Magazines: GQ - Audience & Industry

The second part of our GQ case study explores Audience and Industry contexts.

Audience

To explore the Audience context for GQ we need to explore who reads GQ and what audience pleasures might be linked to the brand.

GQ: numbers

GQ (UK edition) had a circulation of around 85,000 in January 2022 (a slight decline on the 89,000 in 2021) which included 33,000 free copies (e.g. provided to airport lounges/Eurostar). GQ’s total readership is around 200,000 meaning each copy is read on average by 2 or 3 people. 

Definitions: Circulation is the actual number of copies printed and distributed. Readership is an estimate of how many people read the magazine in total (also known as readers-per-copy). For GQ, copies in an airport lounge may be read by many different people.

Circulation figures are provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and readership estimates by the National Readership Survey (NRS).

Demographics and psychographics

GQ has a largely middle class readership:

ABC1: 61%

With an average household income of £138k, GQ attracts wealthy readers with money to spend. This encourages top-end brands to advertise with the magazine.

The GQ Media Pack focuses on products that reflect a certain lifestyle such as fashion, watches, grooming and cars. This would suggest targeting the Aspirer and Succeeder psychographic groups.

Audience pleasures

There are many potential audience pleasures for GQ readers. Applying Blumler & Katz’s Uses & Gratifications theory, two in particular would be:

Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their lifestyle reflected and endorsed through reading the magazine.

Surveillance: GQ focuses on offering a range of content to help their readers be informed about the world – particularly in terms of politics, fashion and culture.

Industries

To explore the Industries context for GQ we need to study publisher Conde Nast and look at the impact of digital media on the print magazine industry. 

This means interrogating why the internet has had such a devastating effect on certain print brands and why some other magazines are continuing to survive in the digital age. We also need to spend some time on the GQ website and study social media and video content to see how the brand is expanding beyond print.

GQ publisher: Conde Nast

Condé Nast was founded in 1909 in New York. It describes itself: 

“Condé Nast is one of the world's most renowned media companies creating and distributing every type of media today — print, video and film, digital, audio and social – widening our influence through technological innovation and by fully leveraging the global infrastructure we've built for over a century.”

 

Its revenue was just under $2billion in 2021 but in previous years had been losing $100m a year.

Condé Nast is owned by Advance Publications which makes it a case study in conglomerate ownership. Advance Publications is also a major shareholder in website Reddit and Warner Bros. Discovery.

The impact of digital media on the magazine industry

Suggestions for SWOT analysis of the impact of digital media on magazines:

• Strengths: Magazine brands are well established to diversify online, audiences already know and like them.
• Weaknesses: Print publishers do not have the expertise or knowledge of digital – it is a very different medium.
• Opportunities: Magazines can find new audiences online.
• Threats: Audiences will stop buying paper products and expect everything online for free. 

Ultimately, it is this threat that has had the most devastating impact on the industry: 

• Print sales fell by 42% from 23.8m to 13.9m between 2010 and 2017. 
• Back in 2000, sales were over 30m – signalling a 55% decline in just 17 years.
• Advertising in consumer magazines fell from £512m in 2010 to £250m in 2017. 
• Google and Facebook now dominate online advertising (they account for 65% of the UK digital ad market).

As a result of these changes, many magazines have closed.

GQ and diversification

The decline in print media has meant traditional print publishers like Condé Nast have had to diversify on to digital platforms and live experiences.

This means social media and video and streaming content is crucial to the GQ brand alongside the GQ Heroes summit held in Oxfordshire each summer. It is described:

“GQ Heroes is a premier event for top-tier business and creative minds, bringing together some of the world's most influential figures to discuss the evolving nature of industry and creativity in a world that's changing by the second.”

 

GQ - Audience & Industries blog tasks

Audience

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

1) How does the media kit introduction describe GQ?

2) What does the media kit suggest about masculinity? 

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

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

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

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? 

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

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

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

 

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

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? 

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

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


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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

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

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?

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

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?

The impact of digital media on the print magazines industry

Read this Guardian feature on the struggles 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?

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

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

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

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

A/A* extension tasks

You can read more about the GQ Heroes event here. What does this suggest about the GQ audience - and how brands are diversifying away from print? 

Find out more about Conde Nast and the people in leadership positions on their website here. 

Read more about GQ in this Gorkana media briefing.

Due date on Google Classroom