To: Dr.

Toncentzin Oseguera, Dean of Students From: Megan Orr, Amanda Morga, & Devon Berger Subject: Referring TIME magazine Date: October 7, 2013 The purpose of this memo is to refer TIME magazine over National Geographic or The Atlantic to the office of Dr. Toncentzin Oseguera. Summary Select one magazine by creating a magazine criteria matrix to determine which magazine would be best for the Dean of Students waiting room. The Magazine Criteria Matrix is shown at the end of this memo. Discussion TIME, The Atlantic, and National Geographic are all well made magazines that have brought people entertainment through politics, pop culture, and current events. Dr. Oseguera, you have dedicated your life to education, leadership, and tradition through your many years in working with student affairs at UCR. TIME magazine does an excellent job that takes all of your dedications and represents your values through its articles. The main criteria we judged the magazines on were aesthetic appeal, demographics and the content of each magazine. TIMEs magazine criteria stand out compared to the rest of the magazine selection. Central to our decision making process was the belief that whichever magazine we pick would best represent the values you hold. One of the three criteria is demographics and the magazine that ranked the highest was TIME. Your purpose is to educate college students through politics, leadership, tradition, and to help develop a better society. The best magazine that represents your values and purpose is TIME magazine. The Atlantic had the most unsuited demographics out of TIME and National Geographic. According to The Atlantics profile, demographics show that men over their fifties enjoy this magazine which does not fit to the age demographics for this office (10). National Geographic and TIME are very similar in their demographics. National Geographics average age is 45 years old which is the youngest demographic (www.nationalgeographic.com). TIMEs median age is 48, which is very similar to National Geographic demographic age. Comparing both magazines by demographics its difficult to determine which one would make a better magazine. According to Tom C. Anderson, out of the top ten magazines read by college students TIME magazine ranking at level 6 and National Geographic was not even ranked (1). Even though National Geographic and TIME have close demographics college students prefer TIME. Another one of our criteria for selecting TIME magazine was through aesthetic appeal. What we were looking for in aesthetic appeal is recognizable visual theme, tasteful pictures, and formatting with the use of photograph. Using our standards for aesthetic appeal, The Atlantic performed very poorly in this category. It had no unifying visual theme, and its cover was filled with too many images. The cover was a reflection of the inside, as tacky cartoons and images

that were sprinkled throughout the articles. This can cause the reader to be distracted by the visual appearance. Both Time and National Geographic are displayed very well in this category. Time has the recognizable red border around that showed only a few key images or sometimes even just one image, to help the reader focus. The photographs were of a relatively high quality and were effectively used to enhance the reading experience. National Geographic scored the highest in this category overall. Its combination of nationally recognized yellow border, highquality images that cover entire pages and careful placement of auxiliary images. Also, it is unique in that the advertisements are placed in the front and back of the magazine for the reader to focus on the articles. Lastly, content is the most important of all the criteria, which TIME scored the highest on the magazine criteria matrix chart. TIME is known for informing the public about current events and political views throughout the world. This magazine also discusses health, entertainment, and technology. Contrary to popular belief, TIME explores into many different topics then just one. You have been involved in student affairs, student government, and have developed student leadership programs for over twelve years. TIME can better help educate your students about leadership and government structure, while still educating on other topics.

Recommendations We recommended TIME magazine because it best represents your goals and purpose through the magazines demographics, aesthetic appeal, and content.

Magazine Criteria Matrix Magazine Criteria: Scale 1- 5 Demographics Context Aesthetic Appeal Total: 4 5 4 13 TIME 2 1 3 6 The Atlantic National Geographic 3 3 5 11

Work Cited

advertising.theatlantic.com. The Atlantic 2013 Media Kit. 2012. Web. 23 Sept 2013. Anderson, Tom. Top 10 Most Popular College Magazines. Next Gen Market Research 20 Dec. 2010. Web. 25 September 2013. www.nationalgeographic.com. Demographics Profile, 2005. Web. 25 Sept. 2013.