Teen Vogue: Industry and social media

OSP: Teen Vogue - Industry and social media

The final aspect of our work on Teen Vogue involves an industry case study and textual analysis of the magazine's social media presence. 

Industry is the final key concept to address in this in-depth study. It's important to remember that the exam question could cover anything from how Teen Vogue makes money to what attracts audiences to their social media pages. This means we need comprehensive knowledge across the board.

Notes from the lesson

Industry: Conde Nast

Teen Vogue is owned and published by Condé Nast, an American media organisation that publishes around 20 magazines including Vogue, GQ and Wired. The company targets a wide range of different audiences – 164 million consumers across its brands.

In March 2018, Condé Nast announced the launch of Influencer Platform Next Gen, a digital campaign that links advertisers and content creation. The goal is to “connect to a new generation of audience”.

Income sources

Teen Vogue’s main source of income is through selling advertising space online – adverts that are targeted using browsing history. 

However, they also monetise their customer data and loyalty, encouraging readers to register online for updates, offers and access to the ‘Insider’ area of the website. This data can then be sold to other companies or used to attract ‘advertorial’ or sponsored content. 

Teen Vogue also makes money through YouTube with plenty of 1m+ views on their video content. This is an example of digital convergence – a traditionally print-based product moving into multimedia and accessible on one device.

Finally, they run events such as the Teen Vogue summit and US tour.


Teen Vogue: fashion industry player

Although Teen Vogue has been creating headlines for its political content in recent years, it is also an important part of the fashion industry. Both editorial content and advertising is designed to create a strong desire in their audience for products featured. This links to Condé Nast’s role as a major media company interested in maximising profit.

Some argue that Teen Vogue’s more diverse coverage offers a form of public service through its political coverage. But are features criticising capitalism hypocritical when the brand is owned by a media giant like Condé Nast?

Industry: Condé Nast

1) Research Teen Vogue publisher Condé Nast. What other magazines do they publish and how much money did they make last year?
They publish magazines like GQ, Allure, Vanity Fair and much more magazines that are published by Condé Nast.

2) What are Teen Vogue’s main sources of income?
Teen Vogue's main source of income is through various summits and adverting on their website of other similar business that link with Teen Vogue.

3) How are traditionally print-based products like Teen Vogue diversifying to create new income streams?
They are trying to focus and to challenge the stereotypical traditional ideas that are said to be targeting at female audiences. They also have a youtube channel which could mean that they get more income streaming in.

4) Why is sponsored content and ‘advertorial’ particularly important in media linked to the fashion industry?
This is because most of their incomes comes from there and also then the fashion business are able to get more profit as their business get advertised on websites such as Teen Vogue and they have similar target market. 

5) Do you view Teen Vogue’s content as a form of public service media or is Condé Nast simply interested in clicks and profit?
Teen Vogue makes it look like that they are not interested in the clicks and the profit but in fact apart from that Condé Nast have not much interest in Teen Vogue if they do not make any income.


Closure of print edition research

Read the following short articles to learn the background to Condé Nast's decision to close the print edition of Teen Vogue in 2016 and then answer the questions below:

BBC: Teen Vogue: How will going online-only affect readers?
New York Times: Condé Nast Ends Teen Vogue’s Print Run
Folio: Your Teen Vogue Hot Takes Are All Wrong

1) Why does the BBC suggest “Teen Vogue’s digital game is strong”?
The brand has increased its political coverage and social activism in recent years while still delivering its entertainment, fashion and beauty content.

2) What does the BBC suggest is responsible for the Teen Vogue website’s success?

Its headlines are light and relatable, with many written in the first person.

• "Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber Just Cuddled in Coordinating Outfits."
• "Cats Can Get Acne Too and Now I Feel Less Alone."
• "Dove Cameron Freaked Out Over Pink Dressing as Her for Halloween and Honestly Same."
• "Louis Tomlinson Savagely Trolled Niall Horan and I Can't Stop Laughing."

3) How did Teen Vogue justify the closure of the print magazine?
"As audiences continue to evolve around content consumption, we will modernise and calibrate how, where and when we produce and distribute our content to be in sync with the cultural moments and platforms most important to our audiences."

4) In the BBC article, David Hepworth suggests there is a risk to going digital-only. What is it?
He cautions: "There are very few cases of magazines going digital-only and managing to retain the lustre on their brand. Once you let paper go you're just another website. You're just more space junk floating around out there."

5) How do online-only publications make money?
Online advertising and customers information/data.

6) What does Sarah Penny suggest regarding audience consumption for print and digital – and how might it be changing for Generation-Z?
"They're really the first demographic to have grown up with a digital presence from birth so naturally have an incredibly strong affinity with online consumption - even more so than millennials."

7) What does the New York Times say Conde Nast is known for?
A company once known for its lavish spending and its visually rich glossy magazines, continues to move away from its former identity.

8) The New York Times states that Conde Nast expects to bring in less revenue in 2017 than 2016… by how much?
'$100 million less in revenue'

9) The Folio article also looks at the switch from print to digital. Pick out a statistic that justifies the digital-only approach.
TeenVogue.com has surged from around 2 million monthly visitors to nearly 9 million.

10) Finally, Folio also highlights some of the aspects we have studied elsewhere. Pick out two quotes from the article that link to our work on the Teen Vogue audience, representation or design.
“In one of my interviews, one of the questions was, how do you grow Teen Vogue from 2 million to 10 million a month? And [adding politics] was largely the answer,” Picardi

Duca’s latest column for Teen Vogue, skewering Fox News for “brainwashing” its viewers with “propaganda masquerading as a serious source of news,"

Social media analysis

Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Teen Vogue's social media presence:

1) Look at the Teen Vogue Twitter feed (you don’t need to sign up to Twitter to see it but may need to log-in at home). How many followers does Teen Vogue have?
Teen Vogue has 3.3million followers.

2) Now look at the content. Classify the first 20 tweets you can see using the sections on the Teen Vogue website: News & Politics, Fashion, Entertainment, Beauty, Lifestyle, Wellness and Homecoming. What does the Twitter feed focus on most? Does this differ to the website?
The Twitter feed mostly focuses on various things mostly on any new trends that may be going on. It does not differ much but on Twitter it is more informal and not like the website as much.

3) How are the tweets and headlines written? Can you find examples of clickbait?
They are written very bold and in first person.

4) How does the Twitter feed use videos and images?
They do this to attract their audience and encourage them to watch it.

5) Analyse the Teen Vogue Facebook page. How many ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ do they have?
They have about 5.7 million followers and they have about 5.7 million likes.

6) Click on the Videos link on the left-hand menu. What type of content do the videos feature? Does this differ to the website or Twitter feed?
The content is very similar to their website as they post similar content to attract their audience.

7) Now look at the Events tab to explore past events. What are these events and what do they tell us about how audiences interact with the Teen Vogue brand?
Teen Vogue have summits this allows their audience to come there and meet other similar people like them  that have similar interests and in there they can interect with their audience as well.

8) Go to the Teen Vogue Instagram page. How many followers do they have on Instagram?
They have 2.7million followers on their instagram page.

9) How does the Instagram feed differ from other social media channels?
They have more pictures and they are able to visually attract their audience through their Instagram.

10) What examples of digital convergence and synergy can you find on Teen Vogue social media including the Teen Vogue YouTube channel? (E.g. opportunities to engage with the brand across different platforms). 

They use their YouTube by having a lot of celebrities on there as this allows them to know more about their celebrity crushes which creates more awareness of the brand itself as well.