iPad vs Print

I wanted to look closer at the Vogue tablet app but since I don't have a tablet and the friends who do , lost theirs or they got stolen, I did the next best thing and tried to find the introduction and overview of the app on Youtube.  I also wanted to compare it to the print version of the magazine and see how is the digitisation improving or downgrading the print versions of the same issue.

I did find a few videos remotely what I was looking for, even though too short.

The video that I want to share is like a introduction to the 2011 December issue digital version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goJX-HefCBk

The magazine production, has according to McLuhan and Powers (1989) been transformed by colour television. The emergence of glossy covers, colour pictures and more user-friendly layouts has come about as the medium of magazines production has responded to technological developments in television (Stevenson, N. (2002) Understanding Media Culture London: Sage). I want to explore if there is any truth behind this quote and is it relevant now days.

Reason why I chose it, is because I actually have a print version of this issue. The obvious difference between the issues is that readers can't press on anything in the print issue. Personally this quality is not something that I am very fond of and perhaps is the reason why I prefer print copies but for a lot of the people of this modern age this press on everything quality makes the issue more interesting and perhaps more interactive.

Here is an example of what I was talking about. On that page there is a play button that the readers could press and a video from the photoshoot would open, revealing some scenes and shots that were not included in the magazine.

As you can see below in the print version the same page looks different and there is a limited amount of pictures that could have been included.

I found it very interesting how the Vogue App gives you the possibility to watch videos with fashion shows and  interviews with designers, models and fashionistas. While you are reading an article you can press on some of the images which will turn into a video with the interview or a fashion show so you don't have to go online or to press a link that will take you to another page to watch them. The videos are part of the digital issue. That gives the readers easier access to the information that the publishers want to share.

As it can be seen the print version is not that much different in terms of content but obviously there are no videos there and its seems that the same article on iPad is one page while the print version takes up  3 pages. If the digital issue would have been printed it would most possibly  be thinner but on larger paper.

Another fascinating thing about  the digital issue of Vogue is that the some of the images are moving. I don't mean like videos but actual images are rotating or jumping up and down.

This is the best example of what I am talking about, if you watch the video posted above then wait until 0:17 and you will see the moving images.

Of course its always more interesting when images are moving and that will actually attract the readers attention to that specific item which is a good marketing strategy, especially because its an article about Christmas gifts (you can see that not all of the images are moving, so the editors are subtly showing their preference to some items rather then all of them).

There is a question that comes to mind when looking at all of these moving images - Is our society becoming stupid?

Are we living in a time when to attract readers print media needs to have flashy images? I personally feel that a lot of people in this Century are like toddlers who need colorfoul pictures in their books, just so to keep their entertained. I understand that my main focus is Vogue and its digital issue which need to be different from the print issue and that is how editors and developers made it different and how they market products but it just makes you think about our society.

As said before the content is the same n the print media, just the images are not moving.



Digital issue also allows you to see behind the scenes of the photoshoots (that you can find on Vogue webiste). For some of the readers this little extra might make the photoshoot even more interesting then before.

 

So the digitalisation hasn't changed the print issue too radically. Yes, videos were added, images are now moving and the layout is a bit different and pages are not longer, but so far that's about it. I have posted about the future of Vogue in the digital age were students from Sweden made a video about how in the near future people will be able to just scan the items in magazines, with a smartphone, which will forward them to the website if the items brand where it will be possible to purchase the item but at the moment it is not possible.

The digital issues are perhaps more entertaining but that about it. I still prefer the print copy over the digital one but that is perhaps because I wasn't born in the digital age, not everyone had computers or mobile phones when I grew up. So maybe I'm just being sceptical about it.
I found that the quote mentioned in the beginning is actually very relevant to the Vogue app. The quote talked about how TV is changing magazines and from the example above that is clearly seen. Magazines are becoming more image focused and the digital issues include videos now. Perhaps the future of magazines lies in TV, who knows...

In any case the conclusion is that the digital issue doesn't differ that much from the print media but for publications its essential to have an App in this modern age.

Hot from the press

On my way home the other day I was reading the Evening Standard were there was an article about the print media and advertisement and the main focus of that article  was Vogue.

It was mentioned that the latest issue of Vogue :

is bigger then the previous one and all because of the advertisement in it. According  to the Vogue publishing director Stephen Quinn the display ad revenue rose 6% in 2012.

The main point of this article is that the print media is not dying and that digitisation is unavoidable but the print will always be relevant.

Here are some highlights from the article :

• " Consumers might be flocking online and on mobile - every self-respecting mag has an iPad app - but print is hard to beat when it comes to creating a tactile, engrossing experience."
• "Research called "Magonomics" claims that consumers feel more favourable towards print advertising than TV or the internet - there are higher "bonding scores", apparently. "
• "Quinn says advertisers are only interested in a few prime print titles. Even Vogue, a marketleader, has seen its 200,000 -plus print circulation fall by about 2% in the past 12 months. "
• "Part of the reason is that advertisers can now produce their own editorial content, from websites and online films to iPad apps and even print magazines."

