Attitude Online and the online magazine industry
Attitude online specifically targets a middle class and aspirational audience
what is the point of Attitude magazine and how does it work?
- Attitude.co.uk is a simple and straightforward website and targets a simple and straightforward audience
- Attitude.co.ul presents stereotypical and straightforward representations of gay men in order to construct a stereotypical and straightforward audience
- the sole reason that attitude.co.uk exists is to advertise the magazine to the target audience, and to increase its profit through advertising revenue
Attitude is a digitally convergent media product, multimedia integrated media product which utilises hypermodality in order to exploit a range of push/pull factors, in order to maximise its revenue.
Key terms:
- digital convergence = the coming together of previously separate media industries thanks to the benefits of digital technology. An example of this is Netflix as it is the convergence of film, TV and the internet
- multimedia integration is where an organisation is structured around a variety of different types of convergent media - Attitude online is multimedia due to the fact it encourages interaction between the website and then buying the actual magazine
- hypermodality - where a media product 'goes beyond' the traditional forms of communication. When you click on a hyperlink on Attitude and move to a different article, section, or even different website, this is hypermodality
- push/pull factors - changes in digital technology have 'pushed' audiences away from traditional media platforms, such as print magazines and live television. However, smart media producers can use techniques such as hashtags, viral marketing and targeting advertising to 'pull' audiences back in. The huge banner advert at the top of the Attitude site to subscribe to the print magazine is an excellent example of a 'pull factor'
Attitudes press pack:
what is a press pack?
A press pack is "is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials that provide information about a person, company, organisation or cause and which is distributed to members of the media for promotional use"
- Attitude is known as the "premier destination for those who want to talk directly to gay men"
- they include a-list celebrities that "no other gay titles anywhere in the world can match" - some of these celebrities also write for the magazine
- attitude reaches a dynamic audience of "affluent, fashion-conscious, brand-loyal men" they specifically target rich, gay men - "take pride in their appearance"
- they say that their target audience is "a gay male professional, typically in his 20s or 30s" and they are "financially prosperous and with earnings considerably higher than the national average" - the people who read are likely to "purchase the latest gadgets and engage with the new technology"
- they say that their audience are "trendsetters" with a "high disposable income allows for multiple purchases within music, arts, entertainment, travel and socialising" - everything they show on their website
- PRINT MAGAZINE - published 13 times per year including two sale issue specials and a summer issue
- print circulation = 50,000
- audited digital circulation = 12,207
- ONLINE unique users = 1.8million
- 3.6million pages viewed
- 120,000 twitter followers
- 550,000 facebook likes
- 2 million youtube views
- 42,000 newsletter subscribers
- they say their website features "up-to-minute news stories and lifestyle features"
- they run daily competitions on attitude online for readers who can win a large variety of luxurious and stylish products lie anew Renault car or a grooming hamper from "Kiehl's"
- Attitude online rates (so if someone wanted to advertise something etc) = Leaderboard (across the top) £150PM
- speak to their audience on a daily basis via social media
- have a registered database that receives a regular monthly newsletter featuring news about the latest issue
- have a calendar that they follow where specific things will be released or the magazine will focus on something e.g. 17th December 2017 was world aids day
At the footer of Attitudes website, there is a link to Attitude's publisher - Stream Media
Stream media is a publisher of a specific kind of magazine and they target a niche audience.
David Hesmondalgh's theory = Cultural industries - producers try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration - large companies or conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries
Why did Stream acquire (buy) Attitude? Apply Hesmondhalgh and Curran & Seaton's theories
Stream acquired Attitude magazine due to the fact they are the "UK's best selling gay title", which shows that they make a large sum of money through their paper magazine. Therefore, stream bought attitude as they knew that they could profit from this which relates to Curran and Seaton's theory of Power and Media industries. Stream is a company which is driven by profit and power and because Attitude are a company that targets a niche audience with a disposable income. This suggests that Stream acquiring Attitude would generate more money for the company. However, large conglomerates like Stream who already own other companies, taking over smaller companies is reducing the lack of variety and creativity within the media industry as less and less companies are independent.
