Magazines as a media form

A brief history:

The earliest example of magazines was Erbauliche Monaths Unterredungen, a literary and philosophy magazine, which was launched in 1663 in Germany.^[9] The Gentleman's Magazine, first published in 1731 in London was the first general-interest magazine.^[10] Edward Cave, who edited The Gentleman's Magazine under the pen name "Sylvanus Urban," was the first to use the term "magazine," on the analogy of a military storehouse. In the mid-1800s, monthly magazines gained popularity. They were general interest to begin, containing some news, vignettes, poems, history, political events, and social discussion.^[20] Unlike newspapers, they were more of a monthly record of current events along with entertaining stories, poems, and pictures.

Mass circulation magazines became much more common after 1900, some with circulations in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Some passed the million-mark in the 1920s. It was an age of mass media. Because of the rapid expansion of national advertising, the cover price fell sharply to about 10 cents.^[24] One cause was the heavy coverage of corruption in politics, local government and big business' which encouraged journalists to write and expose these 'secrets'.

In the UK alone, there are over 8000 different magazine titles for general sale.However, Magazine sales have been in steady decline since the arrival of the internet.
Some magazine producers have said that the industry is in crisis, as print editions must compete with online only magazines, such as Salon.com.

Magazines face competition from blogging platforms, which provide free content, produced by writers including experts, celebrities and the general public.

Most popular magazines have responded to these changes by publishing their own online editions, which contain some free content and interactive features.Examples of these interactive features include:

Quizzes and questionnaires

Comments sections where the reader can interact with the content

Videos and podcasts

Links to buy the products featured and advertised

Magazines are still popular as portable, read anywhere objects. However, as the use of tablets and smartphones increases, the popularity of the magazine as a portable object may also decline.

Genres:

Magazines can be general interest for mainstream audiences or specialist interest for niche audiences. Magazines for mainstream audiences include:

Grazia

Four Four Two

Q Magazine

Magazines produced for niche audiences include:

Homes and Antiques

Horse and Hound

Classic Land Rover Magazine

Magazines are produced in a wide range of subgenres with a specific focus on particular subjects such as health, food, cinema, video games or music.Genres include-Fashion BeautyCraft Teen GossipGardeningComputing Sci-fi Political Current affairs Economic EnvironmentalVideo GamesSportHealth and FitnessCookery ChildrensMothering Music LifestyleScienceMotoring LiteraturePoetry Pornography Animals

Codes and Conventions of magazines:

At a glance, you can generally tell if a magazine is going to satisfy your interests, outlook and aspirations.Different magazines have distinct house styles that convey their brand identity.The brand identity and point-of-view (or ideology) conveyed by a magazine is vital when we consider that magazines are selling us content that is often aspirational.

Modes of address:

Different magazines have different modes of address. This may be formal and informative, or more casual and catchy.Magazines use design and language to stand out from their competitors in the same subgenre.

For example, Kerrang! and NME both use an informal tone and style but Kerrang! uses language that will appeal specifically to heavy metal fans. NME, which is also informal, uses language that will appeal to indie music fans.A magazine contents page lists all of its content including regular pages and special features. The audience (or readers) will normally expect to find regular pages in the same place for each editon.

For example, readers of Empire will know where to find cinema reviews, as opposed to feature articles. Readers of a lifestyle magazine will expect to find items like horoscopes near the back.

Features are particular to each magazine issue. They will contain new content on current topics and may be an exclusive for the magazine.