The second part of our Gentlewoman case study explores Audience and Industry contexts.
These concepts require us to explore who reads The Gentlewoman, who produces it and how the magazine is branching out beyond print into events and online.
Audience
The Gentlewoman describes its audience:
“The Gentlewoman is enjoyed by confident, independent and stylish women and men from a strikingly broad range of age groups.
“Characterised by their desire for cultural entertainment in their media, readers of The Gentlewoman enjoy the highest quality fashion, social pursuits and creative happenings.”
The best way to learn about The Gentlewoman's audience is via the Media Kit (you'll need your Greenford Google login to open).
Audience theory: Clay Shirky
Clay Shirky suggests the 20th century media model “with professional producers and amateur consumers” has been replaced by a more chaotic landscape that allows consumers to be producers and distributors. The Gentlewoman is fighting back against this, offering a curated, high-quality mix of writing, fashion and photography.
Shirky says: “We now publish first, and then filter. We find the good stuff after the fact.” In contrast to this, The Gentlewoman is trying to offer its readers the ‘good stuff’ without having to filter it first.
Audience pleasures
There are many potential audience pleasures for The Gentlewoman readers. Applying Blumler & Katz’s Uses & Gratifications theory, three in particular would be:
Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their lifestyle and fashion choices endorsed and reflected by the magazine. The magazine promises to feature “women as they actually look, sound and dress.”
Personal relationships: The Gentlewoman is presented as a club to be part of – literally in the sense of in-person events around the world.
Surveillance: The Gentlewoman describes itself as “Intelligent, opinionated and entertaining, it has set a new standard in women’s magazines with its high-quality writing”.
Industries
The Gentlewoman is published by Dutch independent publishers Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom Рa huge contrast to GQ and Cond̩ Nast.
They created The Gentlewoman as a women’s version of their “genre defining gentleman’s style journal” Fantastic Man.
Distribution
Despite being a niche London-based magazine, The Gentlewoman reflects the global nature of the media. The website and social media are major reasons for its international reach.
Its readers are based:
UK 51%
Europe 23%
USA 18%
Rest of the World 8%
The Gentlewoman Club is an international society of the magazine’s readers, which currently has up to 39,000 active members – sophisticated women and men who demand quality and originality from their agenda of cultural happenings. These loyal subscribers attend the Club’s get-togethers in substantial numbers, notified of which via the Club’s monthly newsletter
and social media platforms.
This is an example of diversification – moving beyond a print magazine to offer readers experiences and events to engage with.
Magazines: regulation
The magazines industry is regulated by IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. This is an independent regulator - effectively meaning the industry is self-regulated by the Editors' Code of Practice. We will look at more on press regulation when we study newspapers.
The Gentlewoman: Audience and Industries blog tasks
There are five reasonably short tasks for The Gentlewoman - Audience and Industries plus some optional extension work for those aiming for the very top grades. Create a blogpost called 'The Gentlewoman: Audience and Industries' and work through the following:
1) Media Magazine feature: Pleasures of The Gentlewoman
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?
2) What representations are offered in the Gentlewoman?
3) List the key statistics in the article on the average reader of the magazine.
4) What is The Gentlewoman Club?
5) What theorists does it suggest we can apply to the Gentlewoman's club?
6) What does the writer of article suggest they are getting out of their relationship with the magazine?
7) Who are the team behind the magazine?
8) How does the Gentlewoman use their website and social media to promote the magazine?
9) What are the 'creative collaborations' in the magazine? How do they 'spill over into real life'?
10) How does the article sum up the audience pleasures of the Gentlewoman?
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?
2) On the 'Digital' page, what different sections of the website are there and how do these offer opportunities for audience engagement and interaction?
2) On the 'Digital' page, what different sections of the website are there and how do these offer opportunities for audience engagement and interaction?
3) What are the audience demographics for The Gentlewoman?
4) What is The Gentlewoman Club and what does it offer readers?
5) What Creative Collaborations
3) D&AD Award Winner feature
Read this short D&AD advertising agency award feature on The Gentlewoman. Answer the following questions:
1) How is the magazine described?
2) What does it say about the content and design of The Gentlewoman?
3) How are the readers described?
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?
2) Why does it suggest the magazine has managed to 'cut through the clutter'?
3) How are Gentlewoman Club tickets given out?
4) What does the article say about The Gentlewoman's relationship with its audience?
5) Why are Club events valuable from a digital perspective?
5) Website and social media research
1) Visit The Gentlewoman's website. How does it promote the magazine?
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?
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?
5) What representations of fashion and gender can you find on their Instagram page?
A/A* extension tasks
Read this extensive interview with Penny Martin in the New Zealand Herald. It covers every aspect of the magazine and wider cultural contexts - essential reading if you want that A*.
If you're interested in design and how the media is becoming increasingly digital then this in-depth Medium feature is great. It's a case study from a designer who converted an issue of The Gentlewoman from print to digital as a design project. Reading this will give you a really in-depth understanding of the construction, design and overall look and feel of your CSP as well as an introduction to website building and graphic design.
Due date on Google Classroom
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