2. NME Magazine
• Published by IPC media.
• Circulation:33,875
• Readership:325,000
• “Readers have a strong relationship with NME and
completely trust the brand”
• “Not surprisingly NME readers are completely
obsessed by music. Reader research has
demonstrated that they rely on the editorial and the
ads to keep them up to date with new music. This
knowledge then makes them the authority in music
in their peer group.”
3. Kerrang Magazine
• Produced by Bauer Magazine
• Circulation: 44,013
• Readership: 421,000
• “Kerrang! will ensure that we are constantly
appealing to our spectrum of readers. From the
younger teenage readers who are more open to
different genres of rock music – from emo to
thrash etc, to the readers who respect Kerrang! as
an authority when it comes to our scene’s heritage
bands.”
4. Q Magazine
• Produced by Bauer Magazine
• Circulation: 89,450
• Readership: 550,000
• “‘Q is a bastian (sic) for music of substance
guiding its readers through just the good stuff in
all forms of music each month via its
unparalleled access and Q Review, the world’s
biggest and best music guide.”
5. Special is a buzz word.
The buzzword draws
in the audience as it
makes the consumer
feel more involved as
if they are the first
ones to know the
gossip. Special makes
them feel like they are
the only ones.
Advertisements in
a different colour,
in the yellow circle
to stand out from
the rest so that the
reader is drawn
towards the
advertisement. The
idea of this for NME
is that advertising is
a big money maker
for them and so
they want to draw
the reader to the
advertisement as
best they can.
The masthead is the biggest bit of writing on the magazine. The consumer is immediately drawn to it
because of its size and the boldness of the writing so that the consumer knows exactly what brand of
magazine it is that they are buying. The straight lines of the font make it a more basic font which links
into the stereotype of the male reader that NME target at, of who are often less arty and more basic with
their stuff. The font is Sans Serif which is good for short words because they are bold fonts.
The sub-heading is also in bold and
right at the top. Being at the top tells
the reader that it is the most important
story of the magazine. The bold makes
the key words stand out so ‘a punk
icon’ is in bold so it immediately stands
out. The bold writing has the key words
so like people who are into punk music
will be immediately drawn to the
article.
The big picture has a main
character relating to the
articles inside. On this one, Joe
Strummer is figure in the
centre, and he is the ‘punk
icon’ that the main article
inside will talk about. Joe
Strummer has an angry facial
expression of him to match his
personality.
The quote is a quote by Joe Strummer, so we get an idea of the man who it is talking about. Quotes are useful as they are
a short and snappy way of summing up the story. A quote can attract the audience to the magazine and a short snappy
sentence is an effective way of doing that.
6. NME title is again the biggest bit of writing on the magazine. The consumer is immediately drawn to it because of its size and
the boldness of the writing so that the consumer knows exactly what brand of magazine it is that they are buying. The
boldness of ‘NME THIS WEEK’ draws the consumer straight to the top so the consumer knows exactly what the page is
about. The font is still Sont-Serif for the titles ‘NME THIS WEEK’, ‘BAND INDEX’, ‘NEWS’ etc and coupled with the black
outline or black writing, the audience knows that they are the sub titles of the image.
The date is on the contents
page so the consumer knows
how in date the magazine is.
Lists the page numbers under
the subtitles in order, so the
audience has a clear contents
outline for the magazine. The
audience wants it to be clear
and easy to navigate around
the magazine. The red writing
makes it clear as well what
page number. The simpler the
better.
Advertisements in a different
colour, the yellow writing makes it
stand out from the rest so that the
reader is drawn towards the
advertisement. The correlation of
the yellow colour for advertisements
has continued from the previous
page. The idea of this for NME is
that advertising is a big money
maker for them and so they want to
draw the reader to the
advertisement as best they can.
Gives them all the details of how to
apply and the size of the writing is
bigger than the actual text. Shows
its importance.
This add-on is a stand out pop up which catches the
readers eye. ‘the UK’S no 1’ are buzzwords that are
used so the reader can look straight to them.
The image is centralised on
the page with the text
directly below in columns.
This column form orders the
page into different sections
so this helps for the contents
to be ordered.
