Magazine Journalism - Lecture 1, 13/01/14

Aims for the semester;

• Learn how magazines work
• Learn how the features within the papers work
• Explore the differences and similarities of papers and magazines
• Trends now and in the future for the industry
• Contacts

Assessment Requirements;

• Interview with an editor (100 words). When organising this task, make sure to have three back ups in case one falls through, it is essential that you aim high, be ambitious and get that interview with an editor of a magazine that you are passionate about or would love to work for. 
• Confessional interview for WINOL the way it is magazine (1500 words). The aim of the interview is to portray a dramatic story where the interviewee will discuss their story in first person (I,I,I) written and edited in chronological order so there is a beginning, middle and end. The most successful confessional interview will grab the viewer within the first few seconds. 
• A news feature on the industry (1000 words). Research is key for this assessment, it is important to look at different mediums and choose one to write about whether it is a magazine or an online publication. The essential word for this assessment is innovation. 

We have been set some great projects/assessments for this module that will allow us to be creative and use the skills and knowledge we have learnt in the last three years to help us be successful in these tasks.   

The magazine module is led by feature writer Jacqui Thornton. Jacqui's experience in the magazine industry has been exciting, interesting and incredibly successful, previously working as the health writer for The Sun after changing from broadsheet to tabloid. Now working as a freelance journalist, Jacqui produces articles for Cosmopolitan, The Health Service Journal and The Observer as well as other papers and magazines. 

Jacqui explained how free lancing can be extremely rewarding and allows you to work from home which is comfortable and convenient however it does have its negatives. A job can arrive any time of the day or night so you constantly have to be on the ball, you are often left waiting months to hear back from an editor and most of the time your ideas will be dismissed. It is important to get a good brief so you know exactly what the editor wants.

Usually the 'lead time' (the amount of time and an article took to publish from the initiation to the end) is around three months for a double page spread feature. 

Always take into account how many people you will be interviewing for a feature especially when negotiating the pay. 

Contacts are your most prized possession when freelancing, to be successful its not what you know, its who you know. 

A brief history

Gentlemen's magazine, produced in 1731 was the first ever publication to name itself a 'magazine' in the UK.

The Dress and Vanity Fair, 1913 was the first women's magazine, much like the ones that dominate the shelves now. Last year the magazine celebrated its 100 year anniversary. 

Vogue UK first became recognised in 1916. Vogue already existed in America at the time however due to shipping reasons during the war it was impossible to get Vogue to the UK, so we just made our own.

Accredited to  Prezent Dla Niej

Marie Claire was established in 1988, a vibrant time for journalism. In 1986 The Independent was established. It was seen as a phenomenon due to its innovative photography and writing it made the paper stand out.

In the online era magazines have had to expand onto the online platform to engage with more readers and establish a bigger market. Marie Claire did so but their figures were not promising with only 1,764 subscribers online, in the first half of 2013, compared to their readership of 230, 973 in 2013.

Accredited to  Fred Bird

Final Facts;

• The newspaper industry is worth 2.2 billion in the UK.
• Tesco magazine overtook The Sun last year in terms of readership
• The biggest selling magazines are the TV ones like TV Choice.
• Moshi Monsters, a children's fantasy magazine beat Vogue in sales. 

The money making factors in the magazine industry;

• Subscriptions
• Paid for/Free (Shortlist, Style, Timeout)
• Lead times
• Advertising. In 2007 Vogue ran 2,020 pages of advertising with an average spend of £16,000 a page.  

The Future;

• iPad editions, this has already happened but is quickly becoming the new way of accessing a magazine.
• Make your own magazines
• Flipboard - a personalised digital app. You the user can choose what you want to read and then in a Flipboard layout see the things you want to read. Flipboard aims for 150 million users. 
• New launches e.g The Guardian technology
• Online; Radio Times triples website traffic.