Magazine Final Product

The Minor changes made were the insertion of our social media page in order to increase circulation and assist branding. The line spacing was evened out in an attempt to minimize unutilized space.

Creative Critical Reflection Final

https://prezi.com/view/KDPz53qDI5h7gffj3JTY/

Creative Critical Reflection #4

How did you integrate technologies in this project?
The use of technology was important to every aspect of this project. From Emailing back and forth with other team members to coordinate aspects of our project. I also contacted the wrestling coach through email and set up the interview, and the article. I utilized technology when I was researching, getting electronic copies of magazines and viewing different brand's websites. The photos taken were all with my iPhone 8+ and formatted using adobe photoshop. The interview was also recorded on my phone. I then edited the magazine itself in a free editor called Canva.

Creative Critical Reflection #3

How did your production skills develop through this project?
My production skills have increased significantly since the beginning of this project, seeing as though prior to this project I had none. I studied camera shots and angles in my product research in order to properly capture the intensity I desired within my magazine. The easiest part of the production process was writing the actual article. Because of my indecisive nature, I originally had three different covers with three different cover photos. I asked the opinions of some of my classmates and yielded the final product. I found attention to detail very difficult as far as the symmetry of text on both sides of the collum. Finishing touches that make the print seem more professional such as balancing the lighting through photo editing of my cover page. The largest production skill developed as much as my editing. I have learned that nothing is truly perfect, and can always be made better and Rome truly wasn't built in a day.

Creative Critical Reflection #2

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
Before I answer how my magazine engages audiences, I must define who my audience is. As mentioned, my goal is to reach high school athletes and sports fans in my area and to provide them with high quality, and consistent sports news and updates. The engagement of said audience is not as difficult as it seems due to the large sports culture that exists in Florida. Schools have alumni and a devoted fan base of people in their area. Pride for where you come from will engage those to buy a copy of my magazine. As a real media text, the magazine would primarily be sold at Sarasota High School. Not only during the day, but during sports events as well. This can be accomplished by working with the teams that exist at my school and offering a kickback of all sales to help with the team's fundraising efforts. This creates a situation that is beneficial for the teams, the magazine, and the school. The largest audience of high school sporting events are the parents of athletes. By showcasing their kids and giving them a platform, Sailor Seasonal has successfully catered to our largest audience.

Creative Critical Reflection #1

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
My project utilized the large, bold font found directly on the front cover of most magazines. This, along with the up-close shot of athletes training was meant to inspire readers for more action to be found within the pages of my magazine. By choosing an up close shot for my cover, my goal is to place readers right in the action, getting up close and personal with the people they were about to be reading about. I utilized the convention of branding by placing the logo on every page. The particular issue of my magazine, being wrestling challenges the conventions of high school sports magazines itself. Wrestling by far is not the most popular sport at my high school and others like it in my area. By focusing on a competitive sport that doesn't have a large following I can give athletes that deserve recognition for their hard work and talent that they deserve.

3rd quarter submission

Distribution Research #3

The magazine golf digest is one of the most popular sports magazine in the world. On the magazine's website, they attempt to convey the "one of us" advertising technique often seen in politics. Golf itself, viewed by society as a high class, or "rich man's" sport. The digest magazine tries to break this mold with the headline "EL CHEAPO" in front of an old car. This appeals to the consumers that view golf as out of their financial class. Effectively widening the audience of gold and consequentially, the magazine.

Distribution Research #2

Sports illustrated advertises its magazine on their website by offering their readers a subscribe offer within their website. At the end of each article is an offer to subscribe to the magazine. SI also utilizes a newsletter to advertise spread their name among fans. This is effective because it minimizes the work consumers need to get aces to their brand. Instead of searching for the website for sports news, risking competition with other brands, SI offers their newsletter as a way to minimize competition. Conveying themselves in a way that makes consumers think that they don't need any other sports news outlet.

Distribution Research #1

Distribution of a magazine can include door-to-door selling, negotiating with retailers and local businesses to stock your magazine, postage costs, labeling costs, delivery costs to retailers or businesses and other related expenses. Before you speak with magazine distribution professionals, you need to decide which of these services you do and do not need. 
ANTONOW, A. “Making the Most of Magazine Circulation and Distribution.” Business.com, 22 Feb. 2019, www.business.com/articles/making-the-most-of-magazine-circulation-and-distribution/.

The hardest part in selling or marketing a magazine is establishing a subscribed and committed base of readers. I believe that we do not need to go door to door in our community. However, because we are a school based paper, it would be attainable to reach out to teachers in order to gain support and a sense of school pride within our paper. The hardest part is making this paper apart of the already strong sporting culture within our school. Instead of working with other firms or businesses, we may work with sporting teams in order to gain access to exclusive interviews and content unavailable to other papers in the area. This leg up can be a key point in advertising. 

