How would/did you attract/address your audience?

Looking back at your preliminary task (the College Magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Original Hand Drawn Designs:

Who would be the audience for your media product?

What kind of Media institution might distribute your Media Product and why?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

Audience Research

College Magazine Questionnaire Results: College Students

65% of the Gender that answered the Questionnaire was female.

95% didn’t know or weren’t interested in the College Magazine as of the Questionnaire. A poor result that would need to drastically change for my Magazine.

Colours that attracted the Students and were chosen the most were; Blue, Black, White, Red, Green and Yellow. These colours will be mainly used for the design and for the Magazine itself.

The majority of Students voted that they’d be willing to pay nothing or 50p for the College Magazine, combining together to get 85% of the vote.

70% picked Monthly or every Half Term as their opinion as to when they think the Magazine should be published. Meaning that if published Monthly, there would be 10 Issues or if it was published every half term there would be 6 Issues.

 50% chose that they would prefer the house choice to be informal, while closely 40% wanted a Mixture of Informal and Formal with only 10% wanting it to be just Formal. To attract more Audience, the Magazine could have 75% Informal and 25% Formal pages to attract the “Mixed” Audience.

“College Trips” and “Music” were the 2 Topics chosen the most to be part of what should be in the Magazine. But, “Free Gifts”, “Sport”

College Magazine Image

Best Original Photos

My personal favorite images I had captured for my Magazine, all three were used for my Magazine and these are the original images. I was surprised how well the photos looked and linked in with my
60's themed magazine, considering I wasn't sure how I was going to add/capture Primary Observations.

Contact Sheet of Original Photographs

Mood Boards

Information on Magazine Publishers

Overview of Magazine Industry

AS Media – Magazine Industry

While researching and gathering information for my magazine, I have been learning about the Magazine Industry generally. In Particular, Magazine Companys like Time Inc (Previously IPC)  who is owned by Time Warner and magazines a like are who I have been reading and researching about.

As an industry, it’s highly demanded with a high popularity of readers wanting separate Magazines that each intrest those audiences. Time Warner is a multi-national buisness that own Time Inc and publish the magazine. This helps Time Inc with profits, money and advertisement oppotunitys to help grow the magazine itself not just for the Audience but for other companies.

Previously named IPC, the brand dates back to around the early 60s (Specifically 1963) when the International Publishing Corporation was created that was a holding company for the famous “The Mirror” Newspaper, thus creating numerous amounts of the UK’s Biggest magazine publishers. 5 years later, the IPC/Time Inc magazines were introduced to the Magazine market. As one of the most popular Magazine Companies, the decline of published magazine has hit hard mainly for the fact that Technology has become such a phenomenon in the world that now you can watch and view magazine via technology rather than by paper magazine that you would buy online. Although this has been a major hit to the magazine industry, Time Inc is still working well and fully functinal but there is no doubt that there is a worry that the Industry may completely crash because of such a rapid loss of marketting, especially as it was reported in August 2014 Time Inc had made $32 Million net loss. Again this was all mainly to do with technology, the beginning of the losses started when the Internet was first introduced in which NME launched NME.com as computers were starting to majorly affect the industry. Another downfall was when Custom consumer products were introduced, things such as Magazine created by the public itself that were put online and were readable for free was a huge difference maker as this allowed people to be creative, unique and experimental without having a huge profit loss, it was a genuine no lose situation which alerted the bigger companies that had to make a big difference to their Magazines.  Furthermore, social networks have exploded through the years, it seems as if most Magazines have gone out of fashion and Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter and especially Youtube (For blogging and posting videos) has set the bar that Magazine Companies have needed to reach or beat. Ironically though, these Social Networks have been a treat to companies like Time Inc/NME as this allowed them for the public to speak their opinion on what should be changed, improved and what is liked/disliked meaning the  Magazines could be improved  via the Social Network. In general, technology has worked in both ways, for good and for bad.