Stream acquiring Attitude is also an example of David Hesmondalgh's theory of cultural industries as Stream are trying to minimise risk and maximise audience through vertically integrating magazines like Attitude. They are doing so in order to reduce the competition and gain profit, as Attitude have a "global reach". Within the article they also mention how they have acquired other companies such as "CityJet", "Winq" and others. This reinforces the idea that Stream are purchasing a large amount of companies in several different industries to remain at the top, to have a large audience and make money from doing so.
Curran & Seaton argued that the media industries are solely motivated by the acquisition of profit and the procurement of power. To what extent does Attitude Online conform to this practice?
- Many companies believe that they are at risk of competition from other companies therefore they take part in vertical and horizontal integration in order to reduce the risk but also to gain a larger audience - Attitude magazine are a part of a conglomerate owned by Stream who have vertically integrated due to profit and power which backs up Curran and Seaton's ideology that this is what companies are motivated by.
- Hesmondalgh covers the idea of internationalisation which is by buying and partnering other companies abroad so corporations can see large amounts of extra copies - Attitude is already a global product with a large audience so Stream acquired Attitude in order to gain a worldwide profit.
- Hesmondalgh also talks about the idea of "a new age where distinctions between producers and audiences disappear and "users" become the new creators" which is very similar to Clay Shirky's idea of end of audience - Attitude don't tend to have a large amount of interaction with the fans via the online website which does object to this idea
what is the point of Attitude magazine and how does it work?
- Attitude.co.uk is a simple and straightforward website and targets a simple and straightforward audience
- Attitude.co.ul presents stereotypical and straightforward representations of gay men in order to construct a stereotypical and straightforward audience
- the sole reason that attitude.co.uk exists is to advertise the magazine to the target audience, and to increase its profit through advertising revenue
Attitude is a digitally convergent media product, multimedia integrated media product which utilises hypermodality in order to exploit a range of push/pull factors, in order to maximise its revenue.
Key terms:
- digital convergence = the coming together of previously separate media industries thanks to the benefits of digital technology. An example of this is Netflix as it is the convergence of film, TV and the internet
- multimedia integration is where an organisation is structured around a variety of different types of convergent media - Attitude online is multimedia due to the fact it encourages interaction between the website and then buying the actual magazine
- hypermodality - where a media product 'goes beyond' the traditional forms of communication. When you click on a hyperlink on Attitude and move to a different article, section, or even different website, this is hypermodality
- push/pull factors - changes in digital technology have 'pushed' audiences away from traditional media platforms, such as print magazines and live television. However, smart media producers can use techniques such as hashtags, viral marketing and targeting advertising to 'pull' audiences back in. The huge banner advert at the top of the Attitude site to subscribe to the print magazine is an excellent example of a 'pull factor'
Attitudes press pack:
what is a press pack?
A press pack is "is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials that provide information about a person, company, organisation or cause and which is distributed to members of the media for promotional use"
- Attitude is known as the "premier destination for those who want to talk directly to gay men"
- they include a-list celebrities that "no other gay titles anywhere in the world can match" - some of these celebrities also write for the magazine
- attitude reaches a dynamic audience of "affluent, fashion-conscious, brand-loyal men" they specifically target rich, gay men - "take pride in their appearance"
- they say that their target audience is "a gay male professional, typically in his 20s or 30s" and they are "financially prosperous and with earnings considerably higher than the national average" - the people who read are likely to "purchase the latest gadgets and engage with the new technology"
- they say that their audience are "trendsetters" with a "high disposable income allows for multiple purchases within music, arts, entertainment, travel and socialising" - everything they show on their website
- PRINT MAGAZINE - published 13 times per year including two sale issue specials and a summer issue
- print circulation = 50,000
- audited digital circulation = 12,207
- ONLINE unique users = 1.8million
- 3.6million pages viewed
- 120,000 twitter followers
- 550,000 facebook likes
- 2 million youtube views
- 42,000 newsletter subscribers
- they say their website features "up-to-minute news stories and lifestyle features"
- they run daily competitions on attitude online for readers who can win a large variety of luxurious and stylish products lie anew Renault car or a grooming hamper from "Kiehl's"
- Attitude online rates (so if someone wanted to advertise something etc) = Leaderboard (across the top) £150PM
- speak to their audience on a daily basis via social media
- have a registered database that receives a regular monthly newsletter featuring news about the latest issue
- have a calendar that they follow where specific things will be released or the magazine will focus on something e.g. 17th December 2017 was world aids day
At the footer of Attitudes website, there is a link to Attitude's publisher - Stream Media
Stream media is a publisher of a specific kind of magazine and they target a niche audience.
- What kind of magazines do Stream publish?
A lot of travel company magazines, for example for CITYJET (a Dublin-based airline and the largest operator outside of London) and the magazine is a 'journal' format that combines magazine and book
Another example is P&O cruises (widely respected and well-knonw British cruise brand which carried nearly 400,000 passengers a year) the magazine is 116 pages in a "premium compact format"
the magazines are very luxurious, all designed for an audience with a disposable income who enjoy spending their money on holidays and luxury places
Winq is a luxury lifestyle magazine for gay men
- What similarities do these magazines have to Attitude?
All the magazines are involved with very big companies like Hertz car
The quality and production value of all of the magazines is very high
They are all able to be read online, downloadable in both mobile and tablet formats so the customers can read with ease
Winq is an extremely similar magazine to Attitude as they both include articles on a luxurious lifestyle for gay men with a largely disposable income
- Does Stream target a niche or a diverse range of readers?
Niche audience because the magazines that Stream publish are predominantly based around luxury, travelling and spending money. Therefore targets an incredibly wealthy audience who would be able to afford things like this.
- What kind of website is this, and who is the target audience? BIG HINT! Think back to the IPC/Time Media website when we studied Woman...
The target audience is middle class, middle aged adults that have a disposable income.
- What does Stream own? Does this make it vertically or horizontally integrated?
Stream owns the magazines of companies in a range of different sectors, like travel and cars. This makes them vertically integrated.
- Attitude's website was only launched in 2016. Why did the magazine wait so long to create a website?
Attitude took so long to create a website because they already had a global reach with their paper magazine. But Stream allowed Attitude to have the support of a "larger publisher with greater resources" while continuing to "enjoy the freedom and independence"
Curran and Seaton's theory = Power and media industries = the media is being controlled by an increasingly small number of companies who are driven by profit and power. This is causing the media industry to lack of variety, creativity and quality
David Hesmondalgh's theory = Cultural industries - producers try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration - large companies or conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries
Why did Stream acquire (buy) Attitude? Apply Hesmondhalgh and Curran & Seaton's theories
Stream acquired Attitude magazine due to the fact they are the "UK's best selling gay title", which shows that they make a large sum of money through their paper magazine. Therefore, stream bought attitude as they knew that they could profit from this which relates to Curran and Seaton's theory of Power and Media industries. Stream is a company which is driven by profit and power and because Attitude are a company that targets a niche audience with a disposable income. This suggests that Stream acquiring Attitude would generate more money for the company. However, large conglomerates like Stream who already own other companies, taking over smaller companies is reducing the lack of variety and creativity within the media industry as less and less companies are independent.
Stream acquiring Attitude is also an example of David Hesmondalgh's theory of cultural industries as Stream are trying to minimise risk and maximise audience through vertically integrating magazines like Attitude. They are doing so in order to reduce the competition and gain profit, as Attitude have a "global reach". Within the article they also mention how they have acquired other companies such as "CityJet", "Winq" and others. This reinforces the idea that Stream are purchasing a large amount of companies in several different industries to remain at the top, to have a large audience and make money from doing so.
Curran & Seaton argued that the media industries are solely motivated by the acquisition of profit and the procurement of power. To what extent does Attitude Online conform to this practice?
- Many companies believe that they are at risk of competition from other companies therefore they take part in vertical and horizontal integration in order to reduce the risk but also to gain a larger audience - Attitude magazine are a part of a conglomerate owned by Stream who have vertically integrated due to profit and power which backs up Curran and Seaton's ideology that this is what companies are motivated by.
- Hesmondalgh covers the idea of internationalisation which is by buying and partnering other companies abroad so corporations can see large amounts of extra copies - Attitude is already a global product with a large audience so Stream acquired Attitude in order to gain a worldwide profit.
- Hesmondalgh also talks about the idea of "a new age where distinctions between producers and audiences disappear and "users" become the new creators" which is very similar to Clay Shirky's idea of end of audience - Attitude don't tend to have a large amount of interaction with the fans via the online website which does object to this idea
Comments
Post a Comment