Magazine Proposal

PROPOSAL

Main Product

My product is a lifestyle magazine that aims to inspire the creativity within people aged 16-25 – the age where these affluent people are aspirational and discovering what gives them joy in life. My magazine focuses on hobbies and pastimes, such as music, singing, art, and literature, providing an array of information that can spark a hidden talent, support those trying new things, and, of course, provide the latest entertainment news on well-known celebrities that share my audiences’ passions. My magazine will be of relatively high quality, and feature relatively high-quality information and stories. Whilst there will be advertisements and sponsors, this is necessary in today’s industry in order to provide the high-quality content that is standard for my more middle-market audience, and they will be in less frequency and of higher quality products than any old lifestyle magazine. This supports Hearst Magazine’s ideologies and core values – a magazine that doesn’t just entertain audiences, but educates them too. This will attract an audience who appreciates learning whilst acknowledging the need for leisure. My products will aim to use the mise-en-scene, fonts, and images to reflect the high quality, passion-focused nature of the magazine, with a mix of modern, youthful, and artsy fonts and images to appeal to my target audience. My magazine will also be one of representation – it is aimed at all demographics, and features all demographics. Sexuality, race, gender, and religion are all important parts of our identities and the celebration of diversity within the featured industries is a fundamental part of my magazine brand. 

Website

My website will aim to be an extension of the magazine, providing both digital versions of and additional content to audiences who enjoy the digital form or want to expand their interests and find out more. On an online platform, too, there are further possibilities for audience interaction, with social media, links, and video and audio to enhance users’ experiences of Hearst’s new lifestyle magazine, and be accessible to a wider audience. The website will continue the magazine house style, whilst adding its own personal touch in order to reflect how it can provide more to an audience than its print version. Its modern, youthful design will provide easy access to everything audiences may need – contact information, subscriptions, and, of course, a contents navigation full of interesting topics all linked to passions and hobbies, all of which will attract my younger target audience who appreciate the ease of online websites. Our social media presence will not only expand Hearst’s brand identity, but will promote the latest lifestyle magazine, increase audience interactivity, and allow readers to share their opinions and ideas with us and each other. The website will include pages conventional of magazines, including pages dedicated to interviews and photo albums, as well as regular stories. In order to fit within the Hearst brand, the website will share features present on other Hearst magazine websites, and may perhaps feature collaborations between the different lifestyle magazines. Like my main magazine products, the website will feature a unique burst of colour and style to reflect and attract the youthful, artistic audience, whilst also being sleek and modern in layout, traditional of most magazine websites today. 

--------

The digital age has led to a shift to online platforms and a convergence of technology integrating a range of media platforms. Especially in order to keep up with and appeal to a younger demographic, in which my magazine, and Hearst overall, are targeting, it is important that magazine brands take advantage of online platforms such as social media and websites. Possessing a website version of your magazine allows you to utilize the digitally convergent nature of online platforms, creating a succinct and flowing brand across all platforms – magazine, website, and social media. To do this I will attempt to maintain a constant house style, with similar colours, fonts, style of imagery, language, and content (and logo/masthead of course). This reinforces the brand identity and helps audiences create an idea of what my magazine brand is. On the website you will be able to find the cover, contents page, and all the content within the physical magazine, but in digital form. This creates a transition between the medians and reminds audiences that the two platforms are the same magazine. I feel that my website will be unique due to the specific focus on passions and hobbies my magazine has, which will allow me to personalize and design my website to that theme – it may also allow for pages that may not be featured on regular lifestyle magazine websites.