Even though these big hits in losses have happened, Time Warner (Formely AOL) are huge company that are cope well with these losses as they companies such as Warner Bros, the huge Kids programme “Cartoon Network”, IPC Media and of course Time Magazine itself. This allows them to make up these losses by benefiting with advertisements on the cross companies which can influence and attract lots of audiences from different companies that Time Warner own. This spreads the awareness of the Magazine in the hope of more sales, a clever way of invested companies helping out others such as Time Inc. Unfortunately though, with this in mind this still doesn’t always solve the case, it may mend it but it does completely heal the losses. Confirmation of the Magazine Industry was noticed when reports of Time Warner wanting to sell their share of the Magazine Companies but the deal fell through because of a disagreement.

This all entitles to one question, is the Magazine Industry close to dying out or is it slowly dying out? And will the Magazine Industry ever be as popular as it use to be?

Various companies are still on the decline so the answer is looking more inevitable or may be Magazines will have to start being published online rather than being sold as paper prints. 

Contents Page - Analysis 2

Contents Page Analyse - Kerrang

Similarly to the front cover, the colours scheme is just like on the front cover using Black, Yellow, Red, white and little bit blue as the noticeable colours used in the Contents Page. The images used are placed on one side allowing information to be on the other side for it to be a lot easier to read and look at, the main band “All Time Low” covers most of the space that wouldn’t be used while it makes them the first thing you look at when you read this Page. Along with the images, on the bottom left is the editors letter that fits just beneath the “All Time Low” photo, it was possibly placed there as a direction of reading the Contents Page (All Time Low > Editors Letter> Feedback). Commonly, the fonts are practically the same with the shape/size being the only difference to suit each section of the Contents Page. On the bottom right is the subscription section of the page, as mentioned it uses the only real noticeable Blue, this is to stand out from all the other colours such as Yellow, Black and White which allows the Subscription box to be eye catching and help them advertise their product (magazine) to their audience of Kerrang Readers. Subscription are mainly targeting people who enjoy reading the magazine, they get them to pay a larger fee just to get the year worth of “Kerrang” usually coming up to a few pounds less than what a normal reader may pay if they were to get every issue without subscribing. In particular, this Kerrang copy is mixture of different artists and bands but for the Contents Page it is mainly focusing on “All Time Low” but the issues are focusing on not just one band usually its of many Bands and Artists that are further in to the Magazine. The right hand-side informs people of what is in this issue and as noted, there are other bands/artist such as My Chemical Romance, Corey Taylor, Asking Alexandria and so forth, therefore this (Features-Regulars) contains others and expands the Audience Kerrang are targeting. 

Contents Page - Analysis 1

In The Mix – Contents Page Analyse

With only one image dominating half of the Contents Page, it leaves the other with all the information of the articles and what is in the magazine itself. The image attracts the audience as 50 Cent is one of the most known rappers of the last few years, that and the fact he’s part of one of the main articles in this issue. All the main Artists are labelled in bold, black font as well as being larger than the little information of what the article/page is about beneath it. The font is all the same except from the title which is the original title/masthead of the Magazine so that is a separate Font. Only 3 colours stand out on this page; Black, Red and White – All these colours are bold and link together well, red can be noticeable whether the colour behind it is Black or White, while the B+W clash but commonly work well.  There are no signs of a subscription section on this page, this possibly means that its on the front cover or on another, may be the Magazine doesn’t allow you to subscribe even though it’s a monthly published magazine that could be helpful for readers if they could subscribe. Either way, there isn’t any noticeable subscription section on this Contents Page. Overall, the simplicity of the layout design is useful especially making it easier for the readers to pick out a certain page if need be (the numbers next to the Artists and titles make it easy for audiences to spot out what they want to read) which is something that a contents page is for. 

