Institution

Publishing is the act of creating a piece of literature in order for the information conatined to be made available for the public to view. The way in which the Publishing industry is organised today is a problem. It is similar to that of the music industry. A small number of companies control a very large number of magazines. By doing this, it means that the amount of choice available is limited. Also, the style in which magazines are made is repeated and copied across to other magazines. A prime example of this is from the publishing group Bauer. Two magazines made by the company are TV Choice and TV Quick. These two magazines are almost identical on first look and contain very similar stories.

Another way this is evidenced is through the publishing group IPC media. There most popular magazine is the NME, however, this is not all they produce. Whilst being reknowned for owning one of the UK's most popular music magazines, this group produce magazines for almost any reader. Ranging from "What's on TV" to "Rugby World" even to "Practical Boat Owner". This shows just how large publishing companies such as IPC media have become. Also, it shows the problem at hand. Tehse corporations are controlling almost every well read magazines available, making it impossible for indie magazines to survive. The large companies have the money to get interviews, travel to far locations for holiday magazines and produce thousands of copies of the magazines they create.

The consequences of this Publishing structure are already evident. It is causing the magazines that we read to become generic advertisement ridden creations. Due to the publishing companies becoming so large and owning so many magazines, they are more interested in profitability rather then originality.

I would prefer my magazine to be published by a mainstrem publisher. I know that this could cause a lot of advertisement to be added to my magazine, but it will allow for mass appeal as well as a far larger production possibility. Being as how I would have control of the magazine, I would be able to control its appearance and therefore stop it from becoming generic.

Main Production Planning: Initial Ideas Collage

Here is a collage of images and fonts that could possibly be used for my magazine. They also connote the general atmosphere my magazine will have as well as the styles that will be used.

Detailed Genre Research

Genre:
Indie / Rock

Audience:
Teens/ low 20’s (16-25)

Title: Kerrang! , The title is meant to sound like a loud guitar strum, a noise familiar to almost all of the audience. The magazine is a rock genre, and therefore this fits perfectly.

Style:
White Background, Band photo, Large Bold Sans serif Masthead. Informal. Full of Screamers. Other photos of included stories on the cover. This appeals to the audience because they recognise this is for them, the brand is established and the bands incldued are relevant.

Content:
Band news for example: latest updates, information on up and coming bands etc. Gig reviews- a Rating system is used for all reviews from 1K-5K’s, 5K’s being the highest. Album reviews-again, a K rating is given, future concerts and festivals and information on bands involved. Interviews with band members including information on gear, their opinions on concerts and plans for the future. The appeals to the audience because it is not overwhelming, it keeps things simple and allows the magazine to seem informal.

Mode of address:
Informal, casual, laidback, informative but not overwhelming, comedic. This is appealing to the audience because it is as if the magazine is speaking to the reader in a language that they use, rather the sophisticated and over complicated use of language.

Photographs: Band Photos, Fan photos, Album Covers, Concert photos. All photos are related to the music/musicians/fans and is almost all positively supporting them.

Publisher: BAUER. Other magazines Produced by this company include : Woman’s world, InTouch Weekly, J-14 etc.

Genre: Rock/Indie

Audience: Teens/Low 20's (16-25)

Title: NME stands for New Musical Express. The title is very old and reknown, however, abbreviating makes it sound more modern, as well as sounding very similar to the word Enemy.

Style: White background, The masthead is in bold red writing, with a white/black bored, also it is in sans serif. The magazine contains less screamers then Kerrang! possibly because it has been around for a much longer period of time and is keeping with its traditional conventions. Also far less pictures are used and the cover seems more formal. This is appealing to the audience as it does not seem immature and also appeals to the long term fans who have read the magazine since the beginning.

Content: Music/Band News this would include information on band updates, album releases etc. Their is also a Review section including personal opinions on new music, gigs and albums/songs. The Radar section of the magazine releases information on new bands and music that has recently been released. A band index is often included on the contents page along the left hand side as a reference to bands included int he magazine and the pages that they appear on. This appeals to the audience because it is exactly why people buy the magazine. It has relevent information and interesting articles.

