COLOUR MAGS AND IRON LAWS
The press: Paul Johnson
examines the colour magazines and finds money talks
LAST weekend I had the pleasure, or at any rate the duty, of examining eight national newspaper colour magazines, with a total number of pages close on 700. What you pay for the right to a free colour mag varies quite a bit: on Saturday from the Independent's 35p to the Daily Mail's 22p, and on Sunday the span is even wider, the Sunday Times and Observer charging 60p, the downmarket tabloids, Sunday Mirror and News of the World only 35p. But then there is considerable variation in size. At the top in pagination is You (Mail on Sunday) with 144 pages, followed by the Sunday Times (134), the Observer (108), Saturday Telegraph (84), Independent (80), Mail & Femail (Saturday Daily Mail) and Sunday Mirror (each with 64) and News of the World (48). The News of the World's 'nag is also the smallest in format, 101/2 by 81/2 inches. Most of the rest are 12 by 9 inches, or a little less, but the Sunday Times and Sunday Mirror mags both have a.121/2 by 10 inch format which gives them a distinct advantage in double page photo displays, (The Sunday Express Magazine was missing from my copy of the paper.) I give these details because they are important in themselves and reflect what has become an intensely competitive strug- gle for circulation and advertisements through the colour medium. Directly or indirectly, colour mags can make a lot of money: they can lose it too. But experience Shows that they can and do have a dramatic effect on circulations. The Sunday Mirror has already benefited hugely from its col- our mag, and Robert Maxwell has now decided that the Sunday People must have 'one too. Both the Independent and the Daily Telegraph put on sales immediately they secured colour mags; conversely, the Sunday Telegraph, which overtook the Observer in September, has fallen well behind it again losing its mag to its daily sister. Broadsheet picture supplements are no substitute. The projected Sunday Cor- respondent, due in 1989 if it can raise the launch cash, is unlikely to establish itself Unless, it has a high-quality colour mag from day .one.
There is no doubt that increased com- petition has improved the quality of these
publications. The average standard seems to me noticeably higher than a year or two ago — many fewer advertisement-related and cliche subjects, for instance. There are big variations however. The News of the World's little mag, Sunday, looks embar- rassingly inferior to its rival new Sunday Mirror Magazine, which has the advantage of generous format and higher-definition colour. On the other hand, the new mag has the inescapable disadvantage of being owned by Mr Maxwell, or ITMA as I call him. It's That Man Again in the current issue, writing on 'Forward With Europe' and boasting: 'My broadcasting, cable and satellite television programmes now reach over five million European homes and should, next year, reach 25 million and, eventually 320 million. This is an awesome power.' So it may be, but cannot ITMA exercise his awesome power with more discretion and give his poor editors a break? Of the other new mags, Mail and Femail, in addition to its awful title (more suited to a prim sex-manual in the pre- permissive age), lacks originality and looks less stylish than its Daily Express equiva- lent. I suggest that Lord Rothermere seek advice from his colleague John Leese, who created the outstanding You and is having a growing success with the Evening Stan- dard's monthly.
The one mag which stands out from the rest is the Independent's, chiefly because it is printed on rather heavy, grainy paper and employs highly conservative design. Reactions to it are mixed. Some feel it is posher than the rest, 'the only colour magazine one can be seen reading' etc, which I imagine is the effect the publishers, who are going all out to make the Indepen- dent the Establishment paper, wished to 'In civvies again, I see, Shaw.' create. Others find it dull, and it is hard to see it making much appeal to younger age-groups, however well-heeled. My own verdict is that it iS not really a colour magazine. It uses colour to illustrate cer- tain kinds of article, as for instance on a Goya exhibition in the current issue. But usually._ it goes in for black-and-whites, of the Sort that won pries in photography competitions in the 1960s and 1970s. This the pictures it useS-ta illustrate an article on Soviet borstals .thiS week are arty but unilluminatirig. By contrast, its rival, the Telegraph's Saturday mag, is a convention- al all-colour effort, much improved under its present editor, and trying very hard. But it should pay more attention to its captions. Difficult though it is for authors to bear, they matter more than the text. In the current issue, a caption accompanying the lead article on Oxford spells my old college the Cambridge way, 'Magdalene' — just the kind of error people notice and mind about. And a piece on Kenya's remaining whites, with some really striking photographs, is marred by vapid caption- ing. A shot of the races, with whites inside the privileged enclosure and blacks out- side, is described: 'At the Ngong Races time seems to have stood still for the members of the Nairobi Jockey Club, secure behind the white fence of their new enclosure.' Well: I can see all that for myself. Captions should tell you what you can't see.
The Telegraph mag has however, an excellent new regular feature about people arid their pets; an obvious idea, I suppose, but a winner. These regular features mat- ter a lot if they are shrewdly conceived. The Observer mag made a serious error in dropping its fascinating 'Room of My Own', and quickly brought it back after the last editor departed. It has now produced another first-class idea, 'The Expert's Ex- pert', in which the leaders in a specialised field pick the colleague they admire most. But the best colour mag feature of all remains You's 'Headliners', now widely imitated. Indeed You is still, I suspect, the most effective of the colour mags in pulling in and keeping readers. It is not particular- ly smart or sophisticated but there is a great deal of it (including a comics supple- ment) and it offers something for all the family. For sheer excitement, however, the Sunday Times Magazine continues to lead the field. Other mags can Manage one really good story each issue. The STAI has three this week, and two near misses. It uses the highest-quality colour photo- graphs with great panache and confidence, and that iS what the businesS is all about. Its texts are often long and thorough too: up to 7,000 words, the upper limit in British national journalism. It is .a case of money talking, of course, but also a case of money being used effectively to buy the best the profession can offer. Another illustration, if you like, of the Iron Law of Wapping.
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