Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Four Magazines and Their Online Counterparts

While contemplating how to approach the issue of print versus online media I thought, what better way to analyze the differences between the two then to compare a publication to its own online counterpart. For this purpose I have selected TIME, Entrepreneur, People, and Wired magazines to compare and contrast. I chose to use a variety of different types of publications in hopes of gaining the most accurate perspective possible.

TIME

An American weekly publication that caters to news junkies on the go, stories are detailed and concise, often focusing on politics and other stories of great national and international interest, advertising is abundant yet nonintrusive, and by the types of advertisers I assume the average TIME reader is of a higher socioeconomic status than the average American citizen. Some of these advertisers are Cartier, Garmin, BP, Bose, RosettaStone, and Ameriprise.

TIME.com

TIME magazine’s online counterpart is TIME.com, due to the nature of the beast the online edition is a daily instead of a weekly and also covers a broader scope of material in greater detail. I would attribute this difference to a lower cost of production. Much to my surprise, the layout of TIME.com is very inconsistent from one page to the next making it more challenging for readers to navigate and become comfortable with the site. I personally prefer the print version of this publication due to the mediocre layout of the online version.

People

A celebrity news magazine crammed full of middle of the road advertising such as Cover girl, TNT, JC Penney, L’OREAL, AVON, Clinique, and Tide to name a few. This publication seems to be equal parts advertising and content. It is obvious that the magazine’s target audience is primarily women, with a middle to lower end income, and make household purchasing decisions. Most of the magazine’s content is straightforward and speculative, keeping readers abreast of celebrity news. Though, a small percentage of its content is speculative and would fall into the category of gossip.

People.com

People magazine’s online counterpart People.com is very much in sync with the publication, the website is loud, noisy, and full of intrusive advertizing. When moving from page to page the layout is at times inconsistent, not lending itself to the reader. The content of the website seems to be more speculative then the publication, carrying more “gossip” and timely celebrity news. I will never type people.com into my browser again; the online version gave me a headache.

Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur magazine has a great shelf presence with a thicker paper and a glossy finish, I feel as if I am consuming a higher end product just by touching the physical magazine. The content is specific to its viewership, featuring individuals pursuing new and innovative business ventures, and the story length is a bit lengthier then the previous two examples. Advertizing is abundant, yet tasteful; most have heavier copy and focus on very important business decisions.

Entrepreneur.com

I must admit that I prefer the online counterpart of Entrepreneur, it’s clean, minimal advertising, a synch to navigate, and offers an extraordinary amount of information that its print publication does not. I would recommend this site to anyone whose looking for popular business related articles. I feel as if I’ve lost nothing and gained a lot by switching to the online version.

WIRED

WIRED is a fun, contemporary, technology publication that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Though WIRED has a healthy helping of advertising it is often humorous and lends value to the publication (which I find to be a rare occurrence). Content is “of the times” focusing on emerging technology and trends, often incorporating interesting perspectives and humor.

WIRED.com

WIRED.com is an even better version of its print self. Content is updated daily, consistently providing cutting edge stories that are both informative and entertaining (if you’re into learning). WIRED.com has perfected the use of whitespace in its layout by creating an easy to navigate website with minimal advertising and seamless flow. I feel as if I’ve lost nothing by ditching the print version for the online version.

-Shawn

follow up

After examining our topic more, I found out some interesting information about how print magazines accommodate their customers online. As most internet surfers know, you can visit espn.com to view the latest sports news. However, having a subscription to ESPN the magazine, you are able to view the print version of the magazine online. Where others who do not have a subscription to the magazine will not be able to view the print version online. You can find out more at espn.com.

Furthermore, while reading Men's Health I found which online features they offer. They do not offer an online version of their magazine, but they do offer several customer service features. Such as, payment for subscription, renewal of subscription, customer service, updating your email, change your address, report a missing or damaged issue, send them an email, or sign up for their online newsletter. For more information you can visit MensHealth.com.