Mode of Address: Whilst this magazine is also laid back it is slightly less informal and keeps with its traditional conventions. It is more informative then Kerrang! . This is probably because it is aimed at a more broad audience.


Photographs: Band Photos, Performance photos, artist photos, album covers, fan photos. Almost all photos are related to the music that the magazine is based upon, except the occasional articles on such things as "The Mighty Boosh". The pictures are normally related to positive and informative articles about musicians and bands.

Publisher: IPC. Other magazines produced by this publisher include: Guitar, Uncut, Ships Monthly, Photographer etc.


Genre: Indie/Rock as well as Metal/Emo

Audience: Low 20s/Teens (18-25)

Title: Losing Today. This title fits in well with the magazine genre. It is a fairly appropriate name and will please the emo fans of the magazine.

Style: Large Bold Masthead. It is a Sans Serif font and is White. The colour scheme is yellow, black and white. This is reinforced by the MCU on the cover, which is taken in a yellow lighting. The magazine does not contain loads of screamers and seems to be more sophisticated then Kerrang!. Perhaps this is to appeal to the Emo audience who do not need loads of screamers. This Cover seem sto be a happy medium between kerrang! and NME, it has more photos then NME, but less screamers then Kerrang!, giving an informal feel with a formal layout, something that my magazine will mimic.

Content: The cover seems to mainly cover information on bands. For example, it simply has a band name, then a slogan or quote. This could possibly be album names, with information being included inside, but due to the fact that most of these bands are very small, or possibly independent, I am unable to tell. However, i think this will appeal to the audience as they will undertsand what is meant by it. Also, there is information on new artists and musicians.


Mode of Address: This cover seems to address the audience in almost poetic nature at some points, using sophisticated language and use of words. For example, one of he titles is: "JESSICA BAILIFF: Tales from a Beautiful Soul". The title seems very elegant and poetic and will be very appealing to the Emo section of the audience.

Photographs: The main Photograph on the cover is an MCU of a female artist. She is a yellowish ligthing to follow the colour scheme of the whole cover. The other photos on the cover are all band photos, they are arranged along the bottom of the cover in a formal style. All the bands that are included in the photos are all related to the genres of the magazine and will therefore be an aappealing feature of the magazine to its readers.

Publisher: It is an indie music magazine and is therefore published by the fans, also known as a "Fanzine". This is probably why the magazine is less popular then the likes of Kerrang! or NME. This also means that this is the only magazine produced by this group of people.

Evaluation

I believe that my magazine uses several methods to convey its genre to its audience. By Including relevent stories to a young audience it will attract readers of that age group to the read content that the magazine contains. The stories included on the front cover would normally attract students in the age group of 16-21. It includes information that is helpful, as well as media based information for entertainment purposes.
The ways in which my product is similar to that of other real magazine mainly concern layout. My Masthead is large and eye catching to the reader to hook them into the magazine. Also it is short and simple, not over complicated. Most magazines in the media today have a simple one word masthead, just like we have tried to include in ours. We used a Sans serif font as we discovered when doing media reasearch, magazines that use serif font are often aimed at older or more sophisticated audiences. The main sell of our magazine takes up more space then any other story on the cover, this is done for a specific reason. The main sell is the most important and valuable story in the magazine that can be seen on the cover, therefore it needs to attract the most attention. An example of this would be Kerrang! magazine, this magazine was a large influence on our cover. Also, we used screamers as this is often a way of attracting audiences in real media products. A large MCU of one of us is also used on the cover of the magazine, we used photoshop to make the photo more appealing to the reader of the magazine, this is often done in the magazine industry to make celebrities more attractive to the reader.


Our contents page also tends to develop and use conventions of real media products rather then challenge them. However, we included an unusual layout to our contents page. The bottom half that contained info included 4 columns, where as the top half included to grid or column layout, this was done purposely to create an informal feel to the magazine and also make it easy for the reader to find certain stories easily. Below the pictures we included a main title, i.e. Snap, crackle etc, followed by Coverlines and their straplines. We made sure that each column of information followed the last in chronological order of the magazine because when conducting our research we found that pretty much every magazine listed their stories in page order. Also, at the same time as this, we listed the stories so that related stories were contained into the same columns, and close to each other in the magazine to keep the magazine organised. The use of bright Masthead's followed by the same colour being used for page numbers in that column was used to add consistancy to the magazine and is often used in media products, for example the Column titled "Crackle" has a blue masthead, as well as blue page references. A similar style of layout could be seen in Clash Magazine.