Full Analysis of One Music Magazine

Q Magazine – Music Magazine Analysis

Q Magazine is a brand that is now published by Bauer Media, beginning 1986 as the first issue was released Q Magazine has become increasingly one of the most popular Music Magazines out there. The changes to the magazine have noticeable but the Logo of “Q” has always been the same apart from when they originally began with the name “Cue” but it was mistaken for snooker. The design is a lot more professional and the design has a better layout now it is “Q” with the name being simple too. In the first few issues of Q Magazine, there was always more than one photo on the front cover and the colours were quite dull in comparison to the bold colours used in these up to date front covers. Having just one photo as on the front cover has been around quite a bit for Q Magazine, but there were always more than one photo’s in the front cover which reminded me of a newspaper front cover more than a magazine front cover. Q Magazine tries to focus the one image on the main article and artist, for example like the magazine cover on the left it is a special edition of Amy Winehouse one year after her death. Leading on from Artists, Q Magazine focus on mainly Pop and Rock music, but will feature recent music that is appealing or is big in the news/media. There is no age limit to the magazine, it’s not like Q Magazine are focusing on just certain amount of people they are more building an audience that would read the magazine that like Rock and Pop but are interested in new, popular releases and stories in the world.  At one point, Q had their own TV Channel which at the time was popular, but slowly it died off and has been removed off TV since July 3^rd, 2012. But, they still perform their “Q Awards” that has been running yearly since 1999, awarding stars through the years for various titles – Those winners included Artists such as Jessie J, Kasabian, Blur and Robbie Williams. Along with that, they do have a website ( qthemusic.com ) that gives you an insight of latest videos, competitions, access to knowing what is in the latest magazine issue and various columns too. It’s an interesting website, with everything you need its quite professional and keep to the theme of the magazine with the dominant black, white and red as well as the same font too. Social Media is a big part of Q’s marketing, they have accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter. Readers are able to keep up to date with news of Q magazine in various ways, expanding the audience’s availability and choice of looking into Q. Although many are saying that Q Magazine is going downhill, down to their revenue it does seem like this is true. With around 20% of profits and money being lost, it seems that many are considering Q Magazine are slowly on the decline and are unsure on how they may be able to turn that around. But commonly like other magazines, a high proportion of the blame for the decline is that magazines are “out of fashion” which is losing their audience, and while at their prime was a few years back other readers feel that they have grown out of reading Q Magazine.

Magazine Front Cover - Analysis 3

The Monkees Go Mad/Mod – Analyse

This Magazine cover has a very simplistic and easy to read layout, with the masthead covering quite a large portion of the top half with the selling line below, this is all the Magazine provides as information of the articles and the Magazine itself leaving the half as an image of just The Monkees themselves as this Magazine is just about The Monkees and no one else, its their personalised magazine. The Masthead is large in scale with a font that looks like something you’d find on a Circus magazine or poster. It’s interesting that “Mad” has initially been changed to “Mod” which although is confusing as to whether they use Mad or Mod as the correct term for the title, its not a Music magazine as such so it’s a twist for The Monkees magazine rather than advertising music and other bands. Furthermore, it may be short but the selling line beneath the Title is short but straight to the point and relates to what is in the article of “The Monkees Go Mad/Mod”. Ironically the colour scheme works well with the dress colour of the image – Black, Green, Red and Blue are part of the colours used above with the font but are the colours worn by The Monkees’ too. Targeting the audience isn’t so precise for this, there isn’t any cover lines that hit out to certain ages, it’s more to the audience of who like the band as it’s The Monkees magazine, so it’s targeting people who like that band and would read this because it’s just about them. Only a few colours are used but they’re mostly outstanding and bold especially with a lighter colour in the background, this creates an impact with the front cover and generally these colours attract the eye of the audience especially if the Text/Masthead/Selling line is all easy to read. Not every front cover needs more than 5 Colours, especially in the 60s when the trend was using a vast majority of colours in a single cover.  Beneath, on the bottom half of the front cover is a happy photo of what the Magazine is about, with it being the only photo on the cover this allows the main one image to be scaled quite big. People are more willing to buy something that is happy than depressing, the colours in the image being quite pleasing are helpful to the happiness of the magazine too. Along with that, the little Monkees guitar at the bottom is a symbol to show that the image is of “The Monkees” and it breaks up a little bit of the black box right at the bottom. 