So it seems that I am not the only one who thinks that print media will not disappear any time soon. Interestingly enough this article is showing the close relationship between print media and advertisement and how one affects the other. In any case this article only proves that print media will be around for quite some time.

Is Vogue a brand?

This is a question that has popped up into my head a couple of times since I started this blog. So I looked up the definition of the word "Brand".

1. (Business / Marketing) a particular product or a characteristic that serves to identify a particular product

2. (Business / Marketing) a trade name or trademark

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/brand)

My favourite definition was :

"A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. A brand name is the name of the distinctive product, service, or concept. Branding is the process of creating and disseminating the brand name. Branding can be applied to the entire corporate identity as well as to individual product and service names."

(http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/brand)

Reading these definitions you could say that Vogue is a brand. This question has been in my head because I tried to think of how Vogue has changed because of the digital age and this question was always the first to come to my mind. 

First of all Vogue is a fashion magazine, always has been.

But now there is so much more to it. There are the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pintrest that help us get closer to the idea of Vogue and that give us insight into the amazing lives of Vogue girls.

Now there is also Vogue TV - http://www.vogue.co.uk/video/ 

Of course it's only online but who knows, perhaps its a start for an actual TV channel.

They also have a youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/voguetv 

But that's not all, interestingly enough Vogue has an eyewear brand called Vogue - http://www.vogue-eyewear.com/international/

In recent years Vogue has organised a very popular event called Vogue Fashion Night Out -  

http://fashionsnightout.com/ 

Its an event where shops, mostly luxury, are open longer and they offer some kind of entertainment like DJ's, food, drinks and celebrity appearances - also discounts and limited addition items.  Since the launch of this event in 2009 it has become very popular in the big fashion capitals all over the world. The main reason for this was to boost retail sales but it has become a part of Vogue image.

Looking at all of this it is difficult to argue that Vogue is not a brand - not only its selling us products but also experience and a lifestyle.

Vogue would never have evolved into a brand so quickly if it wasn't for the digital revolution. The information now travels much faster and you don't have to wait a month to get some fashion news from Vogue. They can promote their events and products more effectively because of social media. Now their promotion campaign is much more cheaper, they just post something online and usually it gets the attention that they need.

Vogue Fashion Night Out probably wouldn't have been such a success if it wasn't for all of the social media promotion and later digital media coverage straight after the event has happened, maybe even during the event.

Now when we talk about Vogue we don't only think in terms of the magazine but also in terms of glamour, luxury and going out to posh places.

The point of this blog was that Vogue has become a brand because of the digital age, if the digital revolution didn't occur then Vogue would probably still be just a magazine and its transition from that to a brand would have taken a lot more time then it did.

Advertising and Print Media - Vogue

Advertising is part of the Print Media - to exist most magazines require the income that they receive from adverts. Otherwise the price of the publication will be too high and that would repel the customers. 

New media publishers will not only have opportunities to reach global audiences with multimedia products in real time, but will also be able to completely rethink their relationship with advertisers and audience (Kovarik, B. (2011) Revolutions in Communications: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age, London: Continuum).  

That is exactly what I want to talk about - the relationship between Vogue and advertising. Since its a fashion magazine advertisement place a huge role but with all this new technology and possibilities the way the advertisement is done is changing.  

In the past years the Quick Response Code (QR Code) has become a very popular tool for advertisement. 

Formerly only for industrial uses, they have in recent years become common in consumer advertising and packaging, because the popularity of smartphones "has put a barcode reader in everyone's pocket"^{[citation needed]} for the first time. As a result, the QR Code has become a focus of advertising strategy, since it provides quick and effortless access to the brand's website.^[8][9]Beyond mere convenience to the consumer, the importance of this capability is that it increases the conversion rate (that is, increase the chance that contact with the advertisement will convert to a sale), by coaxing qualified prospects further down the conversion funnel without any delay or effort, bringing the viewer to the advertiser's site immediately, where a longer and more targeted sales pitch may continue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code).

There are of course social media platforms like FACEBOOK, TWITTER, TUMBLR, PINTEREST that I have discussed in previous posts. They are the new tools of marketing. 

But the reason why I decided to talk about advertisement is this website that I found.

http://www.thedigitalage.com/gallery/Vogue-Enhanced/2371852

Some Swedish students made this interesting advertising project for some company using Vogue as an example.

