analysis of my magazine survey

1. Survey Analysis

2. Though this question is just simple and straight forward, it is actually very important, You need to find
out how often people but magazines to see when you will publish yours. There is no point in publishing a
magazine every week if most people purchase a magazine once a month, and the same the other way
around, if you publish it once a month but people buy magazines every week, you could be selling more
and having a higher revenue stream.
From the answers I have collected, very few people buy magazines on a highly regular basis, most of
them answering with never, because they can get all of the same information online for free. Also in the
‘other’ section, people were replying with ‘whenever I see a band I like’ or ‘if there is an interesting
article. This means that quite a lot of magazines are running articles and bands that the audience
actually aren’t that bothered about. It also infers that people think magazines are overpriced, since you
can get the same information online for free, the only pros of magazines are posters and other
pullouts/gifts. So to make more people interested in my publication I need to gather articles on bands
that the audience want to see, I need to give them a reason to buy my print and not read it online, and
to keep it cheap – make sure people can afford it.

3. How much do you prefer to spend
on a magazine?
The price of a magazine is often one of the main reasons
people refrain from purchasing it, a lot of people struggle to
justify buying a little booklet for a lot of money. In the
responses of my survey the majority of responses were £3
and under, however, a lot of the magazines out there for
specialist genres are very often £3.99 or more. There are
some for cheaper, but there is often a lot less content, so you
still pay the money, because you think it’s less, but you get
less articles and less content, so effectively you are not
getting a deal at all. By collecting these responses I can
conclude that I have to make my magazine less than £3 yet
still cram in as much valuable content and information as all
the other expensive magazines.

4. A way of enticing people in to buy your magazine, is
having the right articles and the right features, and
from the responses to this question, most people
want to see exclusive interviews, content that will be
available nowhere else but this magazine, and that
will definitely make people purchase it. If they want
the information on that person and it is exclusive to
your magazine, they have to pay the money. Very
close behind exclusive interviews, people responded
with that they also want articles on tour
announcements and album reviews, all things that
are relevant, the new albums, the new tours, the
magazine has to be up to date to get the freshest
news and pull in more buyers.
After that came the more physical aspects of the
magazine, people voted highly that they would buy
magazines simply for the posters, which means my
magazine must have posters of the most popular
bands in that specific time frame. People also
decided they would buy a magazine if it came with
extras, like fake tattoos, stickers and other novelties,
for example some magazines have a free calendar
with the magazines in the new year. The aspect that
surprisingly came last was live show reviews, so this
means that to be a more successful magazine it must
have some live show reviews, because people do still
like them, but not too many so that people don’t
take any notice of the other articles within the
publication.

5. The first thing you do when mentioning a magazine
is you say the name, so what you need is a name
that people can say and remember easily. A music
magazine should never really have a long or explicit
name, because then you would only be able to say
it around certain people which wouldn’t do
anything for the publishers as the usual promotion
tactic of word of the mouth wouldn’t spread as
much notice as other techniques. I shortlisted three
names and then said for people to list the names
from most to least on if they would buy it based
purely off the title.
The title that came first was Unlit, I think this is
because it is a short and snappy title that can be
easily remembered and said with no complication.
However, I am unsure if the title on it’s own screams that it’s a music magazine, specifically a
alternative/rock magazine. The second choice was New Americana, which is a more lengthy, yet still
easily said and remembered title. I think the reason this came second is that we are in England and not
America, however, I do think that a lot of rock/alternative music is currently coming from the west so it
would make sense. Also, with the addition of the word new, it makes sure that everyone knows all of
the news, the articles, the interviews are all brand new and up to date. They’re exclusive to this
magazine.

6. For people to buy a magazine is has to
include a lot of what they want, inside of it.
So similarly to one of the previous
questions, I asked what people want to see
in a magazine, except this time I just left a
text box for them to type in what they
wanted without the confinements of
options. As suspected, an array of answers
were sent in, a few saying images, and that
they wanted more relaxed and less staged
images. A few said interviews, and that they
wanted them to be exclusive, personal, and
less formal and mechanical feeling. Posters
and freebies were also mentioned as
something people would want to see. I also
found two points that I find interesting, the
first being that people want more female representation and more
female fronted bands featured and on the covers of magazines.
The second being that they want more smaller artists to be given
the chance to be in the magazines. I will definitely take both of
those points into consideration when designing my magazine,
perhaps create a column or page in each issue dedicated solely to
smaller, up and coming artists, to satisfy the readers that would
like that. Regarding the first point I’ll look at bands that include or
are fronted by a female and new information regarding them to
put in my magazine.

7. The whole point of a music magazine is to include
information about music. So to have a growing and
continuous audience you must write about the
musicians that the readers want to hear, otherwise
your sales will decline and people will eventually
stop buying, which wouldn’t be ideal. So, bearing
this in mind, I added a question about who they
would most like to see featuring in my magazine. I
gave them five choices of bands in different genres
and that have been around for different lengths of
time, to see what genre would be most chosen,
and whether people prefer just new music or
whether older bands are still loved just as much. To
no surprise, the most active band of them all
ranked the highest. Panic! At The Disco have been
around for quite a while and have never really
taken a break or went on hiatus, they have also
went through almost every possible genre in their
discography and are continuing to develop their
sound and make it their own, and that’s why they
have come first. Shortly behind are two bands on
completely different ends of the spectrum, Twenty
One Pilots being a groundbreaking , cult creating electronic duo taking the world by storm, Pierce The Veil
being a post hardcore band with Spanish influences that are known for their lyrics and energy on stage.
The two bands that have came last are the two heaviest bands of the bunch, which insinuates, that right
now people who buy and read magazines are not all that into the harder heavier bands, so as a publisher I
wouldn’t put out a lot of articles on those musicians, but I wouldn’t rule them out completely, because
people are still interested, and there always will be people interested, even if it is a minority.

