International Journal of Magazine Studies

Cover and Table of Contents

Carla Rodrigues Cardoso — 2025-08-11

Much More than Paper: The Magazine as a Universal Communication Platform

Carla Rodrigues Cardoso — 2025-08-11

The MAGA and the Zine

Tim Holmes — 2025-08-11

Invited Article

Cosmopolitanism in print: The Atlantic vs. The Economist

Francisco Seoane Peréz — 2025-08-11

This essay offers an interpretation of the ideal readers of The Atlantic and The Economist magazines as representatives of two kinds of cosmopolitanism: vernacular and Western, respectively. This claim is grounded several sources of evidence: their editorial missions, their content, and their ‘media kits’, commercial documents where the editors promote the publication to potential advertisers. The Economist’s ideal reader is a Western cosmopolitan, often encouraged to hold the torch of liberalism as a civilizatory universal creed. The Atlantic’s implied reader is a vernacular cosmopolitan, concerned with continuing the so-called American experiment by re-creating a national identity marked by diversity. These two understandings of cosmopolitanism have been present in the publications from the outset: The Economist was born to fight protectionism, The Atlantic to end slavery.

Platform Politics: Commonwealth Magazine and the Mediatization of ESG in Taiwan

Hong-Chi Shiau — 2025-08-13

This study explores how CommonWealth Magazine has adapted to platformization and data integration through evolving partnerships with corporate stakeholders. Drawing on insider access and interviews with journalists, data strategists, and CSR professionals, the analysis highlights three key dynamics: (1) the central role of data visualization in editorial coordination and stakeholder communication; (2) the incorporation of partner-generated CSR data into the magazine’s visualization systems; and (3) the ambivalent place of AI, which offers new content curation tools but raises concerns about audience displacement and copyright. While CommonWealth Magazine maintains a critical editorial stance, its engagement with CSR and ESG primarily serves to distinguish itself within an increasingly saturated financial media landscape. This case study shows that the platformization of legacy media extends well beyond content digitization or visualization as a communicative device. Rather, it involves the integration of external data infrastructures and the formation of long-term, system-level partnerships with corporate and governmental actors—initiatives that raise complex legal, financial, and reputational questions. As corporate subscribers take on greater strategic significance, CommonWealth Magazine exemplifies how legacy media institutions in non-Western contexts are redefining journalistic roles while navigating tensions between credibility, infrastructure, and the uncertain terrain of the platform economy.

Social Justice in College Media: How Campus Magazines Report, Reflect, and Respond to Police Killing of Breonna Taylor

Carol Terracina-Hartman — 2025-08-13

Campus magazines by nature avoid event and breaking-news content, digging deeper to present social and cultural impacts. However, the killing of a Black woman in her own home–awakened by a flawed no-knock warrant–changed “culture” and “lifestyle” for student editors. Based upon a prior study, this study aimed to examine how student media–as a Community of Practice–would respond, report, and reflect on the social impacts of the police killing of Breonna Taylor. Editions from three nationwide contests were sampled 2019–2022, focusing on three variables: Cover, Table of Contents, and Editor’s Note. Guided by Problematic Integration Theory and informed by semiotic analysis, the authors identified 15 themes from the dataset.
Comparative analyses show demonstrations, responses, and profiles dominate coverage post-shutdown. Results confirm that “identity” persists in a Community of Practice even when “practice” demands operational scrutiny.

Paper and Screen: An Analysis of the Multiplatform Journalism of Elle Brasil Magazine

Amanda Ferreira — 2025-08-11

This study examines the dynamics between multiplatform and print formats within the context of media convergence by comparing two distinct versions of the same journalistic brand: the printed Elle Brasil and the digital Elle View. The research adopts a qualitative approach, combining documentary and bibliographic analysis with a comparative case study, supported by a semi-structured interview with the magazine’s editor-in-chief. Two pairs of editions published in 2022 were analyzed, focusing on four axes: text, section, theme, and convergence. Elle View was also assessed using criteria specific to digital-native magazines–hypertextuality, interactivity, and multimodality. The findings show that while both formats share the same team and editorial line, they serve different purposes: the print edition takes on an analytical and collectible character, targeting the luxury market, whereas the digital version emphasizes current topics, accessible language, and ephemeral consumption. The study reveals that these differences reflect strategic positioning rather than just format variation, and highlights the untapped potential of digital features. Although limited in scope, the study remains relevant and opens new avenues for research on multiplatform journalism.