Organise the conventions below into sub-genres relevant to the historical women’s magazines.

While some conventions are found in both types of women’s magazine, others are more specific to one sub-genre or the other. Once you have categorised the key conventions, look at your historical magazine and identify which conventions apply specifically to your set product.

  • Cover (featuring masthead, strapline, main image, cover lines, banner, date, barcode and price)
  • Contents page
  • Editor’s letter
  • Publishing information page
  • Readers’ letters
  • Regular features (relevant to the sub-genre of magazine)
  • Feature articles (double page spread or extended features over several pages, including headline, stand first, pull quotes/ sidebars, images etc.)
  • Advertising
  • Competitions
Contemporary non-mainstream magazine
  • Consistent house style across the magazine
  • Lifestyle features (fashion / style / health / food / finance / family / travel etc.)
  • Advice
  • Culture/ popular culture
  • ‘Real life’ stories/experiences
  • Puzzles
  • Relatable, a ‘friend’
  • Consumerist ideology
  • Aspirational