Naming my magazine...

I am using indie and rock music for the genre of music my magazine will represent. I have come up with an idea to call my magazine INRO to represent the phrase indie a rock. I have also thought of RnR to represent rock and roll.

Representation.

I would like my magazine to be represented at the audience well, so I will use the attitude that they would use in my magazine. Such as a representation of people who enjoy having a good time and enjoy going out and enjoying themselves, such as going to gigs and listening to the sort of music I will feature.A stereotype of the sort of person who goes to gigs would be that they drink a lot of alcohol and take drugs, people would not enjoy being given this label so I will not use this stereotype a lot in my magazine.

Target Audience.

Currently I am thinking I will aim my magazine to around 70% male and 30% female.  Mainly male as in my opinion males are more likely to listen to indie/rock music and have more of a passion towards this sort of music. Between the age groups of around 16-25. I can feature things that this audience would be interested in such as up-coming festivals and new music along with features on artists.

Ideology

I would like the message of my magazine to symbolise a love for music, to be aimed at people who consider music a big part of their life. I have chosen to use indie/rock music for my magazine and aim it towards people who like this music. People who don't just listen to this sort of music because other people do but because they like it and can think independently. The sort who would regularly go to music festivals such as Glastonbury and consider music important in their everyday routine. People who have a lot of respect for music and make sure that they always know what is happening in the industry, particularly the indie/rock genre.

Research on magazine publishers.

Ipc media produce NME magazine and Uncut. These are two popular music magazines, they sell NME for £2:30 per week. They have a fan base of over 1 million a week and is claimed to the longest published and respected music magazine in the world and has been made for 58 years. It features mainly rock and indie music.


Uncut is not only based on music but also movies and the genre of music is rock and feature old and new music/movies. They charge £4:50 a month for this magazine.


This institution also produces other popular magazines such as Woman, Look, Classic Boat and Soap Life showing a large range of choice produced by this institution.


Also each of these magazines have a website.


 The institution Bauer create the popular magazine Kerrang. They aim this magazine aims itself at an audience of 'Individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty'. They also have a radio station and television channel to nationalise their product


They also produce the magazine MOJO, this magazine bases itself around the greatest music, particularly old music such as the Beatles.


Also they produce Q magazine, this is also a very popular magazine and claims to be the biggest sold monthly music magazine. An important feature of this magazine is that it does not just offer music information, it also informs readers on recent sports, comedy and other things such as politics. Giving readers more of a variation and making the magazine more appealing. They also have a radio station and music channel.


This institution also produces other popular magazines such as Heat, Closer, More, Zoo and classic bike. Producing a massive range of magazines.


Also each of these magazines have a website about them.


 This institution does not produce a music magazine. It produces other popular magazines such as Vogue along with teen vogue, Glammor, Golf Digest and Lucky. This shows a gap in the market as I could use Conde Nast to produce my music magazine as they do not produce on already and could benefit from it more than the other institutions and are more likely to want to produce it. Clearly this institution has a lot of experience in magazines and how to make them popular.


Although the other magazines do have more experience in music magazines they already produce a number of them so they would not be interested in producing any more.

Language

My front cover will need a photo to represent what my magazine will feature. It will then need a caption to show why the photo is used and why this person is in the magazine for instance to advertise a new album. It will need a masthead that is ident to all of the magazines made for the company and a colour scheme, I am going to use the colours black and white and either red or blue also. It will need gripping features so that people are going to want to buy the magazine because of what is on the cover. I may even use exclusive contence on the cover to show that no other magazine will feature it and make my magazine more individual and get more people to want to read it. I will need to use a good layout as this can either make a cover look a lot better or a lot worse so I will need to try different ones to find the best one possible.
The contence page will need photos of some of the main features used along with everything that I am going to contain inside my magazine. I will used the same 3 colours that I use on the cover on the contence page. I will need to choose a layout that makes it look organised and un-bland at the same time.
The double page spread will be about what person I used on the front cover. I will need to make this eye catching and I will use the same colour scheme as the cover and contence page to use continuity. I will use a strap line along with a lead in my article.

Research on contents page.

This is the contents page of, 'Uncut'.The colour scheme used on this contents page is obvious of black red and whit. The image used here is very effective as it is big and edited to look black and white to match the house style of the magazine, the text it written in small black writing, this shows what the magazine contains and what page they are on. I think this that this contents page is effective because it is bold. The main image stands out a lot and the red in the backgorund of some of the text looks good and effective as it makes people want to read it more.

This is out of  q magazine, this is very effective as the image is very interesting and is what someone reading this magazine would be interested in. There is use of red lines separating the different contents inside which looks effective as it draw readers in. There are things like red circles used to project important things on the page which is good as the reader then will want to read it. The most important things in the magazine have numbers larger than others this is good as peopel then know what is the best contents in the magazine and will be able to find it fast, the things listed with larger numbers are usually on the cover, this then makes it easier for readers. When they first look at the magazine they are going to want to read what is on the cover as this may be the reason why they baught it.

