Creative Critical Reflection

https://prezi.com/view/ajUgWPnnNSlmwqhSWvSv/

CCR Question #4

For technology I didn't really need anything besides my phone and a laptop during my time on this project. For my pictures I used my iPhone's camera and it ended up being really good and I got a lot of shots that i'm very proud of. It was fun changing the lighting and to an extent the focus on some of the pictures as it made them look a lot better. As for my magazine I used InDesign to create the cover and other pages. InDesign made it easy to add text and section everything off to good areas that made the magazine look more appealing. Indesign was very easy for me to use and I enjoyed my time with the program as it made everything look clean and professional.

CCR Question #3

For my production skills I think I had it a little easier than the people who decided to do the film project as they have more things to check off. As for how I improved and changed I needed to learn how to use programs like InDesign which was a new yet fairly easy experience which let me make my cover and other designs look good. This was also the first time I really had to try to take some professional like photos and that was a fun experience trying to get the horses and animals in a good position to get their picture along with good lighting. Before starting this project I had no idea how to use InDesign but after watching my teacher give us a walkthrough it was easy to pick up. Overall I liked it a lot and had a great time learning the new stuff.

CCR Question #2

For my magazine I looked at a magazine called Practical Horseman which used different colors and fonts on their covers to attract and engage the audience. I also used a similar thing with using yellow font and bold titles to keep audience engaged and reading my magazine. Most magazines are distributed as physical paper in stores or are mailed to you with a subscription to that magazine. One magazine that I looked at for digital distribution was The New York Times the highest downloaded magazine on the Apple app store. I like the app tactic of digital distribution more than the website and PDF so would rather look at other magazines that use apps to distribute their magazine. the News app has a lot of magazines compiled into one app which i would also put my magazine on there as it would gain a larger audience then a PDF or even a website in some cases. The distribution tactics I would do would be an app for digital distribution and regular newspapers for traditional distribution. For the physical newspapers I would have them as a subscription service where the first ones free and I would distribute them from stores.

CCR Question #1 Draft

For my magazine I followed other magazines and based my magazine off some of them. For my cover I used a picture similar to pictures used by other magazines with similar genres to mine. In the cover I used yellow words for the titles to draw attention similar to another magazine that I based mine off. I also placed my titles in similar places and put most of them together and gave space to the main cover picture. For the the title of my overall magazine I made the words bigger and made them bolder and gave them a bit of a shadow to make it stand out and draw attention to my magazine. The social groups being represented in my magazine will be people with pets and a bit of money to spend on their pets. The way my magazine goes towards these people is by offering more expensive opportunities like pet friendly hotels and other things.

Distribution Plan

Based off my research on the digital distribution of magazines the plan I would go with is going with an app. I chose app because its easier to spread out to people and everyone has access to an app store where they can get the app. Although both a website or a PDF form of your magazine are good ways of digitally distributing your magazine they do have downsides. A big downside to the PDF method is the file size which is a fairly big issue because the reader might not even be able to open it or scrolling through it. The website method is also a great way to distribute your magazine and also very popular but the app method does everything the website does and more and is more convenient at times. The app method is also a good idea because its easy to share and can have higher quality and you can use analytics to help your reader find articles that they would like. Overall the app method of distributing magazines is the one I prefer due the large amount of benefits that come with it.

Marketing Plan

While researching magazine marketing a few tactics that showed up were to give away the first few magazines for free, send emails, and social media. For social media I found a lot of social media accounts for different magazines on different apps. Depending on the app the way they advertise may vary for example on apps like TikTok they will appeal to a younger audience and use the type of humor that is found on that app while on apps like Twitter and Instagram are more professional and are similar to other advertisements because they have a larger audience of adults on those apps. I couldn't find many advertisements for magazines on billboards and most of them didn't really stand out or were very good so I don't think ill go with that. I think my main ways of advertising would be social media, email, and giving the first one free.

