January, 2008:

Flip the pages of magazines of any kind and there you’ll see different ads and products being marketed in its pages. If you have a women’s magazine on hand, for example, there you’ll see beauty products, clothes and accessories being advertised. Or a health magazine for instance has plenty of health and fitness product advertisements included along with the articles and features of the magazine. A magazine is an effective venue for marketing. And study shows it still is.
 
A study conducted by Dynamic Logic found that magazine advertising remains effective in influencing consumer behavior and plays an important role in the marketing mix. When it comes to advertising effectiveness, magazine advertising remains especially effective in enhancing consumers’ impressions of the product and their intent to purchase that product. The study found that adding magazines to a TV and internet advertising campaign significantly boosts the success of the campaign, and in some key areas the contribution of magazines outweighed that of TV. The study analyzed 32 cross-media campaigns from 10 different types of companies, including consumer goods, automotive, electronics, apparel and financial services.

In this study, the researchers found that the three different media worked best when used together. Both online advertising and magazines added significantly to the impact of the advertising when used along with TV. Further, each media contributed in a different way. The different media are working most strongly at different points in the purchase process. The results confirm the strengths of all the media working together in a way that we hadn’t seen before. TV worked strongly in generating brand and advertising awareness. In those categories the other two media built strongly on the initial impact of TV. For instance, in terms of brand awareness, TV added 7.6 percentage points to the original percentage of people who were aware of the brand. The internet added another 3.7 points to the level of awareness. Finally magazines added another 5.7 percentage points. In terms of advertising awareness, TV provided a bump of 9.8 percentage points. The internet, which performed strongest in the same categories as TV, added another 4.4 points. Surprisingly, magazines also performed strongly in building advertising awareness, adding 8.3 points.

Are you a big pop music fan? Then this is for you, Top40.about.com‘s top ten magazines for pop music fans (see, that’s you!). Even though Internet is an easy access for valuable music information, music magazines still serve an important part, including first-rate writing and in-depth analysis. Here they are:

1. Q
Q modestly calls itself “The World’s Greatest Music Magazine,” and it is difficult to argue. Although it is based in the UK, there is plenty of information in Q to keep an American pop fan coming back for more. Each monthly issue is a mini-book stuffed with loads of reviews of albums and music-related movies, DVDs, and books as well as current download lists, great interviews, coverage of key events in pop music history and writing that revels in an edgy sense of humor.

2. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is the granddaddy of US rock music magazines, and it is still well worth reading. There have been moments when it appeared that Rolling Stone was dipping a bit too far into the fashion world, but some of the best pop music writers still work for the magazine. Also, don’t miss some outstanding writing on political and societal issues. A 5-star review in Rolling Stone still carries much weight in the music world.

3. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly has only been in existence since 1990 and is therefore still a relative newcomer to the world of popular music reporting. However, although its broad focus includes film, TV, books, and video as well as music, the access EW writers and reviewers receive (the magazine’s parent company is entertainment behemoth Time Warner) makes their insight worth reading. Also, outside of music industry bible Billboard, Entertainment Weekly is the only US publication bringing you music news in paper form on a weekly basis.

4. Billboard
If it’s not on a Billboard chart, most of the music industry says it’s not on a chart. Its origins go clear back to 1894, but it is only since about the 1930′s that Billboard has been a major player in the music industry. You don’t go to Billboard for criticism in reviews or for witty writing. However, the data makes it the weekly magazine of record for popular music worldwide.

5. Blender
If you like lists about music, Blender is the magazine for you. The controversial magazine first appeared as a CD-ROM based publication in 1994 before re-organizing as a print magazine in 1999. Snarkiness and a fondness for female flesh frequently find their way into Blender’s pages, but there is some very useful and informative pop music commentary lurking behind the scenes.

6. Alternative Press
Alternative Press is one of the deserved kings of niche music magazines. Since 1995 AP has championed underground alternative music. A significant number of key bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fall Out Boy, and My Chemical Romance have received important early boosts in their careers from the pages of Alternative Press.

7. Paste
Paste was first published as a quarterly music magazine in 2002. It became a monthly in late 2006 and has very quickly positioned itself as the discerning (i.e. intellectual) pop music fan’s publication of choice. This approach has already helped the magazine to rake in a series of awards and kudos from elsewhere in the publishing industry.

8. Vibe
Founded by legendary producer and artist Quincy Jones, Vibe is the key magazine for a good look at urban music and culture.

9. NME
NME, short for New Musical Express, is a venerable UK music weekly. Publishing weekly since 1952, the magazine is known for its sense of hype. Bands can be touted as the next big thing before they’ve even released a recording. NME is also known for a willingness to turn on a band just as they’ve begun to benefit from the magazine’s previous support. If you like your music news breathless, check this out.

10. Spin
Founded in 1985, for many years Spin positioned itself as the alternative to Rolling Stone. The magazine flourished in that role and featured top-level writers, among them Chuck Klosterman, but in 2006 the editor-in-chief was fired when the magazine was sold to new investors and a former Blender editor was put in charge. This caused a radical shift in focus for Spin and howls of protest from subscribers. The new editor was dismissed a few months later and Spin has quietly returned to its former focus on rock and alt-rock.

Have loads of music pleasure with these pop music mags!

Students as we all know, go through a lot of papers, homeworks, projects, researches until they are able to march for graduation. Especially for college students, a research study is a requirement for graduation. The long hours, days and weeks of labor, sleepless nights and heavy eye bags are the evidence of a finished product…tadah! The thesis.

Well, a thesis as formally defined in books is the report of a scholar upon some piece of research which he has completed. So, in such terms, if you’ve finished a thesis you may be considered a scholar since you are an individual who used scientific methods of study and made a contribution to the fun of knowledge. How about that!

So what does magazines have to do with student research? Magazines have a big role. Magazines help through the review of related literature. If a student opts to make a research about peer pressure, for instance, magazines are great sources to be reviewed and surveyed which cover topics about peer pressure, like those youth publications. Reading articles from magazines helps the researcher to understand his/her topic for research better. It may clarify vague points about his/her problem. It also helps and guides the researcher in locating more sources of related information, since some articles indicate references.

But of course, there are characteristics of literature to be reviewed like magazines that should be taken into consideration. Like the timeliness of the written article which should be as recent as possible. Another is that the magazine materials to be reviewed must be objective and unbiased. So those articles that are extremely or subtly one-sided cannot be included in the research since it may lead to distorted generalizations. And especially, the magazine material should be relevant to the study. (: