourself a crazy time limit and push print to the limit (USA version)
Longshot (48hr Mag Project) - a pocket documentary from ricky montalvo on Vimeo.
After all that effort they got a cease-and-desist notice from CBS, who have a current affairs programme called 48 Hours.
You can read all about it in my forthcoming book!
3) Repeat the idea in the UK
http://www.flamingomagazine.com/a-48-hour-magazine
4) With this result
http://issuu.com/tcolondon/docs/make-shift
5) And this insight
Power of print
Finally, the power of the print magazine was really clear to see. Lots of people asked how they could see the magazine, and while they were relatively interested in the idea of an online magazine, it was the free print magazine that they got really excited about. Around half the people I spoke to said they’d be coming back to pick one up, even though they’d be able to see it online.
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| http://youtu.be/Fe9AAfGgJuU |
2) Set yourself a crazy time limit and push print to the limit (USA version)
Longshot (48hr Mag Project) - a pocket documentary from ricky montalvo on Vimeo.
After all that effort they got a cease-and-desist notice from CBS, who have a current affairs programme called 48 Hours.
You can read all about it in my forthcoming book!
3) Repeat the idea in the UK
http://www.flamingomagazine.com/a-48-hour-magazine
4) With this result
http://issuu.com/tcolondon/docs/make-shift
5) And this insight
Power of print
Finally, the power of the print magazine was really clear to see. Lots of people asked how they could see the magazine, and while they were relatively interested in the idea of an online magazine, it was the free print magazine that they got really excited about. Around half the people I spoke to said they’d be coming back to pick one up, even though they’d be able to see it online.
Labels: Cardiff Journalism School, magazine craft, magazines
Friday, April 15, 2011
Magazine front covers: adapt or die
The front cover is the most important page in the magazines – that's one of the lessons we drum home to students on the MA/PgDip in Magazine Journalism at Cardiff Journalism School. It's a lesson that is repeated by just about every one of the many industry speakers who visit Cardiff.
But a couple of pieces of recent research show that it's only true for print magazines on the news-stand.
Kevin Sablan's Almighty Link site carried a piece about newspaper front pages that holds lessons for any print publication going online – or probably for any online journalism, whatever the "home" platform. Seven well considered points about what a "front page" means to online readers: The front page isn’t what it used to be
I found the piece above via Adam Tinworth's blog, introduced with the comment: "I've seen this clearly in our metrics. Front pages of websites just don't really matter." Given Adam's position as Editorial Development Manager at Reed Business Information we know those metrics are extensive and reliable.
Then, as if to confirm the line of thought, Ellie Behling asked "Are publishers paying attention to what consumers want from iPad magazines and newspapers?" on her blog. Analysing a recent survey, Behling quoted Zinio's global executive vice president and chief marketing officer Jeanniey Mullen: "It's not about necessarily just shopping for the cover anymore; you might be looking for fish recipes."
This doesn't mean our insistence on the importance of a front cover is wrong; in fact while single copy sales are under pressure – or falling – the front cover of a print magazine becomes even more important. But it does underline two points:
1) what has been found to work in print may not transfer directly to a digital platform
2) if the front page can be a Tweet, a Facebook stream, search engine results, a text message, a Flipboard panel, RSS feeds or an Instapaper collation magazines need to be showing their faces on all of them.
But a couple of pieces of recent research show that it's only true for print magazines on the news-stand.
Kevin Sablan's Almighty Link site carried a piece about newspaper front pages that holds lessons for any print publication going online – or probably for any online journalism, whatever the "home" platform. Seven well considered points about what a "front page" means to online readers: The front page isn’t what it used to be
I found the piece above via Adam Tinworth's blog, introduced with the comment: "I've seen this clearly in our metrics. Front pages of websites just don't really matter." Given Adam's position as Editorial Development Manager at Reed Business Information we know those metrics are extensive and reliable.
Then, as if to confirm the line of thought, Ellie Behling asked "Are publishers paying attention to what consumers want from iPad magazines and newspapers?" on her blog. Analysing a recent survey, Behling quoted Zinio's global executive vice president and chief marketing officer Jeanniey Mullen: "It's not about necessarily just shopping for the cover anymore; you might be looking for fish recipes."
This doesn't mean our insistence on the importance of a front cover is wrong; in fact while single copy sales are under pressure – or falling – the front cover of a print magazine becomes even more important. But it does underline two points:
1) what has been found to work in print may not transfer directly to a digital platform
2) if the front page can be a Tweet, a Facebook stream, search engine results, a text message, a Flipboard panel, RSS feeds or an Instapaper collation magazines need to be showing their faces on all of them.
Labels: Adam Tinworth, digital magazines, Flipboard, iPad, magazine craft, Reed Business Information, RSS feeds, Twitter, Zinio
Thursday, April 14, 2011
iPad magazines need a mix of content
The nearly-always-reliable David Hepworth has come up with an interesting thought about reading journalism on the iPad, and that thought is: keep it simple.