Digital Distribution - PDF

The final way that you can distribute your magazine digitally is through a PDF and this is usually for smaller publishers with limited resources but its still a fairly popular form of distribution. PDF forms of magazines can be easier to access because everyone has a phone or computer with access to the website but you can also send emails to other people to increase your magazines popularity. One downside to PDF is the file size because some people could have a hard time downloading your magazine. The good things about having a PDF of your magazine is that you can add higher quality pictures to the pages and make your magazine look better overall. You can also increase interactivity with your audience by adding hyperlinks and jump links throughout your magazine. If you choose to give free trials for your magazine like sending the first copy for free you should probably choose to do it through a PDF and then add a link to your magazine's subscription page to allow the reader to easily subscribe to your magazine. Overall PDF magazines are a good way to get your magazine out there but thats about it because apps or websites are far more efficient at doing the same job than a PDF.

Digital Distribution - App

Another way to distribute your magazine is with an app and due to the popularity of apps its possible this could become bigger than the websites if its not already. Apps can be more accessible now and apps are easier to navigate and you can give it a nice clean feel that keeps the reader on for a while longer. With an app you can increase interactivity between your magazine and reader because of things like a share button which will also spread your magazine out a little bit more. A big reason why apps could be better than physical magazines is analytics which can be helpful for obtaining data and give your reader better options to read based off their interest. One thing to keep in mind is that you'll also need to advertise your app as well but this could be easier because you can get your app on the apple's app store which allows you to advertise your app on there. After the reader downloads your app you can have them turn on their notifications and you can send them notifications on articles that are of interest to them which will increase their time on your app. An app could also allow for advertisement on the app which allows other companies to pay you for their ads on your app.

Digital Distribution - Website

One of the biggest ways magazines are digitally distributed is with a website. Using a website you can spread your magazine faster and easier because of how easy it is to simply send a link to a friend. With a website you can reach a wider audience and anyone can see it with a phone or a desktop and you can add videos on the page which you cant do with a physical magazine. Using a website for your magazine is easier because you can upload it easier and the reader can read it right away as opposed to waiting for it to be delivered or going to a store to buy it. With a website you can increase user engagement like with a video or adding a section for feedback which is more convenient digitally than physically and you can even include links to other articles which will make your magazine bigger and help spread it faster. Overall a website is a very good way to distribute and easily spread your magazine out to people.

Traditional Distribution

The first thing you should do is find a distribution company to distribute your magazine, there are hundreds of companies in the United States to chose from. Once you get a distributor you can start getting your magazine out there through the many ways of distribution. One of the many ways you can distribute your magazine today is digitally because you can use magazine apps, websites, and PDF magazine. For physical distribution of a magazine you can set your magazines at stores or events that are relevant to your magazine. Since my magazine is related to animals and pets a store that I might set my magazine up in could be a pet store or for an event I could set it up during a horse show at a farm. Other ways of physical distribution could be combining your magazine with a relevant and related product like combining a magazine with a dog crate or something similar to that.

Indesign Class Activity

Today in class we utilized adobe indesign to lay out our two page spread. While using indesign I felt pretty comfortable with everything its not much different from other similar programs that I have actually used it has a lot of the same basic things as the other programs. There are some things in Indesign has that I was unfamiliar with but they were fairly easy to learn and get a hold of and overall didn't make me feel overwhelmed. I think I will end up using Indesign to make my revisions later on. Overall Indesign was fairly easy to learn and use and I will continue to use it for my project revisions.

My Target Audience

For my target audience I thought of them as either gender and the age would be fairly young maybe 20-40 years old because I feel that people around that age range have more time and the ability to take their pets out to the places I wrote about like the pet friendly beaches and hotels. I would make my magazine appealing to younger people as well maybe as young as high school students because they'll start getting jobs and would probably want to start doing things with their pets. For geography my target audience will be mostly local due to the contents of my magazine being mostly local activities and articles. For personal interest my target audience is people who like to do a lot with their pets like taking them to parks and beaches and on trips. My magazine will be appealing to these type of people because it'll have their interest when it comes to their pets and it will also be visually appealing throughout the magazine keeping the readers attention.