AICE MEDIA STUDIES
AICE Candidate #2194
MAGAZINE RESEARCH
For my magazine, I acquired a lot of my inspiration from different sports magazines. I then studied them to find out what makes them so visually and textually appealing to their readers.
Starting my research
Magazine: Sports Illustrated
About
Sports Illustrated magazine is a sports news and analysis of teams and players in a wide range of athletics. The teams and players featured come from a long range of organizations. Including but not limited to the NFL, NBA, or even college football. Originating in 1954 and created by Henry Luce, Sports Illustrated still remains one of the leading sports editorials in the United States.
History
The very first feature of Sports Illustrated came out on August 16th, 1954. The cover featuring a baseball player. Sports Illustrated then became the very first weekly printed national magazine about sports news and events. In current day, Sports Illustrated is best known for their swimsuit editorials. The first swimsuit edition coming out in 1964. The editorial now has over 3 million subscribers.
Audience
The target audience for Sports Illustrated 's weekly magazines are men aged between 18-30s. And its very safe to say their target audience has been reached. Out of the editorial's 23 million weekly readers, over 18 million of them are men. And with the latter creation of the swimsuit editions of Sports Illustrated magazine, their audience grew even more. On the other hand, female athletes only appear on 4.9 percent of sports centric editions of Sports Illustrated. Which is furthermore proof of Sports Illustrated target audience being towards and for men.
Representation
Sports Illustrated speaks to western culture, with American football being one of the most popular pillars of Sports Illustrated. The images shown in almost every editorial appeal to a male audience. Whether that be through the sex appeal in their swimsuit editorials, or through sports topics that appeal to a mostly male audience
Distribution
Sports Illustrated is a weekly editorial that is distributed to over 3 million subscribers and sold in stores nation wide and globally. There is also an online website for the magazine, where online subscriptions are available.
Brand/Promotion
The brand itself is a sports magazine, but the creation of the swimsuit editions opened Sports Illustrated up to far more promotion and a new type of branding. To this day, Sports Illustrated 's reputation speaks for itself through its huge national popularity with sports fans everywhere.
Magazine: National Geographic
About
National Geographic magazine, founded in 1888, was created by scientists and researchers in order to educate the general public about the environment, animals, culture, and history. Over the years National Geographic has been implemented as a teaching resource in many schools, and used as a source of interesting educatory material for people simply wanting to learn more.
History
On September 22nd, 1888, National Geographic was created. And the magazine has held the interested attention of their readers for now over 130 years. The National Geographic society, focused on expeditions to then be published in their magazines, was first implemented when National Geographic Society went on their first research trip and expedition in 1890. Readers can read about that historical aspect of their magazine and company throughout their magazines or website.
Audience
The National Geographic magazine is distributed in over 60 countries, and showcased in places ranging from bookstores, and libraries to even schools. The magazine has 9.7 million readers, and the magazine is available online as well as distributed monthly.
Representation
The National Geographic magazine is overall very representative of race, sex, and different geographical regions on which they choose to focus their stories and editorials on. The magazine takes it upon themselves to have diverse main images which feature a variety of subjects, places, and people.
Brand/Promotion
National Geographic has many different sides to their brand. Whether it be their television station or their magazine. The magazine is advertised online and on their TV station. And many researchers, schools, and librarians promote the National Geographic magazine as well.
Magazine: Runner's Magazine
About
Runners World magazine is a internationally distributed for people who run or are interested in beginning their running journey. The magazine includes tips and tricks for nutrition, preventing injuries such as shin splints, and private interviews with runners to really share the insiders view of a runners mentality. Runners World magazine was first published in 1966 by Bob Anderson.
History
Runners World, the world's best selling running magazine, was first founded in 1966, and has continued to be a major hit around the globe. The Runners World editorials not only made history as one of the most popular runners magazines, but also played a key role in educating about runners and legitimizing running as a sport and activity itself. The magazine was originally being published solely by its creator, Bob Anderson.
Audience
The audience for Runners World differs greatly from Sports Illustrated, employing an euqal audience percentage of 50% men and 50% women. Additionally, Runners World targets runners from all different age groups and skill levels. Ranging from teenage athletes, experienced runners, marathon competitors, and complete beginners. The magazine also has over 4 million monthly online viewers, and 1 million subscribers for print copies.
Representation
Runners World magazine represents a wide variety of content for people in all stages of life and of their running journey. Although their covers often feature very athletic runners of similar age groups; the gender and race of the person pictured varies by each monthly editorial.
