frankie is an Australian magazine that is well known all around the world, where chàe is a student magazine designed to help other students, well known around the University of Wollongong. As previously stated in the last blog post, I decided to buy the latest two issues from frankie and see the differences to what chàe is doing. With the focus mainly being on - what is better for our audience - printed copy or online version of the magazine?
frankies issues 96 & 97 are filled with great content, the magazines are printed with eco-friendly paper. This is a plus as apart of their image is being eco friendly and their audience is big fans of the paper, I also love the paper as normal magazine paper is not the best feeling. The type of paper also makes a huge difference with what is inside the magazine, content-wise because different things wouldn't be able to work with the typical type of paper. Inside both of the issues, there are several activities the audience can participate in, one being in issue 96 DIY envelopes that the viewer can cut out and use. As well as cute conversation cards and notepaper for the audience can use. In issue 97 there was an artist featured and they had their art on a poster, where the viewer was able to cut these out. 
The printed version allows there to have the print outs and it is easy to take around with you, it's very accessible. The only trouble is if you forget it you cant easily access it and you'll have to miss out. But for the frankie audience having a printed version works best for them because of the interactive activities available within the magazine. The different articles or art pieces included work well because people are able to use them in many ways not just reading them in the magazine. Another problem that may happen is the accessibility around different countries, as they do sell them online on their website but also needing to pay for the magazine. Which is not uncommon as of course, chàe has only been starting out so we are a free magazine at this point in time but it works for our audience as they are mainly students. 
frankie embodies the meaning of aesthetically pleasing personally, as they target their audience with these beautiful graphics and articles. The printed version allows them to have the flexibility within the aesthetics field, it's not just the colour palette either because frankie is all about the graphics. For frankie to be online they would lose their aesthetics as people buy their magazine for the thrill of the paper posters, the stickers that come along and all the little goodies too. These are many parts that for our team, chàe, need to take into consideration when discovering what is best for our audience. Whether that is moving to the printed version or staying online for the viewers!
Comments