Magazine Front Cover - Analysis 2

Flip Teen Magazine – Analyse

Linking to the 60’s era, Hippies were around who wore vibrant/rainbow colours as an influence from Native American, Indian, African, and Latin American motifs and patterns. From the large amount of colours used on this cover, Flip must of targeted young hippies and of course Teens (from the title/masthead). The colours are bold to attract the audience by drawing them in with the variety of colours around the cover, they’re spaced out so dark/light colours don’t dominate the whole front cover. At the time of this Magazine being released, the magazine is aimed at Teens and some adults because of the images being people like The Birds and Sir Paul McCartney, at the time they were extremely popular to most ages but now 40/50 years later this would more be appealing for people that were born in the 60s or earlier rather than teens of now, unless they were in to the 60s Music. The font looks unprofessional in comparison to now, but the font was unique as it was positioned in different ways to fit the shapes while also being bold, relatively large and it’s as if someone had designed the font by hand to be outstanding and noticeable. In the top right hand corner you can notice that the issue was the May edition so this magazine could have been a monthly published. The main articles of this magazine are of interviews of or about the people that are on the magazine cover, while also featuring others that aren’t featured on the cover as an image itself. On the bottom right corner, it’s mentioned about “Meet….Plus More!” this could be considered as a possible competition in the magazine to meet the mentioned bands/singers but the audience must by the magazine to read more creating more attention. In comparison to other 60’s Magazine, a big difference from them to this is that there’s barely any empty space, unlike other front covers most of this cover is covered with either Typography/font text, the hexagons build up a layer with even inside being covered by mainly coloured text or there are images relating to the Articles and Masthead to also cover other parts of the cover. In addition with the font and colours, they are both placed together quite cleverly in the sense that the background of a certain hexagon is always the opposite to the font, for example the red hexagon contain some black to make the smaller sized font stronger but the lighter colours such as White and light blue stand out from a darker background.

Magazine Front Cover - Analysis 1

Song Hits Magazine – Analyse

Professional text/font is used mainly on this magazine, with the exception of the Masthead which looks to be Italic, the fonts are easy to read and look the most professional compared to other magazines that have used rather informal fonts.  The colours are bold and expressive; they are eye catching and link in to the 60’s era with the variety of colours and lack of empty space. The colours are balanced out so that no part of the cover is dominated by a certain tone of colour. This August edition contains various music artists and bands but the main focus is on The Beatles, they are the centre of attention and are one of the possible focal points of the front cover. The photos are small so that it allows the front cover to have more than one image; the choice of one big image to 5 smaller images is a common occurrence with Music magazines in the 60’s. Advertisement of free albums draws in the audience with part of what is in the article beside it “Song hits of today/tomorrow” , it’s positioned directly in between the Masthead and the Beatles photos and songs, this means whoever is interested in the magazine can see what possible articles are inside. The list of songs and artists that are on the cover are there to inform what is the magazine but also to draw in the audience that like listening to the bands or the music, this leading them to want to read and buy the magazine. Mainly, people will want the magazine for The Beatles, meaning the target audience in particular is going to be of any age that likes The Beatles, whom in general were/are very popular so quite a lot of people would be attracted to this magazine. In consideration of other Front Covers of that time, this was one of the well-structured designs as it’s balanced in colour, the masthead is clear and the centre of attention is understandable and easy to spot. Other 60’s magazines are very unique to themselves, whether it may be different forms of shapes plastered together with lots more colour than this front cover (10+ Colours).

Finished Feature Article Double Spread

Finished Contents Page

Finished Magazine Front Cover

"College" Front Cover Analysis

The magazine involves clashing of light and dark tones that help create bold typography, the masthead being a prime example of being dark coloured and being front of a light, blurred background. Standing in the middle the model attracts the eye as a focal point for the Magazine, covering a third of the page leaving empty spaces for the rest of the typography. Readers will want to like the typography and buy into what is being said on the front cover as its one of the main selling points for a front cover. It is easy to read the font and typography as its bold, clear and the colours work well with the rest of the composition. Each major cover line has bigger fonts and is more noticeable as the header for each section is in a dark colour like black with the information under the header being a lighter colour that can still be visible but will still tell the readers what each header is about and what is in the magazine itself.