Analysis of Competition

Here is a list of potential competition facing Well Now Magazine.

1) Cosmopolitan

• Cosmo is the best selling monthly magazine in the US.
• 3 million US readers
• 100 million international readers
• 64 different international editions
• Both online and print versions available
• Cosmo would threaten my business because of it's size and readership not only in this country, but around the world. It is extremely well known, even to those who don't read it, and it is a pop culture icon. Also, readers are very loyal to the magazine and would be unlikely to switch loyalties to a different magazine.
• I will have to show how Well Now is better than Cosmo without actually saying anything bad about Cosmo.

2) Glamour

• 2.3 million US readers
• 16 international editions
• Both online and print versions available
• Glamour is competition because it focuses more on well being and long feature stories, and less on sex, just like Well Now would. Also, the average reader is between 18 and 49 which is a big gap, meaning that it caters to a lot of people.
• To be better than Glamour I will play up the well being and lifestyle aspect of Well Now without talking bad about Glamour.

3) Self

• 1.5 million US readers
• Both online and print versions
• Self is competition because it focuses on self-improvement and lifestyle, but it does so primarily through fitness. Well Now would be able to attract more readers because it focuses on self-improvement and lifestyle in a wider variety of ways, instead of mainly just fitness. 
• Also, the average age of Self readers is 48 and Well Now would cater to a younger audience.

4) Women's Health

• 1.4 million US readers
• Both online and print versions
• Same notes that I wrote for Self

5) Vogue

• 1.3 million US readers
• Both online and print versions
• Vogue is competition because it is read by women in their twenties although people much older read it as well. The age of the average reader is 38. 
• I could attract more readers because Vogue is a fashion magazine. Well Now would be more of a lifestyle magazine and wouldn't be so narrowly focused.

6) Teen Vogue

• 1 million US readers
• Both online and print versions
• Teen Vogue is bigger competition than Vogue because it is less fashion based and the average age of readers is 23, which is closer to the age of Well Now readers.
• I think Well Now can beat Teen Vogue for the same reasons as why it could beat Vogue though.

7) Allure

• 1.1 million US readers
• Both online and print versions
• Average age of readers: 35 years old
• Allure is competition because it is a popular women's magazine, but Well Now can do better because it will cater to a younger demographic. Also, Allure is a beauty magazine and Well Now is a lifestyle magazine.

8) Vanity Fair

• 1.1 million US readers
• Both online and print versions
• Average age of readers: 42 years old
• Vanity Fair is competition because it is a popular women's magazine.
• Well Now can do better because it caters to a younger audience and has a different focus.

Because there is so much competition, I will just list the rest instead of going into detail about each one.

9) Marie Claire

10) Elle

11) Redbook

12) InStyle

13) Lucky

14) O, The Oprah Magazine

15) Harper's Bazaar

In Depth Market Research

This list takes a more in depth look at factors to consider when doing market research for Well Now magazine.

1) Age of potential readers

• Well Now will cater to young women in college and in their twenties, making the age range between 18 and 29. According to SHP Magazines, 56% of Cosmopolitan readers are between the ages of 24 and 35. I predict that Well Now can also cater to women in their thirties, although the main focus will be on women in their twenties (as well as late teens).

2) How many women in the US are in this age range

• According to the 2010 census, the US population was more than 308 million with women making up 50.8% (158 million) of this population. For the age range of potential readers (ages 18-34) they made up about 22.6% (35.7 million) of the US population of women.

3) Some of the biggest issues affecting readers

• According to SHP Magazines, the biggest concerns for Cosmo readers are self-improvement and lifestyle (which would be the main focus of Well Now), and money, finance, and careers. Dailymail.co.uk also sited finances and careers as top concerns for women in their twenties.

4) How many online women's magazines charge for content

• Most don't charge at all, but they also don't put same articles on website that they put online. They have different content online. Some stories overlap though. On Vogue's website they use the same stories but they have pay walls for longer, feature stories.

5) Incomes of readers

• According to SHP Magazines, the average Cosmo reader makes between $2,500 - $5,000 a month. According to a website called Family In Equality, women between ages 22 and 30 make an average of $32,000 a year. They gathered this information from usa.ipums.org. The women in college though I will assume (as well as speak from personal experience and observation) that they make much less money.

Market Research

When doing market research for Well Now magazine, there are many factors to consider. Although it will be an online magazine at first, it would eventually become a print magazine as well so I included factors for both. For this post I will list out some things to consider when doing market research and in the next post I will dive deeper into five of these factors.

