Magazine Names

For my magazine I came up with around 30 names and shortened them down to the ones I thought were the best to fit my magazine genre, the names I choose were;
MINISTRY, TEMPO, RADAR, SYNC AND ENCORE

I asked 20 people to choose which name they preffered and as you can see SYNC came out 7 votes which therefore decided my magazine name. I feel this is an appropriate music magazine name as many peope would link this word with 'syncing you ipod/mp3 player' to put music onto it. The word SYNC also has connotations of the word 'to know' so I can use catchy slogans such as 'BE IN SYNC WITH TODAYS TOP CHARTS' this would mean my magazine will be based around recent pop songs. I have carried out my photoshoot and cut them down to the ones I feel are best suited to the magazine;


Model: Jo Weller
These photos do have some orange light to them which I hope to correct in photoshoot, due to there being no natural light outside. I used different props such as a guitar and an amp.

Model: Matthew Gordon
With these pictures I used beams as my props which I think works really well, I have edited some of these pictures as shown below.


Model: Zoe Richardon
For these photos I used a fur coat to get a glamorous pop star look, again the lighting is a bit orang so i put some of the pictures in black and white which i think looks better. The picture on the right was used with the destature tool on photoshop, I do not like the yellow background and hope to change this to white or another colour.

Inside Q Magazine

Q magazine have around 162 pages in their magazine, promoting a lot of musical information. 40 of these pages are adverts (24% or 1/4). In this magazine the type of adverts that are included are:

Men's purfume, New albums, Gig dates, Men's hair styling products, High tech phones, Xbox games, Alcholic drinks, Movie sites, Men's golf, Sunglasses, and Clothing. Most of these are aimed at the male as the mass market audience are the older male generation (around 20-30's).

Articles included in the magazine include;
QMAIL - page 8
Q50- page 10
Now - page 15
Soapbox - page 34
New to Q - page 36
Cash for Questions - page 44
JAY-Z interview - page 50
Dave Grohl interview - page 60
Brandon Flowers interview - page 70
Lady Gaga interview - page 86
War child - page 90
Q quiz- page 151

Q magazine have around 11 double page spreads,mostly about articles with muscians. They promote the 10 exclusive interview on the front of the magazine which means there are as much as 9 page spreads for an artist. Q magazine does cause some confusion with its adverts as for example on page 66 I thought the the model was representing suits not a band. This is also aparent on other pages where I thought they were promiting ablums not just pictures to go with articles. The colour red is aparent throughout Q magazine, this is its unified housestyle and makes the magazine unique, you can tell that all the pages belong to Q magazine as they put the logo on every page. Q also put the date on the bottom of the page to show what issue that pages belongs to. The colour scheme throughout the magazine is predominantly red, white and black. The language used in Q magazine is much more gramitical than NME's magazine; this is because Q target an older and more sophisticated audience. The use a great deal of language devices such as hyperbole, adjectives, verbs and alliteration.

Q Cover

The Cover

Here is NME magazine compared with Q magazine. The title of this magazine is 'Q' this is a short and simple title that allows Q to have catchy slogans such as 'Q The Music'. The cover does look similar to NME to some extent as it does how similar layouts with the logo in the top left hand corner on the modle on the right have side/centre of the page. Q's unique selling point would be its exclusive interviews as many of their magazines include these features.

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This masthead is similar the NME magazine it has a white colour and the typeface is quite a formal font, the background is red which emphasizes it and allows it to be read easily. The red background with the white letter is a house style of Q magazine, this logo is presented in the same way on every magazine. This is the magazines brand identity as readers can easily see that this magazine belongs to q when they see this logo. Additionally all pages have this logo at the bottom of the page and therefore it is distinctive and you know it belongs to this magazine.

Q magazine advertise exclusive interviews with JAY-Z, LADY GAGA and DAVE GROHL who feature on the front cover as part of the main headline. This part of the magazine is sectioned off from the main images of the magazine. They scroll down the side of the page. Q have '10' exclusive interviews and therefore have many more inside. This is a lure for the reader as they have three big names on the front and so there is much more to look forward to inside the magazine. The 10 on this section of the magazine is in the same typeface as the Q mast head. They also use the red colour which links the magazine together.
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This is the magazines strapline, this header goes across the magazines masthead and states that this magazine has 'the 10 most exciting people in music now'. 'Exciting people' has been put in a shape to distinguish it from the other words. They use 'most' which is hyperbole as they exaggerate this word. It has been laid out behind the models heads so that it does not cover their faces. The typeface of these words are the same as the Q logo with a black banner going behind it, this is because if it was the same colour as the Q background then it would not show up as clearly and would blend in.

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Q magazine use three models on the front of Octobers magazine issue. They use long shots so that we can see the whole bodies of the celebrities and analyze what their wearing. Lady Gaga is standing with her legs together and saluting the the camera, this pose fits in with her outfit as it is military. Like the other celebrities they are all looking directly at the camera and therefore drawing the reader in. When you look at the magazine there is eye contact with the celebrities and so it seems as if they are looking at you. This helps to sell the magazine as the reader will be connected when they look at the front image. Jay-Z is at the front and is wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, he legs are apart to allow us to see through them. This helps the image to fit onto the magazine as it does not like the image has been cut and put onto it. The last image is off Dave Grohl, he is holding a guitar which you can only see by his leg, he is wearing a black top with jeans also but has a different style to Jay -Z. It shows that this magazine has a range of artists included in it. All their poses are relaxed but have a great impact on the reader as they are quite foreceful.

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These are the cover lines for Q magazine they give example of other bands that are included in the magazine. They do not use the word plus but simply use the + sign as we can read what it says easily and is different to other magazines.

This shows also what is in the magazine, the fact that they have another circled shaped underneathe the main one shows that they have more to fit in.

Q Magazine Analysis

General

Q magazine is produced by Bauer Publishing Ltd. (http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/) This magazine was originally going to be called 'Cue' but they changed it as they thought readers would confuse it with a snooker magazine.

Q magazine is mainly aimed at the older generation as it is for the more mature adult who enjoys music. I can tell this as the majority on the people on front of Q magazine are well established artists such as Take That, U2 and The Beatles. Additionally the magazine include segments on sports, comedy, film and even politics. While researching the magazine I could not find any statics showing the average reader age, however Bauer media do say that the ideal Q magazine will be: "Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy".The adverts in Q magazine mainly appeal to the older male reader as they include; male perfume, hi tech phones, games for consoles and mens clothing.

Q magazine costs £3.99 and is published monthly. This seems expensive for a magazine but there is a lot of content inside, the magazine is only published monthly whereas other magazines are usually weekly which will cost you around £2.00-£3.00 which is easily around £8.00-£12.00 a month. Q's circulation was around 89,450 (January 2010) which is significantly higer than NME magazine.

Here is Q's circulation and readership figures. It shows that circulation has been going down over the years and that readership has just about stayed the same. (click picture to enlarge!)To find out advertising streams for Q magazine you had to ring the advertisers number for Q, they did not offer a media pack online. However I can tell how much of the magazine is advertising. The magazine has 162 pages 40 of these pages are adverts, this is around 24% (1/4 of the magazine) The adverts in this magazine tell us that it is mainly aimed at the male reader.

Inside NME Magazine

Inside

There are roughly around 66 pages in this magazine, approximatly 23 of these pages are adverts. The NME magazine has a range of adverts most of which mainly apply to the male reader. As you open the magazine there is a picture of the artist Devlin who is promoting his CD 'bud, sweat & beers'. Other adverts consist of coverses (worn by different male models) followed by a Canon camera advert. The magazine mainly promotes things to do with music for example head phones, new ablums and CD's that have been realeased, clothing and merchandise that fits in the music genre, singing lesson ads and additonally upcoming gig dates for small to big bands or solo artists.
This is an example of one of the adverts in NME magazine.
List of Articles: Articles of Bands and Artists - pages 12, 18, 24, 28, 41, 46
Versus - This is a question and answer interview with Lincoln Park vocalist - page 14
Radar - New with bands that are 'about to break' - page 16
Features - Double page spreads on bands and artisits- page 18
Reviews - Reviews on artists - page 38
Live - Article on live gigs - page 41
Gig Guide - Upcoming gigs - page 57
This week in... - What is in older issues of the magazine - page 62
XWORD - Crosswords - page 63
Fan mail - Letters from fans - 64
Brain cells - Interview with an artists - page 66

There are about five double page spreads in NME's november issue. The first double spread is on My Chemical Romance (the main focus of the magazine) it talks about their general life, tours and influences in the band. All articles are clear in this magazine and all adverts are clear so that we know they are for advertising purposes.

NME Cover

Cover

This is the NME November 2010 issue, below I have taken screen grabs of the focal points of the magazine. This magazine does not have a strap line. The magazine is not grammatical and does not use very complex language. There are no full sentences on the front cover, they are short and get the point so that they can be read quickly. The coverlines and images on the front cover do not completely cover the whole magazine and therfore it does not fill the frame. This magazine is similar to other music magazines but has a more elegant feel to it due to the fact that its a 'Musical Express' and is layed out like a newspaper. The front cover could have much more on the front of it to distinguish it from the wide variety of music magazines.

This is the magazines masthead, it stands for ‘New Musical Express’ NME is an acronym as the there are letters that represent the full name of the magazine. It is presented in a bold and sharp font, all the letters are the same size and are in uniform. The masthead is present in the colour white which its easily readable due to the blue background and the models red hair. The colour white is a monochrome on this cover as they do not venture to many other colours, they tend to stick with white with hints of red and black.
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These are the magazine cover lines, promoting the conent of the magazine. Again the white colour is used for the type face along with a bold effect for some of the word All these are artists; some are in bold and some are not giving a pattern. The fact that some are in bold can imply that the magazine favors these artisits. The white writing can be a little difficult to read when on the blue background and not in bold however with the red hair you can work out what it says. ------------------------->

<-------------------------This is the main headline for the magazine as it is the largest on the cover. It is represented in the same style as the masthead. They have added a drop shadow onto text so that the text will not blend in with the skin colour of the model. The quote underneath will give the reader an idea of what the inside story will be about. The word 'red' is quite ironic as the models hair colour is red giving it a humorous effect. However the colour red has connatations of danger and therefore lures the reader in as we want to know about the story.

This is sectioned off from the rest of the magazine as it has a white borer around the edge of it. ‘FREE’ is in bold, which is very distinguished from the other words and will interest the reader. This is a house style of NME magazine, as they appear on numerous of their magazine covers. There are other pictures on the front of this magazine (shown beside) these are smaller versions of the pictures that are included inside. NME magazine have on numerous occassions given away free things with there magazine which is what makes it their unique selling point-------------------------------------->


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The model on the front cover is a lead band member of my chemical romance. This band is an all male rock band. This shot is a medium close up. The image is quite bright and so harsh to gental lighting could have been used. The model looks directly at the reader enticing them into the magazine. If you were to buy this magazine you would be looking directly at the model and therefore you feel a connection with it. His facial expression is quite sharp with his eyebrows pointing down and his mouth closed. His is wearing a leather jacket with a long necklace, which fits in with the bands genre. The model is a male which fits into the magazine as the main readers of the NME magazines are male.

NME Magazine Analysis Questions

General

NME is produced by the well know magazine publiser IPC media (www.ipcmedia.com). IPC media produce numerous magazines of all genres. NME is one of two magazines produced by IPC media.

NME has an average reader age of 23. 74% of readers are male and the remaining 26% are female. Meaning this magazine mainly applies to males in their 20's. To get the magazine to appeal to its target market NME has mainly male bands included in the magazine due to the large percentage of males reading this music magazine. Even though the majority of readers are male the magazine does still apply women by including artists such as Rhianna. Adverts in the magazine also apply mostly to the male gender by having adverts selling boys shoes and technical stuff such as mobile phones and head phones.
NME magazine costs £2.30 and is published weekly. NME is a popular music magazine which circulates to 33,875 people (ABC). ( from: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45844&c=1)

This is what the NRS website shows about NME's readership and circulation. The graph shows that readership is mainly higher than the circulation. This means we can see how many readers are reading the NME magazine. The current readership is 325,000.

The magazine has approximaltly 23 pages of adverting in a 66 page magazine (this is around 34.8%). This shows that the magazine is quite reliant on its advertising. The advertising companies will pay the magazine to put adverts into the magazine, this allows the magazine to make profits from them and spend more money on the other pages of the magazine.

The link below will give you an idea of how much is costs to advertise in NME magazine:

http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/hvcjivb3x8p8oqk9bw285ffu.pdf

Final Front Cover and Contents Page

Front Cover

After playing around with my text again I finally found a font that I was happy with, I think this text is simple but affective and easy to read and works well with the different fonts on the page. After starting my contents page i decided to

change the font title text to the same font as the contents page so that it was easier to see that the contents and front page went together. After finishing my final front cover I am happy with the outcome and think it works effictively. I added a star in the top right hand corner and this space was empty and it also allowed me to put stars on my contents page. If I had had more time then I would have like to have improved the picture on the front of my magazine, the picture is a little bit blurry and so I would have liked that to be a little more clearly and stand out more.

Contents Page

For my contents page I had a maroon background with cream boxes and blue and maroon text. I split the page into three sections otherwise it would have been to big when printed. I used these colours as they are the school colours and also the colours that are on the front page. I used the same font as the front page and had the title 'contents' at the top with the magazines name underneath it. All the subheading are in the same font with the numbers next to them. The numbers have a maroon box around them (opacity 90%) with the effect of a drop shadow which I think works well and makes the numbers stand out. I added two blue stars to match the cream star on thefront page which I think stands out and makes the contents page look nicer. On the third column I had two pictures reduced in size to represent what would be in the magazine.

Final Front Cover

Today I finished off my front cover for my school magazine. I played around with the text and changed the font until I was happy with what I had. The magazine was looking a little bare just above the models head so I decided to move the text above that with an rectangular strip behind it so it stood out more. I moved the text around so that all spaces were filled and added a cream star to fill in the last space on the magazine cover.

I have made important words stand out for example 'top tips' and 'summer' which are in a cream colour, the cream colour matches the colour of the models top which I think works well.

This picture is the final cover for my magazine, next lesson I will do a contents page to match my front cover.