Close relationship between readers and their chosen magazines

The individuality and personality of each magazine means that readers can readily feel a close relationship with the particular magazines they choose to read. It is very similar to feeling close to a friend, and indeed in qualitative research informants often use phrases such as “reading this is like talking to a friend”. And just as one enjoys one’s own self when in the company of a human friend because that friend reflects and brings out one’s own personality, so it is with a favourite magazine. The magazine reinforces the reader’s identity; the magazine plays back to the reader the values with which he or she identifies.

Magazines as brands

Magazines are brands. The brand values of the magazine confirm the reader’s perception of herself or himself as a particular kind of person. A brand’s power is that it conjures up a whole range of associations and ideas, which are primarily emotional. (As Robert Jones of Wolff Olins expressed it [12], “brands are a special class of word – they are like a poem all in one word in their ability to evoke and express ideas”.)

The MediaDNA project, conducted during 2001-2004 by Millward Brown for a consortium of sponsors [13], has studied a very large number of media brands, including leading magazines, newspapers, TV channels, TV programmes and radio stations. The survey demonstrated how these brands vary in three aspects: the brand’s positioning; users’ perceptions of its overall character; and its brand personality.

As examples of the findings from the first year’s fieldwork, the five most extrovert media brands were FHM magazine, the three TV programmes Friends, The Simpsons and Uncovered, and Capital FM radio station. FHM was also the most playful brand. The five most reliable brands were Radio Times followed by Sky News, TV Times, Countdown, and Classic FM. The five most glamorous brands were all magazines: Vogue, Elle, Hello!, OK! and Cosmopolitan. Vogue was also the most trend-setting brand. The most practical brand was What’s On TV magazine. The brand with the highest proportion of users who say they can lose themselves in it was Take A Break. This magazine was also the brand seen as caring most for its users.

What these and many other examples are saying is that magazines have distinct individual personality profiles which readers recognise, and it is evident that people tend to match a publication’s personality to their own personality.

The sponsors of MediaDNA also drew the conclusion that the strength of media brands means that it is vital to take account of brand values when planning media advertising schedules, rather than treating publications and programmes as commodities.

Selecting a magazine that expresses one’s own self

A reader can feel that one magazine is spot on while another magazine, superficially similar, is not quite right, is not quite ‘me’.

One of many surveys to demonstrate this was a qualitative study by The Research Business for the National Magazine Company [14]. Readers of eight of the National Magazine Company’s titles were interviewed in group discussions and individual depth interviews. Readers’ attitudes to their chosen magazine were summed up in this way:

1. The reader has his or her own perception of what type of person he or she wishes to be.
2. When a magazine closely chimes in with this self-image there is a high level of identification with the chosen magazine. There is a feeling of ownership, that this is ‘my magazine’, an informed friend.
3. There grows a sense that ‘My magazine helps me to become the type of person I want to be’. Magazines are thus aspirational, enabling.
4. The reader feels ‘I therefore have a powerful trusting relationship with my magazine’.

This was expressed by one advertising agency in the following words: “the most impressive lesson emerging from current research is that readers enjoy a very close relationship with magazines that they chose to read. It is a relationship that is impossible for other media to replicate” [15].

Examples of close relationships

Any in-depth survey of a single magazine or a small group of magazines will reveal the nature of the individuality of each title. Many examples could be cited.

Vanity Fair serves as an illustration of a single title. Its publisher Conde Nast felt that it was a difficult magazine for advertisers and agencies to decipher, because unless you actually read the magazine you can’t form an accurate idea of what type of person reads it. Vanity Fair was often being pigeonholed as a glossy women’s magazine in the same category as Tatler or Harpers & Queen, whereas in reality it is substantially different. The research agency Navigator was commissioned to carry out some qualitative research among subscribers to investigate this [16].

Navigator found that Vanity Fair’s marked American flavour is an important part of the magazine’s appeal to its subscribers, who have an international outlook and feel part of that wider community. The magazine is investigative journalism. The intensity of the writing has more in common with The Economist than with most women’s magazines. It is a magazine for both sexes and emphatically not a women’s magazine. There is an unusual emphasis on text and less on visuals than most magazines. The depth of the long articles is appreciated. There is a sense that there’s a minimum viable period of time for reading it; a short snatched session is not adequate. The front covers are strong, unpredictable and a talking point. The subscribers believe that no other magazine could adequately be a substitute for Vanity Fair.

Thus the positioning is unique, and the relationship between subscriber and magazine is close and mutually demanding. The magazine asks for time and commitment from the reader, and the reader expects a return of stimulation and quality journalism.