Basically they were exploring the future of magazine advertisement. I thought it was a very interesting concept that they were exploring. If you just scan, with a smartphone,  a picture of a item featured in  Vogue then your smart phone will go to the items brand website where you could buy the item or explore others. So in a way that would be every girls dream come true - you see something pretty, you buy it, and not you see something pretty, you look for it for the next 2 months.

The development of media of mass communication has gradually seen the decline of print as the dominant form communication and the rise of audio - visual domain (Rayner, P. Wall, P. Kruger, S.2004 Media Studies: The Essentials Resource, London: Routledge). Fortunately print media managed to embrace the audio - visual domain ( Vogue iPad version with mini videos of photo shoot and some images actually moving) but perhaps now Vogue adverts will start to embrace it as well. At least it seems that some one is already trying to promote this concept. It is exciting to see where the digital age is taking us.

Closer Look at Vogue

So I thought that it would be interesting to take a closer look to Vogues online present and maybe analyse what are they trying to achieve with it.

I wanted to look at the Vogue app but since I am not a Apple user and the app won't open on my PC I cannot do that. That is why I will look at the official website, Facebook account, Twitter account and any other social media account that they have.

Official Website: 

So this is the first thing when you open British Vogue official website (31/10/2012) The layout is very clean and minimal, so its very easy to work you're way through the website.

I outlined the trending part to show how the website is using words that have become popular with the help of Twitter like trending. That section automatically shows you what is popular right now and what are people looking at. Also they way it reminds me of Twitter is that Twitter also has the trending section on their website and it was their idea, which proved to be very successful. So, apparently Vogue is embracing it. So from the moment you enter their website you are guided to articles to read.

When you scroll down a little bit you see the Today's News. This shows that Vogue updates their news everyday. Supporting the previous posts and statements in them that Vogue needs to be constantly updated to stay on top of the game. Also you can see or assume, if you are not a Vogue reader, that so far the content of the website is very different from the magazine. Magazine might talk about events that will happen this month but it will not discuss anything too recent or have statements/news of Lady Gaga and her wanting Adele's confidence or Kate Mosses breakdown. The magazine will be more fashion focused. 

If you scroll a bit more down you have the 100 Best Shoes and Best Dressed articles (shortcuts to them). Those are the articles that stay there for longer then just a day. Vogue probably changes them once a week or once every two weeks. 

So these two pictures is what you would see when you would scroll till the end of the webpage. At the end you can find on going articles, like the on with Pixie Geldof and you can also find articles - the most read articles (not sure if most read of the day but logically it should be so). Also links to Vogues social media is seen at the bottom of the opening page of their website. It is interesting that Vogue shows the numbers of their followers, if  a lot of magazines an publications don't like to do that.

I pressed a random button on the menu the explore the website better. As you can see I pressed on Trends and this is what came up. I would also like to note that the website doesn't have a lot of adverts and when they do show them they are not "in your face" so they are not distracting the readers from the content.  

 

After I pressed on the first article and this what showed up. You can see on top (outlined with a red circle) the social media buttons, so any reader can like or retweet this article or a link to it. The buttons also show you the number of likes and retweets that this article already has. Personally I find the menu on the left side very interesting because I haven't seen anything like it before. Most of fashion magazines (also Vogue in the past) had the menu on top and had a very similar layouts to each other. This also proves that Vogue is the leader of fashion magazines, because its being different and embracing its online presents. 

This is a picture of what you can see when you scroll down - at the end of the article. There you see relevant pictures to the trend but also a place to comment about the article. As it can be seen the comment section looks a lot like Facebook in its design because it is. If a person comments in that section that will be seen on their official website and on their official Facebook page under the relevant post. 

It is fascinating how to different website are merged together and are so closely connected. The impression that I got from the website is that all their social platforms are well connected and that they are trying to make it easier to post about their articles - example of Facebook comment section being on their website. This shows how Vogue is using their social platforms to promote themselves and mainly the magazine, which people were scared will stop existing. With this Vogue is reaching a bigger audience then just with their magazine.

VOGUE: Fashion in the digital age

So Vogue organised an talk/event back in 2010 about the digital age. The event was basically a way to promote the Vogue app that was launched that month.  Vogue wanted to create a discussion about the fashion industry in our time, show how the industry has changed and talk about what actually changed and what stayed the same. Its an hour long talk between Robin Derreck, Vogues creative director and a popular fashion blogger with whom I personally wasn't familiar.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/vogue-fashion-in-digital-age/id419773310

The talk is also available as an audio recording. You would require iTunes to listen to it/watch it.  The topics that were discussed were:

• Role of creative director 
• Photography - digital, moving image etc. 
• Fashion brands and how they engage with their audience
• Vogue in the digital age 

For this project the last topic was the most interesting one. Robin Derreck presented the Vogue app for iPad . Robin Derreck commented on the online presents of a magazine by saying that it still needs to have the quality of a glossy magazine but it needs to sparkle a discussion. He also said that by having an online presents brands (Vogue) create communities which make them obligated to update their websites 365 days per year. He tries to show that in a way Vogue is becoming part of the entertainment industry  if they want to remain relevant they need to engage their readers every day, now days it cannot be just once a month.

