What's the difference between a magazine and a newspaper?

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Permalink Reply by Richard Michem on September 22, 2008 at 1:54pm

People read newspapers. They experience magazines. Their has been studies, in which the same story was put into a newspaper , and put into a magazine> The people who read the story in the magazines, remembers it longer.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Thomas on September 22, 2008 at 2:41pm

Thanks for the input ...

Along the same lines, I kinda' read newspapers like a read on the web. Very quickly and mostly skimming.

Do you know where we can find some of these studies?

And do you think how the content is read is the only difference between the two?

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Permalink Reply by Richard Michem on September 22, 2008 at 3:22pm

That been a while since I read then> They were done before color took a big hold in newspapers. I look see if I still have then. I remember that the average newspaper was read 23 minutes were the average news magazine was read 50 minutes. What i would like to see if anybody did any studies , comparing the average time a person, read an outline magazine or newspaper for that matter and the same mag or newspaper in paper form? I sure advertiser , would like to know that too.

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Permalink Reply by Sachin Ghodke on September 22, 2008 at 3:52pm

I read newspapers everyday in the morning before going to work. I think newspapers are more fresh in their content as compared to magazines. The retention value of content of a newspaper is limited. However, for magazines, I would say, I hardly remember reading a good magazine last time and anything that was worth remembering.

As far as magazines are concerned - i would say prefer reading magazines that are relevant to my profession and my interests (which i seldom find here) and that would always make me be the collector or magazines. And newspapers well... umm.. i recycle them.

Newspapers turning into magazines are rare stories and these are driven by changes in time, economy, reader interests, circulation, advertising and various other factors that drive the popularity of that particular newspaper.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Thomas on September 22, 2008 at 4:19pm

"...Newspapers turning into magazines are rare stories..."

It's definitely rare, as well as magazines turning into newspapers. When it does happen, it's usually in the smaller, city mag / local niche marketplace. Sometimes a low-budget, startup publisher will launch a newsletter/newspaper hybrid publication and if successful, will later transition their publication into a magazine.

I definitely don't recommend this model, but the mere fact that it does and can happen lends me to believe that there may not be a clear black-and-white line between the two types of periodicals.

(And I don't mean simply printing on newsprint ... that's simply low-budget production which is fine insofar as it is accomplishing what it needs to accomplish.)

I'm referring to those small, local newspapers, who have actually called themselves newspapers and have later made the decision to transition into a magazine.

A better example would be Skirt! magazine. Most of us (at first glance) would typically label it as a newspaper ... however they call themselves a magazine.

So other than the fact that newsprint makes my skin crawl, what's the defining difference between the two?

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Permalink Reply by Richard Michem on September 23, 2008 at 11:17am

Their is the staple rule, in some states. If you buy something with a staple, then they charge you sale tax, if the publication, does not have a staple, then some states consider it a newspaper, and their is no sell tax.Yes you still have to pay a sales tax on a publication, with perfect binding.

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Permalink Reply by Aleigh Acerni on September 24, 2008 at 8:50am

skirt! is most DEFINITELY a magazine. I fail to see how the type of paper a publication prints on is the ultimate definition of a publication. It's about content, not about paper. Besides, shouldn't a publication be allowed to define itself? If I want to publish a newspaper on glossy pages, can't I still call myself a newspaper?

It galls me to no end when people refer to skirt! as a newspaper. We don't print "news" -- we include current events, sure, but it's always our own take on what's happening. We don't report. We don't have any content that is similar to what a newspaper would print. We publish once a month.

Therefore, we are, and always have been, a magazine.

(PS: Joshua, I'm guessing newsprint makes your skin crawl because the print quality is usually slim to none...if you haven't seen skirt! in person, you might assume that our print quality is lacking. However, we work really hard to preserve the aesthetic of our magazine, and are very, very proud of the quality of our printing.)

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Thomas on September 24, 2008 at 9:07am

Thank you very much for the post.

I'm 110% on your side! The mere fact that Skirt! is a magazine, yet at first glance appears to be a newspaper, proves that media type is not part of the defining differences between the two.

This conversation spun out of another conversation about whether or not websites can call themselves magazines and somehow evolved into this conversation.

You mentioned that Skirt!'s content "does not report ..."

Would you suggest that the reporting nature of newspaper content may be a defining difference between the two media formats?

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Thomas on September 24, 2008 at 9:15am

Oh ... And I have seen Skirt! and am actually a fan. The effort on quality is really impressive and is what caught my attention in the first place.

I think it's just the texture of newsprint that gets to me =) . For some, it's microsuede, others it's the sound of chalk ...

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Permalink Reply by Little Shiva on September 24, 2008 at 9:30am

I was a skirt! 24/7 girl in 2005 (April, I think), Charlotte edition, photographed by Deborah Triplett. It's a high quality magazine in every way.

Newspaper vs. magazine? "NEWS" (by whatever definition) implies to me a kind of constantly-moving quicksand of events, and a NEWS paper is a printed piece in which those events are told. I'd say the definition revolves more around content than form, but there are certainly traditions that define the newspaper: large folded pieces of newsprint, kruddy printing, great re-use potential as cat box and birdcage liner etc.

To me, a magazine is a time capsule, a cultural and/or informational exhibit curated by someone (or a team) and presented in some kind of printed format.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Michem on September 24, 2008 at 9:55am

The number one newspaper in the country, 'USA TODAY",was co- started, by a magazine person(Cathie Black). If you look at the newspaper, layout, it resemble somewhat of a MAGAZINE. If you look at other newspapers such as the NYT, they take on format of a magazine, in their writing style and layout. So it is easier, to concluded, that newspapers, are becoming magazines.

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Permalink Reply by Don Tydeman on September 23, 2008 at 8:56pm

Good post. I think, you can launch a successful magazine from a newspaper (insert to outsert) but you need to change format and voice. Importantly : most newspaper people (writers and editors) cannot develop a good magazine because every aspect of the product is different. Production, delivery, editing, production and many other aspects contrast newspapers and magazines. It's like the difference between sprinters and marathoners.

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