Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-1-2013

Capstone Advisor

Melissa Chessher, Chair, Magazine Department

Honors Reader

Ann Hettinger, Magazine Adjunct

Capstone Major

Magazine, Newspaper, and Online Journalism

Capstone College

Public Communications

Audio/Visual Component

no

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

yes

Honors Categories

Creative

Subject Categories

Creative Writing | Film and Media Studies | Interdisciplinary Arts and Media

Abstract

The Jump is an online life stage magazine for women, focused on the transition from college life to the real world. The magazine’s target audience is women ages 19 and 25 who have recently graduated from college or will soon graduate. These women are interested in a luxury lifestyle and current trends, but also value budgeting and their careers. They are also newcomers to real world. The Jump answers the questions about home décor, cooking, fashion, beauty, and budgeting in a simple way that is tailored to their stage in life.

Each department of The Jump – musings, home, eat, style, beauty, budget – informs and educates young women about practical problems they will face after graduation. For example the front-of-book section, Musings, is packed full of short inspiring service stories for The Jump reader. Some of the Musings’ articles for the May issue include an informative tanning piece and an article about tracking money when living with multiple roommates. Each of the stories in Musings is simple, relevant, and inspirational.

The rest of the departments focus in on their given topic while again taking into consideration the limitations and day-to-day issues a 20-something post-graduate women would be facing. This narrow focus is continued throughout the entire publication. For example the home section shows the reader how to create a beautiful apartment décor, while using their college bedding and existing furniture. The beauty section includes a story about an office appropriate makeup look anyone could achieve in less than 10 minutes. Finally the budgeting section shows readers how to track and take charge of their money. The Jump shows the readers how to manage their money using the latest online management tools.

The Jump fills the obvious gap present in women’s magazines today. Plenty of magazines focus on decorating a home in your 40’s, but there is very little credible advice out there for 20-something’s. The Jump will become that credible source. Because the magazine is online, the readers can access the publication from any platform that can reach the Internet. That means answers to your questions are just a click away. This also means the publication will be free and primarily driven by advertising, which opens up the magazine to a much bigger audience.

Though The Jump is, at the moment, only a magazine, I see The Jump becoming an entire website with a monthly publication. I think a constantly updated blog that answers readers’ additional questions is a necessary addition to The Jump. This would open the dialogue between the magazine and the readers, which is exactly what The Jump aims to do. The Jump wants to answer the terrifying questions you have about 20-something life.

Troxler_TheJump.pdf (50659 kB)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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