Week 9: Time Flies When You're having fun

     This week started out at a very fast pace. I was running around everywhere getting last minute items for meetings and photo shoots. I had received a text from my boss on Saturday asking me to check my work email over the weekend. She wanted me to run an errand to pick up some fabric for her before I came into work on Monday. That was an experience! The email said to get some fabric swatches cut and to bring them back to her. I asked the woman at the desk to cut some samples, she did that, however, she didn't label them for me before sticking them in a bag that I brought back to my boss. Not realizing she hadn't labelled them, I took the swatches to my boss, who then asked me to go back to the fabric store and get them to label the different fabrics. When I returned to the office, I spent the afternoon researching products to use on a future DIY story. After I left the office, I went back to the fabric store to pick up more fabric to bring to my boss on Tuesday.

     On Tuesday, my boss sent me on a trip to my new favorite place...the fabric store. This time, instead of grabbing swatches, I was getting 5 yards of the fabric that she had chosen out of all the swatches I had gotten for her. When I returned, I met with my boss regarding all of the items I had found so far for the Curb Appeal story and she chose the things that she wanted to feature in the magazine.  After lunch, I continued Monday's research for the DIY project. My last task of the day was to create a Google Doc for my Curb Appeal items that included the company, prices, website, item, and a contact for the company.

Sitting in our adirondack chair

     Luckily, I didn't have to go out in the heat any more for the rest of the week. In Wednesday, I began contacting companies for images and information regarding the items I had selected for Curb Appeal. My boss also send me a bunch of Dropbox pictures which I printed out and loaded onto our server. Later, another intern and I put together an adirondack chair for a future photo shoot. My last task of the day involved bringing props back over to the office from the studio in Hearst.


     On Thursday, I made my first paint sheet. This involves cutting out a paint swatch and writing the name and number of the paint that is needed for the item. I also contacted some more PR representatives for information for some of the items to be used in the DIY story. I also printed some more photos and loaded them onto our server. I continued working on my Curb Appeal story. I called around in different states getting price estimated for roofing so I could get an average price. I continued updating my Google Doc. I also continued looking for items that could possible be used.

     Friday was pretty busy as well. It mainly involved just working on Curb Appeal. I continued looking for items and contacting companies all day. I didn't realize how hard it is to get in contact with some people! I was excited when my boss brought me a cookie in the afternoon. It was the cutest cookie I've ever seen and looked like a front door.

     I am hoping next week that I will finish up with Curb Appeal. I'm very excited for next week because I will get to see a cover shoot for our October issue.
   

My front door cookie

   

Current Event 7

HGTV Magazine

     This article is about a new fashion magazine that is coming out. The focus of this fashion magazine is not supposed to just talk about what is "hot" or the next upcoming trends you should buy before everyone, but rather it is wanting to "create a space to inspire women to live the happy, healthy, integrated lives they want to lead." According to the article, 75% of women feel worse about themselves after reading the fashion magazines that have been on the stands so far. The magazine focuses on women empowerment and not on what their life is lacking. Although some magazines have articles here and there about women gaining control of their lives, this entire magazine will have stories about doing so.

     After my co-worker read the article, she didn't have much to say about it. There have been magazines before who have claimed to be "different"and end up going right along with the status quo and become like the rest of the magazines in their genre. If the magazine does in fact do what it says, then great, but the odds are against them. They may end up becoming a magazine strictly on feminism more so than fashion.

     When I asked her about the implications the article for our company, she informed me that this meant nothing for us. Because we are a house magazine and appeal to both sexes, there are no major implications for us.

     There really wasn't much of a difference between company-wide and industry wide implications. It's just another magazine coming on to the scene. Until it becomes a nationally recognized magazine, it doesn't have an effect on the industry. However, if it does become a widely read magazine, it will mean more competition for fashion magazines--if there wasn't enough already.


    As far as her opinion on the article, she feels that it's great that there is going to be a magazine empowering women, but it will probably focus more on feminism than fashion.

