magazine pitch media blog

1. MAGAZINE
PITCH

2. The name:‘RIFF’
I have chosen this name as it is a musical term used in the
rock/alternative music industry. I found this idea for a name of
my music magazine by doing research on particular music
‘words’. The definition of a riff is “A short melodic or rhythmic
pattern that is repeated over and over while changes take place
in the music played along with it.”. I think that this name is very
recognizable and eye catching as it is short but simple, like the
actual meaning of the word. It states in the definition of a riff that
it is repeated, emphasising the repetitive publishing of my
weekly magazine. Not only that but the short 4 letter word will
look great with bold lettering, inspired by ‘NME’ and ‘Q’ both of
which are very well-known magazines and easily remembered
by the target demographic for its simplicity of title. Moreover, the
title will be detected through the large print allowed as it will fill
the top column of the front cover without being too squished into
the space provided. This leaves lots of space for other features
of the front cover such as the main image, subheadings,
buzzwords, anchorage etc. which I will discuss in a couple slides
later.

3. Chinese Rocks
Raleigh Rock
Rocky Road
I am a rock
RocknRoll Typo
Woodcutter Rocks
Adobe Ming St L
Here are a few potential mastheads
for my music magazine. I went onto
‘Dafont’ and found these particular
fonts that I though suited my
alternative rock based magazine. They
all have a rough but relaxed look to
them which sis something I want to
pursue throughout the magazine –
nothing too heavy.
Personally my favourite font is ‘Adobe
Ming St L that I actually discovered on
Microsoft Word.

4. The genre of music: Alternative/indie rock
I want to focus on this genre of music as it is the style I personally listen to the most, moreover
it is the most popular genre from my online survey results. This genre is very interesting to
work with as it is a very popular music choice currently within teenagers in the UK. Moreover,
the genre allows me to experiment with different colour schemes as other magazines have
particular stereotypes such as a young girls magazine would be pink. However an
alternative/indie rock magazine has more space to explore with colours and layout of the
magazine itself as some rock magazines are simplistic yet some are more hectic and fuller
looking. This is something I discovered in my textual analysis. In addition, this style of music
opens the opportunity for a variety of articles, interviews and pictures for my contents page
and the two page spread itself.
Personally I wanted to focus on the alternative/indie style of rock as I believe it will suit my
target demographic of teenagers more in comparison to heavy rock due to stereotypes of
‘heavy rockers’ being middle aged men with long hair… Adding onto that, I haven’t been too
specific on the style of music I will base my magazine on as it leaves space for more artists
rather than choosing one particular style with limited musicians to have as the main image on
the front cover and other features of the magazine and articles.

6. Frequency and cover price of publication:
My magazine idea is focused at the demographic of teenagers/young
adults from ages between 16-21. Although my survey was mainly
taken by females within this demographic, the style of music I am
aiming to create this magazine on is stereotypically concentrated on
the male gender. This is due to the amount of artist within the genre
are made up of male musicians and the music style appears to be the
genre that boys would usually listen too, where as, stereotypically it is
said girls listen to more pop/boy band music.
In addition, this age group will have aspirations in life that could
potentially be inspired by some of the artists I will include in my
magazine. Not only that but I have decided that my magazine will
have a frequency of 1 issue per week. This ensures affordability
towards the young adults as the magazine will not have a s much
content, implying it will be smaller than a monthly magazine
enhancing the fact it is more likely to be bought at a lower price. The
price of my magazine will be £1.50.

7. Attitude:
This magazine will pursue a chillaxed attitude towards life with a hint of rebellion. This will
attract my target audience as this is the stereotypical outlook on life teenagers have. I will do this
through a simple colour scheme that will still stand out for the bold font and layout I will create
in further planning. Moreover, I will have plenty of images in comparison to masses of text as
this generation of people I have aimed my magazine towards have more interest in smaller pieces
of text alongside more images as an entire page of text will not grasp the attention of the reader
due to the lack of reading in this generation, let alone buying a magazine in the first place.

8. Style:
The style of my magazine will be very bold and entirely music
based. The features and elements inside the magazine will all
somehow relate to musicians, festivals and just music in
general. This leaves space for a chance to incorporate
competitions to win prizes such as festival tickets that I
discovered in my interview with the ideal reader. Not only that,
but during the interview I learnt that my ideal reader prefers
articles written down oppose to interviews in which he would
rather watch on YouTube or television. For my double page
spread I plan to take this information on board and do a
mixture of article and interview as in the survey many people
suggested they like to have interviews in a magazine. Since my
magazine is going to be published on a weekly basis, each issue
will have its main double page spread based on a particular
band who will also star on the front cover as it is the main
feature of the magazine and needs to be advertised to the
reader.

9. Typical magazine contents:
My magazine will have a variety of contents, although it is
a weekly basis publishing pattern. However, since this
music genre is slowly becoming much more popular and
recognisable so it will contain well-known bands, current
band and upcoming/new bands for recommendation. This
will be a continuous feature of my magazine in which
people will be recommended a new, upcoming band/artist
every week known as “riff’s rare finds”. Not only that but
there will be different segments for articles, interviews
and reminders for events, gigs and festivals and every so
often a special issue will have a competition in it. The
reason I am doing a competition every few issues is
because it will become too many due to its weekly basis.
However, the contents will have lots of value to the reader
and worth the £1.50 every week. I will not have ‘freebies’
as a part of my magazine, once again for the weekly
publication, whereas there will be a free download of the
‘riff’s rare find’ every week to encourage the reader to
listen to the band to get them some publicity and
recognition. Moreover there will be certain offers and
vouchers presented to the reader for music based products
whether that be CD’s

10. READER PROFILE
Key Stats:
Male – 67%
Female – 33%
Age – (16-21) 94%
Name: Jake Bristow
Age: 17
Location: York
Education: York College – Media Studies, Film Studies, English and History
Hobbies: Reading, writing lyrics, playing guitar, listening to music, drawing, making short films and spending time with his
girlfriend Mia who also has a similar interest in music.
Jake reads 60s counter culture books and poetry to inspire him with lyrics for his band ‘Aloe Veras’. He listens to bands such as
Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Velvet Underground and Catfish and the Bottlemen and many more as often as he can because he
likes to create playlists to make the soundtrack for his life and mini movies him and his band mates create together. Moreover, his
girlfriend, Mia is an art student at York College so him and her both draw in their time together, listen to vinyl records and watch
films like Ferris Buellers Day Off as it is relatable to their own teenage years.
In addition, Jakes passion for music was introduced and inspired by his rock-loving parents. Jake plans to teach his younger
brother how to play the guitar and helps him with his choice of music every now and then.