Magazines: GQ - Audience & Industry

Audience

1) How does the media kit introduction describe GQ?

As the flagship of men’s fashion and style in Britain, to be GQ is to be forward-looking, progressive and cutting-edge. 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. 

2) What does the media kit suggest about masculinity? 

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

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

 audience.

5.3M Digital Uniques - Their digital media expand their variety 

212K Readership - Number of magazines they print

1.8M Social Followers - They have a large reach in terms of online popularity

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

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 In 2021, the iconic British GQ Men of the Year Awards reached a truly global audience, with more than 3,200 news articles generating over 9.8 billion views. 

Tentpole Video and Social SeriesBritish GQ’s video series drew more than 45 million views in 2021 – with viewers watching more than 10 million hours of content.

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. 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.

Media Magazine feature: GQ

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

Choosing covers is, by turns, the most rewarding and most infuriating part of the job of working on a glossy magazine. In the UK, getting the cover right is paramount – at GQ especially, most sales of the magazine are retail rather than subscription, so the cover has a huge impact on sales . A ‘hook’ being a film/ TV show/ album etc they’re promoting, and hence the reason they would do the cover in the first place.

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

Fundamentally, GQ is a men’s style magazine, and so GQ is always in service to that, both in print and online. Certainly, GQ wouldn’t consider itself just this – at its 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 .

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

I suppose the obvious answer, 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. These brands are often heritage brands, so the names wouldn’t change much from month to month, or year to year. 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. 

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

A weekly, online-only cover.  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. Along with the annual Men of the Year awards – using GQ’s unparalleled celebrity contacts – GQ also had an annual car awards, and a food and drink awards. 

Industries

Condé Nast


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? 

Lads' mag circulations faded dramatically through the 2000s. In the 2010s retailers, under pressure from campaign groups including Lose The Lads' Mags, started to demand that publishers tone down their front pages or cover them up.

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

After many attempts to find a way to expand and redesign the space to meet our needs, there were just too many challenges to be able to do so,” the email said. The seven-storey building, which is also the headquarters of brands including GQ and Tatler, was completed in 1958 and is owned by the Church of England. 

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. 

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

He 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.” He said print subscriptions are “actually up” across the Conde Nast portfolio this year but that “print for us is just one focus. It’s one product in a portfolio that we’re really proud of”.

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.

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

During its annual NewFront presentation today 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.

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 

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

They both talk about the products themselves and it also advocates the main issues regarding men and fashion.

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

It highlights the main aspects men look for in everyday life.

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?

I believe it directs to mainly all male audiences meaning transgender males and those who feel more masculine.

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

I believe it leans more towards the digital audience because nowadays social media has become a huge momentum into advocating any sort of information therefore by expanding their social media audience they are gaining insight and exposure from all angles.

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?

It does successfully communicate with its target audience in terms of what products and brands they represent which are mainly referred as more male dominant items. In a way digital platforms will eventually replace the print magazine completely as it's easier to access but some readers may still prefer physical copies

The impact of digital media on the print magazines industry

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.

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.

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

Its focusing on all sorts of audience, becoming more woke in the masculinity approach meaning representations of transgendered male audiences are becoming more valid in the media.