 

This is a contents page that NME featured in a magazine. The colour scheme used is black, red and white. This will have also been used on the cover and throughout a lot of the magazine to connoted continuity. This contents page is very informative as it has all of things that are featured it has lots of page headings and on some features a sentence to explain it more specifically. There is a lot of information on one page yet they make it look good by the layout that they used and the order they used, it does not look bland or messy and is easy to understand because of the tidiness of the layout. The images make the main feature of the magazine centred and bigger than other features suggesting that this is the most important one. It used heading to separate the contents into category's and to make it easier for the reader to find what they are looking for.

Research on double page spread

 

 This is a double page spread featuring Rihanna. They have used a large photo of her to grab attention, a fan of Rihanna would see this and be interested in reading on. This image shows the edge of her that people recognise, she is looking directly at the camera and is not smiling, giving the look of attitude. The prop used in her photo shows that she has something to say and suggests to the reader that she is going to tell them something good and something which they need to know. The layout of the text is eye catching, it goes for bold writing to smaller writing to different coloured writing, suggesting that the article is not just going to be bland and boring, it is going to contain different topics.The writing used different texts and fonts to draw people in and make it look entertaining. This is an issue from October 2010 making this topic relevant to the music industry as she has recently brought out a few singles and is releasing her album, therefor people want to hear more about her and her album and she will want to advertise it to people and fans.

This double page spread out of, 'Uncut', has a lot of text. It does look slightly overloaded and could do with a few more images to make it look better. A reader may see this as to much written on one page and it is not sectioned off well enough towards the end of the article and a reader may get bored before they have even read it, I will take this into consideration when making my magazine. I also do not like the text on the page and i think that the font could look better. On the headline, ' feedback ', I think that if the fonts were different it could look a lot better as a whole. I also don't feel as though there is enough colour on the page so it is not eye catching to the reader.

This is out of q magazine. I like this as it is not dull looking. There are a lot of images used of the artist and they are are of her looking as though she is having a good time rather than just posing for a photo as she is laughing in them. Also there are people in the background of one of the images and this shows that she is working with people and this makes it a lot more informal, and the sort of people who read q magazine will be looking for this in what they read about. Also the writing in this looks good as it it sectioned of into rows which will keep the reader interested. There is a lot of colour on the double page spread also so this is going to make it very eye catching to the reader and they will like what they see better in comparison to there only being one colour, there is a lot of red used also which is a bright, happy effective colour.

Research on target audiences.

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User Comments

• What's gone wrong with this magazine.It used to be about quality music & well informed right up.Now it's got that pop tart on the cover.Isn't there any where to get away from the Syco Machine.RAGM

  Posted by: Scratchy7929 at 09:10 AM | December 22 2009 Cheryl Cole does not 'rock'.
• Posted by: itsmal at 09:33 AM | December 22 2009 its about time they had some real artists on the cover (H) Cheryl Cole does Rock! (*)
• Posted by: Sarah at 09:39 AM | December 22 2009 Q is turning into Heat. It's a shame.
• Posted by: Dale P at 09:45 AM | December 22 2009 Is she not the one who was up for racially aggravated assault ? Shame, Q used to be decent.
• Posted by: Minty76 at 09:50 AM | December 22 2009 I think my subscription is about to go to NME....Rage
• Posted by: Dave Pearson at 09:51 AM | December 22 2009 What??? Why??
• Posted by: Maarten from Holland at 10:17 AM | December 22 2009 Whatever happens never change your subscription to NME, thats the worst music rag around
• Posted by: Denny Ashby at 12:47 PM | December 22 2009 WOW! Brilliant cover. This lady is stunning. Love it. We she was coming to the US.
• Posted by: Maggie at 01:38 PM | December 22 2009 There is a much more stunning picture in the top hat which you should have used on the front but she is beautiful. Awesome cover.
• Posted by: Amelia at 01:43 PM | December 22 2009 HaHa! I love it!!! She's one sexy woman!
• Posted by: Nic Wade at 01:47 PM | December 22 2009 She's dope! I want more. Come to me baby...
• Posted by: Gman at 01:53 PM | December 22 2009

http://covers.q4music.com/Item.aspx?pageNo=6147&year=2010


This is of the Q website and is about the Cheryl Cole cover, this shows me that the people who read Q magazine are not very pleased about her being featured inside. It is clear by this information that the people who read this magazine are not likely to enjoy Cheryl Coles music. This shows me that for my audience to want my magazine then I will have to fit it specifically towards them.

Research on double page spread.

This is a double page spread featured in Q Magazine. This is what would on the pages before they showed what information that they have on her. This works well as it matches the same features used on the front cover of the magazine. It shows the same theme, with rain covering her and her standing boldly. The colours used are also the same as one the cover this makes the magazine continuous and has a better effect on the reader. It then gives you more information on what  you are going to go on to read and the main features of the article before you read it.

