GQ - Audience & Industries blog tasks

 Audience

Look through the GQ Media Kit and answer the following questions: 

1) How does the media kit introduction describe GQ?

Baidawi, GQ explores the powerful and progressive new forces shaping culture, society and commerce in Britain. Building on a 33-year legacy of print excellence across journalism, photography and design, British GQ is today also a digital, social, video and experiential powerhouse – a community where people gather to be inspired and exchange ideas around style, creativity and culture.

2) What does the media kit suggest about masculinity? 

As masculinity evolves and men's fashion has moved to the centre of the global pop-culture conversation, GQ's authority has never been broader or stronger.

3) Pick out three statistics from the data on page 2 and explain what they suggest about the GQ audience.

61% ABC1 this shows that GQ audience is normally higher class or high middle class therefore GQ audience is wealthy. 

£7.7K AVERAGE ANNUAL SPEND ON FASHION this shows GQ reader are more interested in fashion and they like it. 

7.3M TOTAL REACH this shows GQ is world wide and they have a large reach. 

4) Look at page 3 - brand highlights. What special editions do GQ run and what do these suggest about the GQ audience?

MEN OF THE YEAR In 2021, the iconic British GQ Men of the Year Awards reached a truly global audience, with more than 3,200 news articles generating over 9.8 billion views. GQ is predominantly for men and they celebrate masculinity  

5) Still on page 3, what does the video and social series section suggest about how magazine audiences are changing? 

British GQ’s video series drew more than 45 million views in 2021 – with viewers watching more than 10 million hours of content. In 2022, globally-renowned GQ franchises including Actually Me, 10 Essentials and Iconic Characters launch in the UK, joining local series like Action Replay to create our most dynamic lineup of video, ever. GQ is becoming more digital as not that many people buy and purchase magazines. 

Media Magazine feature: GQ

Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on GQ (MM82 - page 12). Answer the following questions:

1) What are the elements that go into choosing a cover stars for GQ? 

Occasionally, there is no hook, but simply someone who will do a GQ cover to help their brand/image etc. Mostly these are not actors but footballers/ politicians etc. But the same rule is true: what’s interesting about that person at that time? GQ’s cover with the footballer Raheem Sterling, at the time he was speaking about racism in the British press, is a case in point, and was one of GQ’s best-selling ever. That cover proved something else: how key execution can be.

2) How is the magazine constructed to serve the target audience? 

We go too young or too old we would lose that crucial aspiration factor. Young men in their early 20s in superhero films often didn’t sell as well as we’d imagine, and the same went for silver- screen legends in their 60s and 70s. Our readers certainly may want to read about them, but not to represent them. (For this reason, the GQ Men of the Year issue – where we published up to ten different covers for the same month – could be liberating, allowing us to put, for instance, someone like Greta Thunberg on the cover, a cover we might not have done as a regular solo cover, purely for fear it wouldn’t sell).

3) What does the article suggest about GQ's advertisers and sponsorships - and what in turn does this tell us about the GQ audience? 

In terms of advertisers, is brands that want to promote themselves in the sphere of male, high-end, luxury lifestyle. So, everything from top-tier tailoring to the latest sports cars. These brands are often heritage brands, so the names wouldn’t change much from month to month, or year to year. GQ audience is wealthy.

4) What is GQ Hype - and how does it reflect the impact of digital media on traditional print media?

 

One key launch, though, was GQ Hype – a weekly, online-only cover. Celebrities – and their agents/publicists – naturally want a GQ print cover, but with only so many on offer, previously the drop-off from not getting a print cover could be drastic – simply offering them an online-only interview, say, which was understandably a less- than-exciting prospect for established celebrities. So, GQ Hype was launched as a perfect middle-ground. With only one per week it still came with prestige, it was still a GQ cover, designed as one, and so that fact alone meant it would get more attention both on Instagram and Twitter than other online-only stories.

5) Finally, what does the article say about additional revenue streams for print magazines like GQ?  

Extra revenue streams are vital to the magazine business these days – it’s almost impossible to survive without them. It’s about deciding the key areas in which the brand is strong and focusing on those, rather than expanding into areas you are not associated with. So, along with the annual Men of the Year awards – using GQ’s unparalleled celebrity contacts – GQ also had an annual car awards, and a food and drink awards.

Industries

Your industries contexts are divided into three areas - Conde Nast, GQ's website and social media content and the impact of digital media on print industries.

Condé Nast

Read this Guardian news article on editorial changes at Condé Nast and answer the following questions: 

1) Who was previously GQ editor for 22 years? 

Dylan Jones

2) What happened to the 'lads' mag' boom magazines such as Nuts, Maxim and Loaded? 

Seven years ago Jones, who edited men’s monthly Arena in the 1990s, was credited with keeping GQ above water while others, such as Nuts, Maxim, Front and Arena closed down or, in the case of Loaded, went online only after circulation falls. Jones has distanced himself from the “lads’ mag” boom of the 1990s, saying it “denigrated our culture”, but he continued to argue that a successful magazine needs “a libido, whether you are French Vogue or Vanity Fair”. He also survived criticism in 2008 for his book Cameron on Cameron, a fly-on-the-wall appreciation of the prospective Conservative prime minister, which contained flattering statements such as “I think you acquitted yourself very well on Jonathan Ross,” and “you seem more confident than you’ve ever been”.

3) What changes have been taking place at Condé Nast in recent years and why? 

Growing list of Condé Nast editors to leave the publishing house recently as the company streamlines operations. According to the chief executive officer Roger Lynch, the aim is a stable of magazines that stay “digital-first and globally local with everything we do”. The exodus began last year when Angelica Cheung departed Vogue China after 15 years, Christiane Arp left Vogue Germany and Eugenia de la Torriente left Vogue Spain. Earlier this month both Vogue India editor Priya Tanna and Vogue Japan editor Mitsuko Watanabe left their publications.

Read this Press Gazette article on Conde Nast. Answer the following questions:

1) What does the article suggest about Condé Nast's recent strategy? 

Print subscriptions are said to be growing at Conde Nast despite widespread cutbacks over the last year and a shift in focus towards digital output. Last year Conde Nast merged the global editorial teams at several of its international magazine brands including Wired, Vogue and Conde Nast Traveller under a new digital-first strategy designed to produce less duplication of content.

2) How does chief executive Roger Lynch describe Condé Nast and why? 

Chief executive Roger Lynch told the New York Times the digital-first changes meant Conde Nast was “no longer a magazine company,” saying it has “70 million people who read our magazines, but we have 300 something million that interact with our websites every month and 450 million that interact with us on social media”.

3) What does Adam Baidawi say about Condé Nast, GQ and culture? 

GQ deputy global editorial director Adam Baidawi told Press Gazette that despite the digital-first switch print magazines had not been significantly affected. GQ, he said, was “as good as it’s ever been” as he reported a 77% year-on-year increase in its newsstand sales for its March 2022 edition. He added that there was a “romanticised” vision of print-centred magazines that was becoming “less and less sensical” in the age of the internet. Baidawi, who also serves as GQ UK’s head of editorial content, highlighted that across its titles, Conde Nast had seen more than 14 billion annual video views in 2021, up 18% from 2020, as well as a 38% overall increase in digital ad revenues.

Read this FIPP feature on Condé Nast diversifying into video and streaming content. Answer the following questions: 

1) How is Condé Nast moving away from traditional print products?

Condé Nast has announced 75 returning series and 50 new pilots across 17 brand channels for 2021-2022, capitalising on huge growth in streaming in the past year. Its brands will focus on shoppable series and reaching incremental viewers via new programmes and “supercharged” relaunches of some of its most exclusive events.

2) What examples are provided of Condé Nast's video and streaming content?

During its annual NewFront presentation today (4 May) which took place online, audiences heard about Vogue’s expansion into wellness, GQ Sports’ 2022 Super Bowl lineup, and Vanity Fair’s expansion into audio. The company also launched Condé Nast Shoppable, a new video capability that provides buyable opportunities for viewers in real time. 

3) What does the end of the article suggest modern media audiences want? 

“Audiences want to be participants, not just passive viewers – and of course, they want content 100 per cent personalised for them,” said Chu.

GQ website, video and social media content 

Visit the GQ website, Instagram and YouTube channel. Note that some of these may be blocked in school. Once you have looked over GQ's online content, answer the following questions:

1) What similarities do you notice between the website and the print edition of the magazine?

The art style is similar and they both still have conventions of magazine in it.

2) Analyse the top menu of the GQ website (e.g. Fashion / Grooming / Culture). What do the menu items suggest about GQ's audience?

The presence of a "Fashion" category means that GQ's audience is likely interested in staying up-to-date with the latest trends, brands, and style advice.

3) What does GQ's Instagram feed suggest about the GQ brand? Is this appealing to a similar audience to the print version of the magazine?

GQ's Instagram feed includes appealing images that reflect the magazine's in a well manner and stylish aesthetic this is similar to the print version.

4) In your opinion, is GQ's social media content designed to sell the print magazine or build a digital audience? Why?

GQ social media isn't to designed to sell print magazine it desgined to have more of a following increasing GQ brand image and allows the public to be involved in GQ for example on GQ Youtube they have the audience asking question to the GQ stars. 

5) Evaluate the success of the GQ brand online. Does it successfully communicate with its target audience? Will the digital platforms eventually replace the print magazine completely?

GQ successfully communicates with their audience and digital platforms will replace print magazines completely 

The impact of digital media on the print magazines industry

Read this Guardian feature on the struggles of the UK print magazine industry and answer the following questions:

1) What statistics are provided to demonstrate the decline in the print magazines industry between 2010 and 2017? What about the percentage decline from 2000?

Sales of the 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, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

2) What percentage of ad revenue is taken by Google and Facebook?

Google and Facebook account for 65% of the $6.5bn (£4.7bn) UK digital display ad market. They are also strangling attempts by magazine and newspaper publishers to build their digital ad revenues by taking about 90% of all new spend.

3) What strategies can magazine publishers use to remain in business in the digital age?

“Magazines do still play an important part in client schedules – if circulation is holding up,” says Phil Hall, the chief commercial strategy officer at the media buying agency MediaCom. “But the issue at the moment is there is a glut of titles that are too similar, too generic. Reaching audience at scale is key to many advertisers and if readers are falling away then that’s a major issue.

4) What examples from the Guardian article are provided to demonstrate how magazines are finding new revenue streams?

Nevertheless, mounting pressure on the traditional print magazine business, which still drives most revenues, is forcing consolidation as publishers seek scale to survive. Time Inc in the US, which publishes People, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, has just been sold to rival Meredith for $1.8bn; the UK arm was picked up by Epiris. Last year, Immediate Media, which publishes 60 titles including Radio Times and Top Gear, was sold to the German publisher Hubert Burda, owner of Your Home and HomeStyle, for £270m.Despite the gloom, magazine publishers, like their newspaper counterparts, sense an opportunity as brand safety and measurement issues have prompted advertisers to closely scrutinise the once unquestionable value of investing in digital media such as YouTube and Facebook.

5) Now think of the work you've done on GQ. How is GQ diversifying beyond print? 

GQ is now moving away from print and making a online presence.