Hoffman, Gabriella(2013, July 12) New Fashion Magazine Encourages Women's Empowerment. Retreived July 12, 2013 from http://townhall.com/columnists/gabriellahoffman/2013/07/12/new-fashion-magazine-encourages-womens-empowerment-n1639162

Current Event 6

HGTV Magazine

     This article talks about a growing trend of having the same issue on newsstands with different covers. The practice of doing this helps capture more readers as well as combat digital media competition. It also helps increase ad revenue for the company who's advertisement is in the front cover. I was surprised to find how many magazines actually do this. It gives the company more opportunities to showcase their creativity, which everyone likes to take advantage of. Using more than just one photo also helps the magazine to get more out of their cover photo shoots.

     I talked to a few coworkers about the article and here is what I gathered:

     Our magazine does not produce multiple covers because we are still a relatively new company and the cost of having more than one photo shoot for the cover is too high. We would have to do multiple photo shoots because the furniture that is usually shown on our cover is either built for our use or a heavy-duty piece of furniture that requires the use of a third party to get it to and from the studio and our office. Our covers are always very bright and we have had no problem attracting readers thus far.

     As far as our industry goes, the use of multiple covers is raising competition between like magazines. Although the common quote is "don't judge a book by it's cover," the cover is what drives a good amount of impulse buys at the stores who are selling these magazines. It also is a way for these print magazines to stay as updated as the can with the digital magazines that undergo constant change. More and more magazines are jumping on the bandwagon of multiple covers and it will only continue to increase.

     Everyone agreed that this concept is a good thing. It keeps every magazine on their toes and also will heighten competition. It also makes magazines racks more fun and keeps it from looking the same each week and just collecting dust.

Elliott, Stuart (June 23, 2013) A Multiplicity of Magazine Covers, and Just as many reasons, Retreived on July 3, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/business/media/a-multiplicity-of-magazine-covers-and-just-as-many-reasons.html?_r=1&

Current Event 5

     HGTV Magazine

     Similar to some of my other current events, this article focuses on the digital age and what it means for the future of magazines. In this article it talks about how the digital articles provide more of reader-writer interaction in the sense that the reader can click a link and automatically be connected with the writer of the article. The trouble in this story is that the digital version is made specifically for an iPad or tablet, which makes it difficult for readers wanting to see it but don't own a tablet. They say that it will still have similar advertisements to the print versions. I feel like most of the current event articles being written about our industry have something to do with the evolving technology.
     I asked my co worker what she thought of all of this. She said that she definitely thinks this is a major topic in our industry and it should be. We are at a crossroads in our industry where companies will have to choose to stick with print or change it up with the times and start going digital. Digital will bring the same if not more benefits as print magazines and ads.
      When I asked her what this meant for our company, she responded with," For our company, we will probably not go digital for some time.We are a new magazine, yet are pretty set in our ways. We will stick to print magazines for as long as our numbers keep climbing up. If we see a major decrease, then maybe we will decide to go a different route,but I don't see that happening anytime soon."
     When I asked her what it meant for our industry, she told me," Our industry has a whole is definitely being effected by this. However, it depends on the target customer of each magazine. The younger reader based companies, will need to consider switching to digital, more so than a company with an older reader base. Digital is the future of our industry, it's just a matter of how quickly companies jump on the bandwagon."

Prewitt, Taylor (2013, July 1) Citygram Magazine emphasizes reader, writer interaction. Retrieved on July 1, 2013 from: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/life-and-arts/2013/07/01/citygram-magazine-emphasizes-reader-writer-interaction

Current Event 4

     HGTV Magazine

     My current event this week revolves around how technology is changing the role of magazines and advertising. I feel like the evolving technology is changing not only the magazine industry, but most other industries as well. What this article is saying is that print magazines are going to have even more competition with the new digital magazines and articles. In today's society, younger readers are more attracted to these digital copies and the print magazines are for an "older" audience. Although the digital world is becoming more widely used and popular, it seems that more revenue will still come from the "old school" print magazines.
     In talking to my coworkers, none of this has had an effect on our company as of yet, and we aren't too worried about what will happen in our future. We have been gaining readers and don't have a digital copy, so there is no need for us to change anything. As far as the industry goes, it will call for a few changes here and there and many companies will offer both digital and print subscriptions.
     Everyone's opinions on the matter seemed to all be somewhat the same. Everyone feels like this is starting a whole new revolution for the magazine industry, but that it will be a while before everyone converts to digital. Either way, as long as the reader is the main focus, a company will be successful.

