GQ Audiences and Industries blog tasks

Audience

Look through the GQ Media Kit and answer the following questions: 

1) How does the media kit introduction describe GQ?

Entering a new era of leadership and influence under Adam Baidawi, GQ explores the powerful and progressive new forces shaping culture, society and commerce in Britain. British GQ is today a digital, social, video and experiential powerhouse – a community where people gather to be inspired and exchange ideas around style, creativity and culture.

2) What does the media kit suggest about masculinity? 

As masculinity evolves and men's fashion has moved to the centre of the global pop-culture conversation, GQ's authority has never been broader or stronger.

3) Pick out three statistics from the data on page 2 and explain what they suggest about the GQ audience.

61% - ABC1, £7.7K Average annual spend on fashion, £1.2K Average annual spend on beauty; 

4) Look at page 3 - brand highlights. What special editions do GQ run and what do these suggest about the GQ audience?

From the idyllic setting of Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire comes GQ’s first flagship event of the year. GQ Heroes is a festival of ideas that brings together gamechangers, creative radicals, deep thinkers and cultural icons for three days of panels and live performances.

GQ Hype spotlights the stars who are moving culture forward: The actors, musicians, athletes, designers and innovators who are changing the way we think, live and experience.

- MEN OF THE YEAR

- TENTPOLE VIDEO AND SOCIAL SERIES

This shows that GQ's audience are creative aspires that care about the modern representation and views.

5) Still on page 3, what does the video and social series section suggest about how magazine audiences are changing? 

British GQ’s video series drew more than 45 million views in 2021 – with viewers watching more than 10 million hours of content.

In 2022, globally-renowned GQ franchises including Actually Me, 10 Essentials and Iconic Characters launch in the UK, joining local series like Action Replay to create our most dynamic lineup of video, ever.

That video programming will also hit all of British GQ’s social channels, where audiences have grown more than 30% in the past year to top 2 million.

This shows that audiences are now getting attracted to video content rather than magazines.

Media Magazine feature: GQ

Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on GQ (MM82 - page 12). Answer the following questions:

1) What are the elements that go into choosing a cover stars for GQ? 

The person chosen to be on the front cover can't be the most famous person for any given month who has a hook, rather it needs to be the right person at the right time. 

2) How is the magazine constructed to serve the target audience? 

At GQs best, it’s also a brilliant forum for excellent profile writing and world-class photography and design, along with award-winning longform feature writing and sharp culture writing – but men’s style is the magazine’s core, and, along with high- end watch brands, is where the vast majority of the magazine’s advertising revenue comes from.

This means nearly all shoots in the magazine are done in tandem with the magazine’s style editors to showcase the best new men’s style on offer. And more simply, the service elements of the magazine aim to keep the reader up to date on the latest style trends.

3) What does the article suggest about GQ's advertisers and sponsorships - and what in turn does this tell us about the GQ audience? 

In terms of advertisers, is brands that want to promote themselves in the sphere of male, high-end, luxury lifestyle. So, everything from top-tier tailoring to the latest sports cars.

Sponsors tend to be a little more fluid. These will often be the brands who, for instance, sponsor individual categories at the Men of the Year awards, or partner with GQ’s live talks event, GQ Heroes. These won’t necessarily be fashion brands, but crucially the goal will be to align their brand with the GQ one.

This shows that the audience for GQ are mostly successful men. 

4) What is GQ Hype - and how does it reflect the impact of digital media on traditional print media?

 

GQ Hype is a weekly, online-only cover. 

Celebrities naturally want a GQ print cover, but with only so many on offer, previously the drop-off from not getting a print cover could be drastic – simply offering them an online-only interview, say, which was understandably a less- than-exciting prospect for established celebrities.

GQ Hype was launched as a perfect middle-ground. With only one per week it still came with prestige, it was still a GQ cover, designed as one, and so that fact alone meant it would get more attention both on Instagram and Twitter than other online-only stories.