8. One of the things I notice the most when
comparing music magazines, is that some of
them are very heavily image based, where are
some have very little imagery in them at all.
So, to help with the decision on what to focus
on in my magazine I added this question to
see what people actually prefer. And to no
surprise, people responded with that they
prefer there to be an equal balance between
imagery and text. If they couldn’t have an
equal balance, most of the other people
chose to have more imagery than text.
Taking the responses into consideration I will
focus on trying to get an equal balance
between images and text, and if there isn’t
enough text, then one or two images won’t
do a terrible amount of harm. I’ll also try to
get all of the information into my magazine
without having too many pages or too much
text, since no one wants to be reading pages
upon pages of text without any images.
Images help to tell the story in a way that text
can’t, a visual is often much more important
than words, so there should be at least one
image per page, even if it is just the
background, something to break up all of the
writing and make it easier reading.

9. What I have gathered in my research is that people
love freebies, posters and inserts. The second most
popular response is that people love that the
magazines they read include good quality, exclusive
interviews that have humor and aren’t overly
structured.
Some people also responded that they like the
more visual features like the house format or the
adverts that are included in the magazine, also
someone said that they like how some magazines
highlight and blow up some parts of texts, to give
you snippets of the article before you read it all,
which is something I personally prefer too.
Again, people mentioned new and exclusive
information about bands and reviews on whatever
has happened, whether it be an album, tour, piece
of merch or event, people want to see it.
One important part I spotted was that people don’t
like repetition, they don’t want there to be a bunch
of stories or pictures they have read before, they
want it to be exciting and different, they also want
it to be fun and casual without it being too childish.
Another, probably the most important one I’ve seen
is that someone likes that their magazine had
reliability, so the reader knows that magazine will
be of a similar capacity as the issue before, that the
content is continuous in quality and style.

10. Quite a lot of current magazines have colour
schemes that they will carry out through
every single issue, or they will at least have
a specific colour very evident in every
publication to make sure in a rack of all
other multicolour magazines, when you
spot that colour you know that that’s the
magazine they’re looking for. However, a lot
of other, still successful, magazines have a
house font and format but often change the
colours depending on the feel of that issue.
To help me with my decision I asked people
on whether they prefer a strict colour
scheme or whether they prefer the
magazine to change the colour scheme
based on who is the main feature. The
majority of people replied saying they want
their magazine to change the colours on each issue to
provide a variety. Some suggested a colour scheme for each
article instead of the magazine as a whole and others said
they’d like similar colours throughout theissues but still with
some variety. Some said they wanted it all dependent on the
cover artist, but all of the logos and fonts to stay very much
the same. However, quite a few did still say that they do like a
strict cover scheme, though there was no where near as
many as those wanting change, so in my publication I would
switch up the colours.

11. To me, the font of a magazine is what will
make it amazing or what will make it flop.
To me, a magazine needs to have a big bold
title that looks nothing like any other
brand, so it can be spotted immediately out
of any about of other publications.
However, I do believe that majority and
bulk of the text within the magazine must
be in a clean and easily readable font,
because if you can’t read the magazine
then there is no point in buying it in the
first place. Some people do think differently
though so I decided to ask this question to
see how they responded. Surprisingly the
three options were almost equal with each
other, though the one that is just in front, is
the one in my favour, the option that there
is a bold font, yet also clearer fonts where
necessary throughout the magazine. So
when I start to plan and my magazine I will
make sure to pick two fonts, one for the
majority, and one for those points you
want to stand out.

12. SummaryAfter getting all the results back off of my survey I have a clear idea of what I want my magazine to be like,
and also know that what I’m creating includes things that a lot of other people have stated that they want
in their magazines. I have decided that it will be published either bi-weekly or monthly and that my price
range will be under £3. Also, there will be a house style and a bold unique logo, with no colour scheme,
simply a layout and masthead that will make the magazine instantly recognisable. Included there will
primarily be tour announcements, exclusive interviews and a range of high-quality and brand new posters
in every issue. There will also be free stickers, posters, pullouts whenever necessary. After reading my
responses there will also be an equal ratio of text to imagery, the text will have humour yet not be childish,
and the images will be more fun, less staged, yet still of a high quality. I will stick with more of the more
rock, alternative and post hardcore artists, yet still include the metal and hardcore bands, to make sure I’m
bringing in the optimum audience for my publication. The hardest decision has been my magazine name,
and I have chosen for it to be New Americana, on the basis I mentioned in that question’s analysis, I also
thing that there is opportunity for there to be a novelty issue, or section within the magazine called New
Brittania where I focus solely on British bands and prove that everything is not always American.
Whilst I was sending out my survey, I made sure to send it to a selection of my American friends to see if
their opinions differed to the opinions of the British youth, and as it turns out there is no difference. They
still want to see and read the same things, and I think that is relevant, because to get more money you have
to be available to all audiences, including ones from other continents, and to do that you should be part of
a larger media conglomerate in order to have the support to do so. So in conclusion of that point I know
what brand I would want to publish my magazine.