Internet research on readership figures

Music magazines (percentages represent year-on-year change)

The Fly - 108,207 (0.4%)

Mojo - 91,678 (-6.2%)

Q - 89,450 (-10.7%)

RWD -78,867 (1.7%)

Uncut - 74,067 (-3.2%)

Classic Rock - 70,323 (0.0%)

Metal Hammer - 44,034 (-4.3%)

Kerrang! - 44,013 (1.8%)

New Musical Express - 33,875 (-17.3%)

We can see from this, readers of music magazines are falling. This means I need to create a new, interesting magazine that attracts my target reader. My magazine could include gig tickets, electronic goods, clothing ext for prizes that focus on today’s youth to boost the number of readers.

Font Choice?

Textual Analisis of contents page

This edition of Q magazine is quite typical. There is a main picture of a band from one of the lead articles and a smaller one of Nick cave from another section, so a visual sense of some of the variety to be found that month. There is a also a list of what's in the magazine which extends to at least fifteen examples, with several elements to the 'Oasis Special!'.

The use of colour and font is clean and simple, despite the amount of detail. The whole layout is in columns, with boxes being used to guide the reader's eyes.  There is also repetition of the logo from the cover, smaller, but a reminder to the reader, as well as a link to the magazine's online presence at the top.
                                            

Textual analisis of double page spred

  

This is a double page spread from the Kerrang magazine. You can see that the main colours are red, white, brown and black. None of the pictures are in colour which suggests the type of band that they are (for example, emo). Overall there are 5 different photos, one of them which is bigger and takes most of the first page. The other page has the text on it and also the photos underneath. There is little text on the double page spread but it doesn’t look bland and there aren’t any blank spaces. I like the slanted text at the top of the page and the fact that it doesn’t just fit on one page but goes onto both. Rather than just being columns of text there is a white strip of text as well going down the right hand side of the second page.

This double page spread has a lot more text in it and just two large images.  The main colours are green, black and white. I like it because it is simple, not only the layout but the photos as well. The name of the band is a bit small, if it was a bit bigger this would draw in the reader, but maybe they have done this deliberately to show they don’t need to use conventional methods, as people will still read it.

Textual Analisis 2

Q Magazine April 2009 issue

Overview
This magazine is specifically aimed at all music fans, not so much metal and heavy rock fans, but it still contains articles with rock groups as well as pop singers, like the cover star of this issue. Q is very much a lifestyle magazine, as it is quite gloosy and more 'clean cut' than others on the market.

Front Cover
We have the banner showing the most important article within this issue, which here is an interview with Lily Allen. This headline states "sexy beast Lily Allen & her wicked ways...", using a colour scheme of black, white, blue and red. This is used to lure the reader in. Q also has a clever use of graphics on this page as the image behind the headline is a metaphor for the headline; which states "sexy beast", which compliments the picture she is accompanied by two black jaguars. The "sexy" part is shown by the fact that Lily is topless. Lily Allen is positioned directly in the middle, so she stand out to the audience. We also have use of cover lines in the top right hand corner and along the bottom of the page; using quotes and then explaining, very briefly, what the article is about. We also have an exclusive article with The Stone Roses.


Contents Page
The contents page takes up two pages and has shots of the featured articles within the magazine, along the bottom, to show some of the articles people might be interested in. Q also uses an original system of sorting theres contents' lists between "regulars" and "features"; the "regulars" section is for everything that is usually in Q, and the "features" is for everything specific to this issue. For most of the articles lsited, we have a title for each and a few sentences that form a cover line. The only excpetions to this is the "Q review" section which gives a cover line, but gives specific examples of what is being reviewed, it entices the reader in with examples of the most anticipated album reviews. The other exception to the above rule is the cover story of Lily Allen, which has a much larger cover line, forming a fairly large paragraph. The centre of the page is taken is taken up by another shot of Lily Allen's exclusive photoshoot for Q and an exclusive shot of Guy Garvey for Q. There is no editorial on the contents page.


Feature
The main article of this isue of Q is that of an interview with Lily Allen and rather than it being a double page it takes up 9 whole page within this issue; this is simply because Lily Allen is so popular in modern day culture, that the editors of Q know the issue will sell because of her being on the cover. On most of these pages, there is a 50/50 split between word and images. The images in this article do not just relate to Lily's music, it also refers to her entirelife, her social life, her sense of fashion and her music. in the shoot she changes outfit in each shot; each is very fashionable and quite sexy, which links to the theme of the article as "Lily Allen - Sexy Beast." Through the article we have quotes from the text on the page, enlarged and placed in the image. We have a basic colour scheme of black, purple and white, which is shown in the background, the colour of the jaguars and Lily's clothes.

Textual Analisis

Kerrang magazine is a world wide magazine for all ages who are into the not so mainstream tunes, mainly rock music. The mast head ' Kerrang' looks as if it’s damaged like smashed glass, suggesting a rougher magazine for people who like to hear it as it is. The biggest headline on the page is roughly the same size as the mast head, this is used to advertise the content a lot better than having smaller headlines added to the main headline. It’s the image of the band which takes up most of the magazine, this is really effective in advertising as they do this every week of the most popular bands or albums out to the public, or some new material from bands.

Questionair for music magazine

Are you male or female?

How old are you?

Do you read any music magazines at the moment?

If so, which ones?

What do you think would be a good genre to focus a magazine on?
Rock, Dance(If so should it be a specific section eg. drum and bass, hardstyle, dubstep)

What do you think would be a good name for a your chosen genre's magazine?

What stories do you think a music magazine should cover?
New bands, Gigs, Big bands, Album/single reviews, other....suggest

How much would you be willing to pay for the magazine?
£1, £1.50, £2.50 Other... suggest

How often do you think a magazine such as this should be produced?
weekly, fortnightly, monthly

Foundation Portfolio: Preliminary Research – Comparing Music Magazines

Magazine	Price and no. of pages in magazine	Section of magazine and no. of pages per section	Sample of advertising	Typical articles (give example headings ect)
The Source	£3.95 96 pages	6 sections	Fila clothing Neff clothing COGNAC Bump patrol Colgate	‘Ear to the music’- ‘in’ music Arts & Culture Buyers guide – new clothing
Kerrang	£2.50 70 pages	7 sections	Shockwaves	Name of bands Live interviews?reviews
Q	£3.90 178 pages	4 sections	Beer Head and Shoulders	Name of bands
Big Cheese	£3.90 102 pages	Regular (40 pages) King Size (62 pages	Famous band on front cover	“Paramore Vs the world” “my chemical romance, live and dangerous”

Brief

The brief is to create a music magazine that includes a front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Actionplan for music magazine

3.1.11 - Action plan and brief
10.1.11 - Magazine comparison, textual analysis
17.1.11 - Textural analysis, audience questionnaire and poll
24.1.11 - Internet research on readership figures, treatmment sheet
31.1.11 - Font and cover analysis, photo shoot
7.2.11 - Photo shoot, page layouts
14.2.11 - Drafting, final pages and feeback
21.2.11 - Half Term
28.2.11 Evaluation
7.3.11 - Deadline

Finished for now :)