HistoryLife Magazine pitch presentation

I think that my verbal presentation went relatively well. I did not use any sort of scripts or notes as prompts during my presentation, which had positive and negative results. I was not 100% sure what I was going to say for each slide and I only had a rough idea of what I was going to talk about, which lead to a certain amount of uncertainty which may have effected the confidence with which I presented.

However, I think not having any notes or scripts was also somewhat beneficial, as I was not tempted to simply read off a piece of paper and not make any eye contact. I also think that my tone was a little more natural since I was speaking from my mind.

Some of the questions I was asked included questions regarding the type of information I would be presenting, and how I would be presenting it. For example, I was asked if I would be presenting history in a fairly dull, factual, history-book style or if I'd be taking a different approach, and I replied that I would be presenting information that was not often spoken about and was not that well known, including interesting historical facts, or the de-bunking of popularly held historical opinions that were not always accurate.

Another question I was asked was whether current events would be discussed in my magazine, to which I replied that I would talk about how current affairs were effected by the events of history, as well as making comparisons between the modern day events and society and the events and society of history, drawing parallels between them.

I was also asked wether each issue of my magazine would be released focusing solely on one historical era and region, to which I replied that each magazine would have a major focus and a major article about one historical era, region, or subject, but that there would be other sections in the magazine about other eras and regions, so as to best appeal to a larger audience with varied interests.

I was also asked when my magazine would release, to which I replied that I would most likely release on a monthly or bi-monthly (once every two months) basis, so there was a large enough gap between each issue release to compile enough interesting information to make up a magazine's worth of content.

Magazine Project

                  Magazine Idea Generation

·      History Magazine

It is a magazine that presents historical facts and events in a magazine format, to both inform and entertain.

·      Fashion Magazine

It is a magazine about current fashion trends and fashion photography, showing recent styles and clothing.

·      Historical Fashion Magazine

It is a combination of the previous two that presents historical fashion

in a magazine format, may work best as a sub-section of the History Magazine idea.

·      Music Magazine

       It is a magazine showing giving information about various bands, including popular bands and new up-and-coming bands, as well as presenting opinions on music.

·      Photography Magazine

It is a magazine showing visually interesting examples of recent photography, combined with information about the photographers who took them.

·      Television Magazine

It is a magazine about television media, which reviews current shows and interviews cast and writers, etc.

·      Writing Magazine

It is a magazine for writers, which gives helpful tips for writing, interviews actual writers, and other content that will be helpful for up and coming authors.

                                   

                                  Chosen Idea

History Magazine Synopsis

The concept of the history magazine is that it will present historical facts, figures and events in a modern magazine style. It will mostly focus on the more fun side of history, giving the readers interesting historical facts in a relatively easily readable format. The magazine would mostly be aimed at people with an interest in history, but it is also to be written in a way that could interest people who do not have much history knowledge.

Existing Products

First published in May 2000, BBC History is a magazine that focuses on the subject of history, especially but not limited to British history. The magazine focuses on a wide range of historical eras and topics.  BBC History publishes on a monthly basis, with an exception for an additional thirteenth Christmas edition.

 

History Today, a popular history magazine, was first published in January 1951. The UK based publication focuses on a variety of historical subjects and topics. The magazine publishes a new issue monthly.

 

Inside History is a bi-monthly history magazine, publishing a new issue every two months. The Australia and New Zealand based publication, featuring a wide range of historical subjects, focusing mainly on people and subjects from Australia and New Zealand, as well as genealogy and ancestry information. The publication first began around 2010.

American History is an American magazine publication focusing on the history of America. The magazine is one of many under the umbrella publication of “History”, which includes other magazines focusing on more specific sections of American History, such as WWII, Aviation history, The Vietnam War, etc.

 National Geographic, among the many subjects it covers, also includes a great deal of historical information in its issues.

The magazine was first published in the October of 1888, and is now an award winning publication, distributed worldwide with widespread popularity. The magazine is published on a monthly basis, but with a few special editions occasionally being released.

The Horrible Histories magazine is a spin-off addition to the Horrible Histories franchise, originating in a series of books about history. The magazine was first published in 2003, running until 2009, before being re-launched in 2012. Like the book series, the magazine is aimed at young children, as reflected in it’s use of cartoon-style images and bright, primary colours, as well as many other      visual features.

Horrible Histories is a book series dedicated to presenting history in a way that is understandable and engaging for young children. The series ran for a 20 year run from 1993 to 2013. The book covers often make use of bright primary covers, to be eye-catching and also to appeal to a young audience. The cover will often feature an illustration related to the contents of the book, and many illustrations and images in a similar cartoon style can be found within the book, with many sections of the book presented in a comic strip style.

