Style Magazine | Are Online Magazines & Blogs Replacing Physical Magazines?
Magazines have been around for years, with popular magazine titles including Vogue, Time, Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Day and Men’s Health, to name a few. However, the digital age has incredibly impacted the magazine industry. Magazine sales have been dropping drastically for years, as new digital alternatives emerge. Since 2012, magazine readership has declined radically, as consumers switch to these digital alternatives.
As physical magazine sales drop, the use and popularity of online content platforms have increased, from online blogs, social media platforms, and online news websites. These online platforms have gained popularity over time and have become a popular platform as they are easier to create, do not need to mass produce, is more cost effective, and can be accessed anywhere, as long as there is internet access available.
Going digital via online magazines
Online magazine publication, ‘Style Magazine’ (stylemagazine.net.au) took the rise of digital as an opportunity to create an online content posting platform. This online magazine is an Australian based publication, who adapted to the times to create an online magazine.
Style Magazine was around from 2006 to 2017, however, this online publication is now discontinued. Over the years, Style magazine made changes to their online magazine, both graphically and content wise, to ensure they were changing with the times, however, this was not enough to stay afloat in the growing industry of online publications.
Anyone can create an online magazine/blog, so what are the key components to a successful online magazine/blog, and what components can ensure your blog does not discontinue, like Style Magazine had to.
1. Visual Appeal
The base of a successful magazine/blog is the visual aspect of it. A visually appealing magazine/blog is going to attract and intrigue more readers. Graphic Design plays a big role in this. From the colours, the layout, and the graphics used, all visual aspects of the magazine/blog must tie together nicely. The visual aspect of each magazine/blog must work together to fit the magazine/blog overall theme, and be cohesive together.
2. Unique
Unlike magazines, there is less of a risk when creating a magazine/blog, meaning more and more people are starting to magazine/blog. In saying that, it can be easy to be lost in the crowd. Being different from the others and having your own personal, unique aesthetic is important in attracting the target audience you desire. Whether that be having a unique magazine/blog theme and aesthetic or unique content, being different from everyone else who is trying to develop their magazine/blog is vital to success.
3. Content
After readers analyse the overall theme and aesthetic of your magazine/blog, the content you post on your magazine/blog will be the factor that determines whether readers will continue to read your magazine/blog or not. With that being said, it is important that you post content that you are passionate about. This ties into point 2, content that you specially are passionate about and is unique to yourself will attract the target audience you are after. Writing unique content about topics content you personally enjoy writing about can be the difference between a good magazine/blog and a great one.
4. Promote
After perfecting the visual aspect, character, and content of your magazine/blog, promoting this magazine/blog can be beneficial to reaching more people. A cost effective way of doing this is by growing your following on social media, specifically, a social media platform that your target audience is present on, whether that be Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. These platforms should all be cohesive, and fit with the overall theme of your magazine/blog. Posting updates and interacting and engaging with your readers on social media can help spread the word about your magazine/blog, intriguing and bringing in new readers to view your magazine/blog.
Overall, the first step to a successful magazine/blog is the visual aspect and design of it. When it comes to the visual identity of your brand, quality graphic design is critical, and as the brain processes visual images faster than text, in the new digital age, this quality graphic design is more important than ever. Here at Noop, we Perth’s cognitive graphic design agency, and we captivate your customers and push your graphic design further than ever before.
