Questions

I emailed the online editor at the magazine asking a few questions about the site and how they planned to move it forward, and other things about circulation figures and how many hits they had on the website etc. But so far I have had no response.

Research

I sat in the library for about 4 hours today trying to make my presentation look professional. Having never done one before at Falmouth I was slightly worried about how it would compare and be marked against all of the others so I left it simple using one of the page patterns the program offers.

I research WEB 2.0 in the library using both the books and internet and was able to come up with some quite useful stuff. I combined both the notes, I was given in class and what I had found out, and was able to create a clear understanding of Web 2.0 in my presentation.

I then looked in to Horse and Riders website and made notes of all the ways they are using Web 2.0; including screen shots etc. I joined their face book groups, you tube, twitter etc, so that I was able to use the most up to date information in my case study.

Although they do use Web 2.0 they don’t use it to its full potential. With You Tube they post the videos, and although you are allowed to comment and post video responses, there is no way of uploading your own videos on to the site; or even there home site.

Twitter is obviously a good use of Web 2.0. It has 1994 followings and 1783 followers, one of them now being me! They also have a face book page, with 359 members. You are obviously allowed to use it as you would any other page; Posting links, photos and comments etc.

There are places on the website where you can put your horse up for sale and links to other websites with a variety of equestrian things for sale.

The forums are also a good use of Web 2.0, however, they are monitored strictly. Regardless of this there are 3319 topics, 1547 posts and 405 members.

There are also links mentioning the magazine on the website and also information in the magazine about the website and various other things online.

More about the magazine

There is an editorial profile in BRAD that shows what they cover in every issue. The uncertified circulation is 45,327 which is second only to Equine Ads, and the readership is around 181,308 with the average age being 34, and 97% of all readers being females.

It’s a monthly magazine and cost £3.70 for a single copy, making it the most expensive Equine magazine in BRAD. The display rates for the magazine are also one of the highest listed in the horse section in BRAD.

Display Rates
Full Page £2730
Half Page £1415
Quarter Page £810

BRAD

After a meeting with Jason Whitaker I decided to go and look at BRAD in the library. As you cant take it out of the library I had to wait until there was a free copy; which took a while. For those who don’t know BRAD is a massive book, which gives you loads of information about almost every magazine there is. Here’s a list of the information that’s given to you

1. Est
2. URL
3. Publishers
4. Telephone
5. Editor in Chief
6. Production Manager
7. Frequency
8. Price
9. Editorial Profile
10. Publishers Statement
11. Target Readership
12. Rates
13. Format
14. Deadline

After taking down all the information for my magazine, I decided to take down all the circulation figures for all the horse magazines listed in BRAD. After taking down all these figures I realised that Horse and Rider has the highest circulation of all. Apart from Equine Ads, however, this is just a magazine with stuff for sale. Proving it’s the most popular horse magazine on the market at the moment.

Here is a pie chart I created to show the circulation figures of all the horse magazines listed in BRAD.

After getting all these figures organised I decided to look at the sports section and see where out of all the circulation figures the equestrian section came. After getting all this organised in excel, and creating graphs, I am slightly less worried about the presentation. Equestrian comes 10th in the list.

Here is a pie chart I created to show the circulation figures of all the different sports sections listed in BRAD.

About the Magazine

Horse and Rider is a subscription magazine, which is published by Signature Publishing Ltd. Issued 13 times a year it features advice both practical and riding advice for both you and the horse.

It has claimed in the past to be one of the UK’s leading equestrian magazines. It was founded by David Murphy in 1950 under the title Showjumping, which a few years later became Light Horse. The title was then again changed in 1981 to Horse and Rider. Remaining the owner until 1996, David Murphy sold it to Signature Publishing.