OSP: Teen Vogue - background and textual analysis
Our first Online, Social and Participatory CSP is Teen Vogue - the former print magazine turned online sensation.
25 Marks… this will be a big one!
Teen Vogue has generated a huge amount of coverage (and attracted a significant audience) by re-positioning the magazine as a socially conscious political hub for young women.
Notes from the lesson
Teen Vogue: background
Teen Vogue was launched in 2003 as a print magazine ‘little sister’ title to US Vogue. It focused on fashion and celebrity and was a conventional magazine aimed at teenage girls.
In 2015, in response to declining sales, the magazine cut back its print distribution and focused on digital content. After single-copy sales dropped 50% in the first six months of 2016 alone, the magazine went quarterly (four issues a year) before announcing the closure of the print magazine completely in November 2017.
Online growth
Led by digital director Phillip Picardi, the Teen Vogue website grew substantially as the print magazine declined.
Between January 2016 and 2017, Teen Vogue’s online traffic rocketed from 2.9m US visitors to 7.9m. The magazine then surpassed 10m unique users later in 2017. In addition, the magazine has 6m Facebook likes, 3.5m Twitter followers and a huge following on Snapchat.
Evolution and activism
The spectacular digital growth of Teen Vogue has been credited to the editor Elaine Welteroth and digital guru Picardi leading the magazine in a radically different direction to traditional teenage magazines.
Focusing on politics, activism and feminism, the magazine has developed a reputation for high-quality journalism while recruiting millions of socially-conscious, educated readers.
'Woke'
Teen Vogue considers itself a ‘woke’ brand.
Woke definition: a political term of African American origin that refers to an awareness of issues concerning social justice.
This means Teen Vogue covers issues of politics, racism and gender identity… and amazingly has expanded the appeal and reach of the brand while doing do.
Teen Vogue: background reading and textual analysis blog tasks
Work through the following tasks to complete your first case study on Teen Vogue.
Teen Vogue: background reading
1) What was the article that announced Teen Vogue as a more serious, political website – with 1.3m hits and counting?
2) When was the original Teen Vogue magazine launched and what was its original content? Launched in 2004 as a little sister to US Vogue, Teen Vogue used to focus on the standard cocktail of fashion must-haves and celebrity worship.
3) How did editor Elaine Welteroth change Teen Vogue’s approach in 2015?
issue featured three unknown black models on the cover
4) How many stories are published on Teen Vogue a day? What topics do they cover?
the team publishes between 50 and 70 a day. resent a typically mixed bag of fashion, entertainment and current affairs.
5) What influence did digital director Phillip Picardi have over the editorial direction?
‘We have to give her [the reader] more.’” he tells me. “I thought it was really important to talk about reproductive rights, gender. To dig into politics and the news cycle. Basically, by omission, we were kind of assuming that she’s not interested.”
6) What is Teen Vogue’s audience demographic and what does ‘woke’ refer to?
“Our sweet spot is 18-24,” “woke”, a slang term, as “a byword for social awareness.”
7) What issues are most important to Teen Vogue readers?
We want to help make them feel better about themselves, whether that’s giving beauty tips, or empowering them with political information to have smarter conversations and feel they can stand up for themselves.
8) What does Tavi Gevinson suggest regarding the internet and ‘accountability culture’ with regards to modern audiences? Can you link this to our work on Clay Shirky?
She believes the internet has created an “accountability culture”, where the relationship with readers is closer and more transparent, and says brands have had to respond to that.
9) What social and political issues have been covered successfully by Teen Vogue?
Coming in the wake of a summer of social and political unrest, Trump’s election created something of a perfect storm for Picardi’s new political agenda; the Teen Vogue news desk had already caused a stir with strong coverage of the Dakota Access pipeline protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.
10) What do Teen Vogue readers think of the magazine and website?
16-year-old Paige Wagner, who says truthfulness and trust are the main reasons she reads it, since “most of what I read on social media is unreliable”.
Teen Vogue textual analysis and example articles
Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of the Teen Vogue website and read notable Teen Vogue articles to refer to in exam answers.
Homepage analysis
Go to the Teen Vogue homepage and answer the following:
1) What website key conventions can you find on the Teen Vogue homepage? The context is laid out
2) How does the page design encourage audience engagement? It shows a number of social media accounts
3) Where does advertising appear on the homepage? it doesn't need advertisement
4) What are the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content of Teen Vogue?
5) How far does the homepage scroll down? How many stories appear on the homepage in total?
Lifestyle section
Now analyse the Lifestyle section of Teen Vogue and answer the following:
1) What are the items in the top menu bar for the Lifestyle section?
2) How is the Lifestyle section designed to encouragement audience engagement? Think about page design, images, text and more. enough to scroll and choose from
3) What do you notice about the way headlines are written in Teen Vogue? friendly, short, informative, click bait. well rounded audience
4) What does the focus on education, university and ‘campus life’ tell you about the Teen Vogue audience demographics and psychographics? gives valid info, most readers r uni students
5) Choose three stories featured in the Lifestyle section – why do they fit the Teen Vogue brand?
Five key articles
Read the following five notable Teen Vogue features then answer the questions below for EACH feature.
