Research - Conventions of Pet Magazine Coverage

Article Coverage and Design

        Articles in pet magazines use a mixture of cutout photography and full uncropped images mixed with different design elements that are minimal. Design elements usually included is tilted text, decorative handwriting fonts, comic artistry, and playful doodles mixed with robust angular squares or strips. Imagery seems to overlap a lot, and have a clear hierarchy of module and picture sizes.

    Colors usually either directly mirror or compliment the color of the animals used on the spread. On the example below, the spread is orange that mirrors the ginger orange haired cat across both pages. While, exemplary of a color compliment, the fox/cat spread has orange complimented by green and periwinkle, making the headline a standout but not overshadow the dominant images. 

    Design in these spreads usually don't include many animals unless its a comparative article, keeping either the same pet or another that looks similar in breed or species. Fonts on these pages vary, but usually keep one of the following: sans-serif and serif complimentary typography, sans-serif dominant typography, or handwritten/decorative headlines with a variable copy font. An emphasis is placed on the animals, dominant images usually being from half to the entirety of a page. 

Table of contents Design

    Tables of content on pet magazines include images that are featured on different articles that are favored by the publication. They also sometimes include issue months, descriptions of articles, and small excerpts describing the issue.

    These tables of contents feature special typographies that act accordingly to the style guide of the publication. They use smaller or lesser versions of design elements used on articles and their covers. Some of these include the doodles, boxes, and strips that mark the minimalism of these pet mags. 

    Fonts used also match the style of the publications with handwritten decorative fonts mixed with sans serif fonts or sans serif fonts mixed with serif fonts. Some common features of these tables include indications of their best images connected with the page number to appeal to audiences.

https://www.fifioneill.com/for-pets-sake-magazine

https://magazineshop.us/products/inside-your-cats-mind-what-they-really-think?srsltid=AfmBOorEVkqHdxRM9yRgznZZYR_YJEVGHPHK0hZpKFbMszTG_E1roRb1

Research - Pet Magazine Target Audiences

Target audiences

    Age groups usually targeted in pet magazines have a varying range, from young to middle aged adults (ages 24-55). But, a significant interest is shown by millenials who understand and enjoy the comedic effect these magazines have with memes and funny animal models. Markets show that pet owners are the main consumers of pet magazines, followed by enthusiasts and veterinarians. 

    
    Often seen with their owners, pet models show the ages of owners and enthusiasts for these magazines in contributor sections. Though popularity of pet magazines is often equal between gender, industries see a slight shift towards women in stereotypical husband/wife households, caretakers often being women. Lifestyles where pets are considered family members are targeted with petcare themes overarching training and pet use. 

    Regions where pet magazines are most popular is North America, dominating the industry with Europe following short behind while Asian / Pacific regions rise in popularity. As a digital era of magazines takes over, more regions become involved in the market. Publications that dominate these fields include Modern Dog, Catster, and Pet Product News.

    Trends within the market point to an on-the-go lifestyle magazine with a movement towards lifestyle and niche interests like pet types and tailored content. Content like psychological attitudes of pets and understanding of animals remains popular within these publications.

Sources

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/pet-magazine-market

https://issuu.com/moderncatmagazine/docs/mcss24_digitaledition-cad_linked

Research - Pet Magazine Subgenres

Subgenre 1 - Cat Magazines

    Cat magazines tend to focus on the silly, yet "elusive" tendencies of cats, with odd behaviors that aren't always understandable. Inside Your Cat's Mind highlights this feature of cat magazines as the masthead even hints at the idea that a cat's mind is something to understand. 

    They also keep the comedic effect with cover images like the one shown being a cat standing and pawing cutely. To continue this aesthetic, decorative fonts and small design details like the irregular line make the cover more fun. 

    

Subgenre 2 - Animal Work Magazines

    Working animal magazines focus on a more serious tone, but include the familial partnership between pets and humans. "workingdog" includes stories of K9 units in the police force, while also offering advice as seen in the article titles "Creating an Effective K9 Unit." 

