Critical Reading: “Essence Magazine”
Essence magazine’s first issue was published in May 1970 and is directed towards African American women. Its’ mainstream counterpart, Vanity Fair was first published in 1983 and is directed towards White women. To begin analyzing and comparing Essence to Vanity Fair, the reader notes the bones and structure of the magazines. Vanity Fair featured Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of England, on their cover, and Essence featured Zendaya Coleman, an actress and musician, on their cover. The date for Vanity Fair’s issue was Summer 2016, and the date for Essence’s issue was August 2016. While both of these magazines are largely considered to fall into the Lifestyle genre, Vanity Fair also considers itself to be a culture magazine. The target audience for Essence is a female with a median age of 44. Similarly, the target audience for Vanity Fair is a female with an average age of 45.2. However, Essence is directed towards African American women, while Vanity Fair is directed towards predominately white women. In terms of circulation, Vanity Fair’s total circulation is about 1,197, 922. Essence’s circulation is not quite as large, but comes in at about 1,050,000. The average household incomes for the two were pretty close; Essence has an average household income of $71,432 and Vanity Fair has an average household income of $76,097. 88% of Essence readers have a college education, yet only 73% of Vanity Fair readers have a college education. Employment rates for Essence and Vanity Fair are 67% and 69%, respectively. These two magazines ended up having more in common than the average reader would have thought in terms of their demographics.
After research on the magazine’s demographics, one focuses more on their content and how news is covered. Essence covers primarily lifestyle, fashion, and beauty news. These include sections on style, beauty and hair, scene, issues, sex and love, as well as healthy and happy. In comparison, Vanity Fair covers news pertaining to popular culture, fashion, and current affairs. These types of news include sections on Hollywood and celebrities, style, culture, entertainment, politics, TV, and beauty. Although these two publications contain mostly similar types of news, the ways in which they are presented differ. Vanity Fair’s content is displayed fairly traditionally, including more formally written articles. Essence’s content reflects traditional style articles too, however, some are more casual, using terms such as the “lowdown”. Articles within Vanity Fair are generally longer in length than those within Essence. The articles in Essence keep may keep readers’ attention better because they are more concise, whereas some of Vanity Fair’s pieces are a bit lengthy and dry at times. Both magazines contain similar types of news and information, but have some small differences in the ways that they are presented.
Similar to how the news in the magazines are covered, one is sure to focus on whether or not there was any slant or bias in the news presented. Naturally, Essence contained primarily African American women, its’ target audience, in its’ features. The news in Essence focused on African American females such as up-and-coming writers, Olympic athletes, and a spread on Zendaya, the cover model. Essence also contained sections titled “31 Days of Black Beauty” and “10 Things We’re Talking about”, we referencing African American women. When compared to the mainstream publication, Vanity Fair, differences found were mostly racial. Vanity Fair’s slant towards Whites was evident throughout the Summer 2016 issue including a multi-page spread on the Queen, articles about the founders of Twitter and Facebook, a new movie about a White editor, and White financial experts’ advice. Vanity Fair also included a section focusing on the summer Olympic athletes, although, they focused on both White and African American athletes. These racial and ethnic slants and biases are what differentiate the two magazines from each other, and what make them comparable.
In addition to the varied slants within the two magazines, readers will notice a few other key differences. The most first and most obvious dissimilarity observed was the difference in the lengths of the issues. Essence was 125 pages total, yet Vanity Fair was 169 pages total and seemed much more thick and sturdy. Essence cost $3.99 and Vanity Fair cost $5.99. Although they were not the same length, this price difference is surprising, especially because the average household incomes differ by less than $5,000. One will find it notable that within just one issue of Vanity Fair there were at least five postcard sized cards inside to fill out and mail in for a subscription. On the opposing side, readers will not come across a single subscription card throughout the entire Essence issue. While these differences are significant, the most substantial distinctions between the two magazines are found within their advertisements.
The differentiated advertisements of Essence and Vanity Fair are what catch one’s attention the most throughout this entire comparison. The car ads within Essence included Ford, Chevy, Toyota, and Jeep. Vanity Fair had minimal car ads but did advertise Chevy and Fiat. Newport cigarettes were featured on a whole page in Essence, while Vanity Fair advertised an organic tobacco cigarette alternative. One may find it odd that Vanity Fair had all sorts of alcohol advertisements including wine, beer and hard liquor, but Essence did not contain any alcohol advertisements. Although both magazines focus largely on fashion, Essence seemed to be lacking fashion ads while Vanity Fair included ads for numerous high-end brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Gucci, Rolex, Armani, Cartier, Chanel, Movado, and Burberry. Continuing with upscale advertising, Vanity Fair showcased ads for prestigious cosmetic brands like Estée Lauder, Clinique, and Lancôme. Essence contained almost no high-end advertising, but focused on more affordable products. Both magazines contained ads for affordable cosmetics such as Olay, L’Oréal, Covergirl, and Maybelline. Essence was sure to direct their advertisements specifically to African American women by including countless ads for their specific hair type such as “African pride” by Olive Miracle, Dark and Lovely, Argan Oil, “Curl Stretch” by Garnier Fructis, nourishing shampoos, and “Beautiful Coils and Curls” by As I Am. The last notable difference in advertisements was that Vanity Fair’s ads included predominantly White models, with a few African American models, and Essence’s ads included predominantly African American models. These advertisements were intentionally differentiated in order to attract to the magazines’ targeted audiences.
These magazines were nearly flawless in their execution of materials presented to their targeted audiences. They were sure to pay attention to audience fragmentation, dividing audience members into groups based on background and lifestyle to communicate to their defining characteristics. I was pleased to find that audience fragmentation does actually exist within society, catering to specific groups such as African Americans and Whites like Essence and Vanity Fair do. Through this comparison, I learned about different products used by different races, as well as how those races perceive the news differently. I am still speechless because of the lack of availability to these varied racial and ethnic magazines in State College, and am embarrassed by it. Through both Vanity Fair and Essence, I learned that White and African American lifestyle magazines generally cover the same stories, advertisements, and features, but that they are altered to better fit specific target audiences. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the similarities and differences between the two magazines, and I have gained a new perspective on news coverage presented through magazines because of this analysis.
