How magazine companies TRY and retain their audiences

They choose the design and content of their magazines very carefully

· Attractive, bold front covers

· Free gifts such as chocolate, bags etc

· Special offers such as money off vouchers, or competitions

· Famous stars on the front cover and in the articles

· Familiar and consistent style to make the reader recognise them

· Offers reader the solution to their problems (Utopian Solutions)

· Gratifies their audience’s needs eg identification (Uses & Gratifications) For example as many of their readers seem to be suffering during the recession they create articles such as “Angry Generation” encouraging readers to feel like they are not alone.

· Makes the reader feel involved by using direct address, invites the reader to write in, email them, sign a petition. Makes them feel important.

· They regularly drop their price for one month only, especially at times of the year when their readers are likely to have less money (eg in January just after Christmas)

· They work with other companies to offer interesting online advertising opportunities (Institutional Convergence). For example, Muller Light sponsor a whole section of the Cosmo website which Hearst UK earns money from.

They use synergy (other forms of media) to attract attention to their magazine

· Interesting, interactive website to complement the magazine along with online advertising opportunities for advertisers who are no longer wanting to place ads in printed magazines.

· Product Placement in films and TV programmes. Eg Cosmopolitan features heavily in films such as Legally Blond and is often mentions in Friends.

· Branded TV channel to match the magazine. Cosmopolitan TV used to be available on cable TV but now is available online only. It features hundreds of behind the scenes videos about the making of that month’s magazine including interviews with the cover stars etc

· TV Commercials – Hearst has run several TV ads for Cosmo magazine, although none are currently being broadcast. Examples can be seen here

Facebook - site for Cosmo has over a million fans and although they focus on the US edition, they are still able to monitor comments and suggestions from fans all over the world.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/Cosmopolitan

There is also a game app called Cosmopolitan Me which allows users to create their own personalised Cosmo front cover using a photo of themselves on the front cover etc.. http://apps.facebook.com/covermeascosmopolit/?newlib=0&ref=ts&sc=0&news_id=0&page&new_question&historyKey&previousApp&randKey

· Twitter – The Cosmo UK Twitter Page has nearly 52,000 followers. They “tweet” roughly 20 times each day with short snippets of articles, or questions they want their followers to answer, and ALWAYS include a link which when clicked on, takes the user directly to the Cosmo website http://twitter.com/#!/CosmopolitanUK

· Text Messages – When users sign up to the Cosmo website they submit their mobile phone number. Every month when the magazine is released, users receive a reminder via text. They also used this when the magazine Sugar was still being published. Sugar’s readers were more “teens” of a school age and so the texts were sent at lunchtime to ensure their readers were on their lunchbreaks at school and could go and buy it!

· Emails - When users sign up to the Cosmo website they submit their email addresses. Every day / week / month users receive a Cosmo newsletter via email with links to their website and when the magazine is released, users receive a reminder to buy it via email as well.

· Mobile Phone Apps – Hearst has, in the past tried out several different mobile phone apps for the I-Phone for Cosmo, none have which have been very successful and have been systematically closed down. These included a “Sex Position of the Month” app, a “CosmoShop” app for buying Cosmo merchandise and a “Style & Beauty” app with Cosmo related material. There is now only ONE Cosmo UK app available which is a Celebrity Look-A-Like app where users can search for celebrity look-alikes and upload their own photos of lookalikes. These can then be viewed either on the app, or on the website http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/lookalikes

· I Pad Apps – Cosmo China and Cosmo Russia have successful I Pad Apps which are essentially a downloadable digital version of the magazine that readers pay for rather than purchasing the printed copy. Perhaps these are successful as people of that age in Russia and China are more likely to own an I-pad. One of Hearst UK’s successful men’s magazines Esquire has a successful I Pad version as well, perhaps because men are more likely to have gadgets like I Pads. Marie Claire (published by IPC) also has a successful I Pad App, perhaps because their readers have slightly more disposable income than readers of Cosmo and are maybe more likely to own an I Pad. Cosmo UK is yet to release an I Pad app or downloadable version of the magazine

· Chat Forums – Cosmo Chat is the chat forum on the Cosmo website. It has over 210,000 users and nearly 2 million individual posts have been made. The chat forum encourages readers to feel like part of a community