The first part of the
article is in bold and
contains catchy phrases
and quotes such as
‘runaway’ that draws the
reader in to make them
want to read more of the
article.
7. Picture covers one page
of the double page
spread. The idea of the
big picture is so some
readers can be drawn
into it as the picture is
what draws the reader
to a page. The picture
also follows the 3
column layout that was
show in the contents
page. The first column
where he has his right
hand, the second where
the text is cut out and
the third where his left
hand is.
‘Good’ is highlighted in
a different colour to the
rest of the text to show
that it is a key word of
the title, this tells the
reader that the article is
going to be a positive
depiction of Pete
Doherty.
Pull quote because it
has been pulled out of
the article. It is used to
highlight a key phrase
or key message of the
article. In this case as
well the key words of
the key quote are
highlighted in bold to
demonstrate the
importance of each
phrase than those that
are not highlighted
like ‘Peter used to be’.
It makes the consumer
ask questions like
what's changed?
There is a contrast between the 2 pictures. The smaller picture is in the environment of his music
and is a natural picture, whereas the other picture, the large picture, of the article and this is
staged and so Is perhaps the more significant picture which the writer wants the audience to look
at. Maybe the appeal of the article is not of his music but of him as a person.
The picture in the corner also fits
the 3 column theme of the
magazine.
As the article is across a
double page spread, there
is a lot of text.
8. ‘Exclusive’ buzzword draws in the
audience as it makes
the consumer feel more involved as if
they are the first ones to read the
magazine or in this case to try the
Amy Winehouse CD.
Moreover the use of exclusive is
significant because Amy Winehouse is
dead and so this could be to show
that they can’t read about her again.
The big Q in the top left
corner is the masthead
and the logo of Q
magazine. The consumer
is immediately drawn to
it because of its size and
the boldness of the
writing of the white
against the red.
Immediately, the reader
knows what brand of
magazine they are
buying. Below it, it says
that Q is ‘the worlds
greatest magazine’
greatest is a buzz word
and the hyperbole makes
the reader feel like they
are getting a high quality
product.
‘AMY’ is in large, bold, Sans Serif font. Sans Serif
fonts make texts stand out as they are bold fonts.
This is effective in this instance because it is the first
word we as a reader are drawn to and we
immediately understand that Amy Winehouse is
who the main article is about. Coupled with the
large picture of Amy Winehouse, the audience
make connections of who it is about and whether
they want to read on.
The red and white theme of the
magazine is thorough across the page.
Sticking to a colour scheme is useful
for a magazine as it gives the
consumer connotations and
iconographic images of which brand
of magazine they are looking at.
The Cover doesn’t have
any articles and has the
headings and sub-headings
which gives the
consumer a brief insight
into what they will be
expecting in the
magazine.
The advertisement at the bottom
has a red box around it, separating
it from the rest of the page and
the black writing makes it stand
out from the rest. This is so that
the reader is drawn towards the
advertisement. This is useful for Q
as advertising is a big money
maker for them and so they want
to draw the reader to the
advertisement as best they can.
The picture covers the
full page which is the
same as with the NME
Joe Strummer cover.
If you are a fan of Amy Winehouse, you
are more likely to buy this particular issue
of the magazine
9. Titled so immediately the reader
knows it is a contents page, like
NME it also has clear and
numerically ordered contents so
that it is very easy for the reader to
guide their way through the
magazine. Readers want the
contents to be simple to navigate
around because they are more
interested in the actual content of
the magazine.
As in NME, the magazine is in a 3 column format. Which helps
the page to be more ordered.
The picture covers a large percentage of
the page, so therefore, their isn't a lot of
writing than perhaps on the NME
contents where the picture is smaller. The
setting for this picture is in a more natural
place and the clothing is more casual than
what they would be when they were
playing, this gives the impression that the
article could be more to do with their
personality than their music.
Differently to NME magazine, there
isn’t the beginning of an article on
the contents page instead it has the
cut out of a quote from the page 38
article. And the sub-heading for the
article, ‘The Courteeners’. This is a
different way of matching the
picture with the text on the contents
page. It is effective because it is
short and snappy and the reader
perhaps doesn’t want to be drawn
to too much text at this point of the
magazine.
