Men's Health - Industries

Hearst publishing

Research Hearst publishing by looking at the Hearst UK website and the Wikipedia entry for parent company and conglomerate Hearst Communications.

1) Hearst UK is part of Hearst Communications. What is Hearst Communications and where is it based?
Heart is an American mass media and business information conglomerate based in New York City.

2) What media industries and brands make up the Hearst Communications conglomerate?
Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, television channels, and television stations, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, Cosmopolitan and Esquire. It owns 50% of the A&E Networks cable network group and 20% of the sports cable network group ESPN, both in partnership with The Walt Disney Company.

3) What was the global revenue for Hearst Communications (in dollars) for the most recent year on record?
Revenue grew 4 percent to $11.4 billion. Our 2018 results also were aided by the new federal tax law and by some excellent returns that we achieved on selling investments made by Hearst Ventures and by Fitch.

4) Focusing on Hearst UK, what other magazine brands are part of Hearst UK publishing? How many UK people do they reach in print and online?
Hearst UK has 25 U.S. titles and over 300 international editions. Hearst Magazines also publishes 19 magazines in the United Kingdom through its wholly owned subsidiary, Hearst Magazines UK. 14.9 million people are reached.

Read this Campaign interview with Hearst UK CEO James Wildman.

5) What is James Wildman's plan for Hearst UK?
His aim is to grow share in print to stem decline, accelerate growth in digital, diversify revenues through events and partnerships.

6) What percentage ad decline are consumer magazines facing?
Consumer magazines are facing ad declines of more than 10% this year, money is flowing to Google and Facebook, and online influencers are chipping away at print brands.

7) What Wildman think about premium content and paywalls?
Wildman admits "the headwinds are tough" for online advertising. "I think we should charge for our premium content".But he says no paywalls are planned yet.

8) How has Hearst used diversification to grow the business?
Hearst runs about 100 events a year and he plans to focus on fewer, bigger events such as Esquire Town House.

Read this Hearst UK press release for their late 2018 ABC figures.

9) Is Men's Health increasing or decreasing in circulation?
James Wildman, CEO of Hearst UK, says:“I’m delighted that our total revenue is in growth and whether through print, our digital acceleration, events, brand extensions, accreditation or content publishing, Hearst continues to go from strength to strength.”

10) What does the press release say about recent successes associated with Men's Health?
"These strong results, and the fact that several of our magazines are increasing their readership, highlight the extraordinary quality and continuing appeal of our print products. We are very proud to extend our market leadership position, and this best-in-class performance is testament to the creativity of our editorial teams and continued investment in our print products."
The impact of digital media on the print magazines industry

Read this BBC website feature on the print magazine industry and then this Guardian feature on the demise of NME magazine and print magazines in general.

1) Why are traditional print magazines struggling?
They are battling because of the ascent of advanced media, customary print magazines have been battling. 

2) What genre of magazines is currently bucking the trend and increasing sales? Why is this?
The hybrid genre that are winding up progressively well known are News and Current undertakings. Most likely in light of the fact that individuals are utilizing it to extend their insight.

3) In contrast, what magazine genres are struggling? Give examples of magazines that have declined or stopped printing altogether.
Excitement and tattle magazine classes are battling the most as they are as of now on a consistent decrease.

4) Look at the Guardian article in detail. What statistics are provided to demonstrate the decline in the print magazines industry between 2010 and 2017? What about the percentage decline from 2000?
'Top 100 actively purchased print titles in the UK – those that readers buy or subscribe to – fell by 42% from 23.8m to 13.9m between 2010 and 2017. Since the start of the internet era in 2000, the decline is 55% from 30.8m.'

5) What percentage of ad revenue is taken by Google and Facebook?
Google and Facebook take 65% off the ad revenue.

6) What strategies can magazine publishers use to remain in business in the digital age?
The technique they use is making various occasions that connect to their image name and yet offer something new making it exceptional to the group of spectators. 

7) Why does the Hearst UK CEO James Wildman suggest that the magazine industry is not dead?
President expresses that print productions that are focused towards a specialty group of spectators are well on the way to even now keep up an enormous readership number, as the interests reflected in these magazines wouldn't be found anyplace else. 

8) What examples from the Guardian article are provided to demonstrate how magazines are finding new revenue streams? What is the Men's Health branding used for?
There is this new thought of making a more extensive scope of items under the distributions brand name. 

9) What signs for optimism might there be for traditional magazine brands?
The enthusiasm of advanced media there isn't much seek after conventional magazine brands, anyway some customary magazines may at present hint at confidence as they offer excitement and news that you wouldn't almost certainly go anyplace else. Likewise a great deal of elderly individuals are less intrigued by digital media in this way conventional magazines would be vastly improved for them.

10) How does Men's Health fit into this picture? Why do you think Men's Health has remained successful in the digital age? Do you think Men's Health will continue to publish for many years to come? Why?
Men's Health is a very successful magazine. Men's health have such a big fan following that it will not die down if they continue to produce effective magazines that attract their audience.
The Men's Health website and social media

Visit the Men's Health website, Twitter feed and Instagram. You may need to complete this part of the case study at home if it is blocked in school.

1) What similarities do you notice between the website and the print edition of the magazine?
The one similarity that they all have is that they have big muscular men representing their magazine this would obviously clearly attracting their target audience.

2) What is the Men's Health daily newsletter and what does it include? How does this help Hearst UK to make money?
The men's health daily newspaper is a way for the readers to be more connected with the magazine. For this the audience have to sign up this would mean more profit for the institution.

3) Look at the menu bar along the top of the website. What are the menu options? What does this suggest about the representation of men and masculinity associated with Men's Health?
The menu bars include fitness, mental strength, style and nutrition. This suggest that men need to be muscular and fit to 'fit in society'.

4) Choose one of the menu sections and write a list of the features in that area of the website. What target audience are these features aimed at?
In the nutrition section you can clearly see all the healthy. the food looks very portioned out which suggests once again they are trying to attract men who are health conscious.

5) Do you think the Men's Health website is trying to sell the print version or simply build a digital audience? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a 'digital first' strategy?
I think men's health is trying to build a digital audience as there is no suggestion that is given to me that suggests that they are trying to sell the print version.An advantage to that could be is they are attracting a new target market.

6) How does the Men's Health Twitter feed use 'clickbait' to try and get users to click through to the magazine's website? Give examples of tweets that are designed to get the audience to click through.
To make it seem like the celebrities are a fan of their magazine as well.

7) How does the Twitter feed uses images and video content alongside text and links?
They use minimum text but tend to focus on the image or video a lot more.

8) What does the Men's Health Instagram suggest about the Men's Health brand? Is this appealing to a similar audience to the print version of the magazine?
The Men's Health Instagram recommends that the brand advances mental fortitude, quality, solid way of life and power. This is speaking to a comparable crowd to the print form of the magazine since it advances similar thoughts and belief systems, particularly featuring the possibility of wellbeing and manliness. 

9) Is the Men's Health social media designed to sell the print magazine or build a digital audience? Why?
The Men's Health web based life is mostly planned with the goal to manufacture an advanced group of spectators as this will expand their consumer demographics.

10) Evaluate the success of the Men's Health brand online. Does it successfully communicate with its target audience? Will the digital platforms eventually replace the print magazine completely?
I feel that the Men's Health image has an effective online stage, advancing indistinguishable qualities from they do in their print magazine. The advanced stage may in the end supplant the print magazine totally because of the way that as the computerized age is winding up increasingly perceived and mainstream, more individuals are looking into utilizing it as it basically make things simpler to access and snappier to get to.

There is a lot of work here but you'll have plenty of time to do it (particularly with exams on at present). 

Magazine front cover - Learner response

1) Add your finished magazine cover as a JPEG image.

 Mark: 5

Grade: E

2) Type up your feedback from your teacher. If you've received this by email, you can copy and paste it across - WWW and EBIs.

