Magazine Institutions

‘The magazine industry represents a hybrid structure. The top tier has an oligopolistic structure, with four firms controlling the majority of revenues in the industry. The remaining lower tier, however, resembles a monopolistic competitive market structure. Remember that in this type of structure, there are many sellers offering products that are similar but are not perfect substitutes for one another. Numerous publishing companies vie for a share at this end of the market. The large number of individual publishers suggests that there will be several titles geared toward specific interests, yet each is somewhat unique in its presentation. Overall, the prices paid for magazines indicate more of a monopolistic competitive structure. If the entire magazine industry operated as an oligopoly prices would be similar across the industry.’ Alan B. Albarran

From this quote you can gather that it explains the top of the structure therefore the higher more successful end of the industry is controlled by the four main firms which are Bauer, IPC Media, Hearst and Conde Nast. These firms make magazines such as Kerrang, Q, NME, Now, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue and Vanity Fair. Although these magazines that they make are still very popular there are other magazines made by individual firms that are becoming just at popular. This shows that with the growth of technology you don’t need to have a multimillion company to be able to make a magazine that the people will like. Therefore this starts to go against this quote with these four main firms not controlling the main revenue anymore and the individual companies starting to make a good name for themselves.

One of the magazines that I analyzed was Q magazine which is produced by the major firm Bauer this magazine goes against the idea that these mainstream magazines are old now and aren’t moving with times. As Q started out in as a magazine in 1986 but has moved with newer technologies to form a radio station in 2008 and a television channel. Although they moved with these new advances in technology they have yet to release an ipad app which is the new movement in magazine production. A magazine that has made a big change for the magazine industry in this way is K Composite as it is now exclusively a magazine for ipads but it is also free. This shows the direction that the magazine industry is heading in and whether this might be the end for print magazines. This new access to magazines on apps makes it a lot easier for people to get them and gives them a completely new experience as viewing them in this way is so much different. There is also the added bonus that K Composite is free meaning people can read the magazine they like without having to pay the price this shows it is possible to create a good magazine without needing to put a big price tag on it. The more apps that come out like this the more likely they are to change the way the magazine industry is because people aren’t going to pay for expensive print magazines when they can get just as good quality magazines on an app for free. This shows the way that major magazines need to move in order to keep the mass audience that they have aquired.

Another one of the magazines that I analyzed was Spin magazine which is published by Spin Media LLC this shows an independent company that isn’t part of the four main firms. Yet even though it isn’t part of one of these firms it is still widely popular. Spin magazine is a primary example that breaks the idea of these four firms controlling the magazine industry and it also paths the way for new digital technologies. With Spin magazine first going online in 2008 with a digital edition made through Texterity. It has now had a relaunch in February 2012 with the magazine going into a larger, bi-monthly format with reviews being seen on the website on Twitter rather than in the magazine which now does longer and extended editorials and interviews mainly on up and coming talent. This shows that Spin magazine has gone down a different route with the digital age as it has not yet made an ipad app but has instead decided to go with the craze of social networking therefore gaining a wider audience as it makes it easily accessible to the consumers as Twitter is something that the majority of users have on their smart phones. This makes it something you can read on the go and again because it has been made online it is also free which links again to this idea that the technology is so easily for even amatuers to use and without it being expensive there is no longer the need for magazines to cost a lot of money as they no longer represent skills that only the trained can do.

A magazine that I decided to look into was i-D magazine which is again an independent publisher which is Levelprint Ltd that started out as a fanzine with the text produced on a typewriter although now it is a mature glossy magazine although it does still keep this street style to each issue. This shows the idea that these individual magazines are becoming more in the limelight because they are much more interesting than the generic style magazine that everyone has read about a million times. i-D is a prime example of breaking away from generic magazines as it has the quirky idea behind it of its masthead being a winking face side on and then with most covers of i-D featuring the model winking. This really gives the magazine it’s original stance and is something that makes it so interesting. Another magazine that shows an original stance is Wonderland which was founded by Peter Jones on Dragon’s Den this shows the power again of technology as this magazine was found through a very popular TV show. This again is an independent magazine with an independent publisher that also introduces new technologies with a Wonderland Blog meaning people can access news through an easily accessible way.

From looking at all of these different magazines and there different publishers I think it is apparent that times have very much changed from when the quote at the top was stated as no longer to those four major firms control the magazine industry as in fact they are more responsible for magazines that are generic and don’t break any boundaries. The real change in the magazine industry is that these individual publishers are bringing out magazines that are far more interesting and exciting then anything out there meaning they are going to get a whole new audience that are bored of the current magazine industry. A big part of this is going to be the ever changing technology advances and the magazine industry is most likely going to change a lot of because of them. But these changes are something that can bring magazines more alive for readers and give a whole new experience that they have been waiting for.