He also discussed the app by saying that its an extension of the magazine. It still has the same content but with added videos in between pictures, or for example the model from the picture will walk up to the screen. So the app is the more entertaining version of the magazine.

Robin Derreck also mentioned that Vogue used to be "stiff", six girls (cover girls/super models) and six photographers but that now thanks to the digital age Vogue has become a lot more open to new talents and more daring with their content.

Personally I found the talk very interesting because it was discussed by a person who work in the industry for more then 25 years and has witnessed it evolve. He also wasn't shy to point out the mistakes that some brands have made or situations where maybe the brands should have taken different actions. It was nice to see a critical view of the industry in the digital age. I also liked that creative director of Vogue was giving the talk because it gave an opportunity to see the man behind the creative ideas of Vogue and hear from him how the magazine has adopted to the digital revolution.  He also gave an short introduction to the app and discussed why some things were done and how he worked on the app.

All in all the talk was very informative. It has supported some of the points that were previously discussed in this blog like how the content of the website needs to be updated every day and how they need to work much faster but it has also brought up some new points which I personally have not though of - like Vogue becoming some sort of entertainer. Of course those were not word used in the talk but that is what I got from it. The talk also shows that Vogue is quick to adapted to changes and is not trying to resist them and that it is trying more ways to create a discussion with their audience. In other words Vogue is trying to have a bigger part in our lives and at the same time embracing the digital age.

Vogue embraces the digital age

This link is to an article by the Guardian about how (French) Vogue is embracing the digital age with their

website relaunch. The interview is with Emmanuelle Alt, editor in chief of Vogue Paris.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/fashion-blog/2012/feb/06/french-vogue-relaunch

Here are some highlights from the interview :

Guardian Fashion: What would you say to someone who thinks that the glossiness of Vogue should be something you sit and flick through rather than look at on a computer screen?

Emmanuelle Alt: Vogue is the absolute reference for fashion and trends. This is clear for the print version, and must be the case everywhere. Vogue must also be the fashion authority on the Internet, and on all digital channels. The Vogue Paris Twitter account is the most influential in France for all these reasons, and the new Vogue Paris website will also fulfill this role. The digital world and the press do not have the same temporality, but they each reflect the Vogue DNA.

Do you see a time when magazines as physical objects will simply cease to exist? And are the magazine's sales at risk from things being seen on the website?

EA: I think it's absurd to think that the magazine could be replaced by the website, as these two platforms for Vogue's know-how and expertise complement each other. One will not substitute the other. The print version will always remain a platform for the expression of creativity and inspiration, while the site remains above all else, a news and information outlet. I would even go further, to say that like our social networks, the site is still recruiting new readers for the magazine, which also makes it a source of sales development.

What are the key differences in working on a print magazine and a digital one and how to you see the two things co-existing? How does it change the role of editor-in-chief?

EA: The biggest difference is temporality, which means that we have to produce content on a daily basis. The physical format, and the use and functionalities of the web also influence specific content, which is by its nature different from the magazine. What is important to us, however, is that our readers, our users, our fans and our followers, expect Vogue to bring them the hottest, most exclusive news; to guide them through the ocean of new products to make fail-safe choices, and to be in the know before the rest.

So Emmanuelle Alt sees the the digital media as a way of expanding the Vogue brand. It is interesting that she says that the website (digital media) helps to attract new readers and that she doesn't believe that hard copies of the magazine will ever cease to exist. In recent years there has been panics that with all the cutting down the number of staff and with dropping readership the print media will eventually die out but as it can be read in this interview the editors remain positive.  

Emmanuelle Alt is not the only one, Wired magazines editor Chris Anderson sees the "app" economy helping to build value for publishers. "You can retain everything that makes a magazine great and then add three new things; the videos, the animation, the interesting, a social media layer," Anderson said.( "Kovarik, B. (2011) Revolutions in Communications: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age, London: Continuum)  

"On-line services will coexist with print for the foreseeable future and maybe forever," says Stephen B. Shepard, editor in chief of Business Week. (Pavlik, V. P. (1998) New Media Technology: Cultural and Commercial perspectives, London: Allyn and Bacon) This only supports previous statements. Perhaps the digital revolution in the print world can be seen as a positive phenomena. 

Interestingly enough originally, the hope for digital media technology was simply that people would have more choice in selecting news reports. ( "Kovarik, B. (2011) Revolutions in Communications: Media History from Gutenberg to the Digital Age, London: Continuum)  As we can see the digital media evolved beyond that.