Innovation in the magazine industry

It is 2014 and the magazine industry is under pressure to think of new and innovative ways to continue appeal to the public as something worth purchasing. This is predominantly due to the fact that there is a large range of magazines available on the market, making it difficult for publishers to be able to gain a niche following. This is therefore putting more emphasis on the need for magazines to expand into various other media platforms, such as focusing more attention on publishing articles online. ‘Lads Mag’ ‘Nuts’ closed down in March 2014 which further highlights the issue that magazines are suffering due to the multimedia era which we live in today. The magazine industry is becoming less appealing to a consumer who is more interested in the similar content which is available online. This means that more needs to be done to hold reader interest.

Everything is available online, you can shop, find out information and chat to others; the possibilities are endless. People prefer to use the internet for the convenience and ease; you can access the whole world online from the comfort of your home. This means that the most obvious strategy of innovation, which the vast majority of magazines currently partake in, is developing a website to complement their publication. A prime example is to look at the way that the newspaper industry has adapted to this advance of technology, in particular ‘The Daily Mail’. This paper has managed to develop its online content and promote it in such a way that it is now recognised globally as well as in the UK.

The industry is trying to monetise online news and ‘The Mail Online’ is in tune with what their reader’s interests are. The main focus of the site is placed on articles about reality TV stars and celebrities on the whole. According to the website thedrum.com ‘The Mail Online’ set a new record on the 13^th March 2014 with 6.3 million readers coming to their site on that particular day. This figure is more than double the circulation figures for ‘The Daily Mail’ newspaper which only had an average circulation figure of 1,708,006 during March 2014 according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). The contrast of these two figures supports the idea that websites are the preferred choice of news source over purchasing a newspaper or magazine. Publications need to hold the opinion of ‘The Daily Mail,' that the running of their website is just as important as the publication of the hard copy of a magazine or newspaper.

‘The Sun’ newspaper has also understood that the future of newspapers is dependent on the rise and the success of their online presence. ‘The Sun’ is the most popular daily newspaper in the UK, with a 1.05% increase of circulation in April 2014, and holds a current figure of 2,091,484, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on 9/05/14.

The popularity of the paper led to the decision to start charging people £8.67 a month to view the paper’s online content. ‘The Sun’ state that you also receive added benefits of subscribing to their website such as being able to view Premier League Goal highlights online, as well as being entered into various online competitions.

Magazines have followed in suit with articles being published daily on their websites. For example, ‘Heat’ magazine owned by Bauer Media Group launched their website called ‘HeatWorld’ in 2007 and refer to their site as an online interpretation of the magazine, which does not replicate the magazine’s content, preferring to base itself more on video content and breaking news. ‘Heat’ also launched ‘Heat Radio’ in 2007, followed by their TV channel in 2012. ‘Heat TV’ is owned by ‘Box Television’ which is a joint venture between ‘Bauer Media Group’ and ‘Channel Four Television Corporation’. The channel mainly focuses on celebrity gossip and playing music. This indicates that ‘Heat’ magazine decided to cross-platform by producing content online, through Radio and on TV which has ensured that the magazine has continued to have a loyal following. This strategy of branching out onto other media platform has clearly worked for ‘Heat’ because it has become a recognisable profitable brand.

Another innovative move which magazines have undertaken is to release specific apps for their publication. These apps have been created so that consumers who wish to visit a magazine’s website have a quick and easy way to access the respective sites on the go from a Smartphone or Tablet. ‘The Daily Mail’ claims that the release of their app has helped draw as many people as possible to their site on a daily basis due to the fact that the app acts as a quick link to the ‘Mail Online’. As I previously mentioned, ‘Heat’ magazine invested in the launch of their interactive app called ‘Heat extra’ which they describe as a shortcut to all of Heat’s media platforms. The app also features exclusive augmented reality content for readers to interactive with. AR (augmented reality) is similar to the common QR code (quick response codes) which are icon style barcodes that are found in magazines which readers can scan via an app on their Smartphone or tablet to view a video, and also links to exclusive content from the magazine. The appeal of AR and QR codes to a reader is that you are promised fresh and exclusive content which is different to what is published in the original magazine.

There are many other apps which have been designed specifically to aid reading magazines online. ‘Flipboard’ was created back in 2010, and was originally only available on iPad Tablets but a recent update on the App means that it is now compatible with the following software companies: Windows, Blackberry and Android. It is an app which allows content from social media and other websites to be presented in a magazine format, and allows users to ‘flip’ through their personalised feeds consisting of blog, audio, video, magazine or newspaper content. ‘Flipboard’ is the perfect example of ways in which the magazine industry can be strengthened due to the fact that users can essentially design their own personalised magazine.

Social media has become a major part of a person’s daily routine, whether this is to stay in touch with others or as a news source. Magazines have also been forced into investing money into social media due to its rise in popularity amongst the public. Most magazines have both a ‘Facebook’ and a ‘Twitter’ account which are used to advertise their magazine and also enables the publications to post links to their online content.

Blogging and in particular ‘Vlogging’ has become a widespread interest amongst younger people as a way of sharing particular opinions on particular interests such as Beauty and Fashion. ‘Vlogging’ is the term given to people who produce videos which are uploaded to ‘YouTube’. These videos can be based on a range of topics from gaming to make-up tutorials. ‘YouTube’ is therefore used as a way of finding new talent and also as a source for finding out information about new goods or services etc.  These ‘Vloggers’ who usually upload weekly content to their ‘YouTube’ channels are becoming more recognised amongst their subscribers and therefore people are wanting to know more about them.

‘Company’ magazine owned by ‘Hearst Magazines UK’ was the first magazine in the UK to feature Beauty ‘Vlogger’ ‘Zoella’ as their cover girl in the April 2014 edition. This was a risky choice to make because although she currently has 4,637,752 subscribers across the world, there are still a significant amount of people who will not use ‘YouTube’ and therefore have no interest in her. However, this was the right decision for the magazine as the magazine has received extremely positive feedback for this move by ‘Zoella’ fans on ‘Twitter’. This shows that magazines are capable of exploring new ways to combine new trends with their magazines in order to attract a larger readership.

People are simply requiring more convenient ways of accessing material on the go, hence why online magazine subscriptions available on Tablets and Smartphones are on the rise, as opposed to regular hard copy subscriptions of the same magazine. It is now expected for all magazines to have an online edition available to download instantly online. It is vital for publishers to be in touch with what the readers want because at the end of the day, the readers will only purchase a magazine if it matches their expectations and what also what they require.

To conclude, I believe that it is apparent that through the rise of social media and the internet there are many different strategies which combine innovation and creativity to help further support the magazine industry and other similar media platforms. Despite this however, the future still is not clear for publications due to the rise of digital content being preferred amongst the public. Magazines can certainly continue to create new ways of keeping their readership interested in their publication through the use of innovation. Instead of seeing advances in technology as challenges, the magazine industry needs to embrace these developments and if they follow similar routes as ‘Heat’ and ‘The Mail Online’ I believe they will have a place in the future market.