Another difference is the
‘review’ pages at the back. The
contents page in this instance,
only leaves a small area of the
page for listing the review sub-headings.
‘Oasis Special’ is titled
with a different colour to
the rest of the page in a
gold colour to make it
stand out from the rest of
the magazine as
something different.
Moreover, the Oasis
Special has ‘!’ at the end
of it which adds to its
importance. Without the
‘!’ it makes the whole
article look less
significant. Using the
buzzword ‘special’ makes
the consumer believe
that they are going to
read something that is
exclusive to them alone,
which makes the
magazine a more
attractive read. NME
didn’t have this on their
contents, moreover the Q
magazine contents page
doesn’t have any
advertisements on
whereas the NME
contents page had.
The date is on the contents page so the
consumer knows how in date the magazine is.
10. The title to this double page
spread is significant as it changes
colour from black to red in the
middle of it and this matches the
title itself saying that the colour
is also changing as well as the
times.
Moreover, the picture depicts Jake
Bugg in a similar way to Bob Dylan.
This is because Jake Bugg is
described in the media as been like
a new Bob Dylan, writing the same
sort of music. Bob Dylan used to
have his picture taken with the dull
coloured picture and the looking
down of the guitar and so all the
time the magazine is comparing
and contrasting the 2 characters
being written about in the article.
The Picture covers one page of the
double page spread. The idea of
the big picture is so some readers
can be drawn into it as the picture
is what draws the reader to a page
The text is laid out into 3
clear columns, keeping the
format of the previous
contents page. The words
‘the times they’ are also in
the 3 column format with 1
word for each column. At the
bottom of the left hand
column, a pull quote has
been used and highlighted in
red, which is the same as in
NME magazine when it pulls
out the quote in the middle
to highlight its importance in
the context of the article. In
this case as well the key
words of the key quote are
highlighted in italics, to
demonstrate the importance
of the quote. It makes the
reader engage with the
meaning of the article.
There is also a lot of blank space on the page. Q
magazine like a clean look to their magazines and so
don’t mind leaving a lot of blank spaces on their
pages. This is in contrast to NME magazine, which
often uses the full pages.
When the page breaks, the writing changes too. One page is text, one page is picture. They
also look like very different pages. These contrasts are very significant, because it links to the
title that things are changing. Not only this, but the fact that they are very different yet very
similar is a juxtaposition.
11. There are more advertisements in this magazine to the other magazines. Kerrang aims at the
younger market who are more likely to spend their money on entering competitions. The colours
for the advertisings are highlighted by the light blue and the yellow and so this helps for them to
stand out even more. This colour scheme is also a convention of the Kerrang magazine, as they
are contrasting to the colours of other music magazines. In addition, each advertisement is
isolated and sectioned from one another which helps to make the advertisement stand out even
more.
The black colour immediately
stands out in the magazine.
This matches the audience
which the magazine aims at,
because Kerrang aims at the
more darker and almost gothic
teenage market that will
largely wear black clothes and
be drawn to black colours
stereotypically.
In this magazine there are also more
buzzwords. The words ‘win’ and
‘awesome’ and ‘plus’ all really stand
out in the page because apart from
in the case of ‘awesome’ they are all
written in white with a blue outline
and the contrast between the 2
colours makes the words look
bolder. As I established in the earlier
analysis, buzzwords are used to
draw in the reader as it makes the
consumer feel more involved with
the magazine.
There are 5 pictures on the cover
of the magazine and the number 5
stands out on the front page of the
magazine advertising the posters
internally. This has the repetitive
effect on the reader and they
register immediately the number 5
and this is significant because
subconsciously the reader goes
through this process and
subconscious messages help a
magazine to put across a message
without it being too in your face.
In this instance, the title isn’t clearly
shown which is a contrast to the
other magazines.
