Analysis of professional magazine covers

Initial plans for my magazine

This blog post is dedicated to my initial plans for my music magazine.

I plan to make the price of my magazine £2.00, as based on my market research, this price is cheaper than my competitors, yet profitable too. Perhaps the low expense will attract a larger audience, as the magazine will not be too financially detrimental to purchase regularly. I plan for it to be published each month, on the 1st day of each month. This regularity should maintain an audience, and more customers may purchase the magazine regularly, as it is more cost effective. The average issue size will be around 100 pages, to ensure a multitude of content, so each customer feels that they are receiving their moneys worth. The regular content will consist of feedback from fans of the magazine, album reviews, song reviews, upcoming gigs and bands. The main feature article for the double page spread will be of a local Indie band "The Seegulls", and I will also include features from prominent artists in the Indie genre, such as Arctic Monkeys, Catfish and the Bottlemen,, Miles Kane, The 1975, Two Door Cinema Club etc. I intend for my front cover to feature a main image, which will be a photo of my friend Julia whom I plan to take wearing indie clothing. Alongside this image will be the coverline "Julia J - Reinventing indie my way"

Researching the marketplace

NME magazine 

NME, a prominent magazine within the music industry since 1949, is tailored towards the target audience of the indie and alternative music genre. Each issue originally costed £2.50, however due to the continuation of poor sales, the magazine became free in September 2015. A new issue is released weekly, each Wednesday in the U.K. Each issue size is of around 60 pages normally, however in special additions that feature a particular artist or genre, there are 100 pages. The regular content consists of "sounding off", "on repeat", "in the studio", "anatomy of an album", "soundtrack of my life", "radar", "reviews", "this week in..." and "things we like". The feature articles are always of prominent artists in the current alternative music industry.


Q magazine

Q magazine, another renowned magazine in the current indie and alternative music industry, has been of popularity since its first issue in 1986. Each issue costs £3.99, and a subscription costs £24.99. A new issue is published monthly. The average issue size is around 150 pages. The regular content includes: "new albums", "live", "reissues" and "gadgets". The feature articles again, are of prominent artists in the current alternative music industry.

Initial ideas

In this blog post entry I will discuss my initial ideas for my music magazine.

I plan to tailor my magazine towards the indie target audience, as it is a genre that I am extremely interested in and informed on. It is also the most marketable genre momentarily, as it is current and favoured particularly among today's youth. I predict that the target audience's ages will range from 14-30 year old's, as they are the most popular receivers of the indie genre. I will cultivate the sense of an indie genre by ensuring that it is fits the indie stereotype aesthetically, and also by ensuring that my content is entirely of the indie genre.

Evaluation

In this blog post entry I will evaluate my school magazine that I have produced.

My magazine uses and develops the conventions of real life media products by utilising each feature, and replicating a professional magazine as closely as possible. For example I made use of a barcode, and I also included the date, origin, price and issue number. I used new media technologies to create my product such as a camera to take the photos required, and photoshop to edit and produce the magazine front cover and contents page. The strengths of my product is that it maintains a colour scheme, the required features such as a masthead, the continuation of brand identity, and a miscellany of images in order to attract the readers attention to all of the content. The weaknesses are that I did not include as many regulars and features as I would've liked, and I did not maintain a font size with all of my coverlines, so they appear unorganised.

Completed school magazine contents page

Production of magazine contents page with screenshots

Completed school magazine front cover

production of school magazine with screenshots of process

Front cover production from jess carney

Contents page production from jess carney

Original photos for school magazine

Plans for school magazine contents page

This blog post is dedicated to my plans for my school magazine contents page. I will ensure that the general theme of the magazine front cover has been continued to the contents page, in order to maintain brand identity. I will use pictures that I have taken which correlate to the main features, that will be highlighted in the "features" section. I will also include a "content" section that will consist of the reoccurring weekly content. Next to each I will add page numbers, so the reader is easily directed to each article. I will differ the colour of the page numbers to each feature, to ensure clarity for the audience. The title will be "contents" and next to it I will feature a miniature masthead. I will also feature an editors note to ensure that the audience feels directly addressed.

Plan for school magazine contents page:

Features
• interview with head girl, Beth Morrison
• Adam Davies wins award for IT
• Chris Green reveals his top tips for surviving sixth form
• Pink day fundraiser, who's playing?
• open mic

Content
• upcoming school events
• ice radio

Rough layout of school magazine contents page

Plans for school magazine contents page

This blog post is dedicated to my plans for my school magazine contents page. I will ensure that the general theme of the magazine front cover has been continued to the contents page, in order to maintain brand identity. I will use pictures that I have taken which correlate to the main features, that will be highlighted in the "features" section. I will also include a "content" section that will consist of the reoccurring weekly content. Next to each I will add page numbers, so the reader is easily directed to each article. I will differ the colour of the page numbers to each feature, to ensure clarity for the audience. The title will be "contents" and next to it I will feature a miniature masthead. I will also feature an editors note to ensure that the audience feels directly addressed.

Plan for school magazine contents page:

Features
• interview with head girl, Beth Morrison
• Adam Davies wins award for IT
• Chris Green reveals his top tips for surviving sixth form
• Pink day fundraiser, who's playing?
• open mic

Content
• upcoming school events
• ice radio

Rough layout of school magazine front cover

Plans for school magazine front cover

This blog post is dedicated to my plans for my school magazine front cover. The title of my magazine is WeatherForecast, and the coverlines I have produced will border my main image, along with smaller images that I will take that correlate with each coverline, for example a microphone next to an "open mic" coverline.

School magazine front cover plan: 

• colour scheme - predominantly grey, mostly dark, neautral colours to ensure that the pictures fit into the colour scheme correctly.
• coverlines - "interview with head girl"
                      "Open mic"
                      "Pink day fundraiser"
                      "Ice radio"
• main image - correlates with the main image. It will feature the head girl in a medium close up.
• other images - a microphone, the ice radio submissions box, stationary
• typography - I plan to maintain the font throughout each coverline. I will use a unique font for the masthead to ensure brand identity.

Practise shots and movements

Shot types and movements

Codes and conventions of a music magazine, front covers, contents pages and double page spreads