The Cosmopolitan Magazine
Paraic Sullivan 10349033
Introduction
Cosmopolitan Magazine has been operational for more than thirteen decades. The magazine has been around since 1886, as such, it is deductible it has witnessed a great deal of change over the past century. Indeed, currently, the cosmopolitan magazine has nothing in common either in look or content with the original magazine that was first developed in the 19th century. Moreover, the 21st-century is associated with advanced technology particularly the internet and social media, which has adversely affected magazine sales. Therefore, the Cosmopolitan has been forced to change its operations. The paper explores the history of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, the style, and type of stories it currently covers, the type of advertisements it covers, its target audience in addition to analysing how the magazine is surviving in the current climate.
History of the Magazine
Cosmopolitan Magazine was created in the late 19th century in 1886 by an organization known as Schlicht and Field of New York. The magazine was named Cosmopolitan and first published in 1886 (Landers, 2010). It was initially a wholesome family magazine with a particular focus on women. Schlicht assured the potential magazine readers before its first publication that it was “a first-class family magazine with a special department devoted exclusively to the concerns of women, with articles on fashion, household decoration, cooking and care and management of children” (Landers, 2010). William Randolph Hearst, the founder of Hearst Corporation Publishing and Media Empire, acquired The Cosmopolitan in 1905. During this time, the magazine started focusing on new fiction and published works of famous authors such as Upton Sinclair, Kurt Vonnegur, and Willa Cather, among others.
As of the 1930s, the Cosmopolitan was one of the most popular magazines with a circulation of 1,700,000 and an advertising income of more than five million dollars (Machin & Leeuwen, 2005). In the1940s, the emphasis of the magazine was on fiction. During the Second World War, the sales of the magazine reached above two million. In the 1950s, the sales of the magazine dropped mainly due to the rise of television and paperback books. By the 1960s, Cosmopolitan sales were at an all-time low. The magazine was forced to hire Helen Gurley Brown, an expert on the new women’s feminist and sexual orientation as the chief editor. What was initially marketed as a first-class family magazine soon became a sexual magazine with a love and lust section (Landers, 2010). The cover of the magazine exposed models in minimum clothing as possible to increase sales. As of the 1960s, Cosmopolitan Magazine was nothing its original was. Currently, in the 21st century, the magazine is focused on women in addition to covering news about celebrities, and trending topics, particularly in health and beauty.
Style and Topics
Cosmopolitan covers a wide array of topics that reflect the needs of the target audience. Since moving away from a fiction magazine in the mid-20th century, cosmopolitan has established itself as an organization that prides itself on providing information that primarily appeals to the female audience. Specifically, the magazine reports on fashion, beauty, sex and dating, health and fitness, food and cocktails, pop culture, and independence (Machin & Leeuwen, 2005). The magazine applies concepts of beauty and fashion as the main style in reporting the news. However, Cosmopolitan unmatched success is associated with the organisation’s stories on sexual tips, celebrity stories, and confessions in addition to their extensive information on self-improvement (Gupta, Zimmerman, & Fruhauf, 2008).
Target Audience and Advertisement
Most of the magazine’s readers are individuals interested in keeping pace with the trends in society, particularly those in pop culture, beauty, fitness, fashion, sex, and dating, among other topics that Cosmopolitan reports on. The readers are mostly females between the ages of eighteen and forty-nine. It can either be a student or a professional, single, or married. Cosmopolitan largest target audience is millennial generation women. The majority of the magazine’s advertisements display beautiful women applying make-up, posing with luxurious fragrance, or using a skin cleanser. The magazine advertises different products, including beauty products such as make-up and hair products, clothing lines, fitness trends, among others (Machin & Thornborrow, 2003). The magazine also promotes food-related content such as restaurants, fast foods, pre-packed foods, and individual food items. Cosmopolitan sometimes advertises drinks, including alcoholic beverages and non-alcoholic ones. Cosmopolitan does an outstanding job of diversifying their issues and advertisements to appeal to their target audiences month after month. The ads in the magazine can cost up to 400,000 dollars, but the cheapest is at 98,000 dollars, which encompasses a feature on a sixth of a page in black and white (Landers, 2010).
How it is Surviving in the Current Environment
Magazines such as the Cosmopolitan have been delivering news and stories for decades. However, the rise of the internet and social media in the 21st century has been associated with a sharp decrease in sales of paper bound magazines (Landers, 2010). However, Cosmopolitan is one of the magazines that has adapted relatively well to the current environment, mainly through focusing on teenagers. To keep pace with the internet and social media, the magazine has a website that offers hundreds of articles covering different topics and categories to their readers. The magazine also has a relatively large presence in popular social media sites such as Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram (Landers, 2010). On Instagram, cosmopolitan has more than three million followers. On Snapchat, the magazine has a subscription page where various news outlets and magazines can share information. Cosmopolitan Snapchat page reaches millions of viewers a day. The users also have the opportunity to subscribe to the channel. It is evident despite being in existence for more than a century, Cosmopolitan has managed to stay relevant mainly because it has endeavoured to keep pace with the emerging trends of the media.
Evolution of the Cosmopolitan from the Perspective of a Reader
I recently interviewed a 45-year-old Cosmopolitan reader who asserted that the Cosmopolitan is one of her favourite magazines. Debbie, the reader I talked to, says that she was introduced to the magazine more than three decades ago when she was only fifteen by her older sister, who is five years her senior. Debbie asserts she was attracted to the magazine mainly because, growing up, she wanted to be just like her sister. However, while she got over her idolization of her bigger sister, she has continued to read the Cosmopolitan through two children and divorce. According to Debbie reading the magazine keeps her updated and informed about life in the celebrity circles and the current beauty and fashion styles. Debbie is a data analyst in a large financial corporation and argues that she watched as magazines started to fade out primarily due to social media and the internet but acknowledge that her favorite magazine knows how to approach modern readers. She says while she is subscribed to the magazine, she reads the posts on the websites from time to time.
Conclusion
The Cosmopolitan has existed for more than thirteen decades. It has evolved from a family-oriented magazine in the late 19th century to a sexual magazine in the mid-20th-century. To manage the high competition in the 21st century associated with the internet and social media, the Cosmopolitan has evolved. Indeed, the magazine has a relatively large social media presence. Currently, the magazine targets females between the ages of eighteen and fifty and reports on a variety of topics including fashion, style, celebrity news, beauty tips, sex, and love, among others.
References
Gupta, A., Zimmerman, T. S., & Fruhauf, C. A. (2008). Relationships advice in the top seling women’s magazine, Cosmopolitan: A content analysis. Journal of Couples and Relationships Therapy, 248–266.
Landers, J. (2010). The improbable first century of Cosmopolitan magazine. University of Missouri Press.
Machin, D., & Leeuwen, T. V. (2005). Language style and lifestyle: The case of a global magazine. Media, Culture and Society, 27(4), 577–600.
Machin, D., & Thornborrow, J. (2003). Branding and discourse: The case of the cosmopolitan. Discourse and Society, 14(4), 453–471.