Vogue VS Woman

"Woman" is not just a word, is is a symbolic connotation. The gender is specified in the title to make it extremely obvious to the target audience, that this magazine is made for them.

VOGUE VS WOMAN

• The mise-en-scene of the woman's costume in Vogue is eccentric and exotic. This makes the costume in 'Woman' boring and dull.
• The model in Vogue is wearing a lot more makeup. Sophia Lauren's makeup is very expressive and full-on. The woman on woman magazine looks more normal.
• Sophia's appearance is exotic, she looks European. The woman in Woman magazine looks boring and just like the day-to-day English woman.
• Sophia's facial expression is intimidating. The woman on Woman magazine is unknown, has no fame, and is not intimidating. Her smile is friendly and approachable.
• The mise-en-scene of the turban is different and almost shocking to an audience of the time, you would need a lot of confidence to wear this, hence reinforcing the boldness of the magazine. The other woman is dressed normally, therefore she comes across as reserved.
• There's a lot of writing on Woman magazine.
• Woman is appealing to a working class, Vogue is for a middle-class audience.
• The lexis on Vogue is sophisticated, and not understandable for everyone. You can understand every word on the front of Woman, because it is aimed towards a lower-class audience who have not had access to a higher-education. It uses everyday, colloquial language.
• The title of the magazine is hidden, blended into the model's costume. This is to allow a stronger emphasis on the model's face.
• Vogue has a much more recognisable brand identity. Everyone knows Vogue. Whereas Woman is not as recognisable. This is how Vogue is able to hide the masthead, because everyone will already know what it is. 
• Sophia is being sold as being exotic, and is being marketed as different. This contrasts the representation in Woman.
• Vogue is three shillings, whereas Woman was seven cents in price.
• Vogue is a glossy, high-end fashion magazine. You cannot buy this in your average shop. This helps Sophia to have an intimidating mode of address, as it constructs her to be of a higher status, as she can pose on an expensive front cover.
• Woman is high-street fashion, you can find this anywhere.
• Vogue's price is in tiny font, this shows the target audience would not care about the price. Woman's price is constructed in large font above the masthead in the top right hand corner, this shows that the target audience will really care about the price.
• There is a mix of different cultures, an Italian model wearing middle-eastern inspired fashion.
• Woman magazine needs to specify it's target audience in order to attract a very specific audience. This audience is very, very large. Working class British women.

To what extent are Woman and Adbusters examples of specialised and institutionalised media productions? Make references to their distribution and circulation.

• Since it's launch, Woman has competed with Woman's own (Newnes) and Woman's Weekly (Amalgamated) to be the top-selling title. The three great rivals ended up as sister titles when their companies merged to become IPC. Their sales peaked in 1959, at about 2.6m, 3.1m and 1.8 million each.
• In 1937 Odhams (now IPC) opens printing plant in Watford, Herts with Speedry Gravure, process for colour printing. Woman launched weekly in June with lower cover price, 2d, for a full-colour magazine within a year, the title was selling 500,000 per week.
• IPC is a horizontal integrated conglomerate.
• Woman sold three million copies per week

Industry research task :

• They are a mainstream, because they have a lot of well known papers. Younger people have not heard of these however, because they are targeting a working class, middle-class, conservative audience. This is given away because they sell four shooting magazines.
• They sell many magazines such as Woman's Weekly, What's On Tv, Marie Claire, CelebNow, Shooting Times, Countryside Home, Yachting Monthly, TV&Satellite week. They have over 40 brands with millions of reads each day, or so they claim on their website. 
• It is both, working and middle class, dependent on the topic of the magazine.
• They could have changed brand identity to keep up with modern trends.
• All owned by TI Media
• They are a conglomerate
• Their website is a corporate website. It is not aimed at consumers, it is aimed at advertisers.
• Woman magazine is aiming at a mass-market audience. They are calling their consumers basic.
• Time Inc are based on profit and will keep putting out the same things in order to make money.

Power In The Media Industries - Media industries are driven by profit and power.

Woman magazine are a basic magazine for a basic audience, this is the assumption that they make about their target audience. This is shown in the articles such as the kitchen one, the makeup etc. Curran and Seaton argue that profit and power lead to a standardised product. If you try to be creative, then it is too risky.

Rebranding of woman magazine in 1985, "Exciting Again Campaign"

• Inclusion of neon colours, more modern.
• More emphasis on celebrities and gossip, inclusion of recognisable faces on the front cover.
• "It's exciting again", shows how that it's no longer boring like the 1960's.
• Includes cars, which subverts the stereotype Woman built around it's audience in previous years, supporting how "it's exciting again", because it's a new, innovative look.