    This subgenre extends the mixture of industry with law enforcement. As other magazines focus on veterinary care, these type of magazines offer advice from professionals in K9 training and other types of animals work like farms and service animals. 

https://magazineshop.us/products/cats-mind-11#:~:text=If%20you%20want%20to%20understand%20your%20cat's,Your%20Cat's%20Mind%20is%20sure%20to%20help.

https://www.workingdogmagazine.com/

Research - Evolution of Pet Magazines

Earliest Publications (1850-1900's)

    In the 1850's-1900's, pet magazines began as mainly informational magazines of small communities. Early magazines like "Our Cats" incorporated small, higher class people that could afford to have expensive breeds of animal. 

    

    These magazines usually had information about shows and breeds' information, making a more practical and high-class magazine for people who spent time going to dog and cat shows, a more wealthy audience at the time. Usually weekly magazines, they didn't acknowledge lifestyle or the enjoyment of animals, but their usefulness in breeding and keeping them aesthetically. 

A MORE COMICAL CONTEXT (1960-1980's)

    Later magazines began showing pets more comically as they were enjoyed more in lifestyle. In the 1970's, magazines began becoming more focused towards cuteness and silly themes in pet magazines.

    

    While continuing the informational tone about breeds and temperaments, they began including more comical and fun tones like in "CATastrophe", using puns and a silly cover image to introduce a new trend in pet magazines. Magazines during this time also began including articles about health and care rather than just breed information and news about them and local shows.

New types (1970's+)

    As exotic pets and including pets as part of a family became more popular, new subgenres of pet magazines emerged like reptilian, fish, and lifestyle magazines took surge of the market. 

    With a larger audience and more interest, pet magazines mixed with mainstream media to become more conventional in their design. Now incorporating more generic designs, these magazines attracted wide audiences with multiple subgenres. 

    These types of magazines also introduced the hobby behind pets, animals becoming a friend to train and take care of while also entertaining and providing love. Though this surge of more familial relationships with animals showed, healthcare and breed information persisted in these magazines, work animals still being present.

DECLINE AND DIGITAL TRANSITION (2000'S+)

    As magazine purchases declined, pet magazines moved with the industry to digital copies of magazines rather than print. Similarly, bimonthly publications were preferred to monthly or even weekly ones, being bought more often as audiences strayed from magazine reading, making bimonthly more efficient. 

    As comedic tones continued in magazines, more silly cover images and articles evolved while petcare persisted, with the veterinary industry being integrated into the mixture. Doggozila highlights this evolution with their funny personification of animals to create a perception of familial ties with animals while also keeping the comedic and cute effect of an animal in human clothes. 

Sources

https://doggozila.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptiles_%28magazine%29

https://library.missouri.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/show/pet-magazines-2024/cats

https://www.cat-o-pedia.org/magazine-ourcats_1899.html

Research - Magazine Genres to Consider

Genre 1 - Pet Magazines

    Pet magazines tend to act like other magazines by using a large portrait image of a conventionally cute pet as the central figure of the magazine cover image, imitating celebrity and fashion magazines by describing pets as things to look up to and read about. They use comical contexts to convey a more fun magazine to care for your pet.

    

    Seen in "Modern Cat", comical contexts like the memes included on the cover attract audiences with a positively connotated and easygoing magazine. Topics in pet magazines include more heartwarming, easy subjects like adoption stories, breeds' traits, and even spotlights of celebrities' animals. Connecting animals to fame is a common feature in pet magazines, attracting animal lovers of certain breeds or types of pet. They also often use veterinary advice to solidify the information in the magazines, making useful and practical spreads that give real advice.

    Fonts used in these magazines seems to often be either sans serif for mastheads or a more fun, bubbly or decorative font like on modern cat and dog. This brings a lot more attraction to the cuteness of the animal or compliments the more comical, fun contexts of the magazine itself. In the fish magazine, a more serious tone is adapted since the contents of the magazine are more care-taking than comical. This highlights how some of these magazines aren't just for entertainment, but for practical use and help for pet owners. 

