Dazed Audit
Comparing the strengths and weaknesses of Dazed & Confuised with what has become its closest competitor, VICE.
Analyst Tom Strudwick reports that this title must improve the relationship between online and print components.
Publisher:
Waddell Ltd
Category:
Lifestyle Style & Fashion
URL:
https://www.dazeddigital.com
Price:
Single Copy: £4.50
Editorial Profile:
National new-style title identifying new youth attitudes through its distinct visual and editorial identity. Q&A interviews profile the individuals shaping future cultural direction in fashion, music, film and art
Target Audience:
Stylish, innovators, media literate opinion formers. They know about styles, brands and products and look to D & C as a credible and reliable source of information
Frequency:
6 issues per year / Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec
Circulation
| Source: | Publisher’s Statement | Dates: | 14 Jan 2015 | Total Average Net Circulation: | 99,000 |
Rates
| Format | Price |
| Display | |
| Display Colour DPS | £11,727.00 |
| Display Colour Page | £6,902.00 |
| Inside Back Cover | £8,083.00 |
| Outside Back Cover | £17,289.00 |
Audience:
-Hipster types
-Age 18-30;
-predominantly female, about 1/3 male. Majority of advertising is aimed at females but much of the work is not gender specific.
-Likely to have attended college or art college rather than sixth form. Likely to have A-levels or BTEC equivalent.
-Study art-based subjects (design, fashion, illustration), at Goldsmiths, Epsom, LCF.
– consider themselves fashionable, maybe even trend setters
– living in ‘Hipster’ parts of London: Shoreditch; Brixton; New Cross.
– regularly visits galleries like Tate Modern, Saachii gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum.
– In B-C2 class bracket.
– Can afford to spend £4.50 on a magazine,
(source: alexa.com)
Alternative Covers
– ‘Changing the face of fashion’ by literally changing the face of the magazine three times.
– Making the magazine appeal to a wider audience with more covers as well as a more dedicated readership who may want to collect all three.
-Doesn’t tell the reader anything else in the magazine
– three covers for 13 pages of content… – doesn’t seem financially efficient
Recommendations
1- Move pages from the opening 25 pages of advertising and put them between stories.
= this will make the readers less likely to grow bored so early in the publication as well as giving articles more coherent endings. Also, the advertising will not be in huge blocks- pacing the advertising throughout the magazine will make them individually stronger which could mean you can charge more for it, thereby increasing revenue.
2- Move some of the more exhilarating content (nude photography on pages 112/113 &136-137; gaudy artwork on pages 196-207; cover article on pages 138-151) to an earlier point in the magazine.
= gaudy artwork peaked the focus group’s interest, but as it was at the back, some readers who may have put the magazine down, or have run out of time to read the magazine, will not see these memorable piece and will not associate what the readers like (according to focus group) with this magazine.
= nude photography should be more of a feature- Laura Mulvey’s male gaze teaches us that everyone consumes the media through the eyes of a heterosexual male, meaning even the female readers will engage with it. Everyone knows sex sells but some of the ideologies of the magazine (feminism, freedom of speech) mean that the context of the nudity is not necessarily sexual but artistic or in order to make a statement.
=Appearance of Kendall Jenner (Cover) should be far earlier than page 138 – Perhaps doesn’t place the intended importance on the cover story as it is nearer the back than the front. But it could also be a method of keeping the reader hooked until that point, making everything else build-up or come-down. Interest should peak at the cover article
3- Introduce more small images into editorial pieces to break up large blocks of text.
=all readers in the focus group said they found the large blocks of text unappealing to look at they felt challenged by the essay style of presentation. One member of the focus group, an art student at UEL, said she feels herself and other artists are not necessarily buying the magazine for the writing as it is easier to show fashion than to write about it. However she said she enjoys the subject of the stories and often reads the introductions but is put off by how long they are.
4-‘Head to Toe’ section of the magazine should be redesigned to prevent it from looking any more like advertisements.
=focus group liked the concept of this section once i had introduced it. Problem is that it did not introduce itself. Focus group mistook it for adverts so did not engage with it until they knew what it was. Its a unique way for the magazine celebrate clothes but its over-celebration of other brands and layout mean the message is completely lost. I would separate image from text, increase the amount of text and speak less specifically about the brands and more about the item. By doing this, the readers will engage with it more and their interest in the magazine will be greater, meaning they are more likely to buy the magazine again if they don’t already subscribe.
Focus Group:
4 female students: 3 journalism students; one fashion illustration student.
– Love the cover- recognise Kendall Jenner from various aspects of the media. Focus group said they would buy the magazine for the person on the cover. However, they thought it could do with a little more colour, as it is currently not very exciting. May be worth adding some colour to make the cover more enticing.
– Did not like that the first 25 pages consisted of adverts, although they did expect it.
-Thought several of the adverts were unlikely to appeal to the target audience of the magazine: Timberland, Jameson Whiskey, Ralph Lauren.
-Thought it was strange that the credits were so early in the magazine before any proper editorial. Thought it is quite self-promotive that they place the people before the actual work. Also, they expected to see it towards the end.
– Didn’t notice ‘Head to Toe’ section of the magazine, confused it for adverts because of the frame on the pages.
– Not a great deal of clarity in the fonts between titles and body.
– House style of writing is good, easy to read. BUT its ruined by the huge blocks of text. Focus group said it is not a magazine they could ‘snack’ on.
– No clear break between stories. – Not particular coherence.
