Magazine task: Websites and Social Media

Websites

Harper's Bazaar

A lot of the articles contained in the website are based around celebrities in the fashion industry. Harper's Bazaar mostly focuses on reporting fashion events, new fashion styles and supermodels. The main article on the Harpers Bazaar website is about a round up of all the after parties for London Fashion Week. It gives the reader a detailed look on all the different parties and people who attended them including Jourdan Dunn and Cara Delevingne at the Murberry Dinner and Bip Ling and Eliza Doolittle at Claridge's. For people with a keen interest in fashion they would enjoy these styles of articles.

Other articles on the Harper's Bazaar website include beauty, lifestyle, latest news and videos which all relate to fashion. Because the London Fashion Week was only recent the majority of the articles are about the event, some of the articles include a LFW beauty round up and a catwalk report from LFW. Additional articles include Wilderness festival line-up, The 2014 Peta Fashion awards and the Emporio Armani show live.

The layout of the Harpers Bazaar website is simple and basic. It has a clear defined layout with the Masthead easily visible at the centre of the web page. The banner is simply underneath it and easy to use with clear headlines directing the reader to each section. A large part of the layout is  an advert for the Bazaar VIP, it has an advert on the top of page and on the side which is clearly seen. The main article is also on the home page of the website.

The fonts used on the Harper Bazaar website is sophisticated and feminine. Its bold, italic writing making it visible to see from a distance.  The font looks like handwriting especially on the title as its swirly and thick. It also relates to the target audience as its looks like writing from a female as its slightly feminine and girly. The writing on the articles and other parts of the website is simple and plain which is effective as its easy to read for the readers. The colours on the writing is either black or white which is classy and sophisticated. The images on the website are mostly of people or clothing, all the images are high quality and clear. The colours of the images are mostly bright and bold which stands out from the plain layout. Harpers Bazaar link to social media and email address which helps the reader socially interact and email any enquires.

Harpers Bazaar has an official clothing site linked the website. This promotes the brand as its offering readers to buy clothes or accessories which have been shown in the magazine. The clothes on offer in 'Shop Harpers Bazaar' are mostly designer which suggests what type of audience would read the magazine or buy the clothes sold. It also promotes the brand because it shows that Harpers Bazaar as a company has expanded and instead of just publishing a magazine monthly it now sells a lot of the clothing show which encourages the readers to not just read the magazine but also go onto the website to potentially buy something which is really good promotion for the brand.

The website encourages the reader to buy the magazine through VIP offers and competitions. The readers are more likely to read the magazine or visit the website if they get the chance to win prizes. Some of the VIP offers and competitions on offer are 'three months of free guided meditations', 'win £300 to spend at Parka London', save up to 30% off a luxurious villa holiday in' and 'win a copy of fashion selby'. All these competitions on offer seem to attract the audience as there either about fashion or luxurious  thing which young females would be interested in.



Vogue

The articles Vogue websites contains are based around fashion which isn't surprising as Vogue is a fashion magazine. The majority of fashion magazines seem to focus on recent or upcoming fashion shows which is relevant as its the fashion show season. On the side of the webpage is a list of all the most popular news at the moment, first is fashion shows, second is trends and third is people & parties.All these articles are what you'd expect to find especially on the website as the majority of the articles are about really resent topics so because the website is constantly updated as will the articles be. Vogue magazine has to summaries a whole months worth of fashion whereas the website can constantly update which shows that a lot of people would visit the website to read articles in the moment rather than a month later.

The layout for the Vogue website is plain and sophisticated. Its all in black and white with the occasional splash of color from the images. Vogue as a magazine is one of the most famous and glossiest in the fashion industry so the website version reflects that as its very chic and elegant. The layout of vogue is very simple as everything is neatly placed in sections from articles to prizes and competitions. The layout is so simple that anyone will find it easy to use which attracts the magazine readers as they wont find the website difficult to use.

The fonts used on the Vogue website are very simple and basic, similar to the layout; vogue prefers to go for a more simplistic style. The font is easy to read which is good for this style of website as the articles are often quite long and for the reader its best to have a basic font which is simple to read. All of the font is in black apart from the occasional white font on a black background this makes it look classy and bold. The only color is from the images, and the majority of the images are taken from fashion events for example runways or parties.

   Vogue promotes the brand by its very own 'Vogue Shops' which gives the reader an insight into things which vogue promotes but are available for the readers to purchase. Its promoting Vogue because a lot of people will constantly read the magazine and visit the website just to see whats new in the Vogue Shop. Also Vogue itself can be promoted by the things which is in the Vogue shop, for example if a piece of clothing from a well known designer or shop is being promoted by Vogue they could return the favor by promoting the next issue of Vogue.

The website encourages people to buy Vogue by offering a deal for the readers when it comes to actually buying the magazine. Some of the offers consist of a free gift when you subscribe to the print and digital version of Vogue which includes free access to the iPad edition and free delivery of the print before it hits the shops. Also Vogue subscribes for only 1.99 a month which includes interactive editions and its available on Google Play. All these offers are very pleasing for the readers as it would encourage them to expand there reading of Vogue from print to digital.

ELLE

The articles contained on ELLE magazine are obviously fashion based but more celebrity orientated. ELLE is the magazine which focuses the most on celebrity style out of Harpers Baazer and Vogue so isn't surprising the articles aren't just about high fashion. Below the headline of 'All News' is a subheading which summaries what the articles will be about, it includes; latest fashion news, beauty news and celebrity news. That really shows what ELLE magazine is about and the style of articles. The top article is about Rita Ora's new hair which isn't really about so shows ELLE has more of a tabloid magazine style.

The layout of the ELLE website is a lot more busy compared to Vogue and Harpers Baazer. Its layout isn't so simple and basic as it has different sections on the website including news, fashion and social media. Around the website is three individual advertisement banners which are all advertising the brand 'Chloe' that makes the layout look more visually exciting as its not just completely one simple layout with only black and white on it.

 The fonts used on the ELLE website are a mixed variety. The masthead 'ElleUK.com' is in a thick, bold font and capital letters which stands out from the website.The headlines are also in capital letters which is effective as it makes it project from the page. The rest of the fonts used on the website are simple which is easy to read. The colors used on the website are mostly white and black with the occasional splashes on yellow which makes it look fresh and vibrant. The images on the website are varied; some are from runways, celebrities and normal people in the streets which makes the website look more interesting. The links on ELLE website are from social media. In the middle of the page is a social media bar which has 6 different websites including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram's, Pinterest, YouTube and Google+. Each link, connects the reader to many different websites related to ELLE magazine like the official ELLEUK Twitter, Facebook and Instagram page.

The ELLE website promotes the brand by creating its own online shop, by doing this it increases the popularity of the brand as if more people buy stuff from the ELLE store it makes the magazine more widely read because it will be also known for its clothing store.

The website encourages the readers to buy the magazine through competitions. Competitions are effective when it comes to bringing in readers as a lot of people would be attracted by these prizes therefore wanting to read the magazine more. Some of the competitions ELLE has to offer include: winning a Cointreau champagne set, £1,000 to spend at Barbour and £200 in Clark's vouchers. All these competitions on offer suggest what type of target audience ELLE magazine is; alcohol as a part of prize and shops like Barbour and Clark as the competitions show that more older people read ELLE.