Wood, Samantha (2013, July 1) The Changing Role of Magazines from Product to Service. Retreived on July 1, 2013 from:
http://www.minonline.com/news/The-Changing-Role-of-Magazines-from-Product-to-Service_22713.html

Current Event 3

HGTV Magazine    

     This article is about how at the National Magazine Awards, not a single women's magazine has been nominated for profile writing in over a decade. This just goes to show that society does not take women's magazines as seriously as they do magazine's directed at men. Many people think that women's magazines are directed towards unimportant topics such as hair and makeup. However, there is actually a good amount of intellectual stories in these magazines. Women's magazines deserve more respect and recognition.
     When I asked my coworker what this meant for our company, she told me that this really doesn't have anything to do with our company specifically. Both sexes read our magazine, so we don't see much prejudice towards our writing. However, on the industry as a whole, this does cause a problem and much resentment between magazines mainly directed at women and those directed at men. It almost is like a dividing line as been drawn between "real" journalism (being the men's magazines) and magazines with articles seen as being written almost as a hobby (these being the women's magazines.) Although women's magazines may not always be covering the same topics as men's, it doesn't make them any less important.
     I then asked her what her opinion was on it, and she told me she felt it was offensive. She took great offense to the fact that if she wanted to write an intellectual article for a women's magazine that it would not be taken seriously by a man, even if it was essentially the same article seen in a GQ. She feels like women's journalism should be given credit for their articles.

Beaujon, Andrew (2013, June 17) Why don't women's magazines earn more National Magazine Awards? Retreived on June 24, 2013 from:http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/216208/why-dont-womens-magazines-earn-more-national-magazine-awards/

Week 8: Feeling Rejuvenated

     This week flew by. It probably helped that it was another short week. Every summer, Hearst has "Summer Fridays", where they are given a Friday off here and there throughout the summer. This Friday was our first one, so I was given another long weekend. After having a vacation and then a two day work week, I was feeling like a whole new girl and ready for whatever tasks I was given.

The boxes of props from last
week's photo shoot

     On Monday, I downloaded and printed pictures from a DropBox file that my boss had emailed to me. I also added some more pictures to our server. The pictures I added to the server files were then printed out and I made a concept board for an upcoming story. I made 4 boards on Monday, it was exhausting! In the afternoon, I went over to Hearst and packaged all of the items used in last week's photo shoot back up so that we could return everything to the stores which they came from. My last assignment of the day was to find products on houses we had chosen for Curb Appeal that we could point out in the story. I always assumed that the magazine just asked the homeowner's where everything camefrom, but I learned that it is not that simple. I had to find products offered by different stores so that we could tell the reader where they could buy the particular item that they like.

Washington Park

     Tuesday involved even more printing. My favorite pictures I printed were of a family and before and after shots of their house. It didn't look like the same house! I also felt like I connected with the story of the house by seeing the family that lives there. I continued looking up products for Curb Appeal. I also ran two errands: I went to the Container Store and then to Home Depot to buy products for a DIY project.
     Wednesday wasn't much different from the previous two days. I continued to print pictures, add them to our server, and also continued searching fro Curb Appeal products. I also started to make a board of all the products I found so far for Curb Appeal.
     I started Thursday off with a meeting with my boss. She wanted to see what all I had found so far for the Curb Appeal story. She liked most of it but wanted more options, so I went back to my office and continued to look for more products. I also began to contact the PR Reps for some of the companies who had the products I found. My parents arrived on Thursday as well. They came up since I had Friday off so that they could visit and see my place up here. They had a wonderful time and it was hard to say goodbye. I'm hoping next week involves less sitting at my computer!!

My Sister and me on the subway