Elements of Market Research for Well Now:

1. Age of potential readers
2. How many in this age range
3. How many read online magazines
4. Some of the biggest issues facing these readers
5. Geographic region of readers
6. Occupations of potential readers
7. Incomes of readers
8. How many online women's magazines charge for content
9. How much do they charge
10. How much these magazines charge for print subscriptions
11. How many readers have subscriptions

Thoughts on John Christie Visit

I think that John Christie and his wife are doing a great thing by running Pine Tree Watchdog and it's awesome to see people caring about investigative reporting. Although I haven't had a lot of personal experience with it, I love investigative reporting and want to do more of it. The biggest investigative piece I've done was my article for TNH, Students by Day, Strippers by Night about student strippers at UNH. I think those pieces are worth so much more than everyday news stories (not that those aren't important). What I really admired about John is that he is willing to sacrifice relationships for journalism. He lost board members because of stories that he wrote. I like that he understands the importance of telling stories and that he doesn't shy away because of how it affects people he knows. He seemed very fearless and I liked that. With my stripper story it was actually removed from TNH's website because it negatively the girls in the article and that made me angry. The point of journalism isn't to protect people and hide their stories. Those girls agreed to talk to me and have their stories published. The fact that TNH removed the stories to protect them was upsetting and went against the point of investigative journalism. I think that if that story had been on John Christie's site and the decision had been his, he would have left it up. I admire that fearlessness and ability to stand his ground. It's a good quality to have as a journalist because it's important to be strong and resilient when telling difficult stories. I'm glad that John Christie came and talked to us and let us know that it's ok to write stories that are harder to cover.

Entrepreneurial Advice From Former Cosmo Editor

Today I was scrolling through Twitter when I saw a link retweeted by Kate White. Kate White is the former editor-in-chief- of Cosmopolitan she is amazing with career advice. She has few career books out and her twitter is full of advice and tips that she tweets out. The link that she was retweeted was to an article she had written for xojane.com and it was a list of steps to take when bringing an idea to life. The focus was mainly on entrepreneurial ideas, but could be applied to smaller ideas as well. I think this is a really great list for anyone going into entrepreneurial journalism and I especially liked it because it's coming from someone in the magazine world, which is where I want to be.

Some of the things she talked about in her list are the same things we've done in class so far. Step one is  to "Play Shark Tank With Your Concept," which we did by pitching our ideas to the class. Step two is to get feedback, which we did with our blogs, as well as in class after the presentations. I really like her step called "Slice the Salami" which is about taking little steps to achieve the overall big idea. It's true that you can't just jump right in and go for everything at once, so I like that she talked about breaking it down. I also like her step called "Let it Go" about how you can't keep planning forever and how you actually have to start. Kate White said that most people try to get their idea perfect before showing anyone or starting with it, but that after a certain point you just have to do it. I've found myself doing this, whether it's with ideas for a new blog site or an idea for a book I want to write. I do it all in my head, trying to get it all perfect, when really I should just start it and I'll make a lot more progress.

Overall, I think this is a great advice list that could be helpful to anyone in class, as well as any entrepreneur in general.

Questions for John Christie

• Of all the positions, you've held (writer, editor, publisher, entrepreneur) which has been your favorite and why?
• Why did you decide to create Pine Tree Watchdog?
• What is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur?
• What has been the most rewarding part?
• Did you ever imagine that you would an entrepreneur with your own news outlet?
• What is the best advice you have received throughout your whole career as a journalist?
• How do you balance your time being an entrepreneur with family and social life?
• If you could start Pine Tree Watchdog over from the beginning, what would you do differently?

Thoughts on Pine Tree Watchdog

My first impression of Pine Tree Watchdog's website is that it looks very professional and clean. It looks like a reputable news source that it is well organized and user friendly. I'm not sure how much I like the name of the site though. It sounds threatening and like it's some sort of organization looking to take down the government or something. I know that it's their mission to provide honest reporting, but at the same time it seems a little bit intense. That's just me though.

I think that the stories are good and that they all live up to the vision/mission statements. I also like the different tabs along the top of the page because they are very specific to this site, instead of just a general news site. The only thing that bothers me is that they don't post a lot of new stories. It seems like they don't post new content that often. I think to be more reputable, the site needs more stories and more often. I know they can't control when things happen but they should fill the time gaps a little better. If a site doesn't post often, I get the impression that they don't care.