FNF Coaches Target Audience Research

FNF Coaches is a magazine designed specifically for high school football coaches. The target audience is similar because all high school coaches are obliviously sports fans, or they would not choose to coach a sport.  FNF takes advantage of their website by adding special "sneak preview" articles for free for those who are unsubscribed to get a taste of "what they're missing".

One strategy that FNF Coaches uses that my group can use is special events. By holding a local event we can generate support for our magazine. such as the one shown below:

This can effectively generate support through our community through the insider information that my group has gained through exclusive interviews, and details from the players. With the connections my group and I have successfully established, we can bring in valued opinions of sports figureheads locally within our marketing area.

Sports Illustrated Target Audience Research

One of the largest ways Sports Illustrated advertises for its magazine is through it's yearly swimsuit issue. They take advantage of this issue and market this issue more than other editions. For example, on YouTube, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit channel has around 728,000 subscribers and most viewed video is over 51 million views.

YouTube would be a viable platform to promote my group's magazine because unlike other forms of social media, an established following is not required to do well. Another advantage of using YouTube can be reaching a larger, younger audience and peak their interest in magazines. Also used to promote but not as popular, is Sports Illustrated's main account for reporting sports news.

On the Sports Illustrated's website, they are advertising a new service from "SI"

The new streaming service creates a new from of media for the brand and competes with ESPN+. This is another way to spark interest with younger audiences in an attempt to draw them into the magazine world. 

ESPN Magazine Target Audience Research

The most obvious similarity that Sailor Seasonal has with ESPN is they are both sports magazines. The most common form of advertising for ESPN magazine is on their television networks. This is extremely effective because their television audience has the same target audience as that of their magazine, because they are both sports orientated.

Another distribution technique ESPN Magazine uses is to include a "free" fleece with every new subscription. The most common phrase among the commercials is "for just a dollar a magazine".
Additionally, ESPN takes advantage of their 33.8 million followers on twitter, 18.8 million followers on their Facebook page, and 12 million followers on Instagram to reach a massive amount of people

The previous picture is an example of ESPN advertising on social media, in this case, Twitter. However, I do not believe that social media would be an effective ways to market my group's product. Because in order for it to be effective, an already established social media following is required in order for this form of marketing to be effective. 

Midterm Submission

Photo Shoot

The wrestling coach invited me to watch a practice and take pictures during one of their practices. The first day I came he said that I can't take pictures that day because they were doing only conditioning drills, so i rescheduled for the following day and got these pictures.

Schedule interviews and Develop questions

The most important interview I have is with the wrestling coach. I have a foot in the door luckily because he was my old football coach, which helped me extremely throughout. The interview questions I made were:

What experience do you have in the fitness and coaching field?

What made you decide to coach this team?

What changes have you made to the team as a hole?

Where do you plan to take the team in the future?

I thought it was also important to get the perspective of a member of the team, preferably one that has been wrestling for a few years at my school and around to experience both old and new coaches. One member, Carlos Sosa, Junior agreed to have an interview with me after practice at the same time with his coach. I also developed some questions for him:

What changes has this new coach made for your wrestling team?

What is one thing that he [the coach] changed that you are most happy with?

Scouting locations for photo shoots

Upon meeting with the wrestling coach, he informed me that if I were to take pictures of the wrestling team, It would have to be in this room. This limits me extremely in what I am trying to do, however, when framing my shots I must be up close to avoid showing as much background as I can.

Flat plan

When designing a flat plan I wanted to include stories that appeal to my target audience, which is athletes. Not only writing stories that inform athletes of their competition, but also informing them on ordeals that effect them and their respective sports. It was my idea to have the "state champion ____" in our respective sports for each season throughout each issue. This is useful because it appeals to the sports viewer, not just athlete.

Cover Template

Continuing with the black/orange/white color scheme, influenced by my school colors, we have 3 different fonts. The top font is designed to appeal to the boldness of athletes. I see similar font used within the football locker room and weight room. The stories on the side are meant to consume and blank space not in focus for the picture, and give athletes a hint of what is inside, perhaps peaking interest. The arrow I used to create originality was inspiration drawn from one of the magazines I researched in the past. It draws even more attention to the picture and directs the readers eyes in an exact location. Someone in my group came up with the title of the magazine which makes sense because all other issues of this magazine are seasonal, along with our mascot being a sailor.

Table of Contents Template

In order to establish our color scheme, orange and black is my group's school colors which means that these colors will be most prominent in our pictures most likely. The black X's is where i plan to add in pictures. Once I add pictures, i may change the background from white in order to make the page more interesting, however I may consequentially have to change the color of all my pages. I created the "state champions" portion which will be in every issue, also the "extra points" category which will as well. I created the "changes for competitors" grouping because at the time of creation for this magazine, most organizations change their standards for the new year. I will use these fonts on the front cover as well in order to establish a sense of a brand throughout.