On the one hand, we have new ventures like The Atavist presenting long form stories in innovative ways and on the other we have the need for what Hepworth, referring to a very plain story from The Economist's iPad edition, calls
As far as iPad content is concerned, it won't be EITHER one OR the other, of course. Print magazines run short kettle-boiling pieces mixed with longer sit-down and concentrate reads and there's no reason why that principle should change.
On the one hand, we have new ventures like The Atavist presenting long form stories in innovative ways and on the other we have the need for what Hepworth, referring to a very plain story from The Economist's iPad edition, calls
"Self-contained, looks long enough to read in kettle-boiling time ..."This immediately reminded me of one of the findings in Joke Hermes's study of the way readers actually use magazines, Reading Women's Magazines. A key point was that they were "easy to put down" -- that is, if a more urgent task came along, the magazine could be abandoned without worrying about finding one's place again or losing a line of deep thought.
As far as iPad content is concerned, it won't be EITHER one OR the other, of course. Print magazines run short kettle-boiling pieces mixed with longer sit-down and concentrate reads and there's no reason why that principle should change.
Labels: iPad, magazine, magazine craft, magazines, print magazines
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The ultimate capitulation of newspapers to the unquestionably superior magazine form
Trust Dave Eggers to do something different.
The Heartbreaking Genius has transformed his cultural magazine McSweeney's into a broadsheet format for a special San Francisco edition.
You can read all about it in the Nieman Labs blog
The Heartbreaking Genius has transformed his cultural magazine McSweeney's into a broadsheet format for a special San Francisco edition.
You can read all about it in the Nieman Labs blog
Dave Eggers: Image via Wikipedia
Labels: magazine craft, magazines, newspaper magazines
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
2/100 for MediaGuardian
This year’s MediaGuardian 100 has two – count ‘em – representatives from the world of magazines. Perhaps oddly, I do not want to complain about the numbers, even though two does seem a touch ungenerous in a list that is intended to be a snapshot of those who have most “cultural, economic and political influence in the UK”; no, not the number but the people chosen.
And let me state for the record that it is not a personal dislike. I have met, briefly, and heard and read about Nicolas Coleridge (md of Condé Nast UK, vp of Condé Nast International; in at 58, up from last year’s 67) and he always comes across as a charming, astute, hard working man who disguises a fist of steel in the softest, loveliest cashmere glove imaginable. His company produces the most wonderful magazines and the recent launches of Love and Wired UK were bold and deserving of success (disclosure: I love Wired UK so much I am a subscriber).
Jane Bruton (editor of Grazia, multiple award winner; in at 41 up from last year’s 56) I do not know personally but I know people who know her and have a former student who works for her. Like Coleridge she comes across as clever, hard working and demanding but appreciative. She took a fledging concept that had worked in other territories – the upmarket women’s weekly – and made it work in the UK. She has taken the magazine out on the road, making it happen literally in front of people’s eyes, and has given it a good online presence.
So, for the record, both of these people deserve their ledges in the pantheon of magazine publishing.
But … do they really have most “cultural, economic and political influence in the UK” when it comes to magazines?
If we are looking at like for like, I would argue that the person with most power and influence in the UK magazine market (not to mention Europe) at present is Herr Heinz Bauer, alongside his daughter Saskia. When Emap crashed and put itself for sale, Bauer was the only person who could write a cheque to complete the purchase on the spot. He already headed up a global magazine empire (with its roots in Germany, of course) and his UK company now leads the market, ahead of IPC (which, incidentally, has gone a bit quiet and flat, no?).
Where Condé Nast is so heavily reliant on advertising for its swish upmarket titles that, like it or not, have a definite metropolitan bias, the sheer range of titles makes it much more likely that Joe and Josephine Average of Everywhere are picking up and paying for one of Bauer’s magazines.
In short, Coleridge may preside over a small state of wonderfully crafted titles but Bauer is the emperor of the mass market, delivering guaranteed quality at an affordable price. A mirror image analogy would be the Spartans vs the Persian Empire, and we all know what happened at the end of 300.
Grazia, as noted above, carved a new niche in a well established sector but like Condé Nast’s titles, it is upscale and elitist, in intention if not in material fact (ie everyone could afford to buy it if they wanted). Within the weekly market it sits at 8 (circ: 227, 156) in a field of 27, behind titles that include Best (295,970), People's Friend (326,790), Now (433,509) and Heat (470,475). Dominating this sector is Take A Break (943,229) and I would argue strongly that Take A Break has infinitely more cultural, economic and political influence than Grazia. Not just because so many more women read it, but because it has taken a definite stance on involving its female readers in the political process, to the extent of mooting the formation of a political party. Coincidentally, it's published by another part of the Bauer empire – H Bauer Publishing.
In many ways the selections in the MediaGuardian 100 will reflect the metropolitan, upmarket situatedness of the judges (several of whom actually have a good magazine background). Nicholas Coleridge is a very “aspirational” and ubiquitous figure and Grazia seems likely to be the women’s magazine that most of the judges would come across most frequently.
