Analysis of existing magazines

NME is bright and bold magazine, like the genre of the music associated with this magazine. Bright colours on the front of the magazine attract the target audience, which from the demographics show that it is targeted at the younger audience between 15-44. A band will always be on the front of music magazines, people can relate to images a lot easier and are able to refer to people after seeing an image. The front cover of NME is generally always the same, a picture of a band, with big bold, clear writing of either a person's name or a band name, with other images and names scattered in different places on the page. The text is nearly always colourful and attractive, they use the same font as the main headline, for all subtitles to keep the continuity on the front page.

This contents page looks very hectic, but its organised mess. There is a lot of different colours and font sizes. There are only a few pictures on the contents, as it is mainly dominated by text. They have barely left any white space on the page, and it is dominated by colours and text. They have news, subscriptions and a band index.

An NME douple page spread, a large image covering a page, with a few facts about the band on the bottom left of the page. This douple page is dominated by three main coulours, white, black and blue. The first page is a picture of a band, and the second is covered in text. There are many sub-headings that are in a larger font.

Target Audience

NME!
The NME is the longest published and most respected music weekly in the world. Every week it gives its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music. The award-winning www.nme.com, launched in 1996, has grown to be the biggest commercial music news site in Europe. NME targets everyone from 13 years old up, both sexes, to 30. 29600 men buy the NME magazine every month, compared to 9100 females buying it. 25000 readers are in ABC1 category, and only 13700 readers are classed in C2DE. Therefore this magazine is aimed more at the higher classes. The demographics show that 33900 of the readers are in the age bracket of 15-44, showing that the magazine is aimed at teenagers and the middle aged. Only 4900 of the readers are above the age of 45 showing that the magazine tends to aim more towards the lower age groups.
Audience:
65% Male
50% 16-24
23% 25-34
79% ABC1
35% Female

Introduction

The genre of my music magazine 'Indie/Rock'. The things that I have learnt in my preliminary task, I will be able to use to make this magazine.

Flatplans

Both of these pages are very dull and boring. But it does have the same colour theme of a mainly white background with black text. I have used the same layout for both pages with my real magazine cover and contents.
I have used bold fonts on my cover and contents, which i have not really done here.

Jake Baldwin- Magazine cover

I think my front cover was successful because i like the effect i have got on the photo. I like the bold fonts i have got and the simple effect i have got with both pages by just using black and white. The picture fits on the page well, even though there is not much on the page, it still looks slightly busy. The contents page is slightly dull but it does fit with my front cover, with the idea of just black and white. It is also very basic but I think it works. If i would change it and start again i would still try to use bold fonts but i would put a bit more live into it and colour to appeal to the audience a little bit more.
I asked a few people what they thought.
Dan Crowley: I think that it works as a student magazine because i like the sketchy unfinished effect. Also the simplicity in the black and white colour's.
Niall Bernie: I like the black and white theme, very simple but effective.
Fred Lack: I like the guy in it, pritty cool. I like the title font and the positioning of the text around the picture.

Photographs

I have chosen the picture with Fred's eyes open because he is looking directly at the camera, therefore communicating with the reader. With Fred's eyes closed their is no communication, and obviously it does not look as good. The background for both pictures are the same, a neutral, white background with nothing too eye catching. With the on the left Fred is slightly slanted and is lop sided which is not the best shot, as his shoulders are at a different height. The shot i have chosen it level and Fred is standing up straight and everything seems a lot more level. The picture on the right appeals to the audience because it is a happy photo (smiling) and Fred is the age that the magazine is targeted at.

Introduction

I am working on a college magazine and it is aimed at 16 to 18 yr olds. With a photograph of a student medium close up.