-Evan

Monday, December 8, 2008

Magazines Building Bridges, Not Burning

To begin my thoughts on magazine’s across these two different medium, we must first touch on my personal use of magazines. I myself probably buy an average of three magazines per year, which leaves me no authority to examine magazines through my own experiences.


Wondering how I would be able to analyze a medium that I do not use, I felt as if I had to find out how a true magazine consumer feels. Thankfully my roommate is an avid sports fan and aspiring sports writer. He receives two different magazines in the subscription print form. My roommate uses both print and online magazines seamlessly to receive his daily fix of sports news.

So I began to grill him with questions about how he felt about his magazines and how he interacted with them. At first, I assumed I would receive answers that were obvious, but my roommate proved to have relatively strong feelings about his print versus online magazine usage. He receives Sports Illustrated about every week and ESPN the magazine once a month. When asked if he felt online magazines were going to take over print magazines, I was surprised with his avid position that print magazines would never go under.

You need a computer to view an online magazine, whereas all you need is a physical copy with print magazines. He cited loading time as a disadvantage to online magazines, as well as the difficulty to read for long periods of time from a computer. Another interesting piece of information that I did not previously know, is that some magazines offer free access to their online programs and magazines with a subscription to their print magazine.

I came into this discussion assuming to find that online magazines were overtaking the market for print magazines. Much to my surprise, I found that magazine companies are combining their services across different medium. Instead of vesting all of their resources on a single delivery form, companies are using technology integration. It appears that creating a user friendly environment with both print and online versions of magazines may be the best solution for both the creator and the consumer.

-Evan

Sunday, December 7, 2008

References

Straubhaar, J., & LaRose, R. (2007). Media now: Understanding media, culture, and technology (5th ed., 2008). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Delgado, A. (2000). Online vs print publishing [Electronic version].
Retrieved December 7, 2008, from Google database.
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall2000/Delgado/intropage.htm

Advantages that Online Magazines Have Over Print!

According to Media Now, innovation diffuses depends on several other factors besides their cost. What are the relative advantages of the new idea compared to existing ways of doing things? How compatible is it with existing ways of doing things? How complex is a new technology to operate? How easy is it to try out the new way before committing a lot of time or money to it? Can people observe others using the innovation successfully? Information that we acquire from the media and from observing others forms our expectations of how it will perform for us, persuading us to adopt it or not (Straubhaar, 2008).

Their is a large amount of U.S. adults and kids that view the web every day. Majority of these people spend time on the Internet to surf for their topic of interest. Online magazines have taken off because of major advantages such as:

Advantages:

  • Use free e-mail recirculation to advertise Web site
  • Small amounts of actual, serious competitors for the same market
  • Archive are available in a convenient manner
  • Web allows publishers to make databases, listings and indexes available to visitors. This cannot be done as fast or easily in print publications.
  • If publication has both an online and print version, than this can be very profitable for the magazine. Having both of these mediums working for a publication gets them more time with their readers, and less time for them to read other publications.
  • Can create unique information services and formats, which readers enjoy viewing, and want.
  • Interactivity

Advantages of Print:

  • Print publications tend to be more stable because their technology doesn't change at a fast pace.
  • Taken more seriously by sources
  • It's portable (More convenient for people that cannot afford a lap top) "digital divide"
  • Don't have to wait for an article to download
  • Don't have to wait for pictures to download
  • Print publications don't have software that crashes
  • Has a physical presence
  • Print is superior to online when the online publication is unable to reach their target audience due to them not being online.

Disadvantages of Print:

  • Magazines aim for one particular target, while online is able to reach all
  • Online publications can have up to 20 million visitors because it is free and reaches everyone. Print depends on subscriptions, therefore reaching far less customers.
  • Online magazines that are not linked to print publications tend to have 2-to-5 times more material than print magazines have on the same topic.

Online over Print:

Though it looks as if print dominates the online technology of magazines, the online source provides more for society, costs less, and it is easier to reach a much bigger target audience.

-Marc