I like the photos that they use on this site. This really stood out to me in John Christie's big story about Paul Lepage. I liked the big photo across the top and then the smaller pictures throughout with the bolded quotes. This format was very eye-catching. It'd be cool if they incorporated other types of digital media as well.

Overall, I think the site is good and the mission behind it is clear.

My Vision and Mission Statements

When I first read the vision and mission statements on Pine Tree Watchdog's website, I was a little confused as to how they were different. They seem very similar at first, but after reading through them a couple times and by looking at what other people in class wrote, I think I understand the difference. Here's my attempt at writing them for Well Now.

Vision: Well Now will fulfill the responsibility of a wellness magazine for young women by providing them with well-researched articles written in an entertaining and informative way so that they can become their best selves.

Mission: Well Now will engage young women in becoming their best selves through an entertaining magazine-style online news outlet that combines the knowledge of professionals with the real life experiences of the writers.

I'm still not sure if those are very different but I gave it a shot. It took awhile to think these through and to come up with clear and understandable wording, so hopefully these make sense.

The Class's Reaction to My Pitch

Well, seeing as I wasn't able to get my PowerPoint into Dropbox until yesterday, only two people commented on it. I had already put my pitch into two previous Dropbox folders (EJ Pitches fall 2013 and EJ Pitches fall 2013 (1)) and they showed up in both of those so I'm not sure why no one else could see it until it was in EJ Pitches fall 2013 (2). Anyways, Allie and Emily commented on my pitch and both of them were positive with only a couple ideas for improvement.

Allie said that I should expand on how Well Now is different from the competition, specifically Self magazine. I was planning on going into that more if I were to actually pitch it (which we now are), but basically my magazine encompasses more aspects of well being. Self is more focused on physical fitness, where my magazine will focus on emotional and mental well being as well.

Emily suggested that I should partner with a local health food store to promote my magazine. I think this could be interesting, but I wouldn't really want to partner with them. It might be interesting to hold some of my conferences at places like this (as well as places like yoga studios) though for when I'm first starting out and can't afford a bigger place. Maybe there could be a deal where I offer them discounted advertising for the use of their space when holding a conference. This would give them advertising and it would bring people right into their business for the conference.

I wish I had gotten more feedback before the presentation today, but I guess I'll just have to see what the class thinks when they see it today.

Using Different Media

When Terry Williams came to visit I'm really glad that he talked about using different types of media when reporting. He said that he likes to hire people who can do video, audio, and photos and that most times, only being good at one isn't enough. I'm currently taking Digital Reporting with Tom Haines and I've been learning how to use those three types of digital media and how to incorporate them into social media. Throughout college I've learned how valuable social media is to journalism and that good reporters use social media. I never really thought about using digital media though until I took Tom's class. I always figured that a paper would hire someone else who was good at using it and that they would let the reporter just do the writing. In class though, as well as at TNH, I've been realizing how important it is for a writer/reporter to be good at using digital media to report. I'm happy that Terry Williams brought this up when he came to our class because it shows that this actually is a good skill to have and that papers actually look at this that when choosing who to hire. I'm glad that I've been learning about this in Tom's class and I'm also glad that I'll be able to improve these skills and apply them to real life during my internship next semester. I'll be interning at the Nashua Telegraph and they told me that they're going to be letting me use equipment so I can do video, audio, and photos. I'm excited to be able to develop my skills even further and it'll hopefully make me a more valuable reporter and more papers will be willing to hire me. I think that this use of digital media for reporting says a lot about where journalism is going. It opens up so many more possibilities for how we as journalists can tell a story.

Reactions to PowerPoint Pitches III

5) News in Comics

• Overall first impression: It is eye-catching and it is obvious that the pitcher is confident in the company.
• Ideas for improvement: Make sure to title each slide. Most had titles, but a few didn't.
• Maybe use fewer graphics and pictures. Some slides were a little over powering. Or maybe just make them a little smaller. On a few slides the pictures took up a lot of room. For example, I think slide 9 is done well, slide 8 has too many pictures, and on slide 7 the pictures are too big.
• Make the text a little bigger so it's more of the main focus and so it's easier to read.
• Use bullet points.
• Add name and contact info to the first slide.
• Add a slide that talks about who the team for this company will be. For example, drawers, writers, editors, etc.
• What I liked about it: I like that actually numbers are used and that there is a graph. It makes it more realistic.
• The organization of slide 6 is done really well.
• I like the theme of the PowerPoint and how the yellow line is consistent on each slide.
• I like the comments from the audience/potential readers. It works as evidence that this is a good idea. 

