Magazines In the 21st century are typically very glossy and well rounded magazines. They use simple colours very effectively to capture our attention and persuade us to buy them. They have a main focus on the front cover and that main story is meant to make us the consumer, buy it and especially the lead story is to attract the magazines target audience.
In my magazine I have tried to incorporate some of those features into my own magazine. The genre I have chosen for my magazine is indie music. The most popular magazine in indie music is NME magazine. NME uses very simple colours and has an edgy style which makes it stand out form other magazines. I have tried to use that sort of idea for my own magazine so it looks professional and glossy but has a sharpness to it that makes it stand out from the crowd.
House Styles
This is an example of my house style colours. I have decided that red and black will be my house style and use a certain neon font which I found on the internet to make the title stand out. I think the house style is full of prime colours to catch the readers attention and also to make it stereotypically indie by using red and black which can connote blood and evil but could be positive like lust and passion as well as naughtiness.
Grid System
I have used the grid system in my pages as I feel it makes the page look organised and professional and I feel by using this my readers may take the magazine more seriously and become proper competition to the market leader NME.
Fonts
I have kept my font style the same throughout the magazine so that continuity is pleasing and I have only changed font to make certain things stand out when appropriate. I fell that the reader will find this pleasing and is done by practically all other magazines as it becomes stereotypical I feel I should follow the stereotype.
Image Meaning
I have used images and little anchors below them to indicate the title or point I am making for instance, I have an image of a band at a live gig to represent the live section of my magazine which I feel splits the magazine up properly and leaves no blank spaces.
Techniques
I have used selling lines and quotes to sell my product. For instance on the front cover I have used a headline to quote a genre icon saying something controversial which I think makes the magazine more attractive to the audience. Another reason I have chosen to use these points and lines is that I can give a quick summary to the audience and allow them to make their mind up as to whether they want to buy my magazine or not.
Layout
I chose the colours I have chosen because they are stereotypical of my genre and I feel that using this simple link will please my audience subconsciously and attract them to my product. I have used a generic layout for my front cover which I have edited and I feel that they will be familiar with this layout as I don’t want to take my audience out of their comfort zone as it will be difficult to keep their interest If I change the stereotypical layout to much.
Challenged conventions
In my magazine I have challenged a few conventions of the indie music scene. I have heavily edited thee front image with techniques and colour which would normally not be done as in indie magazines pale faced people generally stare at the camera looking cold. I decided to make my image stand out and make it break out and double to look strange but familiar and I feel this image will stand out in the diluted crowd.
Social groups
My magazine amplifier is representing mainly indie social group. It can out stretch to “emo” culture and also to “dance” culture. I have chosen to represent these groups because I feel that there I s a niche I can create and infuse a little bit of happiness into the otherwise glum world of indie magazines. All of my groups are people generally in their teens but almost adults so most probably still in education but higher education.
Publishers
There are 3 main publishers that I would consider to publish my magazine. Haymarket, IPC and Bauer media group.
I have selected Bauer media group because they have a successful history with music magazines with Kerrang and Q magazine. Kerrang has a circulation of 43.000 magazines whilst Q has one of 35.000, Kerrang may be regarded as the biggest music magazine in the UK as I has the biggest circulation. I would consider Bauer because of their large success with music magazines but choosing Bauer may mean my magazine is pushed to the back of the rack so to speak so I wouldn’t choose them although I feel they would want my magazine and its audience as they have partially covered this market but have a lot of gaps.( http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Kerrang/ ) and (http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q/ )
I have also selected IPC as a possible candidate for publishing because they have a long history of music magazines their most popular being NME. This magazine is the market leader in the indie magazine genre with a circulation of 41.000. I would consider them because of their monopoly on the audience and I feel my magazine could be added to that. Again though I feel my magazine will get pushed back and will be a failure if I were to choose these publishers. (http://www.ipcmedia.com/brands/nme/)
The final publishers I have selected is Haymarket. Haymarket is a very large publishing company but has no music magazines which target my audience so I feel that if I were to choose them I may be able to make a lot of money and get a large readership for my magazine. Haymarket have a lot of experience of dealing with my audience age but not for the music for FourFourTwo which will have a similar readership only about football and will have similar readership profile. So I will decide to go with Haymarket to publish my magazine and I feel they would be very happy to include my target audience into their audience. ( http://www.haymarket.com/home.aspx)
Audience
My audience is comprised of people who are in their teens so 15-24 but this can stretch as the readership will increase as the magazine gains more prestige. Most of the readers of the magazine will still be in some sort of higher education which means they will have a grasp on some of the more thought provoking articles than your average reader. They follow the profile of indie kids but rigidly though as the magazine can access those of different core groups such as rockers and dance. I did some questionnaires in which I quizzed those who fit into this social group and my results showed that they were open to my ideas and preferred band music than any other. The questionnaires allowed me to ask to probing personnel questions without the audience knowing so they responded honestly when asked. They are an upbeat well educated young people who do want to be successful but their musical and fun loving sides may hinder their success. They are completely suitable for my magazine as they have the same musical taste and this will allow like minded reporting to wrap up the audience and become a very successful competitor to NME and KERRANG. Amplifiers readers are passionate about music and as a result of their close relationship with the site content they are far more responsive to advertising. Whether they are more positively disposed towards brands that they see as supporting their favourite site or accessing advertising that they see as particularly relevant to them and their lifestyles they are 33% more likely than average to have taken action as a result of seeing an advertisement on the site which means that my advertisers are likely to pay a lot in order to engage my audience. I think my target audience will appreciate this magazine and feel it gives them the stories and information that they want.
Technology's
In creating this magazine I have used a lot of different technology's. The initial technology I used was a computer. I used the internet and other sources to look at previous magazines front covers and different sources to find the competition and examples. I also used digital cameras to take the photos which i used in my magazine and edited using photo shop on the computer. I used photo shop to put together my magazine. The technology i have used has made making and creating my magazine much more easily than would ever been possible without. The computers and technology make creating the magazine an easy task with the ability to save and edit as well as create new images and data to make the magazine very professional. Convergence in technology has made taking a photo and uploading it immediately a possibility and this saves time and money from anywhere in the world so it helps in the modern day. Since i have begun creating this task i have greatly increased my ability on the computer and using specialist programmes such as photoshop and i will be able to apply these skills to anything else i create using photoshop in the future.
Product
When compared to my preliminary work my final piece looks vastly better. It includes edited images which i have worked on and would not of been able to do during my preliminary work. When i look at my college magazine it is very cluttered an looks very unprofessional but when i look at my music magazine i see a professionally done piece of work which feel would not look out of place at the newsagents. During this task i have learnt to position and select an appropriate camera angle and image composition. I have learnt the importants of proper research and development as i feel a properly planned magazine will follow a solid theme and be consistent throughout. I have learnt how to write an effective piece of journalism and also to create something with a certain audience in mind.
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