The audience my magazine would be aimed at would be in the age group of 16-25. It includes information on such things as, top places top places to go clubbing and new technology. These kind of stories would concern younger audience members. Also, the magazine is mainly male orientated and has information for men on women to convey this. By having an informal style to the magazine i am appealing to the social values of Hedonists, who our magazine is aimed at. The magazine is aimed to be fun and enjoyable to readers and include information that is relevant rather then strongly educational. Also, we hoped to include Post-modernists as well in our target audience. On the Jicnar Scale I feel that our audience would fall into the C2/D categories. Our magazine is not aimed at a sophisticated A/B audience, and the information included shows this. The magazine is aimed at Carers and Underachievers. Carers would be targeted because they are interested in the environement, and what is going on in the world, our magazine includes information on new technology and vehicles and would therefore be appealing to cares. Underachievers would be interested because the content contained contained is laid back and there isn't an overhwleming amount of information.

To attract the audience we used several different tools and devices. Our colour scheme for the front cover was one of the most important aspects to decide. We choose colours such as Red, White and Black for a specific reason. The magazine is designed to target male readers and these colours connote Stength and Masculinity. By making the colours more powerful, it will seem more appealing to mean rather then women. Also, the stories included all connote Fun and enjoyment. This is a very important part of the magazine. By connoting these meanings, we will be attracting the people with the right Social values and from the correct psychographic groups. The contents page includes brighter colours then he front page. We felt at this point the male readers will already be attracted, and now it was the correct point to attract audience members who are hedonists or post modernists. Bright colours also connote fun and happiness, making them the perfect choice to appeal to these social values. The puff on our front cover connotes youth, perfect for the target age group of 16-25. By mentioning it is a college magazine, readers can see that it is aimed at younger audience members, mainly students.

There have been three new types of technology that I have learnt a lot about since doing this project. The first is how to use an SLR camera properly. It allowed me to take an effective MCU for the front cover, that was in proper focus. Also, i learned how to use the photoshop software. It allowed me to create a front cover that is attractive an appealing to my target audience. By using photoshop, i was able to edit the MCU that was taken. I was able to edit out spots and blemishes on the person's face. As well as this, photoshop made it simple for me to add text and postion/edit it to my exact specifications. The final programme I learned about was Quarkexpress. This is the programme that I used to create my contents page. I learned how to create, move and edit both picture and text boxes, as well as how to add pictures and text to them. Also, I was able to create a proper layout for the page and was able to create shapes and designs to add to it.
Websites I have used include blogger, and several other sites. Blogger has allowed me to keep all of my work organised and up to date. Also, it has allowed me to access and edit my work that I have already submitted to the website with ease, making it very useful. Google was also used to search for pictures, and information constantly throughout the production of my cover and contents page. "www.dafont.com" was also used to download new and original fonts for my cover so that my design did not look standard and boring. Overall, I would say that the technology that i used was very useful. It helped me to access information I would not be able to reach without the use of the internet. Also, without the computer programmes Photoshop and Quark express my magazine would look no where near as effective as it does. The technology used to keep track of my work (blogger) has allowed me to keep organised and plan my work effectively.

Music Magazine Initial Research

Guitarist Magazine:

Genre: Rock/Indie

Audience Profile: The magazine is aimed at Middle aged men. In my opinion they will be hedonists or traditionalists due to their enthusiasm for classic rock. I believe on they Jicnar scale, a typical fan of this magazine would fall into either the B or C1 categories.

Appealing Features: The cover contains three famous and reknown guitarists that will be very popular with the readers. Also it has reviews of several new products that will help the reader to know which is the best choice. The use of screamers also will make the cover appealing to the reader. Free give aways such as guitar lessons are relevent to the reader and will therefore ad a massive selling point.

Record Collector:

Genre: Mainstream/Traditional guitar music

Audience Profile: This magazine is aimed at older aged men. In my opinion they will, again be hedonists or traditionalists. On the Jicnar scale a typical fan would also be in the B or C1 categories.

