Describe one online newspaper or magazine that you have visited online and would consider subscribing to someday. Briefly state what it has that appeals to you.
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NewspapersandMagazines.docxNewspapers and Magazines
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Newspaper design.
Newspapers and Magazines. With the competition of so many other media, print has a struggle to survive. This is especially the case in print outside of the Book industry. Today we look at what newspapers and magazines offer in the media mix and how they plan to survive in the future.
I. What does a newspaper offer in a multi-media system. Newspapers are now read mostly by people older than 35 years of age. Subscriptions by people younger than that have virtually disappeared for newspapers. Yet they still survive in print due to some clear advantages.
A. Speed and timeliness compared to other print media. Compared to books, which can take months or years to be written and published, newspapers are generally published on a daily basis, so you know the information is current.
i. This has always been an advantage. In the 1700's publishers would row out to incoming sailing ships to get foreign news from the ship and quickly publish it in the local paper.
ii. Special editions were published to cover major events of that day that people were interested in.
B. General Interest. Newspapers have a broader focus than books, covering so many different areas of interest that there is something for everyone in the publication.
i. Depending on your interests they have sports, business, entertainment, classifieds, international news, local news, etc. Note that USA Today has a brief blurb from every state to try to find something for a nationwide audience.
ii. Local Relevance. Probably the Key advantage that newspapers have over other media is their specific focus on local events. You can get local crime reports, festival data, road repairs, restaurant health scores and data other media don't cover.
a. Crime reported by neighborhood, and government action, is covered.
b. Each city has unique information only newspapers cover.
iii. Perpetual human interest. Newspapers highlight stories that appeal on basic levels such as sorry for tragedy, celebration of success and others we seem to find perpetually interesting.
iv. Sensationalism. With more competition newspapers move to more sensational articles to grab readers. This is emotional news, not so much informational. Note that this approach has been in constant use for at least the past 100 years.
C. Low literacy demands. Books often have high literacy demands, which require readers to have good vocabularies and advanced reading skills. Newspapers, by comparison, have a much lower literacy demand. They are usually written at an 11th grade level so all adult audiences can easily peruse any of the articles. You can test yourself here to see what reading level you are most comfortable with.
i. The Inverted News Pyramid is a writing style used in articles so that you get the essential information first, then more detailed information is provided later for readers who are interested in more.
ii. More graphics are being used in newspapers to appeal to readers with colorful, dramatic photos and graphics.
iii. Predictable, stable formatting so that you can easily find what type of information you want from a newspaper.
a. Cover pages are major events.
b. Inner pages progress from international news to national news to local news to sports. Then they progress to entertainment sections.
D. Cost Effective. Newspapers are much cheaper than books or magazines. If you want a lot of variety on current events, newspapers are a relatively cheap way to get it.
i. You pay only 25% of the total cost of publication for a newspaper. The rest is paid for by classified ads, sponsored articles and advertisements.
ii. The News Hole is the space left in a newspaper for news after all paid materials, such as advertisements, have been placed. Free news sheets can have up to 90% of their space from either advertisments or articles provided by businesses for a fee. Subscription newspapers usually have around 30% of their total space dedicated to advertisement.
II. Newspapers today have had to adapt to competition by focusing especially on ways to reduce costs and increase revenue.
A. Economies of Scale. Newspapers are rarely individual publishers any more. Most commonly they are parts of large chains that reduce costs in ways such as by using one news report in all of the papers in the chain.
i. 130 newspaper chains cover the majority of newspapers published in the U.S, with 8 being the most powerful. The largest chains controlled over 60% of all newspapers by 2002. This has increased since then.
Last year, the industry saw the most deals for the largest amount of money since the 2008 financial crisis, with 70 daily newspapers being sold for a combined $827 million, according to mergers-and-acquisitions adviser Dirks, Van Essen & Murray. Gannett Co. bought 15 dailies, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Tribune snapped up the San Diego Union-Tribune; and Warren Buffett's newspaper chain acquired the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
ii. Standardized newspaper construction and reporting means that most newspapers have the same news stories, same advertisements and same arrangement used throughout their chains. It limits a diversity of viewpoints and local news, but sharply reduces costs.
a. News services are extensively used. AP, UPI news services create standard news stories that publishers can simply copy into their own papers. Note how familiar these stories seem in their construction.
b. Rules of Objectivity . These rules were established in the early 1900's to help newspapers appear credibly following the excesses of Yellow Press journalism. These have been increasingly not as a guide, but as a simple formula to create stories.
1. Use two sources for a story. The sources should be equal. (False equivalence is pretending that both sides are equal. For example, the use of quotes from Johns Hopkins researchers that childhood vaccines is safe is given exactly the same weight as entertainer Jenny McCarthy who thinks vaccines cause autism.)
2. Don't make personal bias obvious in the story.
3. Report what happened, don't interpret the meaning.
B. Keep costs as low as possible. Newspapers have a continual emphasis on cutting costs in order to maintain profit margins. Profits were traditionally 20% or more. They have declined in the past 10 years but are still much higher than most manufacturing, which averages 2 to 3 %.
i. Lower personnel costs. New journalists make as low as $19000 a year, with average professional journalists making $38,000 per year. With the use of AP news, one Washington DC reporter for an entire chain, and other cost saving measures, journalists are making less.
ii. Infotainment. A merging of entertainment and news, which makes for non-controversial, easy-to-get news stories.
a. Celebrity news is a standard product available on a daily basis. It has little value but is popular with audiences.
b. Advertisement-news. An article on new Honda entertainment consoles is a news story that may also be an advertisement that Honda pays the newspaper to carry. It is difficult to tell a real story from a paid one.
c. Headlines designed to appeal to search engines. Write for sensational, and search engine, appeal.
Today's newspapers are still in business, and still profitable. However, their future is troubled, with some analysts predicting the extinction of print newspapers within the next 15 years. They have managed to survive, and compete, successfully by focusing on appealing design and low cost.
Newspapers and Magazines
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Magazine Design
MAGAZINES. Magazines started about the same time as newspapers: succeeding in their competition by using a partisan perspective which appealed to their specific audience and printing stories and articles from already-published sources. Since these times they have remained competitive by emphasizing more medium-depth articles, writing to the specific interests of their audience and packaging an attractive product with more expensive use of paper and pictures. Today we examine how magazines differ from other print media and how their history parallels newspapers
I. Magazines succeed, like any media, by offering MORE of something than other media provide. It has usually been articles that are more timeless, with more depth, and more human interest.
A. Long-form writing. Magazines are less constrained as compared to newspapers. They can have articles that are 10 pages long, while newspapers follow the news pyramid and don't like to have articles longer than one page.
1. Top authors write for magazines, rather than newspapers. The pay is higher and their ability to follow their styles and interests are better.
i. Charles Dickens had most of his books appear as a series of articles in magazines. Once completed they were made into books.
ii. Edgar Allen Poe wrote extensively for magazines.
iii. The current rate per word for authors can be as high as $5, but most authors are paid a set rate for an article, such as $750 for a 4,000 word article on coco bean harvesting.
2. Topical investigative journalism. With more time, and higher author pay, magazines have better investigation than newspapers or television news programs.
i. The Republican presidential debates were briefly covered on the nightly tv news and in short newspaper articles the next day. A magazine like Rolling Stone can spend more time with detailed analysis in a longer article.
ii. Ida Tarbell had an 18 part series on the History of Standard Oil written for McClure's Magazine. It was so detailed, and so complete in comparison to brief newspaper articles, that it alone was responsible for later congressional anti-trust action against the monopoly company.
3. Long articles that interest the audience have a perpetual appeal. Magazines work in print and online.
B. Higher attunement to audience interests. Newspapers seek to appeal to a very broad audience. Magazines, by comparison, can focus on the specific interests of a more defined group of subscribers and readers.
1. The magazine audience pays up to 50% of the total cost of a magazine. This is twice as much as with newspapers and so they can afford to provide more of what the audience wants.
i. Cigar Aficionado covers in detail how to buy cigars in Havana now that the embargo is lifted. No other media has covered this in such depth.
ii. The American Rifleman has a column The Armed Citizen, which covers stories on citizens using guns to protect themselves from harm. They can collect and focus on this specific appeal for their audience much more than newspapers would.
iii. VQR magazine has a truly excellent article on a plant closing in Sparta, Tennessee. I recommend this to see the level of detail, multiple viewpoints and human interest that is far beyond any newspaper article on outsourcing.
2. Most US adults read 10 issues a month of magazines. This includes subscriptions, magazines found in doctor's offices, and magazines given to them by friends and relatives.
i. Most adults can find at least one magazine that they would like to read on a regular basis.
ii. There are more than 12,000 magazines to choose from. Approximately 500 new magazines are started every year. There is something for everyone.
II. The history of magazines compares favorably to the history of newspapers.
A. The Early years found it easy to start magazines, simply focusing on a particular interest group with a series of articles and essays the published thought they would find interesting.
1. With less media options interest groups were much more interested in buying magazines.
2. Magazines could reprint articles from other sources. Unlike newspapers, magazine articles aren't time-dependent. A story by Dickens never gets old. This vastly expands resources available to magazines to choose from and also how long a reader can keep a magazine. This goes through to today when many doctor's offices have magazines that are up to a decade old, but still read.
3. They tried to 'raise audience' slightly above their current level. People would read magazines to become more knowledgeable on events for social conversation, as well as how to dress, get ahead in life or cook in modern ways. Examples of this are magazines such as National Geographic and Scientific American.
B. The Boom years: 1820-1860. Like our general principles noted, all media seek to have bigger audiences. Magazines accomplished this with lower costs, wider distribution, and a focus on articles of less narrow interest than before.
1. Magazines were cheaper, like newspapers, with cheaper paper and also with nationwide distribution.
i. Unlike a newspaper, magazines could be sent nationwide even if it took a month to get there. Since the articles didn't date too much, magazines were still valued even if late.
ii. CPM was higher for magazines. Because advertisers knew the target audience, and knew that the average magazine was seen by at least 5 people, they were willing to pay more to the magazine. CPM is cost per thousand, such as Sears paying $100 for every thousand subscribers to McClure's magazine.
2. More special-interest magazines were started. With a focus on broad audiences, rather than the specialized audiences of the elite stage, there was always an interest in finding new groups to target.
i. Women's magazines increased, especially later as cities grew and urban housewives sought magazines for information on cooking, sewing and other interests.
ii. Children's magazines started as families moved to middle class status.
iii. Men's magazines arose to fulfill an interest in action, violence and sex.
C. The Mature years, 1860-1950, gave magazines their biggest audiences on a national scale. With the competition of other magazines and media they, like newspapers, became more sensational.
1. Sensational magazines especially were used for 'impulse buys' to get audience.
2. Magazines were made for 'busy' audiences who appreciated condensed articles, fast coverage of world events and pictures.
D. Magazines today. Starting in the 1950's magazines declined in popularity once audiences moved to television. This has resulted in basic changes in how magazines operate.
1. Purchasing costs were raised. In 1965 you could buy a copy of Life, Time or Sports Illustrated for 35 cents. That is the equivalent of $2.63 today. The actual cover price is over $4.
2. Advertising revenue has continued moving to other media, which leaves magazines needing to charge more to the reader.
3. New magazines are even more specialized than in the past. There is a continual search for audiences that cannot find what they want on the internet or television.
i. Pursuits of the wealthy are popular.
ii. Magazines for young audiences, especially sports and style.
Print Future.
The Future of Print. Both newspapers and magazines have been severely challenged by television and the internet. Many audiences simply find these options to be better in meeting their interests. Today we will see how these print businesses plan to remain viable into the future.
I. Newspapers are moving to an internet presence.
A. Circulation of all newspapers is in decline. With few subscribers under 35 for print papers their is little chance of improvement.
B. Advertisers are slowly moving from print to the internet. Note how Google has a steadily taken from print revenue.
C. Most newspapers have at least an internet presence, with some going entirely digital and stopping paper editions.
i. The Seattle Post Intelligencer, The Christian Science Monitor and others have ceased print editions and are only on the web.
ii. The web adaptations have much more graphic orientation, looking like other web sites.
iii. These web papers are also more interactive, with users able to customize the page and post comments on articles.
iv. They have been moving to Paywalls, with viewers needing to subscribe in order to get access.
D. New internet newspapers compete by conglomerating multiple papers or news sites into one easily-navigated site.
i. Worldcrunch aggregates multiple foreign papers into one site.
ii. Popurls is an aggregator of dozens of newspaper, magazine and other sites for highly active audiences. This lessens any distinction between news, entertainment and video.
II. Magazines are staying in print, and moving to internet magazines at the same time.
A. Magazines blend the two media to increase revenue. Subscribers continue to buy the print editions, but are expected to pay more for the convenience of a digital edition of the same magazine.
B. There is most focus on high-value audiences
i. The top magazines in the U.S. are aimed at older, suburban audiences.
ii. Younger male audiences are highly valued for sports, travel, fashion and more with web magazines. Female audiences as well with a well-focused product.
III. Subscriptions are still key to newspaper and magazine survival.
A. There is a continual push for new subscribers.
i. Print magazines have blow-in cards, mail offers.
ii. Newspapers offer "tease" samples, such as the New York Times site allowing 8 free articles per month to get your interest, then charging for further access.
CONCLUSION: Both newspapers and magazines have managed to remain profitable in the face of substantial competition: first from television and then from the internet. The print editions are having an increasingly tough time surviving, needing to raise prices as advertising leaves. The development of websites is their focus for the future and will require loyal audiences willing to pay monthly fees for access.
