How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

There are a number of concepts that need to be addressed to answer this question fully.

1. Who is you audience?
2. How did you fulfil your audiences needs and expectations?
3. What is meant by distribution?
4. Who owns and controls magazine distribution
5. How are real media texts distributed in the online age?

Audience

You must define and describe your audience in these ways.

1. Demographics and Psychographics – audience segmentation
2. You should also use your Yougov findings to explain what other media texts they consume as well as other information.

Uses & Gratification

1. You should link specific elements of your magazine (contents, bands, representation, language, design (fonts / graphics) to specific uses and gratifications that you think your audience have.

Distribution

1. Complete this work sheet in order to explore magazine ownership & distribution.
2. Read the three articles below (also in the work sheet) in groups in order to research the business of magazine distribution and the challenges created by the internet & social media.

Research Articles

• Article from journalism trade rag on decline in magazine sales.
• How print is surviving in the digital age.
• Facebook & Google – a digital duopoly?

Institutional (Distribution) Issues

• Quality (factual) journalism is expensive and so is traditional print and distribution.
• However, it’s hard to make money out of online content. Most of it goes to FB & Google, leaving everyone else scrabbling for the scraps.
• Exclusives remain ‘exclusive’ for about 10 seconds before it’s all over social media.
• How do you square this circle?

TASK:

A Dragon’s Den style sales pitch to a distributor for your magazine:

You must address the following questions:

• Describe your brand values / mission statement?
  • How will your magazine be distinct from or similar to others?
• Who are your target audience?
  • Use Yougov, image and profile + other details.
• Why would that audience buy your magazine?
  • Must link to Uses and Gratification.
• Who would you want to work with to distribute your magazine?
  • Which of the big magazine groups would you hope to work with?
  • How does your magazine fit with their existing publications?
• What sort of advertiser would you hope to attract?
  • Link to your two selected ads & explain.
• What strategies do you have for distribution? How will you link your print content with online content?
  • How can a print magazine survive in digital world?
  • Some answers & thoughts 
    • Increasingly sensational celebrity gossip stories – Churnalism (cheap and easy)
    • Freebies.
    • Reduce cover price (free) & rely on ad sales.
    • Link to enhanced digital content on website.
    • Employ social media to promote our brand.
      • Audience participation & interaction (Uses and Gratification)
    • Link digital content back to print, whet the audience’s appetite, require the audience to buy print version to get full details.
    • Use a paywall for online content.