GQ - Audience & Industries

 Audience

Look through the GQ Media Kit and answer the following questions: 

1) How does the media kit introduction describe GQ?

GQ explores the powerful and progressive new forces shaping culture, society and commerce in Britain. Building on a 33-year legacy of print excellence across journalism, photography and design, British GQ is today also a digital, social, video and experiential powerhouse.

2) What does the media kit suggest about masculinity? 

As masculinity evolves and men's fashion has moved to the centre of the global pop-culture conversation.

3) Pick out three statistics from the data on page 2 and explain what they suggest about the GQ audience.

61% ABC1

£7.7k average annual spend on fashion

212k readership

4) Look at page 3 - brand highlights. What special editions do GQ run and what do these suggest about the GQ audience?

GQ Hype- spotlights the stars who are moving culture forward.

Men of the year- In 2021, the iconic British GQ Men of the Year Awards reached a truly global audience.

5) Still on page 3, what does the video and social series section suggest about how magazine audiences are changing? 

That video programming will also hit all of British GQ’s social channels, where audiences have grown more than 30% in the past year to top 2 million.

Media Magazine feature: GQ

Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on GQ (MM82 - page 12). Answer the following questions:

1) What are the elements that go into choosing a cover stars for GQ? 

The mistake, though, is to simply try to get the most famous person for any given month who has a ‘hook’ – a ‘hook’ being a film/ TV show/ album etc they’re promoting, and hence the reason they would do the cover in the first place – but the reality is this often doesn’t work. It needs to be the right person at the right time – that always matters more than fame.

2) How is the magazine constructed to serve the target audience? 

Fundamentally, GQ is a men’s style magazine, and so GQ is always in service to that, both in print and online.

3) What does the article suggest about GQ's advertisers and sponsorships - and what in turn does this tell us about the GQ audience? 

Sponsors tend to be a little more fluid. These will often be the brands who, for instance, sponsor individual categories at the Men of the Year awards, or partner with GQ’s live talks event, GQ Heroes. These won’t necessarily be fashion brands, but crucially the goal will be to align their brand with the GQ.

4) What is GQ Hype - and how does it reflect the impact of digital media on traditional print media?

A weekly, online-only cover. Celebrities – and their agents/publicists.

 

5) Finally, what does the article say about additional revenue streams for print magazines like GQ?  

Extra revenue streams are vital to the magazine business these days – it’s almost impossible to survive

without them. It’s about deciding the key areas in which the brand is strong and focussing on those.

Industries

Your industries contexts are divided into three areas - Conde Nast, GQ's website and social media content and the impact of digital media on print industries.

Condé Nast

Read this Guardian news article on editorial changes at Condé Nast and answer the following questions: 

1) Who was previously GQ editor for 22 years? 

Dylan Jones

2) What happened to the 'lads' mag' boom magazines such as Nuts, Maxim and Loaded? 
Jones has distanced himself from the “lads’ mag” boom of the 1990s, saying it “denigrated our culture”, but he continued to argue that a successful magazine needs “a libido, whether you are French Vogue or Vanity Fair”.

3) What changes have been taking place at Condé Nast in recent years and why? 
Changes in editiors but The company says it will “continue to bring together our European business” and is “entering into a collective consultation process to evolve some of our teams, roles and capabilities”.

Read this Press Gazette article on Conde Nast. Answer the following questions:

1) What does the article suggest about Condé Nast's recent strategy? 

Conde Nast merged the global editorial teams at several of its international magazine brands including GQ, Wired, Vogue and Conde Nast Traveller under a new digital-first strategy designed to produce less duplication of content.

2) How does chief executive Roger Lynch describe Condé Nast and why? 

 Roger Lynch told the New York Times the digital-first changes meant Conde Nast was “no longer a magazine company,” saying it has “70 million people who read our magazines, but we have 300 something million that interact with our websites every month and 450 million that interact with us on social media”.

3) What does Adam Baidawi say about Condé Nast, GQ and culture? 

Baidawi told Press Gazette: “Conde Nast, as much as anything else, is in the business of shaping and reflecting culture. Culture moves, and we have to move with it.

Read this FIPP feature on Condé Nast diversifying into video and streaming content. Answer the following questions: 

1) How is Condé Nast moving away from traditional print products?

Condé Nast has announced 75 returning series and 50 new pilots across 17 brand channels for 2021-2022, capitalising on huge growth in streaming in the past year. Its brands will focus on shoppable series and reaching incremental viewers via new programmes and “supercharged” relaunches of some of its most exclusive events.

2) What examples are provided of Condé Nast's video and streaming content?

Exclusive access to relaunch the Met Gala with Vogue and Vanity Fair’s Oscars Party

3) What does the end of the article suggest modern media audiences want? 
The company is focusing on reaching those segments of its audience who do not watch traditional broadcast and cable networks.

GQ website, video and social media content 

Visit the GQ website, Instagram and YouTube channel. Note that some of these may be blocked in school. Once you have looked over GQ's online content, answer the following questions:

1) What similarities do you notice between the website and the print edition of the magazine?

Both focus on fashion, grooming, culture, celebrity interviews and lifestyle advice.

2) Analyse the top menu of the GQ website (e.g. Fashion / Grooming / Culture). What do the menu items suggest about GQ's audience?

It suggests the audiences are interested in personal appearance,health,entertainment,current trends and cultural issues

3) What does GQ's Instagram feed suggest about the GQ brand? Is this appealing to a similar audience to the print version of the magazine?
The Instagram feed focuses on fashion,celebrities,luxury products and contemporary culture.It appeals to a similar audience as the print magazine but is designed for a younger more digitally engaged consumer.

4) In your opinion, is GQ's social media content designed to sell the print magazine or build a digital audience? Why?
I think it is more used to build a digital audience because they need to have a way to compete with other media types that aren't traditional print.

5) Evaluate the success of the GQ brand online. Does it successfully communicate with its target audience? Will the digital platforms eventually replace the print magazine completely?

I think GQ's online presence is successful and can communicate with its target audience but I doubt it will fully replace the print magazine because there will always be a want for physical copies.