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?

As the flagship of men’s fashion and style in Britain, to be GQ is to be forward-looking, progressive and cutting-edge.

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.

- £7.7K average annual spend on fashion: GQ's audience are highly interested in fashion, which the magazine takes into account.

- 1.8 million social followers: GQ has a large amount of its audience find it from its online presence. 

- 61% ABC1: GQ's audience is mostly upper middle class.

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

GQ HYPE GQ Hype spotlights the stars who are moving culture forward: The actors, musicians, athletes, designers and innovators who are changing the way we think, live and experience. Each week, Hype will be promoted across the full range of GQ’s channels featuring an in-depth profile of a star who's peaking now.

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

The video and social media series suggests that most of the audience for a magazine in our digital media landscape does not come from the actual print product but rather the promotion and content of it that has an online presence, indicating a decline in audiences' use of print. 

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? 

 It needs to be the right person at the right time. 

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

At its best, it’s also a brilliant forum for excellent profile writing and world-class photography and design, along with award-winning longform feature writing and sharp culture writing.

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. Sponsors tend to be a little more fluid. These will often be the brands who, for instance, sponsor individual categories at the Men of the Year awards, or partner with GQ’s live talks event, GQ Heroes.

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

GQ Hype is a weekly, online-only cover, designed to get more attention both on Instagram and Twitter than other online-only stories, reflecting how magazines have had to leverage the influence of digital media in order to keep audiences' interest in their products.

 

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.

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? 

Nuts and Maxim closed down and Loaded has gone online only. Jones has distanced himself from the “lads’ mag” boom of the 1990s, saying it “denigrated our culture”. 

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

Nicholas Coleridge, Condé Nast’s long-serving traditionalist chairman stepped down from the role at the end of 2019. He was replaced by UK Vogue’s first black editor Edward Enninful, recently promoted to European editorial director with control of the British, French, Italian, German and Spanish editions of the magazine.


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

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

According to the article, Conde Nast has been able to improve both the number of print orders it has gotten and online engagements with their publications by putting its digital strategy first. 

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? 

Baidawi told Press Gazette: “Conde Nast, as much as anything else, is in the business of shaping and reflecting culture. Culture moves, and we have to move with it. If you take GQ, for instance, I don’t think we were in a position to shape and reflect culture with 21 siloed businesses around the world centred around print products.”

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.

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 website features a lot of the main images and cover lines quite similar to the print magazine.

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

Interested in  sports, fashion and a better lifestyle. 

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?

They're appealing to a wider audience because of the representation of different celebrities taking into consideration their gender, age, and role in the media.

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

It's desinged to sell their lifestyle in order to keep their brand image.

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?

Through its social media platforms, particularly Instagram and YouTube, where its digital content is well-liked by a diverse variety of young consumers who might not otherwise engage with GQ content, GQ successfully engages with its younger and more general target audience. But there will always be a legitimate niche market for print magazines, so digital platforms won't ever fully replace them. 

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?

Between 2010 and 2017 there was a fall by 42% from 23.8m to 13.9m. In 200 there was a percentage decline of 55% from 30.8m.

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. 

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

Specialist magazines, catering for more niche audiences with interests ranging from shooting to model railways and ponies, are likely to always have a print fanbase.

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

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? 

Conde Nast's new digital-first strategy for all of its major magazines, GQ has concentrated on expanding beyond print. This has strengthened the magazine's online presence because online sales of the publication are larger than those of print items alone.