Love it! Magazine

Down market, crappy paper, female targeted, cheap, Jeremy Kyle of magazines....

These are the stereotypical views most people will have of real life magazines, yet Lauren Cummings the Feature Editor gave a guest lecture today to dispel some of these stigmas and explain how the publication runs, and that it is just as exciting and hard working as any others.

People are usually really critical of their coverlines, they think they are over dramatised, but headlines such as 'he kept a caravan to abuse me in' and 'I paid £3.90 for a boob job' don't seem to justify the opposite. But Lauren explained that the magazine is essentially the platform for real people to share their stories, in the same way you would talk to your neighbour or share stories with your friends down the pub, and that no story is published without the full backing of the person who submitted their stories.

They spend a great deal understanding the person and often spending hours with them on the phone or round at their home. They pay great detail to their emotions in their explanation and are careful only to convey the way they feel, rather than for dramatic effect.

Of course most of the stories are written in first person, that can be seen as ever more challenging to the first attempts, as simply recurring news or facts is easier than dealing with a delicate or rather upsetting story to convey.

Love it! Magazine's target readers are young women that firmly separates them from the likes of Chat or Take a Break, and can be an easy read to enjoy, as not only does it include the real life, it has celebrity columnists, pages about sex food and clothes. Which is the cornerstone of any great womens magazine!

So what do I think of the magazine?

I used to read these magazines when I was younger purely for the entertainment and for the cheap price, but nowadays as I'm surrounded by so many publications to widen my understanding for my career that magazines are sadly becoming less of a pleasure, as I cannot help but over analyse the pages, scrutinise the grammar and spelling typos, study the layout and how they created certain images and overall think I'd like to expand on for features or for my blog.

I suppose this is as expected choosing journalism, but I cannot help to be critical over different publications, but from the insightful lecture today, I can conclude that my conspiracy theories of Love it! are wrong and that I should praise them on their efforts and rewarding ABC figures.