Brooke Erin Duffy - Remake, Remodel: Womens Magazines in the Digital Age

Women's Magazines in the Digital Age

BROOKE ERIN DUFFY

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS

Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield

2013 by the Board of Trustees

of the University of Illinois

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013951561

As I think back on my early encounters with media and popular culture, I find it difficult to pinpoint the first time I watched a certain TV series, read a particular book, or tuned in to a new radio station. Yet there is one media moment that remains indelibly etched in my memory: the first time I thumbed through the glossy pages of Seventeen magazine. It was during a visit to my grandparents house shortly after my twelfth birthday, and the archetype of youthful femininity that appeared before me no doubt reflected and reinforced my pre-teen angst. Indeed, I recall a flurry of emotions as I read through that early 90s issue of Seventeen again and again; with the benefit of hindsight, I can identify this as a powerful cocktail of envy and inadequacy, hope and aspiration. And so began my close, albeit conflicted, relationship with women's magazines.

In the years that followed, as I transitioned into and through adulthood, I exchanged my copies of Seventeen for the latest issues of Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and the now-defunct Mademoiselle; subscriptions to InStyle, Marie Claire, and Elle came a short time later. I faithfully relied upon these glossies for formative guidance in matters of fashion, beauty, fitness, and relationships; at the same time, I began to sense a widespread disapproval of the genre. My initial exposure to this critical perspective came in the form of an undergraduate course on the political economies of media, which located women's magazines within systems of patriarchal capitalism, asymmetrical power relations, and a gendered culture of consumerism. Gloria Steinem's Sex, Lies, and Advertising and Ben Bagdikian's The Media Monopoly struck a particular nerve and encouraged me to think critically about the unseen forces that shaped the content of my magazines.

During graduate school, readings in media studies, sociology, feminist criticism, and cultural studies enabled me to develop a more holistic and nuanced understanding of women's magazines by situating the genre within particular historical, sociocultural, and economic contexts. I also learned to position myself within this complex matrix of academic traditions as a self-identified feminist media researcher. The use of this label, however, remains heavily contested. I agree with Liesbet van Zoonen that studying women (or a women's genre, for that matter) is not enough to make one a feminist scholar. Rather, I align myself with this approach because I believe that constructions of gender (both mediated and nonmediated) must be negotiated within and through larger forms of social, cultural, and political power. It is against this backdrop that I have conducted numerous studies of the women's magazine industryincluding the one from which this book emergedwhich critically examine industry dynamics, roles, discourses, and texts. Yet my personal connection to women's magazines endures, and I continue to read them for a combination of advice, enjoyment, relaxation, and escape. These seemingly disparate activities often bleed intoand at times nourishone another.

I am by no means the first to acknowledge the inherent challenges of enacting the dual researcher/participant role. Contemporary feminist scholars have offered candid and reflexive accounts of their experiences studying gendered forms of popular culture, ranging from women's magazines and novels to beauty pageants and soap operas.

Not only have my personal and professional relationships with women's magazines shifted shape over the last two decades, but the industry itself has been the site of a swift and striking transformation. Recent developments in media technologies, cultures, and markets have created a perfect storm for industrial change by raising the question, What is a magazine? This book finds answers to that question in a detailed study of the magazine industry that reflects the perspective of those who face the currents of change on a daily basis: women's magazine executives, print publishers and editors, digital strategists, writers, designers, and more. Many of these individuals are working tirelessly and thanklessly (in terms of added financial compensation) to remake the magazine amidst chaos and uncertainty. This involves continuously repackaging the magazine product to fit a dizzying array of websites, social media platforms, mobile devices, and emergent tablet forms. Yet magazine producers are also forced to remake their processes, including those practices that historically guided them in matters of content, audiences, advertisers, and more.

The process of writing a book such as this can also be described as an exercise in remaking: rethinking research questions, revisiting theories, reinterpreting findings, and reworking conclusions. Fortunately, I did not have to undertake these exhaustive processes alone. I am incredibly grateful for the support and guidance of countless individuals who helped to make this book possible. First and foremost, I would like to convey my appreciation to the magazine executives, publishers, editors, writers, and digital strategists who generously devoted their time and insight to this project. This includes Lisa Arbetter, Deputy Managing Editor at InStyle; Glen-Ellen Brown, Vice President of Brand Development at Hearst Magazines; Brianna Cox Brunecz, former advertising sales representative at the Knot; Debi Chirichella, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Hearst Magazines, formerly of Cond Nast; Joanna Coles, Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan, formerly Editor-in-Chief of Marie Claire; Chuck Cordray, former Senior Vice President and General Manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media; Sammy Davis, former digital assistant at Hearst who now oversees her own fashion journalism/retailing business, Sammy Davis Vintage; Suzanne Donaldson, Photo Director at Glamour; Mark Golin, Editorial Director of the Digital, Style, and Entertainment and Lifestyle Groups at Time Inc.; Devin Gordon, Senior Editor at GQ; Justine Harman, Assistant Editor at Elle, formerly of People.com and People StyleWatch; Tom Harty, President of the National Media Group (Meredith); Brennan Hayden, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Wireless Developer Agency; Jayne Jamison, Vice President and Publisher at Seventeen; Ellen Levine, Editorial Director of Hearst Magazines; Matt Milner, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Hearst Digital, formerly Hearst Digital's vice president of social media and community and the founder of Answerology; Hannah Morrill, formerly of InStyle.com and now an independent freelancer; Martha Nelson, Editorial Director at Time Inc.; Steve Sachs, former Executive Vice President of Consumer Marketing and Sales at Time Inc.; Lavinel Savu, Assistant Managing Editor at InStyle; Emily Masamitsu Scadden, former Digital Assets Manager at Marie Claire; Vanessa Voltolina, former editor for Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management