Circulation figures

Researching all 3 of these magazine I have found that Kerrang! is mainly aimed at males, or people who like serious rock music. And people who are between 16 and 24 years of age. With the circulation ratings between July 2008 and December 2008 each week an average of 60,128 magazines were sold.
Q magazine is aimed mainly at men, hence the half naked picture of Lily Allen on this cover. In the UK and Europe each month 112,532 copies are sold. It is aimed at all different music tastes.
Mojo figures are 106, 367 monthly. It is aimed at ‘male and affluent” people, so for all music tastes.


This is a circulation sheet for Bauer Consumer Media.

Analysis of 2 contents pages

Q October 2008
It is a very simple layout with an image and caption and the contents down one side. At the top the banner only says 'Contents' and the date of the magazine. The black background against the white words make it stand out and creates a good contrast with the white of the whole page.
All the writing is the same font, this is to make sure the page is not busy and is easy to read.
Like my prelim contents page it has headings to block things together, however, there are only 2, again, so it is not busy. There is a group of things that are always in the magazine and things that are only in this issue.
The big picture of the band 'The Courteeners' shows that there is an exclusive article about them inside, the image is the first thing the reader sees, so they are drawn to this and want to find out more.
Also, there is another section of contents page which also draws the readers eye. The heading is black not red, which sets it apart, showing that, like 'The Courteeners' it is an exclusive.
I like this style of contents page.


Kerrang! November 2008

This contents page is a lot busier and harder to read. However, it shows a lot of what is inside which may be interesting and exciting for the reader.
Most of the contents page is made up of pictures, which create most of the colour on the page.
There is an editorial at the top, but it is in small writing and not obvious, so people may not notice it.
The biggest picture of 'The Bronx' is obviously the thing they want the reader to see first. However it is only on page 22, so they have to read everything before it in the magazine. With other images they are not so big but together they are still obvious and interesting. Each picture has a caption to give information.
The actual contents are very small ad pushed to the side, however, because of the contrast between the colour pictures and just the black and yellow they are hard to miss. Also, when you turn the page they are the thing you touch, therefore see. These contents are also grouped under headings, although there are a lot more, they are still easy to read. I am likely to use this in my own contents page.

Textual Analysis of front covers

The 2 front covers are Kerrang! and Q. They are both published by Bauer Consumer Media. Q is published once a month, whereas Kerrang! is once a week. Q is more of a collectors magazine, where as Kerrang! is not one you would keep for a long time. Both Q and Kerrang! have a radio and TV channel.

This cover of Q magazine was published in April 2009

• Price in corner, it is expensive, they put it in the corner to hide it. This is balanced out by all the big numbers they put on, such as '25 GREATEST ROCK MOVIES'


• Names of bands and Lily Allen in biggest font - want to make a point, make it stand out


• Plain background, so words stand out


• Blue arrows against the words- draws attention to them


• All the font is the same - not busy, simple, eye catching and easy to read quickly


• Maybe aimed mainly at men? Lily Allen isn't wearing very much, and the 'wicked ways' ties in with the panther on the cover, and also has sexual links, the lack of clothes. This may be copying men's magazines to draw the target audiences attention.

The next magazine is Kerrang! It was published in May 2007.
Mast head - 'Kerrang!' the font is very bold, the word looks cracked. this may link to loud music shattering something. Also, the black word against the white background creates a great contrast.

Cover lines - Biffy Clyro is the biggest cover line, it is more obvious than the masthead itself, obviously they want the readers attention drawn to that.
With the picture of Biffy Clyro, because of the pose the tattoo on his hand is more obvious, this is just a minor detail that adds something to the image making it more interesting. Also, another cover line, or caption that is linked to the article of Biffy Clyro is ''unfold the puzzle of life' this may link to one of their albums, which is called 'Puzzle'.

There are banners on both the top and bottom of the cover. The top advertises tickets, anyone reading the magazine will be interested in music and want to go see it, so this will draw them in. The banner at the bottom is like a film strip, this seems to be a common trend with magazines. There are photos of bands which are probably inside the magazine. there is also a slight amount of detail, which helps to incite people to read inside.
Also, 'Free! Poster Special' is in bold writing and backed by red, and as this cover is mainly black and white it stands out even more.
The price is small and at the bottom by the bar code. 'Kerrang!' is a throw away magazine, you read it but do not keep it for long, like a newspaper. The magazine is quite expensive for this type of magazine.
Like Q there are bold and big things on the cover to draw the readers attention away from the price
.

Mojo, December 2008,

Also a magazine produced by Bauer Consumer Media.