 

 

 

                             

                                   Recurring Features

All of these magazines, with the exception of Inside History, use the Serif typeface in their front cover. This typeface tends to give a very mature and professional appearance when it is used, as opposed to Sans Serifs, which tend to be more conductive to a more fun and relaxed sort of appearance. Both of these typefaces have their merits. While the Serif typeface is more fitting with the idea of this type of magazine being more serious and mature, as well as perhaps more appropriate to the target audience of usual readers, the Sans Serif font may be more helpful if one wished to attract a broader audience and not alienate anyone who didn’t fit into the target audience.

 Many of the aforementioned examples of history magazines follow a similar pattern of what they make the focal point of their front cover. Many of the magazines opt to put a person on the front cover, whether it be a genuine photograph or a portrait, a face is usually on the cover of these magazines. The face is often of the person that they will be discussing in detail within the magazine, or at least related to the subject that will be discussed in detail in the magazine, so their appearance on the front cover is not only relevant, but gives the readers an immediate idea of what the magazine’s contents will cover, just by seeing a quick flash of the cover.

A running theme on many of these history magazines is that a few of the articles that are featured within the magazine will be advertised on the front cover. This technique is an effective feature of these magazines as it gives readers a brief idea of what the contents of the magazine will include, which may entice readers into buying the magazine if one of the subjects catches their interest.

Many of the covers in the historical magazine genre tend to use backgrounds combined with the images they put on their front covers. These backgrounds are often relatively blank and plain, and can often consist of some kind of block colour. This helps the image and the articles displayed on the front cover to stand out much more due to contrast. These backgrounds may often be of colours that contrast with the chosen images so that they will stand out much better and be more eye catching, such as the portrait of Anne Boleyn with dark hair and dark clothes being put against a white background, and the portrait of Henry VII, wearing brightly saturated yellow and red clothes, being put against a blue background.

The titles on the front covers are often written in either black and white, which produces significantly more contrast and therefore allows the title to stand out much better. This is because it is important that the title is very immediately clear and readable, because the title of the Magazine should stick in someone’s mind if it catches their eye, so that they may want to research it to potentially look for a subscription if they like it. 

Report

Audience

History magazines often have an older demographic as their target audience, as suggested by the average age of BBC History’s readership being 46, and the average age of National Geographic’s readership being 44. Many people who read history magazines will already have an interest in historical subjects. As seen in the demographic information of some of my researched magazines, the gender of the audience for history magazines is near enough an equal split between male and female. Nearly half of the general demographic is married; with a slightly smaller but still significant portion of the demographic having children in their household, and over half of the demographic are employed. A large portion of the audience will be an intersection of all three of these traits, meaning they are potentially quite busy people. However, this sort of demographic is not always the case for all history magazines. Some magazines, such as the Horrible Histories magazine, may aim their magazine at a very different demographic. With the Horrible Histories magazine specifically, their core readership is male children, aged 7-11. This is a vastly different demographic from the adults in their mid 40s, which has often been the average. But based on the readership of the BBC History magazine, there are significant numbers of the demographic with a higher socio-economic status. Over half of the magazine’s demographic, or 78% of the demographic to be precise, fall into the ABC1 category, which is to say they are apart of the upper middle class. Just a little under half of the demographic, or 48%, are apart of the AB category, which roughly correlates to the upper class. The fact that the vast audience is of a higher economic standing, and therefore has more disposable income, means that they are able to spend more of their money on frivolous purchases, such as magazines. This means that the BBC History magazine, as well as, by extension, other history magazines of a similar nature, can afford to market their magazine product at a higher price, as the vast majority of their audience can afford it. However, it may be possible that the audience of a higher socio-economic status was a result of having the high prices, and not the other way around, which may be potentially alienating of an audience of a lower socio-economic status, unable to afford the high magazine prices on a regular basis, but with an equal passion and interest for the subject matter.

Market

Many history magazines seem to design their magazines in a relatively serious fashion, to keep up with the serious and mature audience that they target. For example, they tend to use the serif typeface, which is considered more professional and serious, which suits the older audience. Many history magazines often put a recognizable image of the subject featured in their issues on that cover, for example, the National Geographic has made use of a reconstruction of the face of King Tut on the cover of one of their issues, which had him as a central figure of their subject matter. Other history magazines seem to have a fairly neutral stance with marketing to any specific gender, and do not seem to have made any attempt to appeal to any specific gender in their design. Many history magazines can often include long articles, spanning over a few pages. These can take quite a long time to read, time which some of this audience may not have to be able to sit down uninterrupted. Many history magazines take very sparse stylistic choices, likely with the intent of maintaining a serious and professional look. This can include having a limited colour palette, or using muted tones in their design, with bright colour only used minimally. This is not always the case, and the Horrible Histories magazine is one example that takes a very different approach, using bright, primary colours excessively. Many of these magazines uses article headers on the front cover in order to advertise the contents of the magazine without potential customers having to even open the magazine. By giving potential readers an idea of what the content will be, with a fair few article headers and/or synopses, they will be likely to find at least one that peaks their interest, most likely enough to attract them to buy the magazine.