5) Finally, what does the article say about additional revenue streams for print magazines like GQ?  

Extra revenue streams are vital to the magazine business these days – it’s almost impossible to survive without them. 

It’s about deciding the key areas in which the brand is strong and focussing on those, rather than expanding into areas you are not associated with.

Industries

Your industries contexts are divided into three areas - Conde Nast, GQ's website and social media content and the impact of digital media on print industries.

Condé Nast

Read this Guardian news article on editorial changes at Condé Nast and answer the following questions: 

1) Who was previously GQ editor for 22 years? 

Dylan Jones.

2) What happened to the 'lads' mag' boom magazines such as Nuts, Maxim and Loaded? 

Seven years ago Jones, who edited men’s monthly Arena in the 1990s, was credited with keeping GQ above water while others, such as Nuts, Maxim, Front and Arena closed down or, in the case of Loaded, went online only after circulation falls.

3) What changes have been taking place at Condé Nast in recent years and why? 

Nicholas Coleridge, Condé Nast’s long-serving traditionalist chairman stepped down from the role at the end of 2019. Shulman left in 2017 after 25 years to be replaced by UK Vogue’s first black editor Edward Enninful, recently promoted to European editorial director with control of the British, French, Italian, German and Spanish editions of the magazine.

Read this Press Gazette article on Conde Nast. Answer the following questions:

1) What does the article suggest about Condé Nast's recent strategy? 

Last year Conde Nast merged the global editorial teams at several of its international magazine brands including GQ, Wired, Vogue and Conde Nast Traveller under a new digital-first strategy designed to produce less duplication of content.

The changes also involved a new focus on digital income streams over print advertising revenue, with about 25% of the company’s revenues over the next four years invested into prioritising the expansion of video and digital content to boost online subscriptions and e-commerce.

GQ deputy global editorial director Adam Baidawi told Press Gazette that despite the digital-first switch print magazines had not been significantly affected. GQ, he said, was “as good as it’s ever been” as he reported a 77% year-on-year increase in its newsstand sales for its March 2022 edition.

2) How does chief executive Roger Lynch describe Condé Nast and why? 

Chief executive Roger Lynch told the New York Times the digital-first changes meant Conde Nast was “no longer a magazine company,” saying it has “70 million people who read our magazines, but we have 300 something million that interact with our websites every month and 450 million that interact with us on social media”.

3) What does Adam Baidawi say about Condé Nast, GQ and culture? 

Baidawi told Press Gazette: “Conde Nast, as much as anything else, is in the business of shaping and reflecting culture. Culture moves, and we have to move with it.

“If you take GQ, for instance, I don’t think we were in a position to shape and reflect culture with 21 siloed businesses around the world centred around print products.”

He added: “I think our previous model worked really well for a very, very long time. I also think it was very romanticised and that over years it became less and less sensical in a globalised world.”

Baidawi went on: “I grew up with Conde Nast magazines. I’m the sucker who paid 22 Australian dollars to buy British GQ in Melbourne, Australia at the newsstand… I still think we’re making comfortably the best print magazines on Earth.”

Read this FIPP feature on Condé Nast diversifying into video and streaming content. Answer the following questions: 

1) How is Condé Nast moving away from traditional print products?

Condé Nast has announced 75 returning series and 50 new pilots across 17 brand channels for 2021-2022, capitalising on huge growth in streaming in the past year. Its brands will focus on shoppable series and reaching incremental viewers via new programmes and “supercharged” relaunches of some of its most exclusive events.

2) What examples are provided of Condé Nast's video and streaming content?

During its annual NewFront presentation today (4 May) which took place online, audiences heard about Vogue’s expansion into wellness, GQ Sports’ 2022 Super Bowl lineup, and Vanity Fair’s expansion into audio. The company also launched Condé Nast Shoppable, a new video capability that provides buyable opportunities for viewers in real time. 

