We are lucky to have Jacqui Thornton, a Health Journalist after a 15 year journalism career in newspapers taking our lectures. She has been a freelance journalist since 2007 and says that contacts are important especially for freelance, your nothing without them. She frequently writes for Cosmopolitan Magazine and gains commission from this. She also writes for the Health Service Journal which is for all the people that work in the NHS. She also freelances to The Observer as well as other papers and magazines. She has built up her knowledge of how everything works from her long career in the industry; and believes people need to know you, to do well as a freelancer.
Having a good brief is also important and helps you to know exactly what they need you to do. Newspapers usually provide a very short brief usually a sentence over the phone which can be quite tricky. Whereas magazines have more time , for instance the Health Journal provides a page long brief which is very helpful. Journalists are really brief in every dealing with you but not so much on magazine.
Being a freelancer is a lot more anti social; however companies expect to be able to contact you at any hour regarding a query with your work. The lead time means the time from when you write your article to when it is actually published and on the shelf to buy. Of course for a newspaper this is only around 9-10 hours a day whereas a magazine can be anything up to three months as they are glossy and take a lot longer to put together. Jacqui usually goes through a notebook every three weeks; however she advises you to keep them all safe as you will need to go back to things months down the line. There isn't really a job for 'writing for a magazine' commissioning editors, production and freelancers are the main people for this. The magazine business is driven more so than papers on a journalism level.
The Sunday Times, Murdoch owned papers and broadcast, American owned papers and Daily Mail are all well paid places to work. Negotiations are important to be a successful freelancer as sometimes the pay can be quite low. If you are one of the best in magazine and feature writing then you will expect to see a lot higher pay.
The first magazine was in 1731 and it was 'First Magazine' which was a gentleman's magazine in London. In 1913 'Dress' and 'Vanity Fair' which is still available now were introduced to the market. Vogue was introduced to the UK in 1916, which was unsure as it was during WW1. The reason for this was that the American Vogue could not be shipped over during the War so they made an English one due to the high demand. Marie Clare was made in 1988 whereas the first magazine to close was in 2008, followed by 'The Maxim' and 'Arena' both closing in 2009. In 1986, The Independent was set up and used some phenomenal photographs.
Image left and right- EbaySeller, Marie Claire photograph
Having a good brief is also important and helps you to know exactly what they need you to do. Newspapers usually provide a very short brief usually a sentence over the phone which can be quite tricky. Whereas magazines have more time , for instance the Health Journal provides a page long brief which is very helpful. Journalists are really brief in every dealing with you but not so much on magazine.
Being a freelancer is a lot more anti social; however companies expect to be able to contact you at any hour regarding a query with your work. The lead time means the time from when you write your article to when it is actually published and on the shelf to buy. Of course for a newspaper this is only around 9-10 hours a day whereas a magazine can be anything up to three months as they are glossy and take a lot longer to put together. Jacqui usually goes through a notebook every three weeks; however she advises you to keep them all safe as you will need to go back to things months down the line. There isn't really a job for 'writing for a magazine' commissioning editors, production and freelancers are the main people for this. The magazine business is driven more so than papers on a journalism level.
The Sunday Times, Murdoch owned papers and broadcast, American owned papers and Daily Mail are all well paid places to work. Negotiations are important to be a successful freelancer as sometimes the pay can be quite low. If you are one of the best in magazine and feature writing then you will expect to see a lot higher pay.
The first magazine was in 1731 and it was 'First Magazine' which was a gentleman's magazine in London. In 1913 'Dress' and 'Vanity Fair' which is still available now were introduced to the market. Vogue was introduced to the UK in 1916, which was unsure as it was during WW1. The reason for this was that the American Vogue could not be shipped over during the War so they made an English one due to the high demand. Marie Clare was made in 1988 whereas the first magazine to close was in 2008, followed by 'The Maxim' and 'Arena' both closing in 2009. In 1986, The Independent was set up and used some phenomenal photographs.
E-Matt publication is one of the biggest publications. Jacqui did a double page spread on health for this magazine which was picture lead; and received around £500. However this was to write about five different topics which takes a lot longer to research and write.
Marie Clare
The print sales for this magazine dropped by 14% since early 2009. Now, there are only 230,973 copies sold of print. Online there is 1,764 readers during the first half of 2013.
The Daily Mail has a reputation for being tough especially online. However it has been noticed that their spelling and grammar is quite bad online. This is because there are separate teams for the Mail Online and the newspaper. There are a lower number of staff working online than the paper itself so content seems to get uploaded straight away and not checked over. There are no sub-editors for the online site which is why mistakes go unnoticed.
Glamour magazine started the 'hand bag' size magazine and then others like Marie Clare followed this as it was successful with women. There are 3,000 printed magazines in the UK. Some of the genres include business (B2B), professional (British Medical Journal, Nursing Standards), consumer (such as Science) and specialist consumer (Kerrang).
The trade magazines are taking over from the local newspaper as a way in. Tesco magazine overtook The Sun in 2012 with 7.2 million readers compared to The Sun with 7.1 million. This is because the Tesco magazine is free at the shops and appeals to all audiences. Interestingly, Dawn Alford used to edit the Tesco magazine and also worked at The Daily Mirror. She did a great story when she caught the son of the Head Secretary, Jack Straw selling cannabis. The top paid for magazine is actually the TV magazine with over 1.2 million readers and then 'Choice' another TV magazine. Take a Break magazine is the third most popular paid magazine with over 780,000 copies sold a week.
Cosmopolitan magazine sells 298,000 copies a month, whereas Heat sells 283,000 copies a week. Vogue magazine has 157,000 readers a month but funnily enough is overtaken by The Moshi Monsters children's magazine with 253,000.
In 2007, Vogue had 2,020 pages of advertising at an average of £16,000 a page, which is an income of 32 million! So it is obvious where they make a lot of their money from, as people want to advertise in a nice glossy magazine.
Women churn through magazines looking for something that the cover attracts their eye to. All the magazines on the market are similar and contain similar adverts. Each magazine rents a particular 'hot spot' on the shelf in the newsagents. The costing of the magazine is nearly all kept by the newsagent for this spot. Advertisement is so important for magazines as this is where they make most of their money. The trade press have a subscription for the magazine which also makes them money.
The future for magazines is on the ipad, mobile phones and a new way called flip board in 2009 which is a way you can create your own magazine. It is a way in which you choose topics that interest you and you can view it on your phone or ipad etc. Magazines contain lots of images and have become very interactive to involve the reader more than a print copy can.
Online, The Radio Times triples its website with traffic. Tim Glamfield is the editor for Radio Times online and also writes articles for the Press gazette article today. There was a study on Vogue magazine that revealed its consumers like to see its content on different devices. They use the PC in the afternoon whilst at work etc, they use a tablet in the evening as a second device to a phone that is used in the morning and at night before bed to check up on gossip etc. More images and quotes have been added into magazines as this is what holds the reader.
0 comments:
Post a Comment