#Engage Magazine

[army-in-the-stars]

Jung Hae In x Esquire HK

[gizka]

You're not a true tom wlaschiha fan. You dont even own the tom wlaschiha playboy magazine.

[misterradio]

i think factory pomo will always be my sweetheart aesthetic i just love the geometric stylings. i always used factory pomo style clip art in school projects i thought it was suuuch a cool style.

looking thru that website... memphis jr is also great, kind of similar geometric style with brighter colours. i even used to have the toy used as the example image, and for some reason images of LSD:DE are used as an example lol

[silverfoxstole]

Looking for a magazine it seems I no longer have, I came across this little interview from DWM back in 2007. It was part of a feature celebrating Big Finish's 100th release.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

kind of random, but I’m curious about your thoughts on what seems to be the intended growth and direction of Weverse and Weverse magazine beyond the kpop sphere

bang pd has said that they want to expand weverse’s use to western artists and fanbases. Of course it’s still almost entirely kpop and kpop adjacent, but in general I like the platform and I think it could be an interesting tool for smaller artists globally. But I also don’t see western artists being that interested in engaging with their fans like this, especially where they already have tools like Instagram live. Maybe I’m biased by my army experience, but the Weverse armys are some of the cringiest (and youngest) imo, and the parasocial relationship encouraged somewhat in kpop isn’t encouraged in the same way in the west. Maybe there’d be interest in the online concert format?

as for Weverse magazine, I like the idea of growing a kpop oriented magazine that actually respects the artists. There’ve been so many dumb articles written about bts that it’s nice to see there be consistently decent interviews with them. The bts/hybe bias shows, but I don’t need constant fluff pieces about the members to appreciate the magazine and I think it’d be better off in the long run if they have objective authors writing about kpop generally. I have seen some articles about western artists which threw me off of what I thought they wanted to do with the magazine and who they want their audience to end up being. Do you see a benefit in trying to grow their reach to western artists and growing their audience? What do you think they want to do with this magazine?

***

You raise very good points. I want to challenge and expand on a few things.

"...and the parasocial relationship encouraged somewhat in kpop isn’t encouraged in the same way in the west."

This is changing. Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Billboard, etc, the main music publications have been highlighting since BTS got on the scene (2020), that musicians should look into actively building dedicated fanbases via more fan engagement, to be more successful. Here's an article from Billboard crediting this shift in the industry to Taylor Swift (I disagree). Also, western artists already leverage parasocial relationships: Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj are all examples of western artists who are about as engaged with their fans as some k-pop groups are. So if the sales pitch for Weverse is a customized fan engagement solution to lean on the parasocial aspect more, there's more than a few western artists who will be interested.

Just wanted to put that out there, and also because it ties to my next point about the (theoretical) competitive edge WV has over a platform like Instagram Live:

IL is technically the better platform because it gives you the widest audience reach. More people have Instagram already installed than they do Weverse.

But the key thing about successful fan engagement, is cultivating a fandom. Meaning, a somewhat organized group of fans. For the fans to organize, they need a fandom space. A shared feed where people in the fandom can communicate and build community. It's somewhat difficult to get this on Instagram and this is why forums like Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, Quora etc thrive.

Weverse's pitch is highlighting a customized solution that combines the best things about those platforms into one thing, creating a dedicated fan space for the artist and their fans.

In theory, Bang PD is right on the money here and with a few adjustments should have a gold mine on his hands. But the platform isn't well managed.

And neither is the magazine.

And so that theory remains just that.

There's been a handful of dumb articles about BTS/members and other artists by Weverse Magazine too. They've done an excellent job with the interviews they've published, and sometimes they've offered critical counterarguments to shoddy logic from mainstream music publications, but the times they've gaffed have been really embarrassing for everyone involved. For example that racist article that undermined Jimin's accomplishments with FACE. One can assume that was maybe their attempt to show less bias towards BTS and come across as 'objective', but all it did was make the writer and magazine look uninformed.

To gain any critical cred they need more flashy bylines, more socially conscious Korean critics and more mainstream writers, etc. And to increase their audience, yeah more pieces featuring western artists is one way to go about it. They want the magazine as an avenue to tell their own stories and offer their own side, as well as an attempt to participate in discussions in the wider industry, in k-pop and outside k-pop.

This is the wrong way to think about things, but I use Weverse as a bellwether to gauge how efficient and well-run HYBE is. My take on things, using how Weverse appears to be managed as a proxy, is that HYBE is bloated - not quite yet a bureaucratic nightmare but key departments are slow to react whether it's in fixing problems, picking up on trends, course correcting, etc.

I don't know much about coding but the UX/UI on Weverse feels like an afterthought. Almost everything from the color scheme (and lack of personalizing options) to the fact there's a WV streaming platform nobody uses.... they could be doing a much better job with a leaner structure.

Last week if you opened Weverse you'd have gotten a notice to participate in a survey. I left my feedback and I hope y'all did too. BigHit used to be decently good at responding to fan feedback. Let's hope that's still the case with Weverse and HYBE because even the company recognizes that Weverse is underperforming.

[asilosmagdalena]

Hagino Takashi and Aizawa Kazunari in Hero Vision 2000

[wormdramafever]

Goodbye Volcano High among Gayming Magazine's LGBTQ games of 2023!

[94erz]

My god has Instagram just become un-fucking-usable. I used to be able to use the tag and search feature and my feed would be tailored to my interests, now I can't do anything on it, it's literally worthless. Doesn't matter if it's on a computer or my phone, it just does not do ANYTHING I need or want it to like before. I dunno what happened but they fucked it, just completely and utterly fucked it up.

And I know that's been the case for a lot of people for a while, but how in just a span of a month can it go from my most used social platform for fandom content and trading to now being GARBAGE?! It's infuriating.

IG may be the reason I quit collecting PCs 'cause there aren't any other options now aside from me buying them out of Japan, which totally ruins the fun of collecting in the first place. TRADING is the whole point, that's step 1 of the process! Buying is the final option to complete a set/collection once you've done all the trading...

[wateveriwant]

Dylan Sprouse and Barbara Palvin

[9w1ft]

I just ran from karlie’s ig post to see if you saw it / what your thoughts might be.

we knew there were rumors that she was looking to buy it but even thought they were reported rumors, eye mean, what’s an eye theory girl gonna do, stay calme?!?

[shefaniquotes]

"It got to a point quickly with Gwen and I's relationship that there was never a time where I thought, 'Well, I wonder if this doesn't work out.' That never really crossed my mind, and I don't think it did with her either. It was just a matter of me deciding when I wanted to go get a ring and ask her to marry me.”

Blake on Gwen, People Magazine, December 2022

[devileaterjaek]

Discord Twitch Ko-Fi

[hostilecityshowdown]

the amount i need modern wrestling fans to study the von erichs until they're able to point at other wrestlers and go "i know where they learned that" is unreal

[thrilling-oneway]

what did i miss why are there official vbs and wxs rings now

[style-of-princess-beatrice]

A Royal Recycling (part 137)

Zimmermann

[littlemuoi]

The Duchess of Edinburgh mucks in with some animal magic on a farm in Kent by Rosalind Powell Published in Hello! Magazine's Issue 1787 - 8th May 2023