My PMP Blog: April 2009

Proposal

The magazine I want to propose is a fashion magazine. I know that there are a lot of fashion magazines on the market, like Vogue, Elle, Fashion UK, but mine will be slightly different than the others. I mean it will have basically what the others have, but I'm going to concentrate mine more on rich women, women with a high level of income.
As you can see from above, my target audience will be women aged 25-45 from the upper middle class, because my magazine will present only designers clothes(Dolce&Gabbanna, Versace, Armani etc). My magazine will consist more of pictures of clothes and some reviews from famous designers. It will have some interviews(not many like other magazines)but only with famous designers. There won't be many columns or articles, like I said, it will have more pictures of the clothes, but there will be one section where designers give tips for women how to dress for different occasions and recommend some clothes for them. And we will do a monthly contest, where one woman will have the opportunity to win a designer outfit.
My magazine may have some similarities with other fashion magazines, but it will be different as well in many ways, like I said above. And not many women will be able to afford it, because it will be very posh and glossy. It will be a monthly magazine with a higher cover price than others, but as I said, it will be for the upper middle class. I will use a glossy cover with glossy paper, I think the format will be A4. I want to use only expensive paper and cover, which are the best and to show that the magazine is for rich people.

Typography and layout

The typography of the magazine will be a normal one, maybe a little serious to show for who it is written. The articles (although not many) will be straight forward, written by professional journalists. It will have a normal language, for every woman to understand what the designer has to say.
The magazine will be divided as it follows: about 60-70% of pictures and 30-40% of articles, interviews and reviews. Because in the magazine will be more pictures than words, my proposed layout will be one page with a picture of an outfit, and I'm still not sure on this one, but I'm thinking that the other page (because we will have a two-page spread) will be the designers comments and reviews, or I'm thinking to put the review under the picture and the other page the same: picture of outfit and under the review of the designer. I still need to think about that one, but in general, these are my two proposed layouts. The articles that the magazine will have, will be somewhere in the middle of the magazine on a two-page spread or maybe more, depending on what the reporter will do (interview, news story etc).
Anyway, the magazine will be short on articles, but I reckon that from, let's say, 100 pages, the journalistic pieces will have about 10, maximum 20 pages.

Photography and imagery

The photos that will be used in the magazine will be of the highest quality. We will only have professional photographers, no matter how much they cost. We want a posh magazine, so we need posh photographers. We will have as well the best looking models to pose for the magazine. All of the photos will be original and none of them will be manipulated on the computer, so the model and the photographer have to do their best.
Each month we will try to have a celebrity on the cover, we will try to make no exceptions, because celebrities are always of interest to women (the way they dress, the way the look etc).

Launching

We will have a big PR campaign for our new magazine, which will contain advertisements in the places that rich women work or spent time. This will mean: spa's, Harrods, offices, billboards etc. And for our launching day, we will throw a big party in a well-known club, that will be reserved only for the magazine and our guests will be famous designers and famous celebrities.

Legal issues

We must take in consideration the legal issues that exist in order for the magazine to run well.
The first legal issue and I think the most important is copyright. The people writting or basically working for this magazine must be aware that they are not allowed to write something that belongs to someone else or post pictures that were taken by someone else, not mentioning that the work isn't their own. We will only post articles and pictures that are someone else' if we have their written consent.
If in the magazine will be any comments, regardless of the topic, we must check it thoroughly to see if there is anything defamatory about someone. Because we are not allowed to defame someone or to write defamatory articles.
Although the magazine is aimed to upper middle class women, we must be careful not to discriminate the middle or working class women in any way. Or discrimination regarding race, sex or religion.
We must not invade someones privacy. We are not a gossip magazine, but we have to consider this legal issue as well, because everyone is entitled to their private life.