· Cross Promotion using Other Magazines / websites – Hearst regularly promotes Cosmo in its other magazines like Company and Men’s Health. This is FREE advertising for Cosmo. Likewise on the Cosmo website, they have a dating section allowing users to find men. These men sign up via the Men’s Health website and the Men’s Health logo is visible everywhere on this part of the Cosmo site offering MH free advertising. http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/dating/?cmpid=datingnav

· Horizontal Integration - Release spin off magazines to attract particular readers and encourage them to stay within the “Hearst” umbrella of magazines. For example Cosmo Bride and Cosmo Parenting aim to pick up readers who feel they are too old for the traditional Cosmo magazine. Cosmo On Campus is a free magazine which is distributed on university campuses and aimed specifically at students with articles focusing on student finance and budget friendly fashion.

· Flexible Video Screens – E-Ink / OLED are technologies which have been developed to make it possible for magazine pages to have video clips incorporated into printed paper pages. In 2008 Hearst International published a special edition of Esquire magazine in the US with an E-Ink front cover featuring a moving image to test the market. It was very popular but too expensive to produce on a regular basis

They develop and sell branded merchandise

· Make-Up – Cosmo have branded make up on sale on their website and in chemists such as Boots

· Cosmetic Tools – Cosmo have branded tools such as eyelash curlers, hairbrushes on sale in Boots and other chemists as well as on their website

· Clothes – Cosmo have branded pyjamas and dressing gowns

· Electrical Items – Cosmo have branded hairdryers and straighteners

· Sports Goods – Cosmo have branded exercise equipment

· Books – Cosmo have branded books, mostly relationship and sex guides

· Jewellery – Cosmo have a jewellery range

· All of these items can be purchased either in shops or on their dedicated website

http://www.cosmoshop.co.uk/?cid=shopnav

They sponsor events or hold events (especially for charities) that will guarantee publicity

· Cosmopolitan Blog Awards

· Cosmopolitan Fragrance Awards

· Cosmopolitan Rape Awareness Campaign

· Cosmopolitan Domestic Violence Campaign

· Cosmopolitan Angry Generation Campaign

Other things they do

· Release spin off or similar magazines (Horizontal Integration) to attract particular readers and encourage them to stay within the “Hearst” umbrella of magazines. For example Cosmo Bride and Cosmo Parenting aim to pick up readers who feel they are too old for the traditional Cosmo magazine. Cosmo On Campus is a free magazine which is distributed on university campuses and aimed specifically at students with articles focusing on student finance and budget friendly fashion.

· Shut down failing magazines to plough more money into their more successful brands. For example Hearst UK shut down Cosmo Girl and Sugar magazine as the teenage market was just not buying printed magazines any more. Instead they turned Sugar into an online only magazine (www.sugarscape.com)

· Market Research into their audience helps them know exactly who they are and what they want. Hearst UK co-own a company called COMAG which help them do this (see COMAG page of this booklet)

· Keep an eye on competitors and sometimes copy their decisions. For example Hearst realised how successful the travel sized magazine Glamour was for Conde Nast in 2001 and copied it by releasing a travel sized issue of Cosmo in 2004

· Employ mainly women to work on their women’s magazines as Hearst believe that it takes a woman to know what a woman wants.

· Hearst International specifically set up Hearst UK because they knew if they wanted to target a British audience they would need a British base, with British journalists, writers, designers etc.

· E-Ink / OLED – are technologies which have been developed to make it possible for magazine pages to have video clips incorporated into printed paper pages. In 2008 Hearst published a special edition of Esquire magazine with an E-Ink front cover featuring a moving image to test the market. It was very popular but too expensive to produce on a regular basis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EWb1zHIx38

· Online Magazine only – Some magazine publishers are ONLY offering magazines online and are not bothering with a printed version

Digital Magazines – some people are suggesting that in the future, magazines will just have one hard backed copy with a computer chip inside that you can buy in the shop, and once purchased, if you have a Wifi connection it will update itself every day with new content. This could also be similar to the option of having a downloadable version of the magazine available on PC’s, Kindles, I Pads etc that updates itself each month if you pay the subscription. However market research has suggested that the price would have to come right down from the current £3.40 to make audiences interested in this idea