Magazine's Creative Department example essay topic

Introduction: The report is about Teenstuff Magazine. The magazine was established 9 years ago in Egypt by Manual El Mandy to target teenagers in high school and university. Later on the magazine became more tailored to the high school youth. The purpose of the report is to analyze the management of this organization through review of it's external and internal environment, mission statement and SWOT analysis. Interviews were carried out with the assistant marketing manager Sandra Adel and the distribution manager Yasser Hashem. Aside from the print magazine there is an online one and another Arabic magazine "Kelme tna".

II-Body: 1) External environment: a) General: From the general environment in the external environment the economic and political dimension are considered to be the most two influential dimensions on the organization. The economic dimension affects a lot of decision in the organization including day to day business especially that the economy in Egypt is unstable. For example when the Egyptian pound was floated and the price of the dollar increased the costs of printing in the magazine increased and the price had to be increased like wise which had a huge effect on the overall organization and customers. Secondly, the effect of political dimension is manifested in the censorship practiced. When, the country is in state of chaos and instability censorship increases. The international dimension doesn't have a very influential effect because the magazine's market is mainly Egypt and the online version that aims to target Arabs outside Egypt is new too.

There is no worry from the socio-cultural dimension since the magazine whether content or appearance is highly adaptable to changes in the society. As for the technological dimension, the magazine benefits hugely of course from new developments as long as, its costs is reasonable and affordable by the magazine. For example the editors and designers use Apple computers and special programs for the layout and design of the magazine. b) Task: The magazine is considered a category leader since it's the first English youth targeting magazine in Egypt and till this moment there is no real direct competition. There is an indirect competition from other magazines such as campus and g-mag. There is only one supplier with whom the magazine deals with; SAHARA printing press. The magazine has a certain quality which only 2 printing press houses in Egypt can achieve, they left IBM because of problems that has to do with the paper binding and deadlines.

Now SAHARA is their only option which a great disadvantage because SAHARA will always be in control and have the chance to increase its price and policies. As for the labor market, this constitutes one of the major problems in the magazine. The magazine requires employees with good command of English and at the same time willing to accept a humble salary. Moreover, the teens who write in the magazine are not paid, so it's hard to find teens with good English and willing to write without a monetary reward.

This equation has always been hard to reach. Other then the editorial department the availability of labor seems to be good. The customers are the readers of the magazine. One very unique characteristic about the magazine is that the readers are the writers since the magazine opens the door for feedback's and contributions.

Half the magazine is dedicated to it's editorial staff and the other half is for feedback's and contributions. Readers range from teens with ages 14 to 20. The magazine was moved to a new office recently with more facilities because the old office was very small and inappropriate for a working environment. The magazine's creative department has created new designs for the magazine since last april.

2) Internal Environment: The management of the organization is based on team work. There is a leader or a head to each group in different departments yet each employee has space to be creative and innovative. This idea is emphasized by having the head sit in a desk in the same room as his subordinates. The number of employees differs from each department to the other depending on the amount of effort needed in each field for example there are two employees in the marketing department and 4 employees in the editorial department aside from the writers who have a separate room to conduct meetings since they don't have working hours.

The culture of the organization is enhance by a set of values which are: - Creating sense of ownership in all employees - Team oriented circles- Being flexible to able to deal with teens and their needs- Truthful- Encouragement for teens to express themselves, this value was the basis on which the magazine was based- Passionate, doing work with passion- Creative and innovative- Committed and respectful Mission statement: The magazine aims to be the best effective self expression and communication vehicle among youth. The magazines tries to achieve the later by deciding on a target for each department, keeping the magazine updated with all the new technologies, developing the skills of writers, upgrading professional skills, establishing an effective communication system, developing a more effective distribution plan and attracting more advertisers. The magazine encourages creativity and self expression. Seeks to broaden the horizons of teens and increase their confidence and participation in their society. The magazine aims to enhance youth competencies and skills to act effectively in their community.

The magazine is committed to listen, believe, interact, enhance and share success. The magazine aims to enable it's clients (advertisers) to reach masses through an effective communication vehicle and create large data base to undergo effective marketing activities. The magazine aims through it's new online magazine to target Arabs outside Egypt. The magazines aims to achieve it's goals through the use of it's current facilities such as availability of storage rooms and distribution teams. The magazine aims to develop the skills of the employees through courses and workshops.

The magazine aims to reach more markets and attract more teens with good command of the English language to write in the magazine through it's marketing department. The magazine aims to maintain a creative and innovative design each issue through it's art department. The distribution department aims to increase the sales from 10,000 copies to 20,000 copies. SWOT analysis: The strengths: The magazine is considered a category leader since it's the first and remains to be the only English magazine targeting teenagers exclusively. Even though there are other English magazines Teenstuff remains the best selling one in the country.

The product or magazine is of high quality. There is high degree of loyalty among readers. The creative or art department has the capabilities to design Advertisements for companies which increases source of revenue. The weaknesses: Due to the problem the magazine has in the labor market as previously discussed the magazine has an editing problems.

Due to the incompetence of the editors there are always mistakes which, annoys readers and advertisers. The cost of printing is very high taking a huge part of the budget. The latter leaves a small budget for the magazine and so restricts it from organizing events or growing. The opportunities: There is a chance to enter new markets through the online version of the magazine. New international schools offers the magazine a better chance to find writers. The website creates a chance to conduct research studies on teens and offers a new attractive and less expensive advertising media.

The threats: There is a chance for new competitors to enter the market especially that all the other English magazines are established by organizations that have other activities to support the magazine and bear losses meanwhile teen stuff doesn't have any source of support other than the owner. The varying cost of paper and print and monopoly of the supplier creates another huge threat. The increase in the cost of printing as result of latest deterioration in the Egyptian economy forced the magazine to retreat from one of it's markets; the gulf countries. -Conclusion: After quitting the market in the gulf countries, increasing the price of the magazine and launching an online version to target a new market I recommend that the creative department continue what it had done last April; creating new designs for logos and sections and the owner of the magazine re invest an amount of the profit to allow the magazine to be able to appoint well qualified editors. I also recommend that the magazine try to create a sense of motivation for the writers and employees to encourage them to work better.