– Feel like stories are rather squashed up next to each other, no time to breathe between stories.
-Lo-Fi filter on photography could be to stay true to 90s roots – not trying to show off technological developments, but instead the art form of photography
P59 (Emerging Artist Award) – brand cross over with Converse; not sure its the best brand to crossover with. Also it seems quite late in the magazine to invite readers to do engage with the brand for the first time.
P64, 89 – responded to nudity: even though they are all girls they all commented on the physique of the subject of the photography. (Laura Mulvey, Male Gaze) – SEX SELLS!
121-128 – did not really know many of the Dazed 100 Artists. And when they did recognise someone, there was very little said about them. – audience may respond better to less obscure artists.
-Loved the cover article, surprised to see it closer to the back than the front.
– Treats fashion as a cultural product or an art form as well as a consumer product.
– Really enjoyed the artwork on the last 10 pages. Not sure why they were at the very back of the magazine.
Main Competitor:
VICE
MAGAZINE
Advertising Rates
|
|
Publisher:
| Format | Price |
| Display | |
| Display Colour DPS | £10,653.00 |
| Display Colour Half Page | £3,675.00 |
| Display Colour Page | £6,300.00 |
| Inside Back Cover | £7,008.00 |
| Outside Back Cover | £9,450.00 |
VICE UK Ltd
Category:
Lifestyle Style & Fashion
URL:
https://www.vice.com/en_uk
Established:
01/11/2002
Price:
Subscription: £35.00, Single Copy: Free
Editorial Profile:
Covering music, fashion, politics, culture and sexual perversity. It’s intellectual non-journalism
Target Audience:
Urban, educated, trendy, interested in fashion and music and young (18-34)
Frequency:
Monthly
Circulation
| Source: | Publisher’s Statement | Dates: | 13 Feb 2015 | Total Average Net Circulation: | 89,000 |
(Source: bradinsight.com)
Commercial Analysis
Retail Sales Value:
£4.50 x 99,000 readers = £445,500.00 per issue
Advertising income
13 single pages of advertising x £6,902 = £89,726.00
13 Double Page Spreads of advertising x £11,727 = £152,451.00
Total Advertising Income
£89,726 + £152,451 = £242,177.00
Total Nominal income
£445,500 + £242,177 = £687,677.00
Total Annual income
6 issues x £687,677 = £4,126,062.00
Online: Dazed Digital
Recommendations:
1- Use the magazine to promote online content and vice versa.
=The print and online versions of the magazine are quite separate in that the magazine makes no reference to online content – BUT the online content makes reference to upcoming issues of the magazine, the most recent issues and some completely separate content that isn’t in the magazine. In this way it seems the online content promotes the magazine but the magazine doesn’t promote the online content- though it should to boost audiences and viewer-ships. For example, mention if something in the magazine is available online.
2-Use social media and social networks to encourage engagement from readers: submissions, more competitions.
=for instance, ask readers for feedback, or use polls as a way of involving the readers in decisions for the brand. This may encourage paid for circulation as there will be more for readers to be excited about. They will feel as though it is something they are more actively involved in.
3- Broaden target audience with more varied content; more categorised YouTube channels.
= As VICE have, i believe broadening the YouTube audience will be beneficial to the DAZED brand. As you can see from the chart, VICE have over 10 million subscribers – due largely to the fact they have 12 channels, each publishing differently categorised videos. As well as a cooking show, VICE produce spectacular documentaries, a medium that could very easily be used to present fashion and art to audiences. Broadening the audience could also lead to an increase in paid for circulation as we see an increasing number of people engaging with the brand.
Dazed Digital
– Sticky test: 14/24
How the Website links with the magazine 3/5
-next issue y
-online submissions n
-Archive y
-Writer Blogs y
-for advertisers n
Site Features – 6/9
-Search y
-Unique news y
-video y
-unique features y
-sales of products y
-lounge n
-voting on issues n
-cross selling y
-webseach n
User-generated content – 2/3
-forums y
-text blogs y
-video/images n
Reaching Out – 2/5
-Emailed newsletter y
-iPod downloads n
-Mobile phone downloads n
-radio links n
-RSS Feed y
Play – 1/2
-Competitions y
-Games n
Twitter
– 826,587 Followers
-recognisable brand logo
-cover photo of next magazine’s cover issue
-links to Dazed Digital
-similar plain, simple layout as in magazine
source: https://twitter.com/DazedMagazine
YouTube
– 38,782 Subcribers
– 9,210,989 views
-recognisable brand logo
– consistency through use of same image
– links with next issue and also previous issue
BUT nothing to suggest in mag that content
Would be available online
Source: https://www.youtube.com/user/dazeddigital/about
-636,459 likes
– more consistency with use of same
Image of next issue’s cover
– links to instagram and email
Subscriptions.
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VICE Online:
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-Has a much stronger online presence to make up for the weaker magazine.
– perhaps shifting from a predominantly print-based magazine to a much wider network of print, online, video, documentary etc.
– changing with the times, making the most of modern technology.
Summary of Recommendations (Print)
-Move pages from the opening 25 pages of advertising and put them between stories.
-Move some of the more exhilarating content (nude photography on pages 112/113 &136/137; gaudy artwork on pages 196-207; cover article on pages 138-151) to an earlier point in the magazine.
-Introduce more small images into editorial pieces to break up large blocks of text.
-‘Head to Toe’ section of the magazine should be redesigned to prevent it from looking any more like advertisements.
