Matching the magazine to the mood

The reader’s repertoire of magazines

For each active area of interest, readers have one or more magazines which they choose to buy, or choose to accept as a pass-on reader of someone else’s copy. Thus a repertoire of magazines builds up.

One’s repertoire is not fixed permanently. It can change, with something new being tried if it looks as though it might appeal, or something being dropped from the repertoire if it ceases to give satisfaction. The cause of a change might be the appearance of a new title, modifications to an existing title, or a change in the reader and the reader’s circumstances and requirements. A person’s repertoire moves in step with his or her personal, social and psychological development, so that at any one stage comparisons are made over only a narrow band of the whole magazine spectrum.

Obviously enough, magazine choice is likely to be modified as one moves through the life stages of childhood, adolescence, early working years, early years of marriage or living together, the years of young children, older children, the empty-nest years after the children have left home, and finally the years of old age. Again, within a much narrower time-span there are other changes that affect one’s repertoire of magazines, even if only temporarily, such as moving house, redecorating, or thinking of changing the car.

A study from G+J called “Perspectives of a Woman’s Monthly Magazine” conducted by BMRB [29] concluded that “a magazine is immensely versatile. The way it speaks to readers and the way readers interpret the magazine is unique in every case... Each woman has a repertoire of magazines and she has a different relationship with each title... to meet her different needs and moods.”

This highlights one of the values of the repertoire - there is scope to choose the magazine that matches the mood of the moment.

Selecting from the repertoire to match the mood

Selecting a magazine to suit the mood ensures that the issue is read in an appropriate frame of mind. Both the editorial and the advertisements can be absorbed while the reader is in a relevant receptive mood, and thus they have the maximum opportunity to make an impact.

A number of qualitative research studies have indicated that one basic divide in mood is between difficult/serious/heavy reading matter, representing effort and work, and easy/light/fun reading, representing relaxation or escapism.

One instance is a study by Plastow Research for International Thomson Publishing [30] among readers of general interest magazines. Readers distinguished between magazines according to the amount of concentration required to read them. Some, such as The Economist, Time and The Spectator, were seen to call for a fair degree of concentration and were read in a decidedly sterner mood than many other journals.

A different group of magazines was seen as a means of escape or relaxation, hence a comment like “I read Country Life sometimes when I feel depressed and need to look at nice houses”. A project by Behavioural Studies Ltd [30] identified two main types of reading mood:

• ‘Feet up’: Reading on a settee, in the bath or in bed, sometimes literally with one’s feet up. The reader is relaxed, and not conscious of time. What is prized is the experience of being taken out of oneself.
• ‘Practical’: Reading with the intention of learning something from the publication. This is not necessarily deliberate information seeking; it also embraces a general feeling that one may pick up some useful ideas.

A qualitative study by Communication Research Ltd for a women’s monthly [30] also drew this distinction between escapist and practical reading. CRL reported “Once the magazine has been purchased there is additional pleasure to be gained from choosing the right time and place to read it”. Four informants said of the monthly glossies:

“I like to read them in the evening, when there’s no-one else around. They are connected with the sort of total relaxation you can only get during the evening.”

“There’s lots to read so I’ll go to bed early, have a bath and make sure I’ve got time to myself.”

“I enjoy choosing it, picking through the magazines. Then I read it when I’m in bed at night or lying on the settee.”

“I need time to sit and read and enjoy them. I don’t want home and work around me all the time.”

CRL found that when she’s seeing herself in her domestic role it’s the practical magazines that a woman is likely to select to read. Informants often commented about associating these magazines with having a break from work around the house. One of CRL’s informants said

“If you’re feeling ‘housey’ you’d go for one magazine and if you’re feeling ‘dreamy’ you’d go for another.”

Another dimension affecting the way people choose their reading is the time available and a person’s current attitude towards that time. The Henley Centre reported [31] that media and their messages are consumed in different ways according to the person’s ‘time mode’. One category is ‘saving time’ mode, in which consumers ‘streamline’. They want simple, fast and convenient information.

The other category is ‘investing time’ mode, when consumers need something more complex. They seek relevance, involvement, and added-value information, looking for messages that hold their attention, engage them, and reward them for their investment of time. Magazines are a perfect medium for both ‘investing time’ and ‘saving time’ modes. Because readers control their own exposure, they can approach their reading in either manner.

SouthBank Publishing’s study “The Quality Medium, The Quality Message” [23] by Mulholland Research Associates, showed that women will sometimes try to save reading their favourite monthly magazines until they have no other pressures on them. “This may be in the bath or in bed or at some other time of relaxation, but the important thing is that they absorb themselves with their magazine giving it their undivided attention.” The magazines gain from being part of a private treat. The reader of an upmarket glossy said:

“I’ve got two hours that I absolutely cherish - and that’s my treat, a nice cup of coffee, quietly taking my time, going through it.”

The very experience of becoming immersed in a publication can further mould the mood of a reader. A simple illustration is one woman’s remark in a group discussion [30] that “I come out of reading Cosmopolitan feeling a different person than when I come out of reading Prima”.

This was closely echoed in the qualitative stage of the “Absorbing Media” research, conducted by NFO Worldwide for PPA and published in 2002 [27]. Talking about women’s glossy monthlies, NFO wrote “The titles were more than simply magazines – they were brands. By reading one of these specific brands, readers would be willingly engaging with its essence, becoming a Cosmo or Vogue person during the time that they were engaging with it… It was as if magazines played an inherent part in people’s psyche.”

The study “Women & Magazines: The Medium & the Message” [22] spoke about this in more detail. Not only does a person’s existing mood affect what magazine is picked up, but also the reader’s relationship with the magazine will affect the mental mode of reading, and the mood engendered by the magazine. This in turn has an impact on the value and salience attached to a magazine’s contents, including the advertisements. The mental mode and the consequent reading behaviour varies by type of magazine; as far as women’s magazines and newspaper colour supplements are concerned, the variations were described in the report as follows:

“Style monthlies are read with intent to absorb the style contained in the visual images. The mental mode is acquisitive, dreamy and unfocused.

“Feature monthlies provide an in-depth read which educates and informs as well as entertains. The mental mode is one of deep concentration and involvement, producing a highly ‘active’ read.

“Domestic monthlies are similar to Feature Monthlies in the intensity of the read. However the different contents results in differing mental modes from emotional to rational and practical.

“Multi-dimensional weeklies are chiefly read for practical support, producing a highly ‘active’ read because of the perceived usefulness of the content.

“Traditional weeklies  in contrast provide more domestic and emotional support than practical aid.

“Colour supplements are very different in role and this is reflected in both the physical and mental nature of the read. They are read very selectively and passively with little intention of using the information contained. They are consequently read for a short time and retained for only a short time.”

Selecting within an individual magazine to match the mood

In matching their mood to their choice of what to read, people can of course select not only a specific magazine but also the kinds of item within a given magazine. As Redwood expressed it [31], “Depending on mood, need and context, we take from a magazine what we want, when we want it – whether it is ideas, information, advice, inspiration, escapism or relaxation. Our relationship with our favourite magazines will be one in which we feel emotionally engaged and intellectually challenged, but always on our own terms.”