    Design on these magazines often uses more visuals like puffs, boxes, and strips like most other magazines but more soft or strictly one color to keep the cover playful. This creates the effect of complimenting the pet model, keeping the visual high but also highlighting the articles.

    From this research, I've learned that Pet Magazines are a more practical, but also comedical genre of magazine for pet-owner lifestyles. Varying in pets, these magazines tend to focus on one type of pet or lifestyle that the owner incorporates, including articles that focus on the tendencies of the animal. 

    

Genre 2 - travel magazines

    Travel magazines differ from other magazines by using a more abstract cover image that doesn't emphasize one subject, but its background and the serenity associated with it. The serenity of these scenes is made the central subject of these magazines, with people often being a second thought or not included at all in cover images.

    On these magazine covers, a lot of spacing is used to emphasize the largeness of these places and their beauty to attract readers. Minimizing the amount and size of the feature articles and elements like puffs or squares makes the effect of a larger image to focus on. Even the masthead is kept as small as possible to highlight the beauty of these destinations. 

    Wording in these magazines follows this idea of serenity and peace through words like "dreams", "escape", and "heaven".  But, they also differ in this wording of happiness in the context of travel. There is more luxurious travel, and more active travel. Words associated with active travel include "expedition", "journey", and "fun". Though there are different contexts of travel, most if not all magazines describe vacationing as an escape from reality.

    The fonts on travel magazines highlight the larger image and don't rival the image for space. They are often either Serif or San Serif fonts that have large letter spacing or small font size to make a sense of airiness and continue the effect of serenity on readers.

    These magazines differ from one another greatly in the type of vacation a reader is looking for. Tropical magazines seem to be the most popular, but subgenres like mountainous destinations allowing for activities like biking collide with fitness magazines to create an escape for active, fit travellers.

    Learning about travel magazines has opened me to a lot of genre mixture like fitness, luxury, and lifestyle magazines. Travel magazines use a more serene cover that emphasize imagery over text and reading, creating this effect of escape that most other magazines do not have. 

genre 3 - Celebrity News Magazines

    Celebrity News/Gossip magazines differ a lot from the previous two genres by having mastheads that compete in size with article titles. This creates an effect of increased emphasis on these articles, since that is what increases reader interest in this genre. They usually have outrageous articles that intrigue people interested in pop culture and drama. 

    The cover images include the celebrity the feature article is about along with a large title under or around them that rivals the size of the image. Along with this, these magazines use multiple images on the cover to include more celebrities readers are interested in. This is seen in all three covers, with Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Dwayne Johnson on the other articles. 

    The mastheads in most of these covers are also either behind or even negligible compared to the celebrity, showing how important they are to audiences. The fonts used are almost always sans-serif for readability with striking colors like the yellow to emphasize the importance of the article and create shock with it. They also often include additional information about the feature in bullet points below the title, giving more reason to really read the magazine, even including quotes to evoke emotions within readers and make them want to pick it up.

   

    There is not much room for subgenre in Celebrity Gossip, as most magazines offer an array of news from international celebrities to even royalty as seen in InTouch magazine. Exclusive interviews with these celebrities make these magazines desirable, even including controversy within companies. 

    Reflecting on Celebrity Magazines, most likely the hardest magazine to include in a high school portfolio, they introduce a new design that is striking and almost overwhelming with the amount of design elements, photographs, and large fonts or article titles included just on the cover. 

Sources

• https://www.catster.com/
• https://www.dogster.com/
• https://www.petmd.com/editorial-guidelines
• https://www.luxurytravelmagazine.com/
• https://www.preferredtravelmag.com/
• https://www.wtravelmagazine.com/
• https://www.usmagazine.com/
• https://www.intouchweekly.com/
• https://okmagazine.com/