3/1/17 Popularity Research

For the past week I have been looking into the success of different sports magazine and the popularity of magazines across the United States along with the world. Throughout my research I came across a a list of the 10 most popular magazines. Of the 10 listed not one was a sports related magazine. Majority of these 10 magazines were gossip and celerity based. Going further into my research I did come across a list of the top 10 most popular sports related magazines. Of the 10 listed, Sports illustrated blows the other 9 out of the water in popularity surrounding the amount of sales and readers it has. Sports illustrated is described as "Easily the most famous sports magazine in America, Sports Illustrated is the undisputed authority on the people, news, and events of American sports." When comparing my magazine, Athletica, to Sports Illustrated I can see that there are many similarities. Hannah and I have chosen to focus our sports magazine on a variety of sports while also focusing on certain teams and people which seems to be fairly similar to how Sports Illustrated is written. The only major difference noticeable between Athletica and Sports Illustrated is that Sports Illustrated has a photo shoot featuring the bodies of  many young athletes and models. While this does increase popularity among the magazine this can be seen as compromising the integrity of the magazine for a quick buy. Many of the pictures included can be seen as highly provocative and sexy. This may attract many male readers for the wrong reasons. The inclusion of this shoot could be seen as putting the sports aspect of the magazine on the back burner. Some may say this shoot is a positive while I believe it is somewhat a negative. A photo shoot like this would have to go under careful consideration before trying to include it in my magazine. Hannah and I will have to clarify what lines we are willing and not willing to cross. - Hope Bumgarner