6) Unblocked Writers

• Overall first impression: It is a visually pleasing PowerPoint but it needs more explanation.
• Ideas for improvement: I know that all of the explanation is in the notes part of the slides, but if the pitch was being presented, people wouldn't see that part. I know that it would be spoken if the presentation was being presented, but I think there should still be a little more text on the slides.
• As it said in "The Art of Pitching," use a dark background and light text.
• Explain in the slides (not just the notes) how the company helps with writer's block.
• What I liked about it: I love the idea! I could definitely see writer's using this site.
• I think each slide gives good information and adds great value to the overall slide.

7) See the News

• Overall first impression: It is very clean and professional looking. There is also a lot of good information.
• Ideas for improvement: I would say to use a little less text, but the thing is, it's all good and relevant information. 
• The name of the company sounds more like a mantra than a name, but it makes sense as a title too. I think just because it's a statement it sounds like a manta more than a title.
• On slide five the word "highlights" is spelled wrong.
• What I liked about it: I really like everything about this PowerPoint. Every slide is relevant and has good information.
• Explanations are thorough and clear.
• It is an overall good looking PowerPoint and I like simplicity of it. It makes it so the content is more important than the looks of the slides which is important.
• I like that the titles of each slide are in a different font because it's eye catching and draws attention to what the slide is about.
• Overall I really like the PowerPoint and the business idea. I could see people using this site and buying the book.

8) The 'New s'tand

• Overall first impression: The PowerPoint is visually pleasing but at first it was hard to tell what exactly the company is.
• Ideas for improvement: State what the company is/does on the second slide. Let the viewer of the presentation know right away.
• I really like the theme/colors of the presentation, but in "The Art of Pitching" it says to use a dark background and light text because it looks more professional.
• The title of the company is a little confusing. The apostrophes are placed strangely. I'm not sure if it's pronounced "the news stand" or "the new stand." I'm guessing it's the first one so maybe call the company "The Newstand" and make it one word instead of two.
• There is a lot of text. Use bullet points to break it up and write shorter, more concise sentences.
• What I liked about it: The PowerPoint covered a lot of areas and gave a lot of good information.
• I like that there is visual marketing strategy page. It makes it easy to follow.
• I like the visual on page six.
• Overall I think it's a really good idea and I could see it becoming popular.

Paid Content

I found the Forbes article about advertising and paid content to be interesting and informative. I never really thought too much about advertising from a journalistic standpoint, but as a person I've always found it to be kind of annoying online. In the article, it talked about native advertising/sponsored content and I think that's one of the most annoying things. I don't like how advertisements are just slipped into news feeds on Facebook or into the feed on Twitter. It's annoying because advertisers just throw their content in between status updates or tweets like it's just another update from a friend or something. They try to pass it off as something that's supposed to be there, but I don't think it works. It always irritates me when I see these when scrolling through my feed. I also don't like the pop up advertising. You'll be reading an article and all of a sudden a video comes across the screen and starts playing automatically. I find the display ads to be the least annoying, but as the article said, they're the least effective.

As for paid content though, I think it can work. I see it a lot in the magazines I read and they blend in well. It's still obvious that it's an ad, but if it's done well, I'll still want to read it. They usually go along with the style and layout of the magazine and are targeted to whoever is reading the magazine (or newspaper). I don't find these ads to be annoying because they're not in your face. I suppose it is kind of like native content, but it's different because it's not on social media. I don't really mind paid content because it's usually something you could see the magazine writing about anyways. If I were the editor or owner of a paper or magazine and an advertiser wanted to do paid content, I would only let them do it if it went along with the theme of the publication. For example, if it was a health and wellness magazine, I wouldn't want a big paid content ad that was trying to sell diet pills. If there was a company that was selling a health product that was actually helpful (like a yoga studio or work out gear) then I'd be ok with that.

As for journalists writing these ads, I think it's very smart of advertisers to do this. Who better to pass off an ad as journalism than a journalist? If you want the writing to be clean and in sync with a certain style, then I think a journalist would be best to write it. Also, they're not wired to think like an advertiser trying to sell a product so their writing wouldn't come off this way either. It wouldn't be over dramatic or in your face, it would be straightforward and informative. I think this is a good direction for advertising to go in, as long it's done well and journalistically and doesn't hide that it's an ad.