Evaluation.
I have created a college magazine cover and have based it around Wyke college, this is so that I could use information on what I know the students here would like to see in a college magazine. I used subjects on the cover which would interest people who attend Wyke college, an example being new enrichment courses, people would be interested to find out what these are and would like information on how to get involved. I used fonts which where easy to read and that where bold and stood out on the cover. I did not use simple bland colours as this would have made it look boring and not something college students would like to read. I used a lot of the same kind of colours throughout the cover and contence page so that it matched and did not look like it had to much information by using a contrast of colours. My magazine work overall as it is relevant to what people would like to see on a front cover. The picture is of a student at the college, he his holding a folder and is also wearing a bag, this makes him look as though he is a good student at the college and represents the reason students are here. He is smartly an fashionably dressed representing the college well. He is looking directly into the camera making the shot more informal and making viewers feel as though it is more personal to them and draws buyers in.

I could have improved my magazine cover by taking more than one photo so that I had a chose of lots of images and I could choose the image that I felt was the best, on the front cover. I realised that the photo on the front cover could have been better, I could have taken it in a better location, a place more interesting and also in a place that would have represented the college better. I feel that the ideology of my magazine is on that represents the college in a good way and shows a good outlook of what the college is all about.

Breif.

What I am going to do is create a music magazine, a front cover, contence page and a double page spread. I need to think about what target audience I am going to aim it at as well as the type of music I am going to use. I need to get images of people to use for my magazine as well as deciding what layout to use. I am going to use story's on the cover that the magazine will have. I will need to research and look at other music magazines to see what they use and get ideas on how I am going to produce my own. I will have to decide on what colours I am going to use and what images would look the most effective. I will have to decide what I am going to call my magazine and what font I will use for my magazine. I will look at what institution I will use to publish my magazine. I will have to use thing which will get the target audience to want to purchase my magazine and what will interest them, I will have to be sure that what I am featuring inside the magazine is relevant to what the audience want to read about. I will get feedback on how I can improve my magazine and see if I can improve what I have done.

Research

The masthead and logo Q is bold and stands out from the rest of the page as it is the only thing red, in some ways this makes it look slightly out of place. The word Muse is in an unconventional place for a magazine cover as the  headline is usually underneath the artist not above,  and with it also being positoned next to the masthead it does not look like a typical magazine cover. I like the blocks of blue showing the audience what is in the magazine as there are a lot of them and this shows that that the magazine has plenty to offer.

This magazine is also very unconventional as the image looks like it has been taken in the past as their faces have been edited to look very gray, this may put some off buying the magazine as it does make it look old fashioned. If a person had never seen the magazine before then they may not know what the name of it is as it is covered up by the artists head, I will keep this in mind when creating my magazine. I do like how the text showing what is in the magazine is laid out on the left, however, on the right it would look better if it was lined to the right hand side rather than the left.

 I visited the Q website and looked at the covers that they have on the website. They used a star rating on what the audience thought of the magazine, from one star to 5 star. This was one of the 5 star rated magazines. I can see why this is as it is very eye catching and effective. The colour scheme used of mainly black, red and white is very effective as it does not make the magazine look messy or unorganised, it makes the audience more drawn in as it looks smart and does not look as though it is all over the place. They use these colours throughout there magazine covers, this makes it more recognisable to the audience and make them want to buy it more. The logo Q is used for readers to be able to get the audience to identify the magazine and for it to be something that they recognise. The connotation of the word rocks on the caption represents what the magazine wants you to think of not only Cheryl but the magazine, initially most people would not think that Cheryl does 'rock' yet if the audience see this then they are going to want to read about it. I think that this is a popular cover because of the quality of the image used and the layout used around it. The headline is used as a pun and intertextuality as '3 words' is the name of her album and they then used 3 words to describe her. The masthead grabs attention as it claims ' The Uk's biggest music magazine', this gets the audiences attention as they will then think that there is not bigger or better music magazine so therefor this one will be the best to buy and read, getting more sales.I like how they have changed the size/colour/font of the text used in the right top corner as it makes the magazine look better, it is not boring and using all the same colours and sizes it is more appealing as it looks better. Also it highlights a certain part of the text, ' the 10 best' showing that this is what they want you to read and then you will read the rest of the text thinking that it is 'the 10 best' and it must be good. The image represents Cheryl Cole in a positive way, this is good and more appealing as she has had bad press and people want to know about her. The target audience is clearly for people who like and enjoy music and want to read about what is changing in the music industry.
Also this magazine was released in February 2010 and this is the time of year that Cheryl Cole released her album, this cover is then relevant to the music industry at that time of the year. People are more likely to buy a magazine featuring the latest music in the charts.