Like with the NME magazine there
is a pull out quote on the front
cover although not in as large font
as NME. The pull out quote
coupled with the sub-title below,
gives an insight into the story
inside. In this instance it is made
very clear as the title ‘green day’ is
in very big writing and the picture
is of the singer from Green Day and
so it is very easy for the reader to
make the connection of who the
magazine will be about. This is very
similar to both the other
magazines where the cover of the
person makes a clear relation with
the sub heading of the main article.
The smaller pictures only make up a small
proportion of the page.
12. It has the title of ‘contents’ at the top of the
page. The page being immediately titled
helps the reader to navigate around the
page.
The page is split into 2 parts. With
the picture prominent at the top
and the writing at the bottom.
Moreover, the colour adds to the
binary opposition of the page
having the very dark colours at the
top and the white colour at the
bottom.
The masthead is positioned in the
centre of the page, which makes it
clear for the reader to notice. The
generic ‘Kerrang’ title is prominent
being in the white font against the
black.
There is a good balance of text to picture ratio in this contents page. It has 6 pictures
which take up a good amount of space on this page. Very little of the page is wasted,
which is another good thing about this page. The 2 cut out pictures at the top fit into
the first 2 columns of the page and so are bigger, whereas the 3 in the bottom half fit
into just 1 individual column. The main picture of the contents page fills up half of
the page, which is a convention of the double page spread of the other magazines.
Each sub-heading is clear as it has
the yellow writing with the black
background. Yellow is a very
contrasting colour to the black
and the white colours on the
page.
In this contents page, the columns
are split up into 5 columns. This is a
contrast to the other pages.
The advertisements are
spread out throughout the
page with no clear layout to
them for example there is
‘win’ at the third column at
the top and then the one in
the bottom corner in the
black and red outline. I don’t
think this is an effective
layout as the reader might
find it hard to navigate to
them.
The general icon of the contents page of having the pages laid out in numerical
order is also present in this page.
This magazine has a clear
label of ‘Slash’ so people
can make the link
immediately who the man
in the picture is if they are
unsure. Slash is depicted in
a ‘rock star’ look; which
links in to the style of music
which his band ‘Guns and
Roses’ play
13. Similarly to the previous
page, there is a lot of black
colour on this page. The
colour is to attract the
audience who they target
at. The target audience for
kerrang, as I already eluded
to, is the younger darker
teenagers.
Again, the main picture
takes up one page of
the double page spread.
This seems to be a
convention of the music
magazine. The picture is
dulled down and so the
dark colours are
prominent again.
In this top corner, this page has the buzzwords ‘world
exclusive’ which makes the reader feel more involved
with the magazine and the word ‘exclusive’ made them
believe that they are the only people accessing the
story, and then ‘news’ is also in bold with the red
colour. The red colour is significant as it stands out from
the rest of the white bland colour. The red signifies the
importance of each message.
The quote has been pulled out of the text, it
draws the reader to a key point of the article.
The third column of
the writing is a bit
different to what the
other magazines had.
It has the title ‘new
MCR tracks’ and has
a description on all of
the new tracks. All of
the text and pictures
on this page relate to
MCR.
The page is very picture
heavy, with only around a
quarter of the page being
text. Again, this could link
to the target audience of
younger people, who
perhaps aren't as
interested in reading big
lengthy texts.
The pictures are all pictures of the band either playing or recording music which relates to who
they are as musicians. It also appears as though they are all posing for the cameras as well. This
is significant as these are pictures which the magazine makes wanted to match the text.
14. CONVENTIONS
One convention of the music
magazine appears to be that
on the double page spread
the main picture takes up one
whole page of the 2.
15. CONVENTIONS
Another is that the cover page has a picture that sits in the background that
covers the full page. Moreover, they are all portraits of the key individuals for the
magazine. All of the pictures are medium close ups. They’re all looking straight at
the reader, which has the effect of attracting the reader to the magazine.
16. CONVENTIONS
On every double page spread,
there is a pull quote from the
main text.
17. CONVENTIONS
On the contents page there is always some
kind of layout for the pages in numerical
order. There are also sub-headings in
between each section of the contents.
18. CONVENTIONS
One convention is that on the cover pages, there is a clear masthead with the
brand of each of the magazines clear to see.
19. CONVENTIONS
Another convention is that on each cover there is some connection between
the picture and title