GQ - Audience & Industries blog tasks

 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?

Entering a new era of leadership and influence under Adam 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.

ABC1= 61% -> suggests that GQ audiences are from a higher social class, mostly middle to upper class

Readership= 212k -> suggests that there are hundreds of thousands of people consuming GQ magazines around the world- global audience.

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

The Men of the year awards - makes sense since they have a male dominated audience base , GQ Heroes is a festival of ideas that brings together game changers, creative radicals, deep thinkers and cultural icons for three days of panels and live performances.

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

It suggests that audiences are mostly reverting to technological convergence for their media consumption and that is why the video and social series is a huge hit  for GQ since advancements in technology have allowed them to build an online series from their magazine, to gain more popularity as magazine consumption has changed.

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? 

In the UK, getting the cover right is paramount – at GQ especially, most sales of the magazine are retail rather than subscription, so the cover has a huge impact on sales. The mistake, though, is to simply try to get the most famous person for any given month who has a ‘hook’ – a ‘hook’ being a film/ TV show/ album etc they’re promoting, and hence the reason they would do the cover in the first place – but the reality is this often doesn’t work. It needs to be the right person at the right time – that always matters more than fame. The mistake, though, is to simply try to get the most famous person for any given month who has a ‘hook’ – a ‘hook’ being a film/ TV show/ album etc they’re promoting, and hence the reason they would do the cover in the first place – but the reality is this often doesn’t work. It needs to be the right person at the right time – that always matters more than fame. Exclusivity also matters.

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

Fundamentally, GQ is a men’s style magazine, and so GQ is always in service to that, both in print and online.

Certainly, GQ wouldn’t consider itself just this – at its best, it’s also a brilliant forum for excellent profile writing and world-class photography and design, along with award-winning long form feature writing and sharp culture writing – but men’s style is the magazine’s core, and, along with high-end watch brands, is where the vast majority of the magazine’s advertising revenue comes from. This means nearly all shoots in the magazine – celebrities and otherwise – are done in tandem with the magazine’s style editors to showcase the best new men’s style on offer. And more simply, the service elements of the magazine aim to keep the reader up to date on the latest style trends.

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

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. 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. These won’t necessarily be fashion brands, but crucially the goal will be to align their brand with the GQ one.

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. 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.

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? 

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”. 

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

There have been many people leaving the magazine, those who previously worked there. This is primarily due to sweeping company restructuring, brand consolidations, and print-to-digital shifts that have resulted in multiple rounds of layoffs.

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

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

It says that they have approached a new digital-first strategy designed to produce less duplication of content.

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

Last month, 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.”

He added: “I think our previous model worked really well for a very, very long time. I also think it was very romanticised and that over years it became less and less sensical in a globalised world.”

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?

They have YouTube and digital series such as Vogue: Beauty secrets, WIRED and GQ. They also stream content on streaming services such as Hulu and Shoppable video.

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

The company is focusing on reaching those segments of its audience who do not watch traditional broadcast and cable networks. “Last year we announced the launch of the Condé Nast Influence Network, our alternative to traditional broadcast and cable networks, showcasing our unmatched ability to create video content that resonates with consumers and drives the cultural conversation,” said Drucker Mann. “This year, we’re building on that influence by creating more engaging, interactive experiences for our audiences and distributing them across new channels — connecting with 10.3 million viewers that aren’t reachable on broadcast and cable. 

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 GQ website and print magazine both target men with content about fashion, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, using celebrity features and high quality photography to engage readers.

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 menu items suggest that GQ's audience are interested in fashion, personal appearance, health, luxury products and modern lifestyle trends, indicating a style-conscious reader who may be an aspirer or succeeder.

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 links closely to their brand image as well as the portrayal of luxury and fashion- it does appeal to a similar audience as the print one does because both types of readers are interested in style, culture and luxury living.

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

I think mainly their goal is to build a digital audience because everything is shifting online now and the obsoletion of print magazines is yet to come so they need to keep up with the trends of current, contemporary consumers, even though it can also help promote their print magazine and overall brand.

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 is successful online in meeting consumer demands of style and fashion advice with their content and digital platforms allow them to reach a wider audience. However, digital platforms are unlikely to completely replace print as some readers still value the premium feel, collect-ability and in-depth experience of a physical magazine.