Appealing features: The Main sell for the magazine is all about Queen, possibly one of the most well reknowned guitar bands ever. It contains a large band photo that takes up the whole page in sepia, a colour often recognised as nostalgic, appealing to the traditionalist readers. Also, a feature at the top magazine featuring Britpop Collectable Records will also appeal to the traditionalist readers.

Gramophone:

Genre: Classical

Audience Profile: This magazine is aimed at both genders, but they would be older then those audiences of the other 2 magazines. The readers would be traditionalists and carers. On the jicnar scale they will fall into the A/B catergories.

Appealing Features: The MCU on this cover is of Beethoven, one of the most reknowned composers ever. This is also the main sell of the magazine and would be very appealing to the consumer. The use of a simple blue background is also useful as it does not fill the page with images ratehr then information. The use of information over images would strongly appeal to the traditionalists.

Mixmag:

Genre: Dance

Audience Profile: This magazine is aimed at a teenage audience, possibly male orientated. The audience would be hedonists or post modernists and fall into the C1/C2 or D categories of the Jicnar scale.

Appealing Features: The front cover contains fire, birght colours and an appealing image of a famous DJ. These features would hook in any teenage reader that is interested in dance music. Also, the information contained is not overwhelming. It is about new music and music technology attracting post modernists.

Contents Page

Front cover

Connotations

"Semi-formal"- This could be denoted by the use of language for the magazine. Keeping coverlines short and to the point. Using language that is relative to the target audience of teenagers

"Entertaining" - This can be denoted by including information that is useful and interesting. Add flashy bright titles to catch the audience's eye. The main masthead will do this by being written in a bright colour on a darker background, making it eye catching.

"Useful" - This can be denoted by keeping the information contained on the cover and in the contents page relevant to the reader i.e. keeping the information based on the genre of the magazine.

"Youth" - By keeping up the connotation of "Semi - formal" this will help when denoting "Youth". Also, this can be denoted by keeping the MCU of a student, showing the reader it is for people of their age. Also,, this can be done by using Sans Serif, rounded fonts.

"Fun" - The articles involved in the magazine will be what denote "fun". Also, by including a freebie, this will make the magazine more "Fun" and interesting.

Magazine Colour Scheme

Main background colour = Grey
Font colour = Maroon/White
Reversed Out Colour = Red/Black or Yellow

College magazines

1. "The Eye"-Leisham College

Main sell - Written in Sans Serif and denotes a very bright/vivid yellow colour that attracts the reader to look.

Masthead - The mast head denotes the Magazine title in a Sans Serif font in black font colour.

The Picture on the front cover is an MCU of a singer from a band, it denotes a young person with a microphone, who appears to be shouting or singing into it.

2. "Shattered"

The Mast Head is a black colour with black smudges behind. This denotes it's informal.

The main picture ont he front of the magazine is of three teenagers dressed like 'Radicals. This denotes that the magazine is 'Radicals' as well.

The magazine also has freebies. In this magazine the freebie is posters. This will attract readers to buy the magazine as they feel they will get something more our of it.

Another way the producers of this magazine have tried to attract more customers is with several screamers. This makes the magazine stand out.

3."EDGE!"

The mast head for this

magazine is written in Sans Serif font and also contains a screamer. By using bright red as the font colour and large bold font it atracts the reader to look. Its also on a white background making it stand out even further.

Freebies are also included in this magazine and posters are what is up for offer.

The Picture on the front is an MCU and denotes a young blonde haired girl with blue eyes. She is looking directly at the camera with an angry or distressed expression.

The barcode has also been included as well as a cover price of £2.10.

Several screamers are included on the cover giving it an informal style that shouts out to the reader.

Audience Profile

You are interested in being up to date with college news
You prefer information to flashy pictures
You would like the magazine to be fun and informal, rather then standard and plain
You don't see the appeal in freebies
Local areas interest you more then foreign countries
Your entertainment tastes are typical for a teenager
You still rely on parental funding
You like things that keep you occupied
Comedy is a favourable genre to you
You fall into the c1 category of Jicnars scale
You are a Hedonist

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