Attitude ind

Northern & Shell ownership

• Northern & Shell owned and published

• tabloid papers, gossip magazines television channels

• such as CH.5 and Adult TV channels & adults' magazines.

decline

The decline in the popularity of print magazines, papers and terrestrial TV channels led to a decline in profits. Northern & Shell started to sell off their assets.

Northern & Shell ownership

• Northern & Shell owned and published

• tabloid papers, gossip magazines television channels

• such as CH.5 and Adult TV channels & adults' magazines.

decline

The decline in the popularity of print magazines, papers and terrestrial TV channels led to a decline in profits. Northern & Shell started to sell off their assets.

2016

Northern & Shell sold Attitude to Stream Publishing in 2016.

Stream

Stream is an independent reasonably small magazine publisher.

companies

As well as publishing magazines for the public, they also produce & print a range of products for companies

office

• They have one office in Surrey, with less than 30 employees.

• The company is owned and run by Darren Styles.

• Darren Styles is gay and said he bought Attitude as felt offering niche LGBTQ magazines was important as there were so few out there at the time.

2013

In 2013 he purchased Winq magazine, a European magazine aimed at gay men

horizontal integration

Attitude magazine and website was one of the main competitors for Winq. So, Stream decided to purchase it (horizontal integration) to absorb the competition into their own company.

Stream

• In addition to Attitude, they publish a lot of other print products.

• They can write, edit, design AND print and distribute their own products due to vertical integration.

• Being owned by a small independent company means they can still be creative and boundary pushing

Attitude have a variety of other global print editions,

• Attitude have a variety of other global print editions, each with their own websites.

• Creating global editions of the British magazine and website helps to minimise risk. (hesmondhgalgh) Stream knew it was an already existing successful format so copied for other countries / cultures

Attitude website

• The Attitude website, and the existence of the digital editions for phones & tablets, targets a modern audience

• who are spending more time on converged technology. Stream uses a variety of digital platforms and sites to distribute Attitude’s digital versions to readers.

revenue

• With the print magazine, they were earning a large chunk of revenue from advertising. So, they have to offer brands advertising opportunities online too.

• A digital product can be distributed globally, so Attitude often features stories about global travel, other cultures and global LGBTQ issues

star

• Attitudes knows the power of star appeal, so uses celebrity-based content as much as possible.

• Attitude has secured a huge number of exclusive interviews with very high-profile celebrities which has really helped to promote both the print magazine and online safe and digital editions.

Social Media a

• Stream do operate a number of Social Media accounts for Attitude Magazines.

• Social media is a great way of targeting a modern, global audience. The online magazine offers content to audiences even in countries where the print magazine cannot be sold by law.

• This demonstrates how online technology can be used to bypass traditional forms regulation and censorship.

Demonstrates

Demonstrates that they are potentially trying to protect younger audiences from the more sexualised content

Livingstone & Lunt

However obviously there are no real checks done on social media about users’ ages, and it would be very easy for under 18s to access this content.

self reg

• The hateful comments their posts often get, might explain why Attitude don’t offer the option to share content from their website

• . This could be Stream attempting to protect their readers and the people in their articles from online hate, perhaps creating a safer online space for LGBTQ audiences

self reg

Stream publish their own ethics policies clearly on Attitude’s website, proving that some companies are trying to self-regulate to avoid controversy and offence

awards

Stream publishing run events such as Attitude Awards to build brand identity amongst audiences and industry professionals.

Curran & Seaton

• Challenges Curran & Seaton’s theory that companies are all about profit and power. Attitude seems to be about giving back to LGBTQ communities too.

• Used convergent media technologies to engage audiences and promote brand online during COVID pandemic when in person events couldn’t run