By Kerryn Le Cordeur
With circulation figures continuing to decline, according to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC)
results, several magazine titles are making changes to their format and layout, ostensibly to attract greater readership, as well as much needed advertising to keep them afloat.
Dalene Davids of
Newsclip’s Express Department has noticed several trends coming through in magazines, as the majority of publications that pass through Newsclip for monitoring end up on her desk. She recently shared her thoughts with
Media Update.
Firstly, men’s magazines don’t often change their format, with a 2005 issue of
Popular Mechanics, for example, not differing significantly in terms of format from a current issue. The same is true for motoring and car magazines, the reason being that there are certain article types that prove popular, so the publications stick with them. On the other hand, consumer magazines aimed at women change format more frequently, based on new design trends; typography; reader feedback; or to match the style of a new editor.
On the topic of reader interaction, Davids notes that when
Destiny and
Destiny Man chose to go for a more complicated layout, this didn’t go down well with readers, and this feedback resulted in the titles reverting to cleaner, simpler styles.
And it seems that other magazines are also following the trend of going with a simplified style, with the latest issue of
Entrepreneur magazine modifying its layout from several columns and snippets appearing on one page, to a much simpler one making for greater readability.
Readability, of course, is an important aspect in sustaining the kind of readership and circulation figures that make a publication attractive to advertisers. But when it comes to advertising, publishers need to consider on the one hand, just how to make themselves attractive to advertisers, and on the other hand, what type of advertising best speaks to their target audience.
Lindsey Kin
wrote in last week’s
Totally MAd Editorial Desk about Standard Bank’s choice to use
Destiny and
Fairlady magazines to market its new banking concept – a first-of-its-kind credit card for women. She discussed that the brand personalities of these publications speak to professional women who are independent; educated; and outspoken. As such, the pairing of Standard Bank’s MyCard with them was ideal, likely to result in readers taking note of the ad because it is aligned with their identity. On top of this,
Destiny also offered Standard Bank the platform to create a ‘pop-up’ ad for this campaign within the publication, therefore making the publication that much more attractive to advertisers.
Another trend that Davids has noticed is that over the past two years, print ads have been placed together cleverly, for example pairing an ad for washing powder with an ad for a washing machine. Promotional/ advertorial sections within magazines are also becoming more complicated, with some presented to look just like editorial pages, and sometimes even listed on the contents page with the rest of the editorial content, so that the only way a reader knows it is an advertorial is because of the company’s logo placed somewhere in the spread.
Real magazine has done this with a Lux advertorial;
Rooi Rose’s September issue goes so far as to list ‘Promotions’ on its contents page, thereby distinguishing these from editorial and advertising content; and
VISI’s house-shaped 50
th edition featured a 10-page fold-out ‘promotion’ for Plascon Colour, which was not listed on the contents page. The question here is, when promotions become this lengthy and in-depth, even features of the magazine, should they be counted as advertising or editorial? Either way, certainly an attractive proposition for prospective advertisers.
However, while there are many new innovations cropping up in the print world, there are also those publications that have been around for as long as we can remember, such as
National Geographic, which never changes its format and yet remains successful. As kottke.org
says, “
National Geographic's front cover is a great example of how well simple branding can be tied to a product or message. In this case, the slightly warm yellow has become a symbol of wonderful photography; intriguing articles; and serves as a doorway into places worlds away.” On the other hand, there are those new publications entering the market, such as
COUP, now going the digital route – some say the way of the future in this industry – and constantly innovating.
At the ABC second quarter release, Gordon Patterson said he hopes that as the economy begins to improve, the industry, too, will see gains. With these new developments, it certainly appears that magazines in particular are doing all they can to ensure that happens.
What are your thoughts on trends in the magazine industry? Leave your comments on our blog.