Distribution
The Runners World magazine is a monthl;y editorial. Their online social media readers average over 4 million people. And with digital viewers who subscribe to the online version of Runners World, there's roughly 4.3 million monthly users. For in-print copies, there are 1.5 million readers per month.
Brand/Promotion
As Runners World is one of the best selling running magazine in the world, their promotion is very concentrated online for example. On social media they have influencers who specialize in running promote their magazine. As well as having many material in-store magazines that you could purchase at your local bookstore.
Magazine: Iron Eagle
In Depth Analysis
For my in depth analysis, I took a close look at USA Today, specifically USA Today Sports Weekly, since it directly connects to the topic i want to focus on in my own magazine, sports, and wouuld be useful to study an established sports magazine with national popularity.
USA Today Sports Weekly
USA Today Sports Weekly is a sports news outlet for American sports. The magazine is a sub-company of USA Today.
History of USA Today Sports Weekly
On April 5, 1991, the magazine was first released by the Gannett Company under the name USA Today Baseball Weekly. It was distributed weekly for the first ten years it was in print. On September 4, 2002, the magazine adopted the moniker USA Today Sports Weekly. At around that point, it started to feature editorials and articles regarding the NFL. Since then, numerous sports have been featured in the journal. Included are news stories on football (NFL) throughout the fall and winter, as well as baseball news from Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball, and the NCAA from spring to early fall. The magazine also includes player and staff interviews as well as statistics for each league it covers.
Representation
The USA Today umbrella company has been generally representative through their articles, editorials, and own staff. A significant reason in USA Today's extensive popularity and fame over the years has been its diversity and inclusiveness. The success of Billboard has been largely attributed to its broad viewership, which makes it more appealing to a bigger population.
At USA Today, there are numerous racial diversity projects that have won awards. One of those projects being USA Today's annual Black History Month special edition.
Yet as much as USA Today talks about diversity and representation in their editorials, their employee diversity rates tell a completely different story. With white employees taking up over 60% of all their workforce, Black employees only representing 12% of their workforce, Hispanic/Latino employees clocking in at 18% of their workforce, and Asian employees only starting at 4.7%.
House Style
The house style for USA Sports Weekly is very minimalistic, with their masthead being in bold colors contrasted with their cover images that include images of various sports players in action. Whether that be in Baseball, Football, Basketball, or any of the other sports that USA Sports Weekly includes.
Target Audience
A wide spectrum of people of various ages find USA Today Sports Weekly to be interesting. despite the fact that their primary clientele are men in their 30s. They can reach a wide range of tastes and preferences because to their coverage of numerous sports, which appeals to people of all ages. However, middle-aged males make up the majority of the age ranges they often cover.
Distribution
There are numerous channels via which USA Today Sports Weekly might be made available to readers. You can notice on their website that they have a wide variety of subscription options with various levels of product access. These consist of information that is exclusively available to subscribers, such as charts, reports, briefings, events, and the digital version of the print magazine. The magazine is available to subscribers on store shelves and can be sent right to their door.
Branding
Despite changing its identity throughout time, USA Today Sports Weekly is still easily recognized for its sports news. Many different media, like online TV and internet commercials, are used to advertise Billboard. As one of the most well-known sites for regular sports news, USA Today Sports Weekly markets itself as the finest place to find such information.
Cross Media Convergence
Because USA Today Sports Weekly publishes its brands throughout all media channels, it develops a strong, well-known brand that can be consistent across all platforms. Additionally, USA Today Sports Weekly publishes a variety of media across websites like Facebook and Instagram, enabling the business to interact with its readers.
Analyzing a Magazine Spread
Headline
This magazine's headline is quite tasteful. Its vibrant, white, sans serif font starkly contrast the dark background. The font's sans serif design also conveys that this is a serious publication that many serious bikers would appreciate. The headline's centralized placement and elevation relative to other elements encourage your eye to focus more on the larger text that says "The Assist," which is unmistakably intended to be the attention-grabbing sub heading, along with the yellow lightning bolt centered between the text..
Colour Scheme
Main Image
The magazine's primary hues are black, green, and various shades of the white-black color spectrum. Along with the pops of yellow throughout the text and its connection to the yellow from the biker's sirt and bike itself in the image. Overall, I believe the colors work nicely together and highlight the images and bright text.
The main image's usage of negative space makes the coverlines stand out more. Having said that, the left side of the picture might draw in cyclists looking to better their skills. Additionally, since he is riding a bike amongst nature, the image is not just primarily focused on the bike but also depicts the surroundings he is in. This, along with the sub heading, alllow the reader know what topics we'll be concentrating on.
