Women's Magazines in Russian Provinces: Structural Characteristics

Abstract

The article studies the structure of the contemporary Russian provincial magazines for women, determines their typological basis, examines establishment and development of the conception of women’s press in various historical periods, and, by the example of the media landscape of provincial magazines, analyzes the features of publicity within women’s community in a particular region. Provincial press, being closer to the reader and able to form a targeted content, has a great informational potential and accurately reflects the community’s interests. Therefore, one of its tasks is to optimize the media landscape of a local female community as its publicity factor. This adds to the topicality of the research. The study sample included 33 contemporary women's magazines from 17 provinces of Russia. The aim was to determine the typological features of the magazines and estimate the impact of women’s press on solving the topical gender issues of the Russian woman. The results show prevalence of specialized women’s magazines in provincial press, which correlates with the general trend in the periodical press. Meanwhile, their typological structure is not optimized enough: the periodicals do not always match the audience's demand, and do not take all opportunities for that, either. Besides, multitopic provincial periodicals find it difficult to compete with well-known national and foreign magazines. One of the positive trends is the development of periodicals focused on careers, businesswomen and women in politics.