WWW: The photograph has potential – the background works and the subjects make eye contact with the audience to create direct address. I also think it’s worth acknowledging that this is the first practical print work we have done this year so it’s a steep learning curve when it comes to Photoshop and creating professional print productions. I also appreciate that you completed this work some time ago but simply hadn’t uploaded it to your blog (frustrating but not as bad as failing to do the work).

EBI: There are significant lessons to learn from this practical project. The first is simple: your work is not close to professional standards and your print work next year will be judged to those standards. The next challenge is to reflect on this production and develop the skills to analyse why it doesn’t look the same as the professional examples alongside it. Look closely at font (not similar enough to the real Vogue typeface) and page layout (cover line on right is not right-aligned). However, the most important aspect here is simply the lack of content and conventions – no date, no price, only two cover lines and even then the main cover line reads more like a celebrity magazine than something that would appear in Vogue. You will need to use YouTube tutorials and plan in much greater detail when you take on the print aspect of the coursework brief next year.

3) Consider your mark against the mark scheme above. What are the strengths of your production based on the the mark scheme? Think about magazine cover conventions and the media language techniques you have used to communicate with your audience (e.g. mise-en-scene, camera shot etc.)

I feel like i have used very creative cover lines which were not copied from an original magazine. I think I could have improved more in the combination of the colour schemes a lot more to make this front cover more professional and effective.

4) Look at the mark scheme again. What can you do to move your mark higher and, if required, move up a level?

I think I could have used more effective and good combination of elements to create a more clearer meaning throughout the products.

5) What would be one piece of advice you would give a student about to start the same magazine cover project you have just completed?

I feel like one thing I would tell them is to experiment and make it look professional should be one of their main goals this will help them in achieving the highest marks possible.

BFI Study Day: follow-up work

1) Type up your notes from the day.

2) Write a one-sentence summary of the ideas of the theorists Matthew Daintrey-Hall covered (you can use your notes from task 1 here if relevant):

bell hooks: 
Hooks' writing has been the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she describes as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination.

Liesbet van Zoonen: 
Van Zoonen believes the media portray images of stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views.

Judith Butler: 
Butler states that, historically, feminism (and the world at large) has viewed gender in a binary fashion. In other words, humans are typically divided into two distinct categories: men and women.

Saussure: 

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) was a Swiss professor of linguistics who changed the way language is understood. He was a peer of Freud, Durkheim, Darwin and Marx. He argued that meaning is created inside language in the relations of difference between its parts. Particular concepts of interest here include: Semiotics: The study of signs. Langue and Parole: The system of language and utterances. Signifier and Signified: The components of a sign. Synchrony and Diachrony: Meaning of signs. Syntagm and Paradigm: Relationships between signs.

Barthes:
Barthes believes that signs we assume and denotations are actually 'dominant connotations' that hide ideologies


Stuart Hall:
Hall says that the audience members adopt one of the following three positions when they decode the text:Dominant, or Preferred Reading,  Oppositional Reading and Negotiated Reading.

Lyotard:
Lyotard believes a totalising cultural narrative, that organises thought and experiences into a 'grand 'story' that makes sense of our lives.

Baudrillard:
Hyperreality – a condition in which ‘reality’ has been replaced by simulacra.” 
Simulacra- Imitation that seems more real than the things it's imitating.

3) Choose one of the films we saw extracts from and watch the whole movie: Captain Fantastic (2016), Pulp Fiction (1994) or Inception (2010). Write a 300 word analysis of your chosen film using theories from the study day (use the exam paragraph structure we were shown on the day - theory introduction, examples from text, why this 'proves' or 'disproves' the theory).

Captain Fantastic (2016)
Ben Cash , his significant other Leslie and their six youngsters live somewhere down in the wild of Washington state. Segregated from society, Ben and Leslie commit their reality to bringing up their children - teaching them to think basically, preparing them to be physically fit and athletic, managing them in the wild without innovation and exhibiting the excellence of existing together with nature. At the point when Leslie bites the dust all of a sudden, Ben must bring his protected posterity into the outside world.