Magazines: The Gentlewoman - Audience and Industries

-

 Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on The Gentlewoman (MM84 - page 34). Answer the following questions:


1) What does the article suggest is different about the Gentlewoman compared to traditional women's magazines? 
 It has minimalist covers and the only text is the title, subtitle and name of the person in the photograph, which the masthead is in lower case! Compared with Vogue, Elle or 
Cosmopolitan, the gentlewoman has no need to shout.

2) What representations are offered in the Gentlewoman?  
gentlewoman is pleasingly wide ranging. the gentlewoman does a pretty good job of presenting a spectrum of womanhood  This includes playing with ideas of gender performativity and stereotypes.

3) List the key statistics in the article on the average reader of the magazine. 
 85 percent of the gentlewoman’s audience are women. 61 precent of it's readers are aged 28-46. 47 per cent of The Gentlewoman ’s readers are in the A or B categories of the NRS social grading system.The gentlewoman’s average reader's salary is £87k.

4) What is The Gentlewoman Club? 
an ‘international society’ of ‘sophisticated women and men who demand quality and originality from their agenda of cultural happenings’ The club is both a real, offline way to get to know
others who share similar interests, a way of deepening brand loyalty among readers, and a cynical way to covertly market products to a highly affluent and motivated targeted audience who are made to feel special.

5) What theorists does it suggest we can apply to the Gentlewoman's club?
David Gauntlett’s ideas about how we, as media consumers, use media products to help create our identity. It could definitely be argued that by creating a club, the gentlewoman is able to tailor and construct a superglamorous and ultra-modern ‘reality’ for its readers – a simulation that would make Baudrillard perk up.

6) What does the writer of article suggest they are getting out of their relationship with the magazine?
It provides me with a glimpse into the world of high fashion and celebrity and picks a few choice social trends to help me feel in the know. It meets some of my needs for cultural and media interaction and all it asks in return is the price of a cinema ticket and that I put up with
some targeted marketing. 

7) Who are the team behind the magazine?
Creators Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom have come up with a number of subversive and unconventional publications.

8) How does the Gentlewoman use their website and social media to promote the magazine? 
the gentlewoman’s liberal use of cross-platform social media helps deepen readers’ relationship with the brand,while being a largely free resource to the company.

9) What are the 'creative collaborations' in the magazine? How do they 'spill over into real life'?
Brands use the gentlewoman’s own writers and photographers to market their products to the gentlewoman’s audiences. The gentlewoman has made it seem like an utterly natural feature of the magazine. And the collaborations spill over into real life with special events for club members. All these strategies help to make the gentlewoman feel modern and relevant to those the magazine is targeting.

10) How does the article sum up the audience pleasures of the Gentlewoman? 
the gentlewoman is not for everyone. But this in turn gives it a sort of cult appeal – exclusivity, being in the know, enjoying the old medium of magazines in a modern way.


2) The Gentlewoman Media kit

Look through The Gentlewoman's Media Kit and answer the following questions:

1) How does the Media Kit introduce the magazine?
“A stylish read, unlike any other women’s magazine out there”
The Gentlewoman is widely recognised as the definitive style title for the modern woman. Intelligent, opinionated and entertaining, it has set a new standard in women’s magazines with its high-quality writing and fashion photography celebrating modern women of style and purpose.

2) On the 'Digital' page, what different sections of the website are there and how do these offer opportunities for audience engagement and interaction? 
Library- a  repository of the in-depth profiles of women of great renown and distinc- tion from past editions of the magazine. 
Club- The online home for The Gentlewoman Club and its various activities and events.
Magazine- A précis of each edition of The Gentlewoman with editorial excerpts.
Collaborations- A portfolio of The Gentlewoman’s creative brand partnerships.
Shop- The outlet for The Gentlewoman’s product collaborations, magazine sub-
scriptions and back issues.

3) What are the audience demographics for The Gentlewoman?
Median age = 32 years
22%= 18–27 years
61%= 28–46 years
11%= 47–55 years
6%= 56+ years

Female readers = 85%
Male readers= 15%
ABC1= 76%
AB= 47%
Average income= £87,255

4) What is The Gentlewoman Club and what does it offer readers?
The Gentlewoman Club is an international society of the magazine’s readers, which currently has up to 39,000 active members

• A readers get-together at Tenderbooks, London, for a festive preview of
The Gentlewoman No 17
• The Glimpses of the Future international architectural day tours of
Los Angeles and London developed and staged in partnership with COS
• A launch party for The Gentlewoman No 15 at Pasticceria Marchesi,
Milan, co-hosted with Prada

5) What Creative Collaborations
Delfina Delettrez: The Cocktail Needle. Supporting collateral included an editorial feature in the A/W ’17 issue of the magazine; specially- designed co-branded packaging; an exclusive launch cocktail

Chanel: a fabulous six-page portrait series with Lucia Pica, Chanel’s global creative make-up and colour designer, photographed by Karim Sadli.


3) D&AD Award Winner feature


1) How is the magazine described?
The Gentlewoman celebrates modern women of style and purpose, offering an intelligent perspective on fashion through ambitious journalism and photography

2) What does it say about the content and design of The Gentlewoman?
The editorial design continues its evolution with the introduction of new typographical and layout elements, along with the magazine’s ongoing commitment to enhancing its photography by working with the leading names in the field.

3) How are the readers described?
Speaking to its audience as readers not consumers and they have an intimate relationship with readers through The Club (28,000 subscribers). Members are invited to a range of events.


4) Business of Fashion website feature 

Read this Business of Fashion feature on The Gentlewoman - the magazine that is also a club. If you don't want to sign up to the website (free) then you can access the text of the article on Google Drive here (you'll need your Greenford Google login). Answer the following questions: 

1) What events are listed as part of The Gentlewoman Club?
Cos store in Spitalfields Market in the East End of the city, full-blown architectural tour of London’s most famous brutalist landmarks and modernist social housing estates, finishing with lunch at the Isokon building, a white concrete block designed by architect Wells Coates.

2) Why does it suggest the magazine has managed to 'cut through the clutter'?
They have an intelligent take on fashion and culture aimed at smart and tasteful women. it is
more concerned with the sartorial fascination with the nuances of dressing than macro fashion trends and repetitive narratives.

3) How are Gentlewoman Club tickets given out? 
The Gentlewoman Club is free to those who sign up on the magazine’s website and are selected for a slot. Martin, who hosts each event, hand-picks the attendees much like one might curate the guest list for a dinner party.

4) What does the article say about The Gentlewoman's relationship with its audience? 
It's very important that the readers feel part of something sincere and consistent.

5) Why are Club events valuable from a digital perspective? 
"I’d love to say I planned it, but it was just sheer luck that the club began to generate online assets that the magazine can use to engage readers between its bi-annual issues."


5) Website and social media research

1) Visit The Gentlewoman's website. How does it promote the magazine? 
It shows issues as sneek peaks and intrduces the celebrity of their cover for that current edition

2) Visit the magazine page of the website. How much of the magazine is available to view online? Is this a smart marketing technique to sell print copies or is it giving content away for free? 
A few pages of the magazine are available to look at but i think this is a smart to promote because their target audience will see that they like the design of the magazine and will not be hesitant to subscribe 

3) Look at The Gentlewoman's Twitter feed. What content from the magazine or Club events can you find on there? 

4) Go to The Gentlewoman's Instagram page. How does it encourage the audience to engage with the magazine? 
It shows their collaborations with chanel and their podcast for readers to tune into

5) What representations of fashion and gender can you find on their Instagram page? 
Very modern and minimilst representations of fashion with simple coulours and neutral facial expressions. The instagram posts show women ina avery authentic, filterless way using models from young to elderly and different backgrounds 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Audience theory 2 - the effects debate

-
  Theory questions and your opinion 1) Social learning theory has been criticised for simplifying the causes of violence in society. Do you think the media is responsible for anti-social behaviour and violence? I think it plays a significant role but the media is not solely responsible. The more young people continue to socialise online and not in person, they will develop anti-social mannerisms    2) How is social learning theory relevant in the digital age? Are young people now learning behaviour from social media and the internet? Give examples. Yes, young people are now learning behaviour from social media as the more they consume, the more they are convinced that what they see is the norm. This proves the social learning theory to be even more relevant and present in the digital age 3) Research  three  examples of moral panic from the last 50 years. To what extent was the media responsible for these moral panics? Was the concern in society justified? How have things changed as a r
Read more

Advertising: David Gauntlett and masculinity

-
  David Gauntlett: academic reading Read  this extract from Media, Gender and Identity by David Gauntlett . This is another university-level piece of academic writing so it will be challenging - but there are some fascinating ideas here regarding the changing representation of men and women in the media. 1) What examples does Gauntlett provide of the "decline of tradition"? The traditional view of a woman as a housewife or low-status worker has been kick-boxed out of the picture by the feisty, successful 'girl power' icons 2) How does Gauntlett suggest the media influences the way we construct our own identities? Television programmes, pop songs, adverts, movies and the internet all also provide numerous kinds of 'guidance' - not necessarily in the obvious form of advice-giving, but in the myriad suggestions of ways of living which they imply.  Magazines, bought on one  level for a quick fix of glossy entertainment, promote self-confidence (even if they partly
Read more

Advertising: Introduction to advertising

-
  Create a new blog post called 'Advertising: Introduction to advertising blog tasks'. Read ‘Marketing Marmite in the Postmodern age’ in MM54  (p62). You'll   find our Media Magazine archive here  - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access. You may also want to re-watch the Marmite Gene Project advert above. Answer the following questions on your blog: 1) How does the Marmite Gene Project advert use narrative? Apply some narrative theories here. It uses an entertaining story using Propps Character types where the people in the homes are the villains for not using the marmites and the marmite is the damsels  in distress being saved by the workers. 2) What persuasive techniques are used by the Marmite advert? Funny narrative to make the audience laugh and a lot of dramatic exaggeration when the people found out whether they were marmite lovers or haters 3) Focusing specifically on the Media Magazine article, what does John Berger suggest about advertisin
Read more