journal of digital research & publishing - The Sydney eScholarship ...

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1 P M J O U R N A L O F D I G I T A L R ESEARCH & P UBLISHING The practicality of magazine websites By Emma Turner UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Abstract ‘Magazine websites are asserting their identities and creating friends and communities independent of their famous parents to become young stars of the screen’ (Taylor, p.24). It is fair to argue that unlike other areas within the publishing industry such as books, magazines have capitalised on the digital revolution and magazine publishers and designers see computers as an opportunity as opposed to a threat. The purpose of my article will be to analyse how the magazine website complements the magazine but also to delve deeply into the virtual community of the magazine website and, through the analysis of visual semiotics, study the relationship between the magazine website and the reader. This paper is relevant to digital research and publishing, as it will discuss the evolution of magazines from print to digital. The article will analyse the relationship between the technological and visual formats in magazine websites and compare them to the cultural practises, such as the formation of a magazine community, that the website has created. This culmination of the cultural and the technological aspects will hopefully draw conclusions on the implied and actualised relationship with the reader that the magazine website has created. The implications for the article’s conclusions are that magazine websites will be more popular and accessible than the print magazine itself, due to the community formed around and throughout the website. Keywords ["4)%&4','4+5"-$"(4','()&$)*%&','$+(30-&-#"(%&','4/51"-$"(','*+&%$"-043".','-1Z+(7 TIVES Magazine websites are asserting their identities and creating friends and communities independent of their famous parents to become young stars of the screen’ (Taylor, 2007 p.24). It is fair to argue that unlike other areas within the publishing industry such as books, magazines have capitalized on the digital revolution and magazine publishers and designers see computers as an opportunity as opposed to a threat. The Cosmopolitan magazine’s website (Cosmopolitan) and the New Musical Express magazine’s website (NME) will be closely analysed to exhibit how the magazine website complements the print magazine. A natural evolution from the print magazine’s community, is that of the virtual community of Cosmopolitan and NME where Francis (2005) states that ‘a particular identity for the institution and for users’ (p.28) is generated, illustrating the importance of a relationship between the magazine website and the viewer. 48
1 P M J O U R N A L O F D I G I T A L R ESEARCH & P UBLISHING Unlike print, the magazine website is a culmination of technological and visual formats that create cultural practices, such as the formation of an online chat forum, like the ‘Cosmolicious’ message board where members can talk about a variety of issues from men to fashion in Cosmopolitan. Although the magazine website has many advantages over the print version such as immediacy of content, and the fact that they are updated sometimes numerous times a day, they: …Provide news, exclusive features, longer versions of articles which have appeared in the printed magazine, a picture gallery, searchable diary dates, reader contribution options, a member’s portfolio facility and online shopping featuring exclusive online offers… (Ingham & Weedon 2008, p.209) It must be noted that the magazine website has not had to ‘work’ as hard as the print version in getting reader’s attention as the print magazine has already done that for them. `",+3"& T& i%%87"& .V;;W1S& 3D4>0& 6+36& 6+%& 03,3K$"%& G%)*$6%& X+3*& "76& +38& 67& $"I%*6& $"& advertising to secure readers, although it has been the subject of crosspromotion within the printed magazine’ (p.209). In essence, the magazine website could be described as ‘a natural extension of the magazine’ (Taylor 2007, p.26) and with their extreme interactive natures, ‘a great editorial and marketing tool’ (Taylor 2007, p.26) that promotes the brand. Hence it is no surprise that ‘publishing as a whole has embraced the online magazine format with considerable success.’ (Inghan & Weedon 2008, p.206) As magazine publishers approach the web content as it’s own entity and rather than competitive to print, 570'#%0%"63>9S&6+(*&3&X*90)$76$5&>%#36$7"*+$'&+3*&)%%"&5>%36%8&3"8&$6L*&67&6+%&)%"%46&7D& all – reader, publisher and advertiser.’ (Taylor 2007, p.24) It must be noted that both print and online versions of the magazine have different objectives. The print magazine’s goal is to create something permanent and beautiful for the reader, that they can hold, collect and rip out pages if need be. Evidence of this can be seen through NME’s poster section in the print magazine where beautiful highquality photographs of musicians are placed throughout the magazine. The magazine website however, is updated constantly, a source for extra information, interactivity and a place where readers can come together and form a community based around the magazine. Furthermore this growth away from the print version is functional in design as opposed to stylistic, although publishing houses are still intent on representing the brand whilst acknowledging, ‘the different objectives of the two different products – print and screen’ (Taylor 2007, p.27). Cosmopolitan’s website is highly visual and targets the young women demographic 49
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