Perhaps it is taking the whole top 100 thing too seriously, but the two magazine selections seem not just like token choices from an otherwise overlooked area of the media, but like the token choices that people who do not know much about magazines would make.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=0f79e3de-5216-4fb9-a3da-307af68ee900)
And let me state for the record that it is not a personal dislike. I have met, briefly, and heard and read about Nicolas Coleridge (md of Condé Nast UK, vp of Condé Nast International; in at 58, up from last year’s 67) and he always comes across as a charming, astute, hard working man who disguises a fist of steel in the softest, loveliest cashmere glove imaginable. His company produces the most wonderful magazines and the recent launches of Love and Wired UK were bold and deserving of success (disclosure: I love Wired UK so much I am a subscriber).
Jane Bruton (editor of Grazia, multiple award winner; in at 41 up from last year’s 56) I do not know personally but I know people who know her and have a former student who works for her. Like Coleridge she comes across as clever, hard working and demanding but appreciative. She took a fledging concept that had worked in other territories – the upmarket women’s weekly – and made it work in the UK. She has taken the magazine out on the road, making it happen literally in front of people’s eyes, and has given it a good online presence.
So, for the record, both of these people deserve their ledges in the pantheon of magazine publishing.
But … do they really have most “cultural, economic and political influence in the UK” when it comes to magazines?
If we are looking at like for like, I would argue that the person with most power and influence in the UK magazine market (not to mention Europe) at present is Herr Heinz Bauer, alongside his daughter Saskia. When Emap crashed and put itself for sale, Bauer was the only person who could write a cheque to complete the purchase on the spot. He already headed up a global magazine empire (with its roots in Germany, of course) and his UK company now leads the market, ahead of IPC (which, incidentally, has gone a bit quiet and flat, no?).
Where Condé Nast is so heavily reliant on advertising for its swish upmarket titles that, like it or not, have a definite metropolitan bias, the sheer range of titles makes it much more likely that Joe and Josephine Average of Everywhere are picking up and paying for one of Bauer’s magazines.
In short, Coleridge may preside over a small state of wonderfully crafted titles but Bauer is the emperor of the mass market, delivering guaranteed quality at an affordable price. A mirror image analogy would be the Spartans vs the Persian Empire, and we all know what happened at the end of 300.
Grazia, as noted above, carved a new niche in a well established sector but like Condé Nast’s titles, it is upscale and elitist, in intention if not in material fact (ie everyone could afford to buy it if they wanted). Within the weekly market it sits at 8 (circ: 227, 156) in a field of 27, behind titles that include Best (295,970), People's Friend (326,790), Now (433,509) and Heat (470,475). Dominating this sector is Take A Break (943,229) and I would argue strongly that Take A Break has infinitely more cultural, economic and political influence than Grazia. Not just because so many more women read it, but because it has taken a definite stance on involving its female readers in the political process, to the extent of mooting the formation of a political party. Coincidentally, it's published by another part of the Bauer empire – H Bauer Publishing.
In many ways the selections in the MediaGuardian 100 will reflect the metropolitan, upmarket situatedness of the judges (several of whom actually have a good magazine background). Nicholas Coleridge is a very “aspirational” and ubiquitous figure and Grazia seems likely to be the women’s magazine that most of the judges would come across most frequently.
Perhaps it is taking the whole top 100 thing too seriously, but the two magazine selections seem not just like token choices from an otherwise overlooked area of the media, but like the token choices that people who do not know much about magazines would make.
Labels: Conde Nast, Condé Nast Publications, Condé Nast UK, Grazia, magazine, magazine craft, weekly magazine
Friday, May 29, 2009
Magazine craft comes to the web
One of the things that distinguishes magazines as a media form from, say, newspapers is the practice and application of what has come to be know as "craft". There is a reason why so many magazines are so pleasing to pick up, look at, read and admire, and that reason likes in a combination of craft elements – the interplay of paper, space, type, illustrations and, of course, top notch content.
Web designers (very important to magazines right now) have also developed a range of craft skills to make their pages look great, and maintain usability, but there has long been a problem with specifying fonts: browsers display differently and individual computers may not be loaded with a particular typeface.
Now American company Small Batch Inc claims to have come up with a solution – basically, fonts in the cloud via an application called Typekit.
Reaction to this news has garnered 225 responses (so far) over a very short period, so it's rung some bells in the design community. Many of the comments are along "Wow, fantastic, can't wait" lines but there are also some nuanced and interesting points debated.
Web designers (very important to magazines right now) have also developed a range of craft skills to make their pages look great, and maintain usability, but there has long been a problem with specifying fonts: browsers display differently and individual computers may not be loaded with a particular typeface.
Now American company Small Batch Inc claims to have come up with a solution – basically, fonts in the cloud via an application called Typekit.
Reaction to this news has garnered 225 responses (so far) over a very short period, so it's rung some bells in the design community. Many of the comments are along "Wow, fantastic, can't wait" lines but there are also some nuanced and interesting points debated.
Labels: cloud, design, digital magazines, magazine craft, web 2.0