For each article:
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
3) Why is this article significant?
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
Industry is the final key concept to address in this in-depth study. It's important to remember that the exam question could cover anything from how Teen Vogue makes money to what attracts audiences to their social media pages. This means we need comprehensive knowledge across the board.
Notes from the lesson
Industry: Conde Nast
Teen Vogue is owned and published by Condé Nast, an American media organisation that publishes around 20 magazines including Vogue, GQ and Wired. The company targets a wide range of different audiences – 164 million consumers across its brands.
In March 2018, Condé Nast announced the launch of Influencer Platform Next Gen, a digital campaign that links advertisers and content creation. The goal is to “connect to a new generation of audience”.
Income sources
Teen Vogue’s main source of income is through selling advertising space online – adverts that are targeted using browsing history.
However, they also monetise their customer data and loyalty, encouraging readers to register online for updates, offers and access to the ‘Insider’ area of the website. This data can then be sold to other companies or used to attract ‘advertorial’ or sponsored content.
Teen Vogue also makes money through YouTube with plenty of 1m+ views on their video content. This is an example of digital convergence – a traditionally print-based product moving into multimedia and accessible on one device.
Teen Vogue: fashion industry player
Although Teen Vogue has been creating headlines for its political content in recent years, it is also an important part of the fashion industry. Both editorial content and advertising is designed to create a strong desire in their audience for products featured. This links to Condé Nast’s role as a major media company interested in maximising profit.
Some argue that Teen Vogue’s more diverse coverage offers a form of public service through its political coverage. But are features criticising capitalism hypocritical when the brand is owned by a media giant like Condé Nast?
Teen Vogue: Industry and social media blog tasks
Create a new blogpost called 'Teen Vogue Industry and social media' and work through the following tasks to complete the final aspects of your Teen Vogue case study:
Industry: Condé Nast
1) Research Teen Vogue publisher Condé Nast. What other magazines do they publish and how much money did they make last year?
Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Brides, Self, GQ, GQ Style, The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Allure, AD, Bon Appétit, Epicurious, Wired, W, Golf Digest, Teen Vogue, Ars Technica, Pitchfork, them and Iris.
2) What are Teen Vogue’s main sources of income? Advertisement
3) How are traditionally print-based products like Teen Vogue diversifying to create new income streams? Everything is web based.
4) Why is sponsored content and ‘advertorial’ particularly important in media linked to the fashion industry? Make money from it, as well as promotions
5) Do you view Teen Vogue’s content as a form of public service media or is Condé Nast simply interested in clicks and profit? Form of public service media
Closure of print edition research
Read the following short articles to learn the background to Condé Nast's decision to close the print edition of Teen Vogue in 2016 and then answer the questions below:
1) Why does the BBC suggest “Teen Vogue’s digital game is strong”? highly successful website with a 6 million facebook following , create synergy
2) What does the BBC suggest is responsible for the Teen Vogue website’s success? the huge number of followers from social media.
3) How did Teen Vogue justify the closure of the print magazine? planning and focusing on digital content instead. Modernise and calibrate.
4) In the BBC article, David Hepworth suggests there is a risk to going digital-only. What is it?
It has been going from strength to strength. Cant be a magazine if u don't have magazines.
5) How do online-only publications make money? Ads
6) What does Sarah Penny suggest regarding audience consumption for print and digital – and how might it be changing for Generation-Z? it is difficult to sustain especially in this generation
Digital natives want fast content (prensky)
7) What does the New York Times say Conde Nast is known for? Lavish spending and glossy magz
8) The New York Times states that Conde Nast expects to bring in less revenue in 2017 than 2016… by how much? 100 million $$$$$$
9) The Folio article also looks at the switch from print to digital. Pick out a statistic that justifies the digital-only approach. 2 million monthly to 10 million monthly readers
10) Finally, Folio also highlights some of the aspects we have studied elsewhere. Pick out two quotes from the article that link to our work on the Teen Vogue audience, representation or design.
Social media analysis
Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Teen Vogue's social media presence:
1) Look at the Teen Vogue Twitter feed (you don’t need to sign up to Twitter to see it but may need to log-in at home). How many followers does Teen Vogue have? 3 million
2) Now look at the content. Classify the first 20 tweets you can see using the sections on the Teen Vogue website: News & Politics, Fashion, Entertainment, Beauty, Lifestyle, Wellness and Homecoming. What does the Twitter feed focus on most? Does this differ to the website?
3) How are the tweets and headlines written? Can you find examples of clickbait?
4) How does the Twitter feed use videos and images?
5) Analyse the Teen Vogue Facebook page. How many ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ do they have?
6) Click on the Videos link on the left-hand menu. What type of content do the videos feature? Does this differ to the website or Twitter feed?
7) Now look at the Events tab to explore past events. What are these events and what do they tell us about how audiences interact with the Teen Vogue brand?
8) Go to the Teen Vogue Instagram page. How many followers do they have on Instagram?
9) How does the Instagram feed differ from other social media channels?
10) What examples of digital convergence and synergy can you find on Teen Vogue social media including the Teen Vogue YouTube channel? (E.g. opportunities to engage with the brand across different platforms).
