Meesteajakirja Di toimimine Eesti ajakirjandusturul

Date

2006

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Abstract

Description

This paper gives an overview of the position and functions of the Estonian ‘lad mag” Di, and most of all focuses on the economic aspects of the aforementioned. In order to do that, one needs to give a brief overview of the typology and the historical development of the genre of men’s magazines and their in the world and in Estonia more precisely. A posteriori the market situation and the business models of Di and Estonian magazines' market is analyzed. The thesis ends with estimation of the market policies and the evaluation of future perspectives of the magazine Di First men´s magazines were founded at the end of the 17th century. One of the first ones was The Gentleman`s Journal, that was first published in 1692. Despite the fact that early men’s magazines like The Gentleman´s Magazine and Blackwood´s Magazine circled in high-class men’s clubs already in the 19th century, the origin of men’s magazines does not go back very far. Most of the early men’s magazines simply focused on masculine interests like photography and film, sports and cars and the emphasis on masculinity was absent - it was taken self-evident. One of the most important predecessors of today’s men’s magazines was Esquire which was founded in USA in the 1930’s and focused primarily on male readers’ interests. The niche of men’s magazines in the journalism market started to develop fast in the 1990’s. Their sales increased rapidly between 1991 and 1996: the growth was a whole 400 percent. Men’s magazines can be divided as follows: 1. general male audience magazines, 2. sports magazines, 3. ‘lad mags’, 4. skin magazines, 5. gay lifestyle magazines, 6. gay pornographic magazines, 7. ethnic men’s magazines. Estonian scene of men’s magazines is shaped by the following: 1. Maarja/Maaja (skin magazine, 1989-...), 2. Mees (general male audience magazine, 1995-1997), 3. Diivan-Di (‘lad mag’, 1996-...), 4. Mees ja Maailm: M (general male audience magazine, October-December 2001), 5. Eeva, Lilith, Lilith Hard, Tabu, Pille (skin magazines, 2001-2005), 6. For Him Magazine Eesti (lad mag, 2004-...). The business model of magazine Di can be shortly described as follows: Costs - direct variable costs (2,1 million EEK in 2005); direct fixed costs (1,4 million EEK); direct general costs (71 000 EEK); indirect general costs (755 000 EEK). Producing resources and bases - editorial rooms shared by the personal and assistant personal of 9 magazines, workers’ experience, publisher’s know-how, relationships with partners. Material and immaterial basic property - 460 728 EEK and 327 549 EEK at the end of 2004. Business activities - compilation and subscribing materials, ad-sales, making up and printing materials, distribution, marketing Distribution resources - long term relations with Eesti Post Creating content - editorial staff (3-4 people, photographer, several co-workers) Structure of business - board, management, editorial stuff, assistant stuff Additional financing - firms publications earning profits, loans from owners, raising equity Aim of the magazine - to create an entertainment magazine for men Target audience - 20-40 years old men, whose income and education are above the average How does magazine differentiate from others - contains only domestic materials Profits - to owners, to investments Essential aim - stability of format (arrogant, masculine, entertaining) Possible "bottlenecks" - new competitors, modern technologies, limited availableness of specific ads Possible changes - new competitors (development of modern technologies), demand for new investments Profits - stable selling of ads The business model of Di`s internet-version is rather undeveloped, product has just a short webpage, that contains no ads except self-promotion Several aspects characteristic to magazines’ business models, portrayed by Picard (2003) based on the magazine market in the USA, were in accordance with the Estonian market and Di’s business model. Yet, some points did not coincide. From this, one can draw the conclusion that the aforementioned business model is applied only partially. This means that lots of changes of characteristics is yet to come. The domain of advertising in Di was rather unstable during the year 2005. The difference between ad revenues in January and May was 23-fold. Therefore, the magazine should concentrate more on continuous creation and development of additional values and trying to expand the target-group. Selling ads should be more stable and disjointed. Most of Di`s readers are permanent-readers but not disjointed readers. Several readers found that Di`s best features are: domestic materials, high-quality text- and photo materials. As Di has positioned itself as a domestic quality-entertainment magazine, the readers have noticed it and the magazine’s conception works. Brief readers-study also found, that marketing and promotion of the magazine does not work as well as it should. About 25% of Di’s readers are its subscribers. Magazine’s publisher should raise marketing costs and try to increase the number of subscribers. Most of Di’s readers found that the price of the magazine is not high - when necessary, it could be raised. The web page of the magazine needs thorough development, because lots of the readers have never even heard about it or find it empty. The development of the internet environment should be one of the magazine’s priorities, especially when concidering the threats of the modern technologies.

Keywords

H Social Sciences (General), bakalaureusetööd

Citation