for AS Media Studies

1. DJ MAGAZINE
• Type/focus: Dance/club music magazine aimed at
young fans of the genre.
• Publishing Company: Thrust Publishing Ltd
• Editor: Ben Murphy
• Date of first publication: Jan 31 1991
• Frequency Of Publication: Monthly
• Price: £3.95
• Distribution: Available in most newsagents and
supermarkets or via online subscription.

2. DJ MAGAZINE
• Front cover: The front cover of DJ Mag features a
bold, clear masthead in the top left corner, with most of the
page being taken up by the medium cover photo. Below the
magazine logo there is the slogan ‘Living & Breathing Dance
Music’ along with the website URL. The right side of the
page includes a list of cover lines, displayed with a red/blue
3D effect to make the words stand out properly. As
always, there is a barcode with issue information above
it, along with another cover line saying ‘172 TUNES
Reviewed’. The free gift given with the magazine, a CD
titled ‘Manufactured Superstars 2012 A Space Odyssey’, is
placed so that it does not obscure the main cover line ‘The
Ambition of Annie Mac’, although there are a few further
cover lines beneath the CD.

3. DJ MAGAZINE

4. DJ MAGAZINE
• Contents page: The contents page for this issue of DJ Mag features
many standard conventions of contents pages. On the left side of
the page, there is a list of the most notable features in the
magazine, accompanied by their page numbers plus a brief
description of what the feature includes. In the middle
column, there is a list of all the other features of the
magazine, which are accompanied by page numbers but not by
descriptions (although they are categorised into ‘tech’, ‘music’ etc.).
On the far right of the page, there is a column filled with an
arrangement of pictures, with the respective page number
displayed in one of the corners of the image. There is also a
masthead at the top of the page saying ‘Contents’, aswell as a small
credit in the bottom left corner ‘Cover Pic: Chris Davison’, which is
big enough to be legible but not obscure the image of Annie Mac
that it overlaps with.

5. DJ MAGAZINE

6. DJ MAGAZINE
• Double-page spread: Various common conventions of a
double-page spread appear in DJ Magazine, including most
clearly a very large picture of the person the article is
focused on, which is spread out over the two pages. The
page on the left features no main text whatsoever, and is
taken up with the main image plus the article title and a
sub-heading. (Along with a credit: ‘Words: Claire Hughes’)
The first letter of the actual article itself is much larger than
the rest of the text, taking up nine lines of the main
text, which is a common way of starting a magazine article.
Also notable is the fact that the article itself is split up into
various different sections, such as ‘Jungle Roots’ and ‘Wake
Up Call’

7. DJ MAGAZINE

8. DJ MAGAZINE
• I will utilise some aspects of DJ Magazine when
making my own music magazine. The contents
page in particular uses a lot of common
conventions which I will likely use in my own
contents page, such as the use of images in a
column with corresponding page numbers placed
over them. I also like the fairly clean look of the
cover page, featuring a lot of cover lines and
information without looking too complex and
cluttered, so I may take inspiration for my own
cover page aswell.

9. MIXMAG
• Type/Focus: Dance/clubbing magazine aimed at younger
people who frequent nightclubs, and general fans of the
genre.
• Publishing Company: Development Hell Ltd
• Editor’s name: Nick Decosemo
• Date of first publication: 1 February 1983
• Frequency of Publication: Monthly
• Price: £4.50
• Distribution: Available in most newsagents/supermarkets
or online through subscription.

10. MIXMAG
• Cover page: The cover page of Mixmag is fairly similar to DJ
Magazine, with a few differences. There is a bold, large
masthead, taking up the full top section of the page (as opposed to
DJ’s with was just in the corner.) with a slogan placed just above it
(The world’s biggest dance music and clubbing magazine) Oddly, the
biggest cover line to accompany the cover photo is placed in the
middle of the page, as opposed to on the side or at the bottom like
most music magazines. Barcode and issue information are seen as
standard in the bottom right corner of the page, and the cover
photo is a medium shot placed in the centre, albeit with a colour
effect placed around the border of the person pictured. Another
difference from DJ Mag is that the cover lines feature both a title
and a subtitle as opposed to just a title on Dj’s front cover.

11. MIXMAG

12. MIXMAG
• Contents Page: Mixmag’s contents page is far more
simplistic than DJ Mag’s. For a start, there is only one image
seen on Mixmag’s contents page, as opposed to the 6 or 7
that you see on the DJ contents. Another difference is that
Mixmag features all of their features in the same list, in
order of page number, and at the bottom there is a small
section advertising the free CD given away with the
magazine. Some similarities occur with the style of the
contents text, as both magazines feature the article title
followed by a short description/subtitle roughly 1/2 lines
long. There is also a masthead at the top of the page giving
the name of the magazine, the month of publication and
the title ‘Contents’

13. MIXMAG

14. MIXMAG
• Double-page Spread: Mixmag also follows may
conventions of double-page spread articles. The page
on the right is fully taken up by a picture of the
featured artist Carl Cox, accompanied by a quote from
the man himself The main text itself, on the left side of
the page (As opposed to DJ’s format where the text
was on the right and the picture on the left.) is in a
straightforward interview format, with the questions
displayed in bold font and the answers from Cox in
standard font. There is also a large banner at the top of
the page with the name of the feature ‘VIP Q&A’, and
the intro to the interview is in very prominent bold text
at the top of the left page.

15. MIXMAG

16. MIXMAG
• There are some aspects of Mixmag which I will
use for my own music magazine creation. In
particular, I think Mixmag’s double-page spread
format looks better than DJ Magazine’s, so my
own design will look closer to Mixmag’s format. I
also like certain aspects of their cover
design, such as the colourful effect placed around
the cover photo, although overall I prefer the
design of DJ Magazine’s cover. I will not be using
Mixmag’s contents page as the basis for my own
as I personally think its look too simplistic and
boring for a music magazine.