Production

I will try and keep a style that appeals to this audience, but also I will use unique style features that set me apart from the other magazines, and potentially broaden the target demographic. I intend to continue the trend of putting relevant images to the main subject of the magazine on the front cover, as people who already have an interest in the history subject in question may recognize this image, and therefore want to look in the magazine. I plan on keeping my marketing of the magazine gender neutral, as the audience as it stands is already fairly close to being even in terms of gender, and appealing to one gender over another would not make much sense as it would be more likely to lose vast numbers of the audience rather than gain. I intend to put many quite small articles in my magazine so that they can be read in a reasonable amount of time, which can be practical for people with a busy lifestyle. In terms of design aspects, I intend to stand out a little from the majority of history magazines by perhaps having greater usage of colour, or at least usage of brighter colours. While many history magazines may use solely black and white, or keep their colours fairly muted, I may use more visually pleasing and eye catching colours in my design. I may combine this with the usage of a black and white colour palette by putting features I want to draw the reader’s eye in brighter colours while leaving a black and white negative space. The contrast between black and white and bright colour will help to make these features eye catching. While many history magazines, aiming at an older and more mature readership, have turned to using a limited colour palette in the pursuit of achieving a serious, mature aesthetic, other magazines aimed at a very different readership of young children instead opted to use a plethora of bright, eye-catching colour. I may look for a balance in between, and perhaps target a new demographic of young adults, that has not been previously targeted toward.

Magazine Proposal

Working Title: History Life

Genre: History Magazine

Synopsis / Treatment: The magazine is a history magazine. It informs readers on various different subjects on various different eras of history, including figures of history, historical events, social history, and many other historical subjects. While the historical points of interest may vary, there will be a greater focus on Early Renaissance history, most likely spanning from parts of the 14th century to the early 17th, as the main subjects of the magazine.

One Line Sales Pitch: A history magazine aimed at people of all levels of knowledge.

Style (similar products and visual style): I intend for my style to be eye-catching, but not to totally stray from the standard of sleek and professional looking magazine styles that is most commonly used in magazines such as history magazines. For example, many history magazines such as BBC History, History Today, American History and National Geographic make use of Serif fonts, which I intend to follow for the most part, though perhaps not exclusively. I also intend to move away from the general consensus of using muted colour schemes and too much black and white, and by using colour to catch the eye of the reader and make the magazine more visually appealing.

Audience: The intention of the magazine is to attract as wide and as varied an audience as possible. A general audience and demographic already exists for magazines of this sort of genre, with people in their 40s, often of a higher socio-economic class, generally being the target audience of history magazine. I will keep this demographic in mind when I design my magazine, but I intend to strike a balance between the audience that I already potentially have and the potential audience, which is to say, everyone else. I believe that trying to strike at a wider audience could be a unique selling point of my magazine, as much history related media can be considered elitist and aimed at only a very small and select group of people.

Legal & Ethical Considerations: It is important to consider ethical considerations in this magazine, as it will be discussing history and historical events. Historical events and how we perceive history has had a significant effect on the world we live in today, and continues to have an effect, and many historians find the line between what counts as “history” and what counts as “current affairs” is blurred. Considering this, it is important to be cautious of how information is handled and presented in the magazine, and assure that it is delivered without bias that may sway it’s presentation. It is also important to present the history of various cultures and regions, and not just focus on the history of certain select groups and regions, as it is important that all groups of people have their history represented and not just a certain few specific cultures.

Production Methods & Requirements [outline required techniques, resources  and methods of production]: Given the nature of the magazine genre, it will be relatively necessary to use content I have not created. Specifically, I will need to make use of images such as old photographs, art and portraits when talking about the history, as it is relevant imagery that helps to detail the subject matter of the magazine. However, I will not necessarily need to solely use other people’s images. For example, the city of York is nearby and has many sites of historical relevance and importance that could have a place in the magazine. This would mean I would need to set aside time to do a photography session in York, possibly multiple sessions if I need to return to get more photos. I would require a camera to go through with this, and I would also have to hope for reasonable weather conditions. An alternative source of images to use in the magazine is to create them myself by creating images through digital art, which would also add an interesting stylistic feature to the magazine.