Option 1: Woman and Adbusters 4. How significant are economic factors in the magazine industry? Refer to Woman and Adbusters in your answer. [30]

Option 1: Woman and Adbusters4. How significant are economic factors in the magazine industry? Refer to Woman and Adbusters in your answer. [30]

Woman magazine was established in 1964 as an exclusively Womans lifestyle magazine. Adbusters magazine is an independent magazine that has a genre of which can only be descrived as 'culture jamming' and is dedicated to criticizing consumerism. 

Women magazine was sold at a low price of 7p, of which is equivalent to around 80p in modern day, of which implies that it was marketed at a middle class audience who had the spare money to spend on a luxury such as a magazine. This means that it would've been difficult for a magazine like this to market the working class as the average salary in 1964 was £915,20, the working class would most likely not of had a spare 7p per week for magazine as it is not an essential.

The advertisements inside Woman magazine would have brought down the cost of the magazine as the advertisers would have paid the magazine to feature inside it. This is because the advertisers product targets a similar audience to Woman magazine - (insert woman target audience here). One of the adverts is for a soap called 'Breeze' that reoresents women to be sexy, however by washing themselves with this soap they will become sexier. The image shows a stereotypically attractive woman, naked and covered in soap suds described in the caption as 'To be sure you're all over feminine... all day fresh... darling, please, bath with Breeze'. This Patriarchal hegemony suggesting that women must be naked, white and clean in order to be attractive to men follows Lisbet Van Zoonen's Feminist Theory.

Adbusters magazine costs £10.99 and is bimonthly, it costs this much as it does not feature adverts, of which therefore puts the costs up as no advertisers are supporting the magazine. This is rare in the magazine industry as it is very difficult to establish a magazine without the support of known brands that will encourage people to buy the magazine. This is atypical of magazine, in addition to this the magazine is non-profit and only makes enough money to pay it's contributors.
In Adbusters May/June 2016 edition, the layout is very bold, the masthead is in a sans-serif font and appears to have a spray paint effect over it of which suggests an act of self vandalism - that Adbusters are anti consumerism and they are trying to prove a point that they can sell magazines by the cover without conforming to conventions set by the magazine industry.

To conclude, economic factors play a key role in the magazine industry, without money a magazine can not succeed as it is the strongest driving factor behind a magazine and it's success.