| Abstract [eng] |
The research paper examines inflight magazines, which are special magazines for the airline travelers. As a distinguished article amongst corporate publishing, inflight magazines can be used both for company and national public relations. Published for passengers – multicultural and multinational audience – they are inevitably intercultural. The subject of this work is inflight magazines. Despite the yearly growth of flight destinations, passenger numbers, the increase of flight frequency and the growing importance of corporate communication, the subject has not been widely researched both by the global and Lithuanian academic communities. The goal of this work is to analyze inflight magazines as a tool for public relations and consequently construct a typical model of an flight magazine. In this work, we 1) analyze company communication with customers; 2) determine functions and main content characteristics of consumer magazines; 3) overview the main issues of writing for multicultural audience; 4) outline the common features of inflight magazines; 5) analyze case studies of “Deutsche Lufthansa” airline's inflight magazine “Lufthansa Magazin,” the “Holland Herald” magazine of KLM and “Lithuania in the World” of “flyLAL;” 6) create a typical model of an inflight magazine combining the analyzed cases and a theoretical approach. The theoretical part of the work consists of literature analysis – comparison, overview, and evaluation. The research is based on the analysis of “Lufthansa Magazin,” “Holland Herald” and the “Lithuania in the World” (LIW) magazine. The first two magazines are examined comprehensively as the leading magazines in both the European and worldwide markets. However, LIW is important for this work not as a special inflight magazine but as a magazine distributed by the sole Lithuanian airlines with regular passenger flights. Several methods for collecting information on the case studies are used in this work: qualitative magazine content analysis, in-depth interviews with the chief editors of the aforementioned magazines, observation and document analysis. We conclude that inflight magazines are typical qualitative consumer type magazines. The work defines the main following goals of inflight magazines: 1) increase the added value of a company; 2) form the public image of a company; 3) create customer trust and loyalty; 4) start and maintain a connection with consumers; 5) to establish a self-funding means of communication. The secondary goal is to sell the airline services and flights. Some companies also use it for country promotion. Inflight magazines have to account for the interests of various groups such as advertisers and image-makers of a company or a country, and to consider an international multicultural audience. Inflight magazines have to conform to the principles of quality journalism. The clear distinction between information pages of an airline and the editorial part of magazines must be drawn. It is important to use the language and imagery easily perceived by an international audience. It is advisable to creatively and professionally present soft news and avoid culturally sensitive subjects. In a competitive market, inflight magazines frequently become instruments not for public but mass communication and increasingly resemble traditional publications. Thus, they should be published by a team of professionals of corporate communication. Thereby they become a profitable means of communication for a company. The “flyLAL” has not fully utilized an inflight magazine, classical tool for the company's communication although most airlines in the market have taken advantage of it. A typical model of an inflight magazine constructed in this work may be used by the “flyLAL” that does not have such magazine. This master thesis both contributes to the theoretical knowledge of public relations and is useful for practicians in the field of inflight magazine publishing. |
