Online Media: Attitude Industry

Question 1

Introduction to Attitude

Answer 1

British gay lifestyle magazine

Owned by stream publishing

Sold worldwide as a physical magazine, and is available for digital download

Question 2

Who is Northern and Shell?

Answer 2

They used to publish a range of magazines and newspapers that were ‘tabloidy’ and ‘gossipy’

They also owned a few TV channels including channel 5

Question 3

Why did Northern and Shell hit financial difficulty?

Answer 3

They started to suffer with financial difficulties, and started to sell off their assets such as Channel 5 and some other TV channels

They started to sell off bit by bit their magazines and newspapers

Question 4

What is Stream publishing?

Answer 4

Stream publishing is an independent company, and own a range of other titles such as magazine booklets, flyers, and leaflet companies

Small organisation with only 30 employees

Question 5

Who owns Stream publishing?

Answer 5

Darren Styles is the managing director of Stream publishing

When he took over Stream Publishing, he felt that there was a gap in the market for gay male magazines

He had previously owned the gay lifestyle magazine Winq which is a Netherlands based gay magazine which has performed commercially well

Question 6

What is the main benefit of horizontal integration?

Answer 6

Concentration of ownership - the more ownership an organisation has, the more opportunity for capital gain

Having ownership of multiple subsidiaries that perform commercially well results in multiple revenue streams

Question 7

What has Stream Publishing vowed to do with this high concentration of ownership?

Answer 7

Attitude and Winq magazines are going to merge to make a gay media ‘superbrand’ which will publish in 6 countries and 5 languages

Question 8

Stream publishing achieving commercial growth

Answer 8

They publish many other products too, along with magazines for Flybe, McColl’s, P&O Cruises, and Spar

Question 9

Independent company meaning more risk and creative freedom

Answer 9

They are vertically integrated, and they own their own printing press, they write and edit all of their own content, and distribute their own products due to no conglomerate interference

Attitude still have the power to be quite creative and independent themselves

Question 10

Impact of digital convergence

Answer 10

Attitude has a website and online digital editions which is demonstative of the fact that a lot of magazine institutions now must be digital or have to be online to target more modern audiences

Question 11

What digital technologies is Attitude available on?

Answer 11

There is an iPad version, iPhone version, and you can download it via Kindle through the AppStore

Attitude sell over 11,000 digital copies per month

Question 12

How much web traffic does Attitude through its online and social media platforms

Answer 12

The attitude website attracts as many as 1.7million unique users a month

Across social media platforms, they have more than 1.2million loyal engaged followers

Question 13

Expanding on revenue opportunities

Answer 13

They were able to make money from the sales of advertising on the pages in their physical magazine, but now that those print sales are declining, they have to have advertising opportunities online aswell

There is a range of advertising opportunities within their website where companies can purchase a banner or sponsor whole sections of the website

Question 14

Where is Attitude able to distribute the digital and online edition?

Answer 14

The magazine is sold worldwide and is available for download everywhere including the 73 countries where homosexuality remains illegal

Question 15

How does having a global presence provide more enriching content?

Answer 15

A digital product can be distributed globally, so attitude often features stories about global travel, other cultures and global LGBTQ issues

Question 16

How does the online website promote star power?

Answer 16

The online website and digital editions of Attitude often features stories from around the world, and focus heavily on star power - using celebrities that would be familiar to an audience

Question 17

How can a global audience be catered to via social media?

Answer 17

Social media posts about events in other countries, tagging people from other countries aswell - is a great way of broadening out the audience so that its not just British readers reading the online magazine

Question 18

Power and Media Industries by Curran and Seaton

Answer 18

The media is controlled by a small number of companies, all driven by the logic of profit and power. This results in media concentration and limits variety and creativity

Question 19

Application of Power and Media Industries

Answer 19

Attitude run many of events that are built around charity - ‘Attitude Magazine Foundation’

This foundation raises money and donates to LGBTQ+ charities and communities around the world

This shows that they are not driven by the logic of profit and power, as they ‘give back to the people’ and don’t aim for profit

Question 20

Regulation by Livingstone and Lunt

Answer 20

There is an underlying struggle in regulation in deciding whether to further the needs of the consumer by offering variety, value for money, and range - or to protect their interests by protecting them from harmful content

The rise in digital technologies has made this harder to do

Question 21

Application of Regulation

Answer 21

A lot of their posts feature scantily clad male models

Their posts on social media are regulating using Facebook and Twitter algorithms, which shows that they are trying to keep their content away from a younger audience. This is because