Publishing House Case Study

Publishing House Case Study

I have chosen the Harris publishing company. Harris Publishing, Inc. is and American consumer-magazine publisher in New York City, New York that publishes over 75 titles. It was founded in 1977 by Stanley R. Harris who had been In the magazine publishing business since the late 1960’s, most prominently with the latter –day pulp publisher Myron Fass.

Which magazine titles does the company publish?

There are different divided parts to what Harris Publishing Company publishes such as the Harris Outdoor Magazines which publish several titles on hunting, fishing and firearms. Another section published Juicy, XXL, King, Dog News, 0-60, Guns & Weapons for Law enforcements, Small Business Opportunities, Men’s Workout, Exercise and Health, Celebrity Hairstyles and many more.

In 1983, Harris also included their well-known horror magazines Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. He then formed comics in 1985, publishing a single issue of Creepy, but legal murkiness and a 1999 lawsuit by Warren publications Eerie.

Harris Comics also published a number of non-Vampirella comics in the superhero and science fiction genres.

What types of audiences are targeted by these magazines?

The magazine ‘Juicy’ is targeted for black woman, the first celebrity and lifestyle magazine for African Women, specifically targeting the 18-24 demo, because Juicy magazine is about celebrity gossip and also talks about high- interest characters such as Beyonce, Jay-Z, Rihanna and the Real Housewife’s of Atlanta, with beauty content which emphasizes The latest and greatest in hairstyle and hair products. King magazine also targets the ages 18-24 but for men.  XXL, King, Dog News, 0-60, Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcements and more directly reaches there targetd, influential, cross-cultural young adult audience.

Why would it target different audiences with each magazine that it makes?

I believe that Harris Publishing targets different audiences with each magazine that is makes because it wants a wider audience that fit in each cultural section to which they would make and sell more magazines, and this would raise the amount of money they get. Also there wont be a specific genre of magazine for a specific audience because they want everyone to buy it.

 

Profiling your audience

Profiling your audience

My music magazine is quiet similar to the Rolling Stone character profile as they not only produce information about music but also T.V, movies and even politics and they also mention things there audience want in a magazine such as bold stories, big interviews insightful commentary which defines its audience and my UK music magazine will feed just as good information as the Rolling Stone magazine in the USA. They also have a similar age group which is 18-24 and my target audience will target 16-25 which doesn’t make a big difference. Rolling Stone does not only produce just music magazines but also other music genres which would get a bigger audience as they have said “Rolling Stone goes beyond just taking the pulse of youth culture. Rolling Stone is the pulse of youth culture” and this gives a wider audience as any teenager could buy this magazine because it is for any ‘youth culture’ and also any music genre. I intend to also get a wider audience just as Rolling Stone has so that more people would buy my magazine.

Rebecca is 16 years old, and a passionate R&B fan. From the ages of 13-16 she always took part in her school talent shows by singing to the audience and making out she was a celebrity on stage. Rebecca has many R&B role models such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Chirs Brown and many more but her all time favourite is Rihanna as she has attended to most of her concerts and have even met her in person, her dream wish is to sing with her on stage. Rebecca is willing to be a singer as she gets older and get into the music career. As Rihanna’s biggest fan her room is filled with her posters and she owns a big stack of her CD’s beside her bed next to her radio and also holds a book which has Rihanna’s concert tickets and all the time she has attended to them. Her hobbies are singing, dancing, hanging out with her friends and most importantly going to many of her favourite R&B concerts.

 

Post production feedback

Post production feedback

Front Cover Feedback – Strengths

“The audience that have seen my front cover and have given me positive feedback have said that they love the colours that I have used overall. The images were really clear and that the cut out was really good and also once again the colour scheme works well.  Another positive comment they have said was that they liked the background effect on my music magazine and also they think it looks professional and makes them want to see what this magazine has in store in the inside. The audience also liked the effect I used on the image”.

Weaknesses –

“My audience had said I could have improved the top part of my music magazine as it did look a bit plain.  Some people said that I should have used fancy writing which would have made my magazine look more professional and not so childish”.

Contents page – Strengths

“Some people had said that my contents page is good and they like the way the model is singing down the bottom of my contents page as she looks like she’s coming out from the page. Other people said that its good overall and also that the pictures are really clear and the purple contrasts well against the black. They also said that they like the way I have laid out my contents page. They love the colours as it makes it look really different and funky but overall they love it and want to keep reading on”.

Weaknesses –

“The text is too big and the page numbers are too amateur. I could have made the line at the top straight as it was not joint well together. Other people said that I could have changed the colour scheme instead of sticking to the same one that’s one my front cover, also the font could have looked more professional looking”.

