CCR Draft #2

Question: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

My magazine reaches out to audiences who are wanting to pursue a healthier lifestyle. We engage with said audiences by relating to the people of Sarasota and helping them by providing solutions through articles full of tips, support and examples. By writing the articles we put in our magazine issues, we help the people of Sarasota to achieve their goals by writing on topic areas of food, exercise, apparel and overall wellness. Initially, we draw in our audiences by our eye-catching cover pages, fit and toned cover models, and our most popular featured articles on the front. Once we engage with our target audiences and they are introduced to the magazine, our articles and use of conventions will then form that official connection, encouraging them to be healthy.

To achieve such things, we must distribute our product through both traditional and digital distribution. The most popular form of distribution is digital, due to the new age and common demographics of our target audiences. Our magazine has its own website, www.SotaWellnessMag.com, where it can be reached and advertised on our various social media accounts at @sotawellnessmag. Audiences can reach our articles and most recent issue by following the links posted, that bring them to our website, where they can view our magazine in full. Also as part of my group and I's distribution plan, we will utilize the marketing of internet ads and business partnerships to bring audiences to our website. Through internet ads, our branding will be shown on several websites, linking more diverse groups of audiences to our website, which in turn will grow our audiences as they engage with our real media text product. By promoting health, fitness, and wellness, we will spread our purpose and sayings on various health websites, drawing in and engaging with more audiences.

To achieve engagement with our audience and distribute our product successfully, we will also distribute the traditional/print route. By distributing our print magazines in local grocery stores, doctors offices and gyms, we can engage with the middle age/older demographic of people in Sarasota who want to achieve their wellness goal that is represented in our product. To distribute these magazines, we will use South Premium Distribution as our primary distribution method, dispersing our magazine to locations in Sarasota and further. This company distributes to local venues, markets and events, so our magazine would reach a wide variety of social groups, especially along the southwestern coast. Our magazine can be reached by younger audiences best through distribution in doctors offices and grocery stores, where the magazine is in easy reach and is eye-catching and they can gain more interest. To conclude, using the wide variety of distribution techniques listed above, my group and our magazine product can engage with more audiences on a large spectrum of ways.

CCR Draft #1

Question: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

My magazine, Sota' Wellness, uses several conventions of wellness magazines. I did this through design techniques, similar format and layouts, and article composition. I used very similar design and layout techniques for my magazine like, cover layout and color scheme, table of contents format, and article layout. For my cover page, I used format conventions like having a model centered largely on the page, having the model's head cover a part of the title, and having subtexts surrounding the model. I also used several stylistic conventions like, having a white/plain background, using up to 3 colors in different varieties, and having the subtexts be in different fonts and sizes. For the table of contents, I found conventions like having the content take up half the page while the other half contained pictures,  having a variety of wellness photos, having the date in large font at the top, line shapes to separate content, and their name website and social media displayed at the bottom/top of the page. Finally, for my article I used conventions like using 2-3 columns per page, including 1-3 pictures per page, talking about the topic and relating it back to health and fitness, discussing its benefits surrounding wellness, including branding at bottom or top of pages, and having visuals with captions embodied into the article. I found all of these conventions to be very commonly used within wellness magazines and decided to include all of them in my own magazine,thus ensuring success.

My magazine and its conventions represent our general target audience as well as our social groups. Sota' Wellness' purpose is to make content and articles that engage our target audience and help them achieve a healthier/wellness lifestyle. The social groups we represent are men and women of any age, generally middle class, who are trying to have a wellness lifestyle. For my issue specifically, I am representing any age group of people, living in Sarasota, who are wanting to eat healthier. I demonstrate how and why that audience can have a healthier diet and achieve their overall goal of a living a healthier lifestyle.

3rd Quarter Submission

Revision #3- Article

For my 2 page article spread, I made a lot of changes, as it was the area needed for most improvement. The revisions I needed to make were decreasing picture opacity, making the font larger for the article and captions, adding more branding, and adjusting picture sizes. To start, I first decreased the opacity of my first article photo. I got many comments saying the photo was difficult to see and disrupted with the overall design/"look" of the page. I decreased it from brightness 70% contrast 40% to brightness 60% contrast 50%. This helped make the photo more visible and appealing. Next, I increased the font size of the article text because when I did a viewing of it, the article was hard to read due to the size of the words. I could only increase the font size so much, due to the long length of my article and the little space provided . I went from 10 - 11.5 on my article font size and 7 - 9/10 for my caption sizes. Next, I added more branding to the bottom of my page. I didn't want to add too much, so I added our Instagram/Twitter account name "@sotawellnessmag" to the bottom corner. I did this for both article pages, which then helps advertise our digital distribution more. Finally, I adjusted picture sizes. When moving around the font sizes, it varied the spacing more, causing me to decrease the first picture on my first page, decrease the picture of the food, and increase the picture of the restaurant. Doing this helped make my page more eligible and clear/easy to follow, as well as improve the look of the two-page article spread to look more like a realistic magazine article.

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Revision #2 - Cover

For my cover design I didn't receive very many improvements, but actually received many compliments. Many compliments said that it looked a lot like a real magazine cover page, especially the wellness type magazines. But, a few improvements were stated saying some of the fonts were bland, the background was white and too plain, and some of the subtexts needed to be moved around or enlarged. So, the first revision I made to the midterm cover page submission was move around and enlarge some of the subtexts. I enlarged the black circle and increased the font size by 4 points because during the viewing, the words were too small and hard to read. I made a few other small adjustments like moving "The Wellness Lifestyle" to the right to center out the page more, making it more eligible. Next, I changed the fonts from Calibri to Courier New on the pink and black captions under the subtexts. This made the fonts more fun and eye-catching, opposed to the bland and boring font they used to be. I decided to not revise any of the subtext fonts because they replicate how a real magazine cover looks, and are already so exciting and different. The final revision I made was changing the background from a white/light grey color to a darker grey color. I did this to make the cover "pop" more and blend the colors better, but to also keep with the simplistic/plain background style that is seen on almost every wellness magazine cover. Although all these revisions were very minimalistic, it did improve the overall look of the page, made it more pleasing to the eye, easier to read, and still mimic real wellness magazine covers.

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Distribution Plan

For my magazine, 'Sota Wellness, we have done the research and I have compiled a plan for distribution that consists of both traditional and digital methods. For traditional methods, we will want to use South Florida Premium Distribution as our distribution agency, or an alternate local distribution agency that delivers in the Florida state area. We will be distributing a new print issue every month, including new and up to date articles on wellness.  Our print magazine will be distributed to every city's local market store and premium doctors offices. This traditional method of distribution will be the way 'Sota Wellness can spread its knowledge through print magazine techniques as opposed to digital magazine techniques. For digital methods, we will want to distribute via a website, social media, and an app. For the website, it will be named 'SotaWellness.com, and we will distribute our monthly issue by category. Each category of wellness will feature articles from our recent issue. At the bottom of the website there will be alternate ways of distribution like digital subscriptions and emails, where readers can view our most recent issue online, being notified digitally or through email. For our social media, we will distribute our featured articles through apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook. For example, on Instagram, we will have an account called 'Sota Wellness and will make a post every day relating to wellness. But to distribute our magazine, we will advertise an article in a post and then link it to our website where the audience can view the full article. Through this, distribution will be effective for growing our audience due to recent increased interest in the digital versions of magazines. Finally, we will want to have our very own app, 'Sota Wellness. The app will include recent issues of the magazine and will feature the full length articles from them. The distribution of our magazine in digital form over an app will be a great way to find wellness tips and recent articles from our magazine, quick and easily. Doing this will achieve our ultimate goal of a wellness lifestyle for our audiences, as the digital age is growing. It will be easier to access our distribution of our magazine through app, website or social media form.