Contents page progress

The contents page is also complete. However I think I need to change the brightness and contrast of one of the images and I also need to change the photo of the front cover as I have recently made some changes.

Interactivity

Interactivity is becoming more and more important and is becoming an essential if a magazine wants to stay in business as social networking is now largely more popular than paper magazines, because of this many magazines now have their own websites and social networking in order to keep in touch with their readers and draw new customers.

Many magazine editors will use social networking to make the audience feel like they have a say in what goes inside the magazine, for example the editor of Kerrang!, a popular rock genre music magazine often uses Twitter to ask his followers who they think should feature on the front cover of the next issue which makes the readers feel as if they have had an input in the magazine.

In additional many magazines will include a page of fan letters/ fan art/links to videos on these pages the editor will often reply to something the fan has spoke about which makes the fans feel as if they are being listened to and their opinion is important to the magazine. Interactivity can expand a magazines readership and make it look more modern leading to it becoming a popular and well known magazine. 

Bauer Media Group

Podcast

Front cover progress

This could potentially be my final front cover however they're a few things that I am not happy with. for example the font of the main tag line and the drop shadow that is surrounding the text. I feel like it makes the font harder to read so I may be making some improvements

Photos

 

 

 

I am unable to use these photos as the model isn't looking at the camera she has her eyes closed and the lighten isn't right however the angle of the camera is perfect

Front cover progress

 

I have now added an image to the front cover and a puff in the top corner. In order to have the image on a white background I had to use the magic eraser to remove the pervious background. I have used to include a puff to advertise freebies in hope it will attract the readers attention. I made the puff using the shape tool.

Contents page progress

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

To start with I decided to layout how I wanted my contents page to look. Eventually I will replace the pink squares with images. The red squares are where the titles are going to be and the line down the middle separates the two pages, This line wont always be there it is only there for the time being so that I can locate the middle. The black line at the bottom is going to separate the contents from the pages numbers etc.

I then proceeded to replace the shapes and blank spaces with relevant information for my magazine. I included a title, the issue number, page numbers, articles that can be found on certain pages and I have started to include the images I have took.

Front cover progress

I have added a "+" feature as this is becoming a more common convention of a music magazine. I have also included the text in a larger black font to draw in the attention of the audience.

IPC Media

Front Cover progress

 

I have started to produce my front cover for my media magazine. So far I have added a masthead in the top left hand corner of the page and added a drop shadow to the writing. I have also started adding tag lines some of which are the same colour as the box surrounding the masthead, I have done this in order to carry out a house style.

Photographs

Taking photographs for my magazine turned out to be harder than expected. The lightening in the building wasn't every good and made the model's look as if they had a yellow tint to their faces, we eventually found an area that had natural sunlight and proceed to take the images

Flat Plans

I have sketched out what I would like my magazine to look like below is the front cover, contents page and feature article. For the feature article I decided I'd do a four page spread however the first two pages are not going to have any of the article on them instead I am going to put a picture of the artist and a quote from the interview, by doing this I will hopefully be making the reader want to read the article that follows. From my research I have learnt that this is a common featured used by music magazines.

Magazine publishers

I am going to be doing some research into different publishers that are well known for producing music magazines and I will be posting these on my blog in the near future. The two publishers I think I am going to research are Bauer Media and Prometheus Global Media.

podcast

Reader Profile

 

The font and colour for Intro isn't final.

Reader Profile Style Model

 

Below is the style model I am going to use when creating my reader profile. I have chose this style model as I like the way the text and images are placed on the page. I also like how the text has been placed in a green box surrounded by a contrasting colour.

 

 

Analysis of my questionnaire results

Question 1: The majority of the people who took part in my questionnaire were female which makes my decision final to have my primary target audience females and my secondary target audience is older males.

Question 2: People were generally aged between 15 and 24 and over 30. Magazines are typically bought by younger people as they tend to be interested in music or older men as they tend to collect music magazines for sentamental value. My results support this theory.

Question 3: Almost 60% of the people who filled out my questionnaire were employed and 20% were still in education. My initial idea was to target my music magazine at working class people because of the results I've gotten I plan to still do this.

Question 4: The majority of people spent around £5-£10 on music in a week because of this I think my magazine will have to be reasonably priced otherwise people aren't going to buy it. I could also offer freebies to attract the audience.

Question 5: The people who filled out my questionnaire typically bought magazines monthly because of this I am consider publishing my magazine monthly as it would more than likely sell more than a magazine that is published weekly.

Question 6: This question was all about deciding what price to sell my magazine at and as the majority of people said they would be willing to pay £2-£4 I have decided to price my magazine at £3.50.

Question 7: More than half listened to indie and pop music and very few listened to rock and metal because of this I have decided I am defiantly going with the Indie/Pop genre as it seems more people would buy my magazine.

Question 8: People tended to read Q and Billboard magazine which both tend to focus on pop (Billboard) and indie (Q) genres as both of these are successful magazines I feel like my decision to go with an Indie/Pop genre is good.

Question 9: 67% of the people filling in the questionnaire said that they read other genres of magazines due to this I have decided to focus my magazine on an Indie and an Pop genre equally.

Question 10: Most people said that interviews, gig reviews and audiences opinions would attract them to music magazines and make them want to read them so I have decided it would be a good idea to include these in my magazine.

Questionnaire Results

Questionnaire

I have created a questionnaire for potential customers of my magazine to complete. I have also printed out 100 copy and I am planning to hand them out to a varitey of different people.

Choosing a name for my magazine

Using Bubbl.us

Feature article analysis

Contents page anaylsis

Front Cover Analysis

I have realised that the 3 magazine covers I have looked at which have woman on the front support Naomi Wolf's theory that magazines tend to only use beautiful woman with the perfect figure on the front cover of their magazine in order to sell the issue

Podcast

Link between the two theory's

As you know I have been looking at different theory's which involve how woman are portrayed. In particular I have been looking at Marjorie Ferguson's theory and Naomi Wolf's theory. I soon came to realise that the two theory's link together in an unexpected way, I have realised that Ferguson's theory leads onto Wolf's theory. Ferguson focuses on the poses woman generally pull when modelling for a magazine and Naomi Wolf concentrates on how woman are looked upon and the pressure they are put under by the fashion and beauty industry to have the perfect figure and face. Marjorie Ferguson's theory could be considered part of Wolf's as the poses woman tend pull make them look attractive and inviting which supports what Naomi Wolf is saying about magazines only using beautiful woman with the perfect figure on the front cover of their magazines to draw in potential customers.

Naomi Wolf's Theory (1991)

Since I am using a female model on the front cover I decided to do some research into some theorys that involve woman. I have already looked at Marjorie Ferguson's theory so I decided I'd find someone that has a similar theory. Naomi Wolf's theroy isn't about the different poses woman often pull on the cover of magazines however it links in with Ferguson's theory as it is about the pressure woman are put under to look good.

Applying Marjorie Ferguson's Theory

Since looking at Marjorie Ferguson's theory I've realised that I can apply her theory when analysing the front covers, content pages and feature articles that I have collected.

Marjorie Ferguson's Theory (1980)

Music Magazine Pitch

Hi everyone, this is a link to the SoundCloud I have recorded. It's a music magazine pitch and gives a brief description about what my next task is and what I'm planning to do.