Sustaining the Creative Magazines in the Philippines: A Case Study On Four Pop Culture Magazines

Sherina Lo

School of Design and Arts

De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde

Magazines have: 33% 10% 15% 37%14%23%

Longer shelf-lifeHigher readership

for past month vs. past week

High pass-along readership

Source: Nielsen Media Index

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

totalPhilippines

Metro Mla.

total readership

read past week

read past month

0

50

100

1st Qtr 2nd

Qtr

3r d

Qtr

4th Qtr

E ast

West

Nor th

Readership of magazines 13.7% 8.9% 10.1% 11.6%

Target audience: Male & female Classes A,B,C Ages 15+ Metro Mla. &

Urban Phil.

Source: Nielsen Media Index as of year 2004

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2

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14

AB - MM ABC - UP C1 - MM C2 - UP

TOTALREADERSHIP

I. ABSTRACT

sustainability of the pop culture magazines Fudge Magazine, published by Sesame Seed

Creatives; Pulp Magazine, published by the Fookien Times Yearbook Publishing Company. 

Two defunct magazines: Burn magazine, a music magazine published by Hinge Inquirer Pulications; and Flip magazine, edited and published by Jessica Zafra. 

not published by the top three magazine publishing companies in the Philippines

II. Statement of the Problem

How do local pop culture magazines survive amidst the competition set by leading consumer magazines?

What were the problems faced by defunct pop culture magazines Flip and Burn which lead to the folding up of the magazine?

Top 3

SUMMIT ABS-CBN Mega

Publishing Group

III. Aim of the Study

2 defunct magazines – Flip, Burn

2 existing magazines – Fudge, Pulp

To know the success formula of Fudge magazine And Pulp magazine

IV. OBJECTIVESTHE MAGAZINES’:

Editorial philosophy, purpose, content, voice/advocacy

Target audience Coping strategies Number of copies they print each month Circulation, distribution process Marketing & promotional strategies they employ Setbacks/problems they encounter

V. Significance of the studyPublishing is one of the sectors of the

creative industries. It generates jobs – editors, writers, photographers, graphic artists, hairstylists, etc.

Arts Mgt. graduates can look forward to jobs both in the editorial and business aspect of magazines.

A guide for SDA graduates who would want to produce their own pop culture or design-related magazines

VI. DEFINITION OF TERMSCirculation – the total number of copies of a

publication delivered to newsstands and subscribers

Closed shop – the magazine ceased publication Pass-along households and readers – the

number of homes or individuals in those homes who are non-subscribers or non-purchasers to a particular issue of publication, but who receive the issues from a primary or another secondary households (4As Media Factbook 134).

Definition of termsRate card – the published costs of rates

for advertising in a vehicle that often includes related information such as mechanical requirements and cancellation dates (4As Media Factbook 135).

Readership - the number of people estimated to have read the magazine and includes pass-on readership. 

Spread – material spread over more than one page and designed as a whole

IV. Background of the Study

Popular culture magazines capture audience tastes’ at this postmodern era. Richard Hogart, in his thesis on mass communications, The Uses of Literacy (1957) draws this conclusion to the modern reader: Magazines are a vivid snapshot of the times in which they were produced; the essence of an era in print form.

Since 2005, more and more magazines are being published. Paper is more expensive, and some media experts say “print is dead.” Magazines nowadays devote themselves to specific themes.

Mass media critic Stanley Baran (2007, 124) writes:

Magazine specialization - demographically similar readership of the publication

- target ads for their products and services to those most likely to respond to them.

Fudge magazine

A monthly magazine published by Sesame Seed Creatives, an independent company affiliated with Manila Bulletin

Analyzes pop culture phenomena in an intellectually-enriching manner

ex: Darna, Club Mwah, cosplay Features exciting, up-and-coming Filipino artists

(filmmakers, bands, graphic artists) Fudge magazine celebrates their 4th year

anniversary – August 2008

18-35 age group, belonging to Class A,B & C1 with expendable income. 

common Pinoy lifestyle preoccupations to popular entertainment and everything in between. 

voice of Fudge magazine is very hip; coverage is presented in post-modernist art and stunning visual design

inspired by maverick publications in Europe (Raygun), Japan (Tokion), and the US (Fader).

samples

Music magazines Burn and PulpBurn is non-existing.Pulp has been in the industry since 1999.

8 years and counting Pulp is a magazine focusing on the under

ground & mainstream Filipino music In 2004, its competitors were

MTV Ink & Popsicle. Both magazines are now defunct.