Font
This magazine cover uses a variety of fonts, each of which conveys a different idea. The font conveys to the viewer that the publication has a more serious tone. It isn't intended for readers who might merely pick up the magazine as a light read; rather, it is targeted exclusively at bikers. A polished yet serious appearance is further added by the contrast between the Sans Serif cover lines and the Serif type masthead.
Sub Heading
The magazine's sub heading reveal a lot about its intended audience. "electric assist" and "mountain bike" are displayed in the line. This demonstrates that this publication is obviously for experienced cyclists who pedal frequently and that the target demographic may be those looking to start mountain biking. The magazine's lines are also directed at both male and female readers, but particularly at those who have an interest in fitness.
Layout
In order to avoid obscuring the main image's focal point, the text is purposely positioned on the page's margins or on the right side of the spread where there is less focus in the image but more focus on the text. Which balances out the spread. What also balances out the spread is the lack of text on the left side of the spread in the negative space. space. The headline always remains in the magazine's upper portion.
Table of Contents Research
Table of Contents Analysis I
Layout
Stylistically, the layout is very simplistic and predictable. The way the images are lain out are very linear and symmetrical to the layout of the text beside it. The manner that this table of contents blends the article's content with that of the magazine particularly interests me, seeing as layout is also very logical to read and aesthetically simplistic to the eye. For my own magazine, I think I will try to equalize the page more. Looking at the layout, the left side having more images adds more weight to that side, where on the right side of the page there is more text and it doesn't look as heavy. For my own table of contents I will try to intermix both aspects of image and text.
Colour Scheme
The color scheme in the table of contents is very powerful. The highlights of yellow throughout the images and the text highlight the most important points of the article that they are trying to draw attention to, and also the more subtle attention grabbing colors seen in the images. For instance, the highlights of yellow in the healthy food, or in the nature behind the runner. The yellow in use with the black and white colors in this table also give the magazine a more modern and serious feel, while still incorporating som playfulness with the yellow specks throughout the page. However in my own magazine I will try to take a different approach and while still using black and white hues, I'd also like to incorporate more than one stagnant color.
Font
The font used throughout the whole table of contents is very serious. The font is sans serif, and that gives this magazine less of a classical, fashion-y feel, and more of a focused vibe. Which is cohesive with the magazine's content, which is fitness and wellbeing. The font used is never italicized as well, which makes sure to show that this is not an unimposing, calming magazine. The font is often bolded to showcase the most important and attention grabbing parts of the table, along with use of the yellow text.
Target Audience
The target audience for this magazine is similar to the one I will be targeting for my own magazine, which is consumers interested in fitness and education. Therefore for the creation of my magazine I will take some elements from this magazine table of contents, mainly their use of sans serif font, to be used as inspiration and reference for my own magazine.
Table of Contents Analysis II
Font
This table of contents makes use of both Sans Serif and Serif fonts. For instance, for all of the main parts of the text, e.g. Headlines, Sub headings, Mastheads. the Serif font is used. I believe that this is to bring a regal and classic style to the magazine, as it is a fashion and lifestyle magazine. The Sans Serif font is used to support the main text. The smaller, black, Sans Serif font is less intimidating and brings out the highlights of the red throughout the text even more.
Layout
The layout of this table of contents is slightly more complex than the table of contents I previously analyzed, but still shares many of the same elements. For instance, the usage of a very strong main image that partitions the page in half, the other half being filled by text and sub headers. Where this table differs from the other though is that it has an attention grabbing, red, circle with one of Marie Claire's spreads they want to promote and hold the focus on. I will use a similar tactic for my own magazine. I want to draw attention to one main article, and have other smaller articles as interest pieces. And by using attention grabbing colors in the layout of my table of contents, I will be able to achieve that in my own magazine.
Colour Scheme
The color scheme in this table is by far less cohesive between the main image and the text comparing it to the previous table of contents (see "Table of Contents Analysis I"). The main color that is being used to highlight the text is red, but surprisingly enough, the color red does not show up in the main image at all. In reality, it has many contrasting colors in the main image that are sure not to show up in the rest of the table of contents. The magazine still manages to have a rustic, vintage, and cohesive style though.
Target Audience
The target audience for this magazine drastically differs to the one I will be targeting for my own magazine. Marie Claire is very classic and similar to Vouge in its stylistic approach. Whereas I hope my magazine will be more comparable to other fitness magazines I have analyzed in my research. It is still good to study contrasting magazine though, as it is best to look at all different types of ideas in order to develop a more widened approach to laying out and designing my magazine.