Teen Vogue: Industry and social media

Teen Vogue: Industry and social media

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?

 Allure, Architectural Digest, Ars Technica, Backchannel, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious, Glamour, GQ, Pitchfork, Self, Teen Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Wired.

2) What are Teen Vogue’s main sources of income?

Teen Vogue’s main source of income is through selling advertising space online – adverts that are targeted using browsing history. 

3) How are traditionally print-based products like Teen Vogue diversifying to create new income streams?

By going into online media as well and developing their own website rather than only making print editions and also speaking about issues that are becoming more popular in society and addressing concerns that teens in generation-x tend to have rather than just focusing on traditional genres. 

4) Why is sponsored content and ‘advertorial’ particularly important in media linked to the fashion industry?

Both editorial content and advertising is designed to create a strong desire in their audience for products featured.

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?

Although Teen Vogue carry themselves out as a public service media and do a lot to raise awareness and talk about issues in society, at the end of the day Conde Nast is a large media conglomerate that's in it to make profit. 

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:

BBC: Teen Vogue: How will going online-only affect readers?
New York Times: Condé Nast Ends Teen Vogue’s Print Run
Folio: Your Teen Vogue Hot Takes Are All Wrong

1) Why does the BBC suggest “Teen Vogue’s digital game is strong”?

Because they have six million Facebook likes, a huge following on Snapchat, three and a half million Twitter followers.

2) What does the BBC suggest is responsible for the Teen Vogue website’s success?

"They've got a fantastic product and content"

3) How did Teen Vogue justify the closure of the print magazine?

They justified it by saying they need to modernise and calibrate their content to stay in sync with their audience preference and how majority of people tend to consume the media nowadays.

4) In the BBC article, David Hepworth suggests there is a risk to going digital-only. What is it?

He says that there are so many websites out there that it's difficult to remain unique which is a risk as they may struggle to stand out from other publishers. 

5) How do online-only publications make money?

Advertisements online and receiving information from customers and then selling it to other businesses such as the interests you have, your email address etc. 

6) What does Sarah Penny suggest regarding audience consumption for print and digital – and how might it be changing for Generation-Z?

Generation Z have a much stronger relationship consuming online content in comparison to other generations. This reflects Teen Vogue's change to creating digital content as there target audience are more into digital media compared to print.

7) What does the New York Times say Conde Nast is known for?

They say that Conde Nast were well known for for their lavish and visually rich magazines which is why their closure came across as a shock.

8) The New York Times states that Conde Nast expects to bring in less revenue in 2017 than 2016… by how much?

$100 million less in revenue compared to 2016. 

9) The Folio article also looks at the switch from print to digital. Pick out a statistic that justifies the digital-only approach.

The views went from 2 million monthly visitors to nearly 9 million since May 2015. 

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.

''In one of my interviews, one of the questions was, how do you grow Teen Vogue from 2 million to 10 million a month?'

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?

Teen Vogue's Twitter page has 3.3 million followers.

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?

On their Twitter page they have tweets on fashion, health & beauty, politics, entertainment, lifestyle and so on... which matches the things they cover on their Teen Vogue website as well. They focus a lot on health and well-being, taking care of your skin and others around you e.g. skincare tips, guides on how to make people feel better etc. 

3) How are the tweets and headlines written? Can you find examples of clickbait?

They have tweeted links of articles and made their caption 'snappy' and to match the headline of the link they've used. 

4) How does the Twitter feed use videos and images?

Videos and images make it more visually appealing which is what most audience are attracted by rather than large amounts of texts especially on digital media. 

5) Analyse the Teen Vogue Facebook page. How many ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ do they have?

5.9 million likes and 5.8 million followers.

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?

They have videos related to well-being; more specifically speaking the well-being of woman. They also have videos talking about news based stories. The difference is that their Twitter page had more links to click on and view (clickbait). 

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?

2.4 million followers

9) How does the Instagram feed differ from other social media channels?

It is mainly about visuals on Instagram and they have uploaded lots of pictures from events, celebrities etc. There is a lot less content on politics and activism on their Instagram compared to their website. 

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). 

They have the same slogan in all their biographies, they post content relating to the genres on their website. They post political content on all their media along with other things such as fashion and beauty.