3) What does the end of the article suggest modern media audiences want? 

“Audiences want to be participants, not just passive viewers – and of course, they want content 100 per cent personalised for them,” said Chu.

GQ website, video and social media content 

Visit the GQ website, Instagram and YouTube channel. Note that some of these may be blocked in school. Once you have looked over GQ's online content, answer the following questions:

1) What similarities do you notice between the website and the print edition of the magazine?

Promotion of their products.

2) Analyse the top menu of the GQ website (e.g. Fashion / Grooming / Culture). What do the menu items suggest about GQ's audience?

Interested in fashion, sports and a better lifestyle. (aspirers) 

3) What does GQ's Instagram feed suggest about the GQ brand? Is this appealing to a similar audience to the print version of the magazine?

That they're appealing to an audience, wayyyyy more cultured and different than the print version. They have to adapt their marketing to fit the needs of social media users.

4) In your opinion, is GQ's social media content designed to sell the print magazine or build a digital audience? Why?

Build a digital audience, because the content they're posting on youtube doesn't promote their print magazines directly, rather it lets the audience connect with the celebrity being interviewed. 

5) Evaluate the success of the GQ brand online. Does it successfully communicate with its target audience? Will the digital platforms eventually replace the print magazine completely?

I strongly believe that digital platforms will replace physical print altogether, as people simply are just too bothered to go to markets and pick up physical print. With the way the media landscape is changing, this might end up happening in the next decade.

The impact of digital media on the print magazines industry

Read this Guardian feature on the struggled of the UK print magazine industry and answer the following questions:

1) What statistics are provided to demonstrate the decline in the print magazines industry between 2010 and 2017? What about the percentage decline from 2000?

Sales of the top 100 actively purchased print titles in the UK – those that readers buy or subscribe to – fell by 42% from 23.8m to 13.9m between 2010 and 2017. Since the start of the internet era in 2000, the decline is 55% from 30.8m.

2) What percentage of ad revenue is taken by Google and Facebook?

Google and Facebook account for 65% of the $6.5bn (£4.7bn) UK digital display ad market. They are also strangling attempts by magazine and newspaper publishers to build their digital ad revenues by taking about 90% of all new spend.

3) What strategies can magazine publishers use to remain in business in the digital age?

Specialist magazines, catering for more niche audiences with interests ranging from shooting to model railways and ponies, are likely to always have a print fanbase.

Wildman says for magazines to survive they must build a brand beyond the core print publication.

“It is overly simplistic to say it is just digital versus print,” he says. “Magazine businesses are much more diverse. We ran 100 events related to our magazines last year –  Harper’s Bazaar sold out in hours at £600 a head.

“Endorsement, accreditation and licensing are increasingly lucrative. DFS sell House Beautiful and Country Living range sofas. And the bestselling premium home gym at Argos is branded after our Men’s Health magazine.”

Nevertheless, mounting pressure on the traditional print magazine business, which still drives most revenues, is forcing consolidation as publishers seek scale to survive.

4) What examples from the Guardian article are provided to demonstrate how magazines are finding new revenue streams?

Time Inc in the US, which publishes People, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, has just been sold to rival Meredith for $1.8bn; the UK arm was picked up by Epiris.

Last year, Immediate Media, which publishes 60 titles including Radio Times and Top Gear, was sold to the German publisher Hubert Burda, owner of Your Home and HomeStyle, for £270m. Despite the gloom, magazine publishers, like their newspaper counterparts, sense an opportunity as brand safety and measurement issues have prompted advertisers to closely scrutinise the once unquestionable value of investing in digital media such as YouTube and Facebook.

5) Now think of the work you've done on GQ. How is GQ diversifying beyond print? 

It focuses on masculinity further away from traditional conventions in the 1900's. Regardless of gender or ethnicity, men who've made a name for themselves or their cultural groups have a chance to be seen for who they actually are.