MAGAZINE RESEARCH
Print media has two main forms, newspapers and magazines. Newspapers are mainly printed and prepared on inexpensive paper qualities while magazines, on the other hand are magazines are printed on high quality glossy sheets and are compiled in the form of a book or a booklet. Newspapers contain news, advertisements usually jokes, however, magazines on the other hand are much more versatile when it comes to information.
Magazines work in accordance to genres. Some of these genres can be classified as, sports, fashion, health and beauty, animals, photography, computers, gaming, sexuality, medicine, financial and economical, and socio-political. This tells us about the vast audience of magazines. The concept of having such a long range of genres is basically because magazines tend to cater to all sorts of audiences in relevance to age, gender, occupation, language, finance and area of interest. Obviously, each of these segments of genres have a wide scale of information, articles, advertisements etc. It is a common trend, magazines brands are usually known for their own specific type of genres and sub-genres. For example, Newsweek is solely a news related magazine and it caters to people within the countries it is sold out to, within the age limit of 25-60. On the other hand, The Economist is a finance magazine that caters to everyone within the working class department and to all those who are closely linked to the economy of the country. It has managed to cater to issues such as Britain's sinking economy, Stalemate in Israel, Australia's fires from hell, Will electronic books save newspapers etc. Then we have magazines that cater to health, beauty and sexuality such as Cosmopolitan and Playboy. However, despite catering to almost the same genres, such magazines can be completely different due to their target audience, Cosmopolitan caters to woman hence with the genre of sexuality, there are sub genres of health and beauty as well. However Playboy targets young guys, between the age group of 18-25 and do not have much link with health and beauty, but is mainly erotic in reference to context. On the other hand, Cosmopolitan has a good amount of written information whereas Playboy is more visual in accordance to the interests of their audiences.
We then have fashion magazines, that are widely distributed around the world. These are too, divided into groups regarding mostly, gender, however, at times can even collide as one. Vogue one of the most famous fashion magazines. It caters to both, men and women and advertises fashion products of very well-known brands and designers like Gucci, Piere Carden, Prada, Luis Veton, Hill-figure, Miu Miu, Armani, Lacoste, D&G etc. We have a number of fashion magazines in Pakistan as well. One of the best sold is Expose and the Fashion Collection . It caters to girls to the female society within the age group of 19-35 and advertizes products by famous Pakistani Designers. One the other hand Pakistan has a great deal of socio-political magazines as well. Socio-political magazines are very vast when it comes to information. One can read articles about the government, the latest fashion, the economy crisis or even the latest openings of malls and successful cafes. Having to deal with so many issues basically means they have to cater to a large number of audience with different areas of interests. Some would be interested in reading the articles related to the news and business, some would be interested to the political issues, while others would be interested more towards the social and fashion articles and advertisements. An example of a socio-political magazine is the FYI Magazine (for your information).
Coming to nature, one of the most popular and the most trusted magazines is the National Geographic Magazine. This magazine does not only comprise of nature, but also makes use of sub-genres like animal study and photography. Such magazines do not have a very big audience, but are very inspirational and informative towards whatever little audience they have. Such magazines are completely advertised and distributed in accordance to the interests and hobbies of the audience. The audience of such a magazine can consist of photography students, environmentalists or simply animal lovers. Computing, technological and gaming magazines are basically catered to the male society of young boys who have an interest in new technologies and games, and students of computing media or engineering. Lastly, medicine is a very rare genre of magazines and simply caters to medical students and doctors to whom it might be of interest and relevance Stepping aside from a general view, i will now come to the magazine i have chosen for detailed study, the socio-political magazine, FYI.
The FYI Magazine
As mentioned above, FYI magazine-Pakistan, is one of the very few magazines in Pakistan that cater to such a vast audience due to all the sub-genres the magazine comprises of. The four pictures above illustrate the versatile nature of the magazine. The first two pictures show the magazine cover of models dressed in branded wear, which caters to the 'fashion' department of the magazine. However, the third cover shows a picture of one of Pakistan's very talented actors, Hina Dilpazir, which caters to the 'media' department and the personal life of the actor interviewed, as well as his or her view regarding social, political as well as literary affairs. The fourth magazine cover is simply regarding the official start of the new year 2012. I other words, the magazine has very few boundaris and limitation to information and affairs.
Here are some examples of the types os sub-headings one would find while reading the FYI magazine:
- Politics
- Socio Culture
- Fashion
- Music
- Film
- Television
- Literature
FYI magazine also appreciates and initiates write ups from the public regarding their thoughts and suggestions, feedback and their likes and dislikes about the magazine. This is taken as a way to get the audience remarks and apply them accordingly when preparing and launching their next issue. This method of gathering audience feedback also leaves a good impression of the magazine management on the audience and hence, brand loyalty is likely to be achieved FYI is distributed in all the mega-cities of Pakistan, Karachi being the head quarters, Islamabad, Lahore etc. It is available at every bookstore, as well as super markets proving with newspapers and magazines. High quality textured, glossy paper is used for printing, and the magazine relates to relevant and brief information and manages to be a handy, thin magazine, consisting of around 35 pages.
Every year the cover pages are unique and informative in their own way. Like most magazines do, FYI tends to present the most important issue of the magazine on the cover page, whether it's over a fashion show, an important interview, a big event that took place, the opening of a new cafe or simply over photography by a famous photographer of a well-known model or a well-known brand. Here is an example of covers that illustrate the main issue of inside the magazine.
This magazine was launched in 2008. Its cover shows the main events being discussed in the magazine, that were, the article on The Chicago Musical play held in Karachi and the Samar Mehdi Fashion Show. The cover page is divided into two pictures and one is of the play and the other is of the fashion show. Also, the cover pages have sub-headings written on them, informing the readers what will likely to be found out inside the magazine, in this case, it said The Chicago Musical - opening in Karachi 27th July and The Sama Mehdi Fashion Show - Exclusive Behind the This cover was given to the launch of 2008. As shown on the cover, the main two issues of this years scenes.
An Example Of FYI's Best-written Articles : In conversation with Sharmee Obaid Chinoy
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