On Current Situations And Future Challenges Of Cultural Magazines In China

In the history of magazine across the world, the cultural magazine plays an irreplaceable role in reflecting the participation into the social progress by the class of elite. The cultural magazine in mainland China has undergone two high tides and a low tide since 1978. The thesis employs text analysis and empirical research within three mainstream cultural magazines in China. It highlights both the content developments and management characteristics, trying to reveal factors which had resulted in the current dilemma in these magazines. For one reason, the magazine's understanding about the content still seems narrow, leading to a limited audience and a low circulation. For another, their management is in a primitive stage, some viewpoints even in the shade of the planning economy. In the third chapter, the thesis brings in a referent case study of the best-known cultural magazine in the United States, the New Yorker, and finds its success lying in its accurate grasp of interests and demands of the reader, its distinct positioning and branding, as well as its management on advertising and circulation. The thesis finally comes to a conclusion that, cultural magazines in China should have an integral perspective about management and also should break through the hindrance of the out-of-time practice. On the other hand, it has to meet the demands of the reader to have a maximum occupation of the target audience, and coordinate with the management of the magazine through the reform in advertising, circulation and promotion.