Magazines: Oh Comely - Audience
Our second Magazine Close-Study Product is the niche women's lifestyle publication Oh Comely - recently rebranded as simply Oh.
The Oh Comely CSP pages we need to study are available here - you'll need to log in to your Greenford Google account to download them. We'll be doing a close-textual analysis of the pages next week.
This week, we need to study both the target audience for Oh Comely and the audience pleasures that readers get from the magazine. First, let's cover the basics about the magazine.
Notes from the lesson
Oh Comely magazine is a niche women’s lifestyle publication with a strong feminist perspective. It launched in 2010 and publishes six issues a year. It describes itself:
“Oh Comely is a curious, honest and playful independent magazine. It’s a place to meet strangers, hear their stories and look at life a little differently – where our readers are our writers and our models, too.
“Each issue we pick a theme and see where it takes us. We try something old, something new and something that scares us a bit. Then we present our findings in a beautiful, artbook style, putting new writing, photography and illustration talent at the heart of it.”
[Source: Oh Comely magazine website]
Oh Comely audience
Social Media Reach: 100,000
Readers Per Issue: 25,000
Average Age of reader: 27
Sold through independents, WHSmith and international outlets
Oh Comely offers: “Access to a difficult to reach and highly-targeted niche demographic of creative women who spend money on the things they love.”
“Oh Comely is a powerful mix of words and pictures, stylishly presented and much loved by its readers. It provides an alternative to the ‘pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap’ aesthetic of mainstream magazines for young women, and this is why it has carved a loyal niche of fans. It is a breath of fresh air for a creative audience desperate to find something that speaks to them directly in an accessible, intelligent and interesting voice.”
[Source: ohcomely.co.uk/advertise]
Social Media Reach: 100,000
Readers Per Issue: 25,000
Average Age of reader: 27
Sold through independents, WHSmith and international outlets
Oh Comely offers: “Access to a difficult to reach and highly-targeted niche demographic of creative women who spend money on the things they love.”
Psychographics
Oh Comely magazine's description of itself would suggest targeting the Reformer and Explorer psychographic groups with an emphasis on creativity, self-discovery and a rejection of consumerism and commercialism.
Audience pleasures
There are many potential audience pleasures for Oh Comely readers. Applying Blumler & Katz’s Uses & Gratifications theory, three in particular would be:
Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their quirky, creative lifestyle and feminist viewpoint endorsed and reflected by the magazine.
Personal relationships: Oh Comely is presented in a particularly personal way. It is the creation of three university friends, the magazine offers background on the contributors and readers are encouraged to ‘get to know’ the editorial team.
Surveillance: Oh Comely deliberately looks to inform its readers about niche stories, events and people.
Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their quirky, creative lifestyle and feminist viewpoint endorsed and reflected by the magazine.
Personal relationships: Oh Comely is presented in a particularly personal way. It is the creation of three university friends, the magazine offers background on the contributors and readers are encouraged to ‘get to know’ the editorial team.
Surveillance: Oh Comely deliberately looks to inform its readers about niche stories, events and people.
Oh Comely - Audience blog tasks
Read Meet the Editor - Oh Comely in Media Magazine 65 (p26). You can find this in our Media Magazine archive. This gives you a brilliant introduction to the magazine. Answer the following questions:
1) Summarise the ownership and production of Oh Comely - how did it start and who owns it?
Owned by iceberg press
2) What is the print circulation and how many subscribers do they have?
they have 3000 subscribers.
3) How does the editor Alice Snape characterise the typical Oh Comely reader?
18-35-year-old creative, intelligent women who may or may not be settled into careers and are looking for inspiration from other women/interesting characters. Oh Comely readers are educated and politically aware and looking for a unique and thought-provoking look at the kind of lives they aspire to lead.
4) What are the key aspects of the magazine's design aesthetic discussed by the editor? How might this link to audience pleasures?
The magazine’s design reflects the words, it’s thoughtful, beautiful – the clean and minimal layout allows the words and pictures to shine. We work very closely with illustrators who create original works of art for our features - readers could see themselves reflected in the design.
No airbrushing or photoshop - a very honest depiction of women linking to personal identity.
5) How does the magazine represent women in terms of its production team and editorial decisions?
