Planning front cover and contents page

Research into the music magazine industry

NME

History:
1960'S

• The NME peaked under Andy Gray, Editor 1957–1972, with a figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964.The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover.
• The paper became engaged in a sometimes tense rivalry with its fellow weekly music paper Melody maker  however, NME sales were still strong with the paper selling as many as 200,000 issues per week.

1970'S

• NME had lost the battle Melody Maker, as NME failed to keep up with social demands such as the new popular rock music.

1980'S

• In the 1980s, the NME became the most important music paper in the country. This became popular because in the 1980'S it was available to readers by mail order at a low price.
• Sales were dropping, and by the mid-1980s, NME had hit a rough patch and was in danger of closing. This is because arguments were developing about what genre of music to present in the magazine.

1990'S

• By the end of 1990, the Madchester scene was dying off, and NME had started to report on new bands coming from the US. These bands would form a new movement called grunge and by far the most popular bands were Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
• Although the period from 1991 to 1993 was dominated by American bands like Nirvana, British bands were not ignored. The NME still covered the Indie scene and was involved with a war of words with a new band called Manic Street Preachers who were criticising the NME for what they saw.

2000'S

• In 2000 Steve Sutherland left to become brand director of the NME, and was replaced as editor by 26-year-old Melody Maker.
• In May 2008 the magazine received a redesign, aimed at an older readership. The first issue of the redesign featured a free seven-inch Coldplay vinyl single. Circulation of the magazine has fallen continuously since 2003. In the second half of 2013, the magazine's circulation was 19,491 down from a 2003 figure of 72,442.

2015

• In February 2015 it was reported that the NME was in discussions about removing the cover price and becoming a free publication.

Target Audience

• Mainly men between 17- 30 years old.

Circulation Figures

• In July 2015 the circulation was 15,000

Professional Music magazines analysis

Premilinary Task Powerpoint by jordan fulbrook

Contents Page, Feature article and Front cover analysis

Magazine Powerpoint Analysis

Premlinary task evaluation

 

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

 

 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media project is a football magazine aimed at Football fans this is because From my front cover you can also see that there is football fans on the front cover therefore you can indicate from this that the magazine is more suited for the customers that enjoy watching or playing football particularly Males, in my magazine I have included Football Tips where readers can learn how to strike the ball hard and accurate. I haven't used a cover star but I have added an image that shows snippets of one of my articles in the magazine.

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

Stockley Academy would be my main distributer because my magazine is a Stockley Academy Magazine, the students my magazine is targeted at is mainly ones based at Stockley Academy however, I have tried to promote my magazine to Newsagents as well because then my younger market then have the opportunity to purchase my magazine therefore meaning that I have more potential customers buying my magazine.

 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My Media product is aimed at young/Teenage Boys who are interested in football and the latest rumours around transfers and also how to kick the ball better this is shown by my front cover because I have an interview stating how the readers can kick the ball better, another way I highlight that my magazine is for children and younger teenagers is because they have the chance to win Match Attacks which usually younger people collect these football cards instead of older people.

 

How did you attract your customers?

 

One way I attracted my customers was by using pugs, pugs makes words stand out for readers and indicate the content of the magazine, the effect of this is that tells the customers what they are getting in the magazine and this is effective because the customer may buy the magazine as the contents inside is the thing they want plus it adds value for them.

Another way I attracted my customers was by using pull quotes the effect of pull quotes is that they pull the reader in this is because if the reader can see a small indication of what is on the front cover then they would carry on reading and see that they want to know what else is said in the magazine so then they would buy the magazine.

The final way I attracted customers was by using a big masthead the effect of using a big bold headline that catches the reader’s attention, the effect of this is positive because if the reader is attracted to the magazine then they would be more eager to purchase the magazine.

What have you learnt from the technological program?

I have learnt many things when using the technological program, one skill I learnt was learning how to use a desktop publishing program to create a magazine. In addition I have learnt many different techniques that have helped me to create a magazine such as different paragraph styles and also how to insert pictures in the correct manner.

Another asset I learnt was how to use Photoshop and once I done this I could edit pictures which can delete the background so then you just have your main cover star.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt?

one thing I feel that I learnt is that I can take skills such as using Photoshop from my preliminary task into my music magazine to make it look more professional to make my magazine look as professional as it can be.

 

Granite sheet

Preliminary task Magaine Content page analysis

Alongside analysing the two different magazine covers I also made a decision to analysis contents pages as this would give me a insight of the types of conventions that I would have to include in order to make my preliminary task look professional. The first contents page that I looked at was the NME music magazine.

 

 

 

 I have now decide to analyse another magazine contents and this time I have decide to analyse Vibe magazine which features Kanye West, I decided to analyse two magazines so it gives me more knowledge of what different codes and conventions each magazine possesses.  

 

 

 

After analysing external contents pages I then had to analyse my contents page from my preliminary task, a reason for this is because I can look at what I done well and what I can improve on and make these improvements on my music magazine.