In recent times the media industry has witnessed meteoric rise in new technologies. The advancement of the internet, for example, as it entered its second phase enables consumers to access media in new and unparalleled ways. For the magazine industry, this has presented both challenges and opportunities.
Print media is mostly in decline, a worry of course for producers of magazines. Therefore they must assess just how important technological convergence is for helping their magazine to survive in the long run.
The Future Plc title Metal Hammer is a monthly rock and metal magazine that has existed since 1994. In that time, Metal Hammer has built a reputation as a bible of both modern and traditional metal music. It’s publisher, Future, is an independent company with a portfolio of magazines aimed at niche market sectors. As a whole, Future, has performed well in a declining market, with Metal Hammer and Classic Rock reporting increases in circulation, with Metal Hammer reaching a circulation of 50,269 and classic rock 70, 188 (ABC, Dec 08). Perhaps Futures strategies involving technological convergence have something to do with this success. One of their ‘pillars’ of business strategies is to implore upon their existing convergences in order to further appeal to prosumers. This is important; Future defines ‘prosumers’ as “young men or young-at-heart men (Future licensing.com). In general this demographic will be one of the most technologically involved, in the know about the latest technologies. They are also, incidentally the most valuable demographics for advertisers. In this respect, convergence is extremely important for Future and indeed Metal Hammer in retaining advertising revenue. Advertising revenue has already fallen for Future, as they already saw a 15% drop in advertising from December 08-March 09 (futurelicensing.com, 2009). It is therefore, vital that they use technological convergences to remain advanced enough to attract advertisers.
Metal Hammer’s target audience is a young audience, interested in music, “converging adults”, according to futurelicensing.com The National Readership survey 08, the latest available, shows Metal Hammer readers to be 64% male, average age 22. Again, this is an audience that will be interested in many forms of media. So for Metal Hammer to maintain their loyalty they must fulfil their newly evolving needs (Uses and Gratifications, McQuail).
The Metal Hammer website is a demonstration of convergence, and has proved popular with nearly 60,000 individual visitors since starting (futurelicensing.com). Alex’s web traffic analysis suggests that visitors are mostly male, aged between 18 and 24 and spend around 2.7 minutes on Metal Hammer.co.uk. Therefore the website has apparently targeted the right audience for Metal Hammer. Users can interact, voting in polls such as “who has the best slipknot mask?” giving users the sense that they are contributing to a community. They are also educated and entertained with video exclusives, Metallica Live, and Opeth on tour. In this way convergence maintains interest in the Metal Hammer brand. Web 2.0 allows users to submit and generate a content, so Metal Hammer has competition in that users can go elsewhere for such videos. It is up to Convergence in order to provide the best service for users.
Metal Hammer has also had successful synergies created as a result of convergence. On 2008, Metal hammer.co.uk encourages users to send in photos taken on their mobiles of them playing “Guitar Heroes”, combining the internet with mobile technology. The guitar hero synergy combined with a party sponsored by Metal Hammer at the O2 (Metal Hammer.co.uk), Podcasts have allowed content to be sent faster than ever to multi-media formats.
Indeed, distribution is an interesting issue to consider for the magazines industry. The internet, podcasts and video channels allow readers to access their wanted content within seconds. Where as hard copies of a magazine must be ordered or brought from a shop. Indeed it could be suggested that the gathering of content from the internet or mobile has replaced the need for buying the magazine itself, as subscriptions for Metal Hammer rose 8% from Dec-march 09 (futurelicensing.co.uk) suggesting there is not the same novelty when buying a magazine.
However, whilst technological convergence is important for the magazine industry, publishers must consider that the extra content offered to consumers via convergences in technology, could replace the magazine itself. IPC’s NME is an example of this as circulation dropped 24.1%, whilst its website has been praised for the amount of content on offer. Metal Hammer has a unique community created by the interacting mode of address; ‘Join the Crusade’ and writing style filled with expletives ‘F*** You!’, readers of Metal Hammer feel a string sense of unrivalled community within the magazine. The magazine sticks close to its ideologies of anti-establishment , avant-garde by featuring adverts appropriate to his such as Attitude Clothing and HMV Metal, whilst the website has adverts by O2, Orange and T-mobile.
Overall techno convergence is important as consumers needs alter and change but for the magazine industry to survive they must make any technological advancements not a replacement for the hard copy of the magazine as Future have so far successfully done. As online advertising reached 18% for future it is important.
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