Core team consists of 4 women. They work with freelancers too, both men and women, as she feels that it's important to have a women's magazine worked on by lots of women but also by men too. Currently only wanted to feature interviews with women in the media and arts – as men have enough platforms - however thinks it's important to change and be reflective of the times so can't say they'll stick to the same formula forever.
Editor decided to have covers illustrated, with all of them portraying the female form in some way.
Now read the Oh Comely website page on advertising and audience to get a good idea of the demographics and psychographics for the Oh Comely target audience. Answer the following questions:
1) How does Oh Comely introduce itself ('what it's all about')?
'It is a breath of fresh air for a creative audience desperate to find something that speaks to them directly in an accessible, intelligent and interesting voice.'
2) How do the print circulation/readership statistics for Oh Comely compare to Men's Health?
OC:
Social Media Reach: 100,000
Readers Per Issue: 25,000
MH:
Print circulation: 180,000
Readership: 1 million
Readership: 1 million
Oh Comely has a significantly smaller audience compared to MH, likely due to it's subversive niche and less mainstream appeal.
3) How is Oh Comely distributed to the audience?
Sold through independents, WHSmith and international outlets
4) What do you think the target audience demographics for Oh Comely might be? Some details are provided by the magazine (e.g. average age 27) and you can fill in further gaps using the Media Magazine interview with the editor.
Average Age of reader: 27
Female, left leaning
5) What psychographic groups might be attracted to Oh Comely? If you've forgotten this, revise psychographics here!
Reformers:social awareness, support growth. intolerant of bad taste
and possibly Explorers:challenge, new frontiers, brand choice highlights difference, the first to try new brands
6) What social class classification would you expect most Oh Comely readers to be? Why?
ABC1/AB upper middle class. The editor states a typical reader as having an interest in 'art, culture, music, theatre, clothes, jewellery, experiences, travel, home, craft/creative projects...'
7) What level of education would you expect for most Oh Comely readers? Why?
University level, due to the magazine offering intelligent political discussions as well as the demographic of younger women. However I think many women would engage in the narrative the magazine shares despite their level of education.
8) What audience pleasures are offered by Oh Comely?
Personal identity - A magazine for women to connect and be represented instead of being sexualised and misrepresented in mainstream magazines. Readers would relate to the feminist viewpoint and identity reflected in the magazine, being produced by women.
Surveillance - It's also a place to learn about other women in different careers ect.
9) It has been suggested Oh Comely is a “magazine about people, their quirks and creativity rather than money and what it can buy”. How does the design and advertising content of Oh Comely support this view?
The design is minimalist but creative. It's about being able to express yourself and highlights the importance of being unique.
10) Why do you think Oh Comely has been able to build a loyal audience of subscribers in the years since it launched? Think about audience demand, rival magazines and the overall media landscape in the digital age.
The magazine presents a feminist and more broad representation of what a woman is that many women would relate to. It has access to a specific niche that isn't overly exploited in any rival magazines, so they've been able to somewhat monopolise that demographic for themselves. A majority of rival magazines either sexualised or had bad representations of women, and so there was an audience of women drawn to a magazine that provokes intelligent discussions on expressing their identity. Oh comely themselves advertises "It provides an alternative to the ‘pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap’ aesthetic of mainstream magazines for young women, and this is why it has carved a loyal niche of fans." The digital landscape allowed for more women to connect a build a demographic for the magazine.
9) It has been suggested Oh Comely is a “magazine about people, their quirks and creativity rather than money and what it can buy”. How does the design and advertising content of Oh Comely support this view?
The design is minimalist but creative. It's about being able to express yourself and highlights the importance of being unique.
10) Why do you think Oh Comely has been able to build a loyal audience of subscribers in the years since it launched? Think about audience demand, rival magazines and the overall media landscape in the digital age.
The magazine presents a feminist and more broad representation of what a woman is that many women would relate to. It has access to a specific niche that isn't overly exploited in any rival magazines, so they've been able to somewhat monopolise that demographic for themselves. A majority of rival magazines either sexualised or had bad representations of women, and so there was an audience of women drawn to a magazine that provokes intelligent discussions on expressing their identity. Oh comely themselves advertises "It provides an alternative to the ‘pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap’ aesthetic of mainstream magazines for young women, and this is why it has carved a loyal niche of fans." The digital landscape allowed for more women to connect a build a demographic for the magazine.
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