Branding research

After reading the article Brand Identity Is The Key For Magazines I learned that magazines arent on the decline as a matter of fact. According to Samir Husni, director of the Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi, there are around 4 times as many magazine titles now than there were in 1978. If the magazine was on the decline then why would that occur? The magazines that are disappearing are the ones that don't give you any useful information, meaning the gossip magazines. People are getting away with buying subscriptions for 5 dollars for an entire year when a single issue at a newsstand costs around the same. If they were to get rid of the subscription then they would have no choice but to buy the hard copy or even an e-book version for the same price. Aside from the subscription people are willing to pay for things that grant them knowledge. People are buying what are known as "bookazines" because they give them more knowledge. People also will buy things on the brand identity alone. Look at shoes, you'll pay 150 dollars for a pair of shoes that are no better than a 40 dollar pair. So if you get your notoriety up then people will most certainly pay money for your product.

So for my magazine I will focus on getting by brand notoriety up as well as focus more on content than flashy eye catchers. That doesn't mean I will do away with all things flashy, it just means I will try to grant as much knowledge on my readers as I possibly can without interfering with the branding as well.

Revisions

After presenting my project Mr. Elsbree gave me a few suggestions on how to better improve my project as well as a few ideas of my own. 

When it came to Mr. Elsbree he told me to fix my table of contents page and make the title more prominent and not have too much white space on the page itself. When it came to the article he said to do the same thing with the title.

My own ideas are to replace some of the pictures. When I took some of the pictures I was rushing to get them done but I have found areas similar to Lake Okeechobee that I can take some action shots of as well as some still shots of some animals that are around Lake Okeechobee. I am able to get much closer to the same animals that lake Okeechobee have because they are less scared by my house than they are on the lake.

Midterm

Awards

Magazines that were awarded General Excellence by the American Society of Magazine Editors in 2015 were: Garden and Gun and National Geographic.

Distribution numbers

Field and Stream - 1,254,889 (December, 2012)

Outdoor Life - 752,668 (December, 2012)

Bassmaster - 513,742

American Hunter - 951,289

Scouting - 8,569,078
Outside - 686,623

Why is my magazine different?

The Outdoorsmen is different from other magazines because it gives you tips and tricks to reshape the hunting and fishing game. The typical magazine on the outdoors will either give you places to travel that have pretty sights or they will tell you stories about people who have gotten record breaking animals in their collection. Now my magazine will do some of the same things like the other magazines but it will tell you how to get there and what you will need as well as what you might see when you get there. When it comes to hunting it will outline new ways to kill the game you are looking for as well as hunting locations from local hunters around the country.

Cover Page ROUGH Draft

This is the rough draft of my cover page. As i go out on the boat more i will take more pictures. I am hoping to get a picture of our airboat driving by me while i stand in the water. If i get that i plan on making it the picture than is on the cover page.