Introduction
Magazines constitute one of the strong pillars in the print media sector. They basically share the same characteristics with newspapers, both belonging in the print media category. However, they dwell more on in-depth presentation of the news-behind-the-news. Brevity is one of the paramount characteristics of magazines. This is because events given straight news coverage by newspapers over a period of time are investigated and compressed into magazine stories in featurized format with detailed and comprehensive facts. The magazine, just like the newspaper, also requires a level of literacy for its message to be decoded. It has been described as a prestige product apparently because of the economic and literacy status of a greater percentage of the audience.
Innovations in information technology have improved the quality of magazines published today. The entire pages of a magazine, including the cover, are printed in glossy paper with digital printing technology. This has made magazines the most colourful of the print media in the news stands. Magazine publishing has been made easier, faster, and with improved aesthetic value. Despite the stiff competition posed by the electronic media which are commanding large audience size, magazines still stand as mass media of strong reckoning in mass communication.
Brief History of Magazines
The 18th and 19th century England saw the development of real magazines from The Review, a weekly that was first published in 1704 by Daniel Defoe, through several colonial magazines that simply reprinted information from newspapers around the colonies, to the Saturday Evening Post, first published on August 4, 1821, a truly national magazine that ushered in the development and dominance of the magazine as a mass medium of high reckoning across the globe. Magazines, in the course of their development, gave birth to the profession of photojournalism by creating the first serious platform for journalists to report in pictures. During this period, Mathew Brady who could be described as the father of photojournalism became popular for his pictures of the American civil war, having supervised some photographers who risked their lives covering the war. The magazine industry today has moved into a level of sophistication that has not only increased the number of publications in various countries but also improved the quality of contents. Such international magazines as Time, Ebony, News-week, The Economists, among others, are household titles in homes and offices across the globe.
Definition of Magazine
A magazine is a bound, regularly issued, publication which contains variety of information, news, advertisement, pictures and illustrations. It is a periodic publication that contains thoroughly investigated stories. It is a periodical that contains articles of lasting interest, basically targeted at a specific audience and deriving its basic income from advertising, subscriptions, and news-stand sales (Hanson, 2005). Magazines are publications targeted at like-minded consumers. The era of special interest media was popularized by magazines. Their appeal to special or specific audience gives them a competitive advantage over other mass media. The continued expansion and sophistication of the magazine industry creates career opportunities for mass communication and journalism graduates, and further mounts pressure on other mass media to improve quality of their operations in order to retain or increase their audience base.
BASIC ATTRIBUTES OF A MAGAZINE
The basic attributes that differentiate magazines from other mass media, as listed by Nwabueze (2009) are as follows:
(i) Glossy cover and inside pages:
They have glossy cover with colourful photographs that increase their aesthetic quality. Today, magazines do not just have glossy cover but the entire inside pages are also printed in glossy paper thereby improving the aesthetic value of the publications.
(ii) Durability:
Magazines are pinned or bound like books. Their glossy cover, together with the bound pages makes them more durable than newspapers.
(iii) Relatively longer interval of publication:
Magazines take a relatively longer time to come out (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.), basically due to the in-depth and investigative nature of the story contents.
(iv) Featurized reporting:
The news presentation format of most magazine stories is featurized, having more in-depth information than straight news reports in newspapers.
(v) Relatively longer story deadline:
Most magazine stories take longer time to investigate because of their in-depth nature, unlike straight news reports that dominate newspapers and broadcast media news content. While daily newspaper stories have daily deadlines (often between 3p.m. and 4 p.m.), weekly magazine stories have up to four days in a week to beat deadline (often Thursday).
(vi) They are portable and convenient:
The bound package makes magazines easy to read, handle and move about.
(vii) They are known for high quality print and exceptional graphics:
This improves their aesthetic quality and stands them out amongst other print media.
CATEGORIZATION OF MAGAZINES
Some of the factors adopted in the classification of newspapers could be used in classifying magazines. Magazines could be classified based on mode of publication – print magazine (hard copy) and on-line or web-only magazines (webzines); reach or market size i.e. international, national or suburban; frequency of publication – weekly, monthly or quarterly magazines; and appeal to special interests i.e. based on target audience – various consumer magazines fall into this category.
However, the most commonly adopted factor for classifying magazines is based on target audience. Magazines are basically classified as follows (Nwabueze, 2021):
(i) Trade, professional and business magazines:
These are targeted at professional bodies or people in specific professions (including traders). A typical example is Soja, a magazine published by the Nigerian Army for their internal publics and members of the external public who care to know about army activities and news about soldiers. Such magazines are distributed through subscription, sometimes for a token to encourage and sustain production.
(ii) Industrial, company, and sponsored magazines:
These are magazines published by manufacturers and companies for their internal and external publics. Nwabueze (2009) describes this category as producer magazines. They update their audience on company business and related activities, including employee affairs. A typical example is NAPETCOR (latr called NNPC Magazine), a quarterly magazine published by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. This category of magazines is distributed by subscription or in some cases, given as gifts to those who patronize the company publishing it.
(iii) Consumer magazines:
These are magazines targeted at general audience. They are sold at news stands, through subscription, and other outlets. Various types of consumer magazines are found in the news stands. They are targeted at specific audience groups.
TYPES OF CONSUMER MAGAZINES
Below is a list of consumer magazines commonly found in the news stands (some of them are now defunct):
(i) News magazines – The News, Tell, Source, The Pulse, The Week, Newswatch, Time (international).
(ii) Men’s Magazine – Play Boy.
(iii) Sports Magazines – Complete Football, Kickoff, Four Four Two.
(iv) Women’s Magazines – Working Woman, Christian Woman Mirror, Genevieve.
(v) Youth Magazines – Youth Scope.
(vi) Ethnic /Race magazines – Ebony, Ndigbo International Magazine.
(vii) Computer Science and Technological magazines – PC world, IT & Telecom Digest, Popular Science. (viii) Celebrity Magazines – Ovation, Excellence, Reality, Attraction, Fantasy, Virtue, Style & Events Posh.
(ix) Entertainment Magazines – Bubbles, Hip Hop World, Gothreck.
(x) Soft Sell Magazines – Encomium, Dating & Marriage.
(xi) Business Magazines – Success Digest, Broad Street Journal, Business Eye, Smart Investor.
(xii) Fashion /Beauty Magazines – Bazaar (foreign), Sparkles, Style Royale, Designers Delight, Trendy Birds, Fashion Sense.
(xiii) Family Magazines – Fatherhood (foreign), Parenting (foreign), True Love (Nigerian), (xiv) Geographical Magazine – Texas monthly (foreign), Ndigbo International (Nigerian).
(xv) Religious Magazine – Awake, End Time Journal, Christian Woman Mirror.
(xvi) Literary Magazines (they focus on short essays and fictions) – Harpers, Hints.
(xvii) Political Magazines- The Politico, People and Politics.
(xviii) General Interest Magazines- Life, Reader’s Digest.
(xix) Gray Magazines (targeted at senior citizens and old people) – Modern Maturity (foreign).
MAGAZINE AS A MASS MEDIUM
The following attributes make magazine a mass medium;
The Audience
The audience of a magazine are large – people who read print and online editions of a magazine are very many (mass audience); they are located in different parts of a country (for national magazines) or across the world (for international magazines) showing that the audience members are scattered; the readers of Time Magazine across the world do not personally know one another, neither do they personally know the publisher or journalists who write the stories (anonymous audience); magazine readers consist of people of different gender (male and female), race, economic class, occupation, psychological disposition etc. (heterogeneous audience).
Simultaneous dissemination of information
An edition of a magazine could be read at the same time by numerous audience members located in different parts of the world. Tell, The News and Newswatch magazines for instance, are well known Nigerian magazines with high international reckoning read across the world by people of different demographic aridpsychographic make up.
Organized process
Just like newspapers, magazines are published through an organized process. Various departments exist in a magazine establishment – editorial, production, administration, advertising and circulation department. They work together to achieve a common goal which is to communicate to a mass audience through well published magazines. This is a basic feature of any mass medium.
Gatekeepers
A magazine establishment has several gatekeepers who operate at various stages as a message moves from the sender (news sources and journalists) to the audience. The publisher, journalists, editors and proof-readers play one gate-keeping function or the other in ensuring that a meaningful message is passed across to the audience through a magazine.
Delayed feedback
The reaction of magazine readers to what they have read is often slow, usually coming long after they must have read the stories. Except online magazines which are interactive in nature, print or hard copy editions of magazine have delayed feedback as one of their attributes.
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Strengths
Just like the newspapers, magazines could be read anywhere at anytime by different people as often as possible. Information in magazines remains accessible for as long as the magazines exists. Magazine contents are not transient. A copy can be read over and over by different people at different times.
Magazine makes use of graphic displays and colour to achieve aesthetic quality necessary in attracting audience attention to message content. Magazines look beautiful at the news-stands and this aesthetic factor helps in attracting audience attention to the medium.
Magazines are also portable. They can be carried around and read anywhere at the convenience of the audience. Magazine is also durable. Since it is bound, it is most likely going to last more than the newspaper which can be scattered since it is unbound, making its content unorganized and meaningless.
Weaknesses
The weaknesses of the newspaper basically apply to the magazine also. The reach of magazines is restricted because the receiver requires a level of literacy to decode the message.
Magazines are not easily affordable. Some celebrity magazines go for as high as NI,500 to N2000. This cannot be afforded by many audience members in developing nations especially in rural areas. The restricted nature of magazine audience poses a disadvantage in developing nations like Nigeria.
