Consumer Habits Towards Magazines and How it Effects My Product

Magazines are a type of media that has been around for a very long period of time. They have been around for much longer than Television and the Internet while still providing a similar media experience, whether it be reading interesting articles or learning something new about current day affairs. Over the course of time the way in which magazines are consumed by consumers have changed drastically, I am going to be researching on this.

Magazines have spent the most of their time in their most original, natural form, printed onto paper.

However, in recent years with the introduction of the internet is reading a magazine in its paper form really the consumers favorite option? Recent figures from sales have shown a decline in some types of magazines such as Music magazines NME and Q according to the Guardian.

NME and Q suffered sales declines of almost 20% year-on-year in a tough first six months of 2012 for the music magazine market.
Q was the worst performer in the music magazine sector, with sales down 16.7% compared to the six months to the end of December and 19.7% year on year, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures released on Thursday.

These figures show a decline in sales towards the Magazines in question, but it isn't just the music magazines which are struggling, on further research it is evident that most Magazines are suffering the same decline. I believe the reason for this is as mentioned above, the Internet. The internet allows users to simply filter out the news articles they want to read a lot quicker than buying a magazine and reading through it, it also works out cheaper too. There are still many people who purchase magazines however it is worth noting that changes in the way that magazines are consumed may need to be considered. Some magazines have already become aware of the changes required and have already began looking into new and exciting ways that magazines can be experienced. I'll continue to mention NME, they have now produced a digital version of their magazine which can be read on digital devices such as iPhones, iPads and other tablet devices.

How does this effect my regional magazine product?

The reason that these consumer habits and changes to the magazine industry are notable mentions to my media work is because my product must try to follow the same realism as an actual magazine would. During the production of my magazine I may choose to add bonus sub-headings on the front-cover mentioning about digital versions of my magazines and social media such as Facebook and Twitter as this adds another level of realism to the product I am creating. Even though my product should try to be creative in some elements it is always important to make sure my product doesn't stray too far away from the real product it is intending to be, a magazine.