The only colours used on the front cover are red, black and white.
The big picture is of Leonard Cohen, who is a singer-songwriter; he has a very serious expression, indicating that it is a serious magazine. Also, the font is very simple, except for the “Music magazine” which is an old fashioned, classic font. The fact that it is only black and white and very simple, and that Leonard Cohen is an older artist that young people may not have heard of could show that it is aimed at older people.
The masthead is in a bold font, but behind big photo, which may suggest that they do not want the reader to notice this first, however, it makes it hard to actually read the title of the magazine.

Also, the most popular and important things are in a red font, so it is the first thing that we notice. Also, the words are things like “the devil” which fit in with the red and evil feel of it. The first thing you see when you glance at the magazine is the red writing, his face, and then the offer in the top corner, which is also in a very obvious red.

Main Task Action Plan

I will now start my main task, this is my action plan for it. I will spend 10 weeks over it.


Week 1 14th Dec - Action Plan, textual analysis's - 2 front covers. Research - textual analysis 2 contents pages and 2 double pages.
Research circulation sheets for analysed mags
Week 2 - 4th Jan - Research target audience and make mood board
Look at target audience - compare to magazines - past students, real ones
look at font/colours/layout/inside - double pages

Week 3 - 11th Jan - Draft Layouts of all 3, questionnnaire about layouts and colours. experiment a lot with different colours/designs/layouts. Do photoshoot.

Week 4 - 18th Jan - Finish Wk 3, Audience Feedback

Week 5 - 25th Jan - finalise design for front cover. Construct. Audience feedback

Week 6 - 1st Feb - finalise contents page design. Construct. Start double page spread

Week 7 - 8th Feb - Write double page article

Week 8 - 15th Feb - Finish double page. Audience feedback.

Week 9 - 22nd Feb - Finalise everything - Audience feedback

Week 10 - 29th Feb - Same as Week 9

Final Post

This is the end of my Prelim-task, this will be my final post as I have completed it. I will now move on to my next section of coursework about my music magazine.

Evaluation

At the end of my Pre-lim task i have to do an evaluation, I chose to do it on my blog instead of recording myself.
I was asked to answer these following questions.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• The key conventions of a student magazine are that on the front cover they should have a masthead, a background of some sort, usually a picture, cover lines and captions if there are any graphics. A typical contents page has headlines for the stories and maybe a lure, going into a little bit more detail about the story to interest people, images also are used to interest readers. Also, a contents page must have page references. I used theses typical conventions in my magazine, except on the front cover I had more smaller pictures instead of just one large one that takes up the whole page. With this prelim task I feel that I haven't really pushed any boundaries, however, now that I am practiced and know what I'm doing I will try to do something very original with the music magazine.

I looked at both my cover and one of the magazines I analysed I realised they quite similar, but the First Car seems to be aimed at a slightly older audience. However, the main aspects are the same.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• In my magazine I have represented students and teenagers, through using pictures and showing college life. The images are all of students, mainly of them looking like they are having fun. They are laughing. Also, I have a picture of a young author to try to interest people into reading about their fellow students.



• For example, my cover line said about 'The Bash!' which would appeal to teenagers as they mainly like parties.
  

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

• In this case it will be the college and maybe the student council that would distribute the magazine as this is who it is aimed at. Although the college at the moment already have a magazine they could either have two or merge the magazines.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• My magazine is aimed at both male and females around the ages between 18 and 19. Inside there are articles about university, which only these ages think about, and also about the college, which only the college students will be interested in.

How did you attract/address your audience?

• I learnt from my questionnaire that students wanted to read about other students and also celebrities. They did not want a serious magazine but more a light hearted one with fun things to do, but also some informative things. Therefore I included information about universities, but before that in the magazine an interview with 'Muse', and an interview with 'Jeanne Hunneyball' as she is a college student, which people said they would be interesting to read about. i think the front cover is interesting to students, one of the cover lines is about the Bash, which students will find interesting as it is about something they really enjoy, partying. Also, they said they wanted to read about students, which is why all the photos on the cover are of students. Also, the colours are purples and blues and quite bright, which is what they liked and will draw people in.

What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of construction this product?

• For my prelim task I used a digital camera to create my own photo shoot, I used Publisher to create my front cover and contents page which I am pleased with, it was the first time I had used Publisher for something like this, therefore, for my next part of my coursework I will be a better designer on Publisher. Also, it was the first time I had used a blog, so I learnt to use this.

Final Front Cover and Contents Page

Contents Page

This is the first draft of my contents page. I looked at other contents pages and worked from there.

New Front Cover Design

From my feedback I realised that my cover was quite busy and the name of my magazine is "Exclusive" but to other people it was not that obvious as traditionally the masthead is at the top of the magazine, however, wierdly, mine was not. Therefore, I changed the positioning of it and some of the other writing. Hopefully this is better but I would welcome any more feedback if it needs changing again.