Joey Dizon, Editor-in-chief of Pulp magazine, divulged that the advertisers meddle with the concept of the magazine and come up with hard-sell type of ideas that for him, “sometimes are not in the best interests of the magazine’s integrity.”

BURN Hinge Inquirer

Publications 2006 - 2008 Different genres of music Local & intl. covers per

month Free CD with each issue Downloadable Podcasts

Clarissa Concio, Editor-in-chief of Burn magazine stresses that coordinating with the magazine’s sales team is important to “make sure that expenses are kept well within the editorial budget.”

Flip means “to go nuts,” “to turn the page,”colloquial term for “Filipino”

Jessica Zafra A monthly magazine

that interpreted the world through Pinoy humor

Flip Movie Club – monthly offering

August 2002 – April 2003

8 issues

Flip’s last issue – collector’s item

The cover persons were Representatives Teodoro Locsin Jr, Imee Marcos, and Satur Ocampo—

a bizarre mix at the time, but given recent political events (the attempted impeachments, etc), prophetic.

In her column “Emotional Weather Report”

Flip: A Parting Shot serves as Jessica Zafra’s farewell letter to the loyal readers of Flip magazines, wherein she was Editor-in-Chief. She writes, “Market conditions do not permit us to continue. The magazine is too small to make it on its own.”

Profiles of the magazines will be tackled in this format:

Title, editorial concept, voice/advocacy Target audience Circulation/distribution Price Frequency (monthly, bimonthly) Editorial staff Strengths Weaknesses Strategies – having two covers per issue

RRL

revenues come from:circulation and advertising. CPMs/Costs per Thousands - helps

advertisers determine the relative value of a magazine ad. Advertising professionals use this formula.

Total ad cost = CPM

Gross audience / 100

History1980s – imported glossy magazines =

expensive (Vogue, Elle)Lifestyle Asia – 1st glossy monthly

magazine2002 – the top 3 magazine publishing

giants started to compete Franchise titles – licensing agreementsLocal titles – cheaper

Criteria for choosing these magazinesMust be locally producedPrinted-on-paper magazinesContent must include pop culture that

is predominantly FilipinoMonthly or bimonthlyMust have innovative lay-outs.Price: P90-125.Must be commercially available

Criteria for magazines: defunct existing

should have a cult following.

may or may not be subsidized by a corporation

should be at least 3 years old.

should be available in major newsstands and bookstores

should be published monthly or bimonthly.

Conceptual framework Local magazinepublishing industry then

Local magazine publishing industry at present

TNS results Synovate results

Top 3 magazine publishing companies

Niche titles

Niche titles

Pop culture magazines

Joseph Klapper’s Reinforcement Theory/Phenomenistic Theory

media do not directly influence behavior, but only reinforce existing belief and opinion. Only after reinforcing existing values like appreciating existing values and attitudes like appreciating Filipinoness and being open to new things can pop culture magazines be popular with the majority of social groups.

does not promise to raise the sales of the studied pop culture magazines a thousand-fold.

mass media were more likely to reinforce existing attitudes than change them or create new attitudes.

Media attention bestows a degree of prominence on a certain issue or individuals. Through the pop culture magazines, more and more people get to appreciate Filipino culture. But this change is only minimal

Hermeneutic circle – Hans-Georg Gadamer

used by educators and interviewers.  Define – how local popular culture

magazines sustain amidst the competition.  “To understand each part implies an understanding of the whole, yet there is no way of understanding the whole independently of its parts” according to D’Alleva in her explanation of the hermeneutic circle (2005, 125). 

In order to understand the coping strategies of local pop culture glossies, one must understand the magazine titles itself, the competitors which are the leading consumer magazines, and the local magazine publishing industry. 

The author will understand the problem with relation to its history as well as its sociological context. 

author must contextualize the data gathered from interviews with other information relevant to the researcher

“The hermeneutic circle means that all understanding begins somewhere in the middle of things, with some sort of understanding already in place,” - D’Alleva

The author will use the hermeneutic circle in interviewing practicioners in the filed of her subject. Klein (1999, 67).

Being conscious of potential biases in the narratives of the interviewees

Methodology Interview – editors-in-chief, art directors, group

publishers, account executives Cross reference/Books written by experts in the

field of magazine design Rate card, media kit Survey questionnaire among 300 magazine

buyers – are they ready for something new. The researcher then goes back to interview the

practicioners to ask them more questions, so that she could correlate the new information disclosed to her, to the feedback she got from the survey questionnaires

By:

Sherina “Cher” Lo

Arts Management student

De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde