Mens Health Hearst Magazine fact file:

Mens Health Hearst Magazine fact file:

Audience Profile:
Mens Health reach males age ranged 25-44 of AB social demographic range. They reach more of this target audience than GQ and Esquire added together. The number one Hearst magazine for affluent 30 something men.

Readership Figures:
Total circulation 2007 240,315. Men's health readership 1 million 88% male. According to ABC figures for 12 years the readership figures of Men's Health has increased. GQ Circulation in 2007 59,800 and Esquire circulation in 2007 129,520. Men's health has higher circulation than both put together in relation to competition. 2002 Men's Health circulation figures 218,740.

Magazine Content:
Gives information to it's readers about how to improve yourself confidence as well as your health. Gives advice on how to lose weight as well as how to build muscle. Gives information and advice about peoples sex life. Runs competitions in order to gain readership as well as to promote itself in how its advice works for normal people.

Audience Gratifications:
Information- Informs its readers about how to improve your body, either through weight loss or through increased muscle tone.
Social Interaction- Through competitions and challenges people are able to get involved. E.g recent Men's Health Lucozade challenge. People posting photos and updates on blog forums of how they were getting on with the challenge.
Identification- Readers are able to identify with real people who have followed the workout regimes or advice given by Men's Health. Relatable to them making their goals achievable.

Uses of Digital technology:
Men's Health website- The website was relaunched in December 2006 and is now one of the largest and most popular websites for men in the UK. menshealth.co.uk
Blogs and Chat forums- Through challenges put forward by Men's Health as well as the workout regimes given and information given people are able to be part of a community and post their thoughts as well as their progress of taking part in these regimes.
Social Networks- Social networking linked to chat and blog forums allows discussion on workout regimes put forward by the magazine as well as advice given. Allows audience to get information about whats going to be in the next issue as well as discuss about celebrities who follow Men's Health e.g David Beckham Men's Health issue.

Brand communities:
Men's Health is able to create reader communities through blog and chat forums as well as social networking. This allows people to discuss about what challenges or diets or workout regime they are doing advising others and raising attention towards Men's Health magazine. These brand communities are linked into the ideology of Maslow hierarchy of needs as it gives people a sense of belonging in their community.

My review of the brand's success:
I believe that as a brand in appealing to it's audience it is a successful magazine brand. it gives its readership audience the gratifications it needs. This is backed up by its popularity through its readership figures as well as through its website pageviews. On its forums it discusses about its workouts as well as how to better yourself and your health. This is what the readers want of this magazine and therefore they are draw to it as it appeals to their needs.

Examples of Brand synergy in Hearst:

Examples of brand synergy in Hearst:


Lucozade sport challenge- Readers of the magazine had an opportunity to take part in a 12 week challenge trained by top sports professionals as well as a prize draw for people to win Lucozade products and prizes. Improved reader figures and gave awareness to Lucozade product. There were over 17,500 downloads of the training programmes and in total, the emails sent during the challenge were seen by over 124,000 people. Men's Health and Lucozade Hearst and GSK.

Davidoff Champion Challenge- Objective: To make this new Davidoff fragrance a major new scent in the run up to Christmas. It was inspired by the fragrance’s unique bottle – it’s shaped like a dumbbell – we created a gym challenge where we encouraged readers to participate in a gruelling test of fitness and post their results on a leader board on a dedicated brand site created specially for this campaign. Results: Over 400 readers completed the gym challenge and the dedicated brand site received more than 50,000 page impressions from over 10,000 visits. And Davidoff hit its sales figures through this convergence.

Ariel with Actilift- To communicate the innovative stain lifting action of Ariel with Actilift, two bespoke paper technologies, one in SHE & Prima and one in Good Housekeeping were created. The features enabled the reader to ‘lift’ to reveal stain free clothes!their cause. Stars like Maggie Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley, donated bags to help. Result: Two interactive features that stopped readers in their tracks and enabled them to mirror the lifting action of Ariel with Actilift.

Researching Media Institutions:

Researching Media Institutions:

Media Conglomerate-  A media conglomerate is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet.

Public Service Broadcasting- Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions.

Globalisation- Is the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Oligopoly- Is where a group of people own a large amount of companies. Not owned by one individual holding all the power. (Remember Monopoly objective!)

Convergence- Is the merging of both old and new media and can be seen as a product or a system e.g a mobile phone acting as a computer.

Synergy- Is where two or more things work together in a way that produces an effect greater the sum of their individual effects.


1) What are the top 5 media conglomerates in the world and what range of companies do they own?

No.1 Comcast Corporation (owns)-NBC Universal, MSNBC.
No.2 The Walt Disney Company (owns)-American broadcasting company (ABC), ESPN.
No.3 Time Warner Inc (owns)-American on-Line (AOL), CNN, Warner Bros Studios.
No.4 Viacom (owns)-Nickelodeon, Spike TV, Comedy Central.
No.5 News Corporation (owns)-20th Century Fox, Fox Sports 1 and 2.

2) What criticisms have been made against media conglomerates?

Media conglomerates have been criticised because of the fact that they own so many companies and hold so much power that they dominate the market leaving little opportunity for larger companies. Example of a media conglomerate to do this is Google. Its own 65% of the Internet base.

3) How has the expansion of companies led to a concentration of media ownership?

The expansion of many large media companies to woning smaller companies mean that there is little ownership left available. These large companies own the smaller companies giving all the power to one individual. An example of this is the amount of power and companies held by the Murdoch family.