DPS – Strengths

“My audience really liked how the text was placed in the middle and how the images are around the edge of the pages which looks different and unique but still looks great. Other people have said that it looks exciting and not boring to read”.

Weaknesses-

“My audience didn’t like the colour of the image on the right hand corner of my DPS as it looked too yellow and also the font on the title is too big. I could have written more information and made the pictures a bit smaller.”

Evaluation Question 7 - Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

When I had done my first task, I have learnt a huge amount since then which progressed my skills further to my main task. Learning the conventions made me improve my magazine as previously I had not understood and didn’t include as much conventions and also the presentation of them. Although I have included a mast head and cover lines for my preliminary task, it still didn’t look as professional ass the music magazine I have done now.One of the main tools I have used which uplifted my magazine too look much more professional than it already is, is by the use of a good camera and Photoshop which I was not so good at first and this helped me improve my magazine in many ways, I was also able to manipulate my photos which made it easier and was more helpful. My preliminary task was to create a front cover and a contents page whereas my full task was to also create a double page spread and so I learnt how to use a A3 canvas to complete the whole product.

I also learnt how to get my target audience to relate to my magazine as when doing my first magazine I didn’t know much about getting the audience interested and attracted with my magazine. I also managed to learn how to focus on a main social group that related together with my music magazine which helped me a lot because I knew how to produce my magazine even better. However, in my preliminary task I had a large social group and so this was harder for me to manage and create my magazine.

Lastly, Using the Cannon SO3 400D cameras was the best that I have learnt to take good quality pictures as when I first tried to use it, it was really complicated to use.

Evaluation Quesiton 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

 I have learnt many things from the process of constructing this product that helped me get my magazine together. The first thing I have done to produce my own magazine is firstly learnt how to use a Canon EOS 400D camera to take the images I wanted to use for my magazine. Even though I have used this camera for my previous task, it taught me different ways of using it such as the directions and this helped me use different techniques with the camera in my final task. Some of my pictures have been taken in a room with just a plain blue background so that the camera was only focusing on the model and not anything distracting behind. To create the effect I Wanted to have for my magazine images, I made sure the lightening in the room was not too dark or bright but enough light to capture what I wanted. Using the Canon EOS 400D camera I found it much easier as I could adjust the brightness to get a good quality picture. There were only minor problems I had to deal with which  was trying to get a steady shot so that it had a good focus as I was holding the camera instead of having a stand to support the camera itself, but then I manages to keep my hands steady and took good pictures.

Another thing I have learnt during this process is the technology of Photoshop as my skills were not as good as now. There are two types of Photoshop which are the CS5 and the CS3; I used both to produce good images for my magazine as I used them for different areas of my images which were helpful. On Photoshop CS5 I manipulated my images by cutting out the background away from what I wanted and also adjusting the brightness by going on to layer, new adjustment layer and then finally ‘curve’ which had done so and this gave it a great look on to the image. I have also used this on all my other images that are on my contents page and double page spread because I liked the effect it gave on the images

Another useful thing I have learnt on Photoshop is to save my finished tasks on JPEG as blogger does not accept other files when trying to upload them on to it. The stroke tool n Photoshop was useful fir my fonts especially my cover lines which made it stand out more on my magazine front cover. This tool was easy and hard to use as it was straight forward but the hard part was getting the right width of the stroke as I didn’t want the fonts to outline too chunky or too thin but just the right thickness so that my magazine still looked professionally made.

Evaluation Question 5 -How do you attract/adress your audience?

As I have based my guideline on my audience research, I feel that I have appealed my target audience in a number of different ways. In order to catch the eyes of my target audience I decided to focus on my front cover as it is the first thing visible on a magazine. One of the ways I have done this is by using a model that is the same age as my target audience, so that they can relate to her in many ways. The model is wearing a particular style of clothing which associates with the theme of the magazine that is based on R&B.

Another way I have attracted my target audience is by the choices of my colour scheme. The colours I have chosen are pink, purple and black which relate and associate with my target audience. The colours are also appealing to the audience as it grabs attention and stands out on the magazine. These colours appeal to the female gender as pink is stereotyped to be a female’s colour. Another way is using Standard English so that the older and the young could understand both. Also other people in the UK could understand my magazine instead of teenagers who have a different way of communicating each other reading it the way they talk on the streets.

On my contents page I have decided to put most of the information in one place on the left and then different images around so that it doesn’t look to messy and this will help the audience not get mixed to were they are meant to be reading from first.

Evaluation Question4 -Who would be the audience for your media product?

My music magazine is targeted for females at the age of 16+ for a British audience. I have decided to use a younger audience because the featured artists of R&B appeal mostly to younger people and they also relates to them. Also it would appeal to the older audience as it also relates and many would be interested in the younger society of music today.