A magazine, or a category of magazine, displaying a particularly strong attitude, will not only attract those people who share that attitude but will also tend to shut out people who do not share that attitude. Vanity Fair, for example, exhibits a marked international outlook, and anyone without such an outlook is unlikely to find the magazine strongly appealing. The knowledge of this contributes to the feeling among readers of ‘ownership’, intimacy and belonging, like membership of an exclusive club.

A good example of this applying to a whole group of magazines occurs in the youth market. Most youth magazines are not only to be read by teenagers, but they are also most definitely not to be read by parents!

EMAP’s “Youth Facts 4” survey, conducted by Millward Brown [17], emphasised that the reading of youth magazines by 11-19 year olds is a highly personal experience. 60% of teenage magazines are read when the teenager is on his or her own, and 46% of magazines are read in the sanctuary of the bedroom. However the company in which a teen magazine is read depends to some extent on its subject matter. Computer and football magazines, and social parts of girls magazines such as horoscopes and gossip pages, are happily shared with friends. But problem pages, and ‘real-life stories’ which might cause a tear or two, are likely to be savoured in private.

For EMAP's "Youth Facts 5" study [18] The Psychology Business carried out a deeper psychological analysis of the relationship young people in the 11-18 range have with brands and media. Compared with television, radio and cinema, magazines are particularly strong in terms of involvement and relevance. Relevance is directly linked with the individual's identity and that of the group to which he/she belongs, and the choice of magazines available means that a teenager can filter through to those titles which are currently the most relevant, involving and persuasive. In turn, the sequence of chosen magazines can help define the reader's own identity and progress, during this evolving period when a person moves from the group identity which typically dominates as an 11-12 year old to the fully individual identity which has established itself by the age of 17-18.

Authorities in public service recognise the role of teen magazines. The chairman of the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel, Dr Fleur Fisher, said in 2004 [19] “Research suggests that teenagers are very aware of British society’s prevailing sexual attitudes. Most teenagers would like their parents to be more willing to discuss this aspect of growing up, but mutual embarrassment is reported as a major hindrance. Likewise sex education in schools was judged to be inadequate, focusing on biology and ignoring their concerns about sexual behaviour, sexually transmitted diseases, and relationships. But teen magazines are trusted by teenagers, they talk with them rather than sermonise at them. Teenagers like getting non-judgemental anonymous advice as they struggle with the demands of growing up. They seem to find teenage magazines’ light-hearted and fun tone, allied with accurate information, a cheering beacon in the murky adult world of mixed messages.” The Minister for Children, Young People & Families, Margaret Hodge, said “Teenage magazines are seen as the best friend of young people through the roller coaster years of their lives.”

For television weeklies their strong relationship with their readers is based partly on their highly practical function. This was probed in a study for IPC tx by NOP Solutions in November 2000 [20], which put an array of agree/disagree statements to a panel of regular readers of television weeklies. 88% agreed with the statement that “With so many TV channels nowadays, it helps to plan your viewing”. To do this, they turned to their TV weeklies. 95% said their TV weekly helps them to plan their viewing. A similar percentage felt their TV magazine helps them keep in touch with what’s going on. The magazine is used regularly right through the week (95% agreed), it is picked up time and time again (86% agreed), and is read cover to cover (85% agreed). Most readers (78%) go through their TV magazine carefully and pick out what to watch, and many (61%) highlight things they’re interested in and refer back to them later.

All the family use the weekly TV magazine, so it’s always around (80% agreed). Most readers like to have celebrity and showbiz news as well as the programmes (68% agreed), and they like reading about the soaps and their stars (62% agreed).

These figures describe a thorough and deep involvement with television weeklies, resting in part on the practical function but also from an absorption with the other content besides the programme listings.

This contrasts sharply with the attitudes towards the newspaper TV supplements. 87% agreed that “I prefer these weekly TV magazines to the newspaper listing supplements you get nowadays”. This is partly because “You value these weekly TV magazines more than the newspaper listings supplements because you’ve chosen to buy them” (82% agreed). Consequently “The newspaper listings supplement gets thrown out with the paper whereas my TV magazine is used all week” (75% agreed).

The love of magazines begins at an early age. A survey of magazines for children aged
2-11, by Diagnostics for PPA [21] , found that magazines are read and re-read by children to the extent that they are often almost known by heart. This is a personal relationship par excellence. When the children have finished ‘devouring’ them the magazines are often placed on an ever-growing pile and become part of a prized collection.

A rare thing - a weak reader/magazine relationship:
newspaper colour supplements and sections

One can learn something more about the reader/magazine personal relationship by examining a rare case where it is not a strong factor. In National Magazine Company/ G+J's “Women & Magazines: The Medium & The Message” by SRG [22] one of the publication types examined was newspaper colour supplements in magazine format. The relationship between reader and supplement was a weak one. Why? One major reason is that a supplement is a by-product, not an active acquisition. To illustrate:

“You buy the newspaper and the supplement just happens to fall out. You don’t buy the newspaper in order to get that.”

“I think the difference is that the [paid-for] magazine is actually yours by choice, isn’t it? You actually pick what you feel suits you. Whereas a supplement is just something that happens. It’s a benefit that comes with the paper but it’s not yours by choice.”

In addition the supplement is sometimes read by default because it is the only section left, when other family members have grabbed the newspaper sections - and this further distances reader and supplement.

There were other reasons found by the survey. Large sections of the supplements are regarded as irrelevant and uninteresting. There is a greater degree of perceived similarity between supplements, which sometimes leads to the view that they are interchangeable. They lack individuality. They have a negative image of being ‘throw-away gossip’. For women, the advertising is sometimes seen as largely irrelevant to women’s concerns.

The weak reader/supplement relationship is reflected in the behaviour towards the supplements, which tend to be read very selectively, flicked through, picked up only once, and disposed of quickly.

The survey’s findings were endorsed by SouthBank Publishing’s study “The Quality Medium, The Quality Message” conducted by Mulholland Research Associates [23]. It confirmed women’s lack of involvement in supplements. Three verbatims from the study were:

“I literally just open them up and flick through them. I don’t treat them in the same way as I would a magazine.”

“Many times it’s not been read at all. It’s something extra, it’s not the reason I buy the Sunday paper.”

“I flick through them, because usually I get halfway through it and my husband says ‘Do you want to swap?’ so I tend to flick through it.”

Further evidence came from a study called “A Comparison of Magazines and Newspaper Review Sections”, commissioned jointly by Ogilvy & Mather Media/The Network and National Magazine Company [24]. Robert Quayle conducted eight group discussions among men and women who read both a weekend broadsheet newspaper and a paid-for magazine.

He found that newspaper sections are approached, read and perceived differently from paid-for magazines. Sections have no individual personality and are not a brand in their own right, while magazines have a clear, distinct, focused personality and carry strong brand values. Sections are not perceived as aimed specifically ‘for me’; magazines are.

There is a low expectation of finding something of personal relevance in a section, but a high expectation in magazines. Sections are skimmed to find something of interest, whereas magazines are skimmed to decide what to read first and what to go back to later.

With sections, readers expect general, impersonal information, and the relationship is unemotional, detached and relatively weak. With magazines, readers expect information that is personally relevant and involving, including ideas on what to buy and do, and the relationship is stronger and more emotional.

Advertisements are felt to be merely incidental to sections but integral to magazines; readers spontaneously mention advertising as part of the appeal of their magazines.

With sections, advertising is not seen as relevant to the editorial content, therefore ads have to work independently of the medium, and there is no perceived editorial endorsement of the ads. With magazines, the ads are expected to be relevant and there is a synergy between the editorial content and the ads; the ads gain from the brand values of the magazine, and they are seen to be endorsed by the magazine.

Through such contrasts we see some of the strengths of the stand-alone paid-for magazines: they are actively and deliberately chosen, they are wanted for their own sake, all the contents are likely to be of interest because they reflect the magazine’s personality (i.e. the reader’s personality), they have individuality, and the advertising is relevant and consumed with interest.

Evolution: keeping the relationship fresh

Magazines are different products from one issue to the next, not only because every article is unique to a single issue but also because an issue often contains new elements, such as a new column, a rearrangement of features, a redesigned masthead/cover/contents page, and so on.

Magazines evolve, but it is not pure Darwin. Darwin’s agent for change was natural selection. In the case of magazines there are two agents of change working in combination. One might be called ‘reader selection’, the other ‘editor selection’.

‘Reader selection’ means the cumulative effect of the innumerable choices made by readers [25]. Readers choose such things as:

• interests about which one wishes to read
• a repertoire of publications to serve each interest
• particular issues of particular publications within that repertoire
• the moment at which to read, when the mood is right for absorbing a specific publication
• particular items to read when looking through or screening the contents
• how long to dwell on each item, a choice made possible because the reader has control over timing

This stream of choices leads over time to movements in sales and readership, to which publishers and editors attempt to respond. The editors’ efforts to modify their magazines in order to keep them at the forefront of readers’ preferences are what might be called ‘editor selection’.

Central to maintaining the close relationship between readers and their chosen magazines is the editors’ ability to keep the product fresh, so that the readers and what they are offered remain in step. “Good magazines are edited by their readers” as Pat Roberts Cairns, editor of House Beautiful, expressed it [26]. Provided this harmony is sustained, the relationship can deepen through time.

The challenges from new magazines, and from new initiatives by existing magazines, keeps all editors on their toes, and this competitive situation ensures that readers have a supply of the most relevant and stimulating magazines possible.