Magazines

Magazine advertising means paying for an advert in a magazine that is printed and published regularly, such as a monthly photography title or a weekly gardening magazine. Each magazine is written for readers who share an interest or a lifestyle, so an advert can be aimed at a target audience that already cares about that subject.

Advantages

• Magazines have a much longer shelf life than newspapers. A copy may sit in a dentist's waiting room or on a coffee table for weeks, so an advert can be seen again and again, by the buyer and by other people who pick it up.
• Print quality is high, with glossy paper and vivid colour, so photographs look sharp. A product that sells on how it looks, such as a hand-painted bird table, benefits from this.
• There is space for detailed information that a reader will take time to read, such as sizes, materials or how a product works.

For example, a small business selling insulated dog coats could advertise in a monthly dog-owners magazine, because readers are likely to walk their dogs in cold weather and sharp photos would show the coats clearly.

Disadvantages

• It can be expensive, especially in national titles or specialist hobby magazines where a full page costs a lot, and producing the artwork adds to the bill.
• Magazines have long lead times. A monthly title may need the advert booked and finished many weeks before it appears, so a campaign must be planned well in advance and cannot react to a sudden opportunity.
• They are published less often, so the advert appears less frequently and awareness builds slowly compared with a daily newspaper.
• Reach can be limited because fewer copies are sold than newspapers or television, and the readers of a title may not match the business's target market.

When magazines suit a business

Magazines suit a business whose product needs attractive images and a detailed explanation for a specialist audience, when the campaign can be planned early and the budget covers the higher production and placement costs.