What is a magazine? For decades, women's magazines were regularly published, print-bound guidebooks aimed at neatly defined segments of the female audience. Crisp pages, a well-composed visual aesthetic, an intimate tone, and a distinctive editorial voice were among the hallmarks of women's glossies up through the turn of this century. Yet amidst an era of convergent media technologies, participatory culture, and new demands from advertisers, questions about the identity of women's magazines have been cast up for reflection. Remake, Remodel: Women's Magazines in the Digital Age offers a unique glimpse inside the industry and reveals how executives and content creators are remaking their roles, their audiences, and their products at this critical historic juncture. Through in-depth interviews with women's magazine producers, an examination of hundreds of trade press reports, and in-person observations at industry summits, Brooke Erin Duffy chronicles a fascinating shift in print culture and technology from the magazine as object to the magazine as brand. She draws on these findings to contribute to timely debates about media producers' labor conditions, workplace hierarchies, and creative processes in light of transformed technologies and media economies.

How women's magazines have evolved in today's media landscape

About the Author
Brooke Erin Duffy is an assistant professor in the School of Media and Communication at Temple University and the coeditor of Key Readings in Media Today: Mass Communication in Contexts.

Reviews

"A timely, well-researched account of recent shifts in the women's magazine industry and the impact of these changes on publishers and consumers. Duffy's book offers an engaging analysis of the ways in which magazine producers have been compelled to engage with new media platforms in the quest to maintain profitability."

--Anna Gough-Yates, author of Understanding Women's Magazines: Publishing, Markets and Readerships in Late-Twentieth Century Britain

"A remarkable case study of an industry in flux, Duffy's well-researched book would be an asset to any course on magazine media in general and on women's magazines in particular."--Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
"Remake, Remodel offers a compelling look at the ways in which a shifting media landscape is provoking structural changes in labor organization, content development, and professional identity within the women's magazine industry."--Journal of American Culture

"Remake, Remodel is not intended as a harsh attack on new media's participatory culture, but it aims (and succeeds) in presenting "a more nuanced view" of the magazine industry. . . . An excellent resource for both scholars and teachers."--Journal of Magazine & New Media Research
"A cutting-edge study at the forefront of new conceptualizations and practices in the magazine industry. Duffy insightfully charts the dilemmas and complexities the magazine faces as it strives to define itself in the face of changes in technology and political economy in media and advertising."--Matthew P. McAllister, coeditor of The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture
"Brooke Erin Duffy offers a timely, well-researched account of recent shifts in the women's magazine industry and the impact of these changes on publishers and consumers. Her book offers an engaging analysis of the ways in which magazine producers have been compelled to engage with new media platforms in the quest to maintain profitability."--Anna Gough-Yates, author of Understanding Women's Magazines: Publishing, Markets, and Readerships in Late-Twentieth Century Britain



Book Information
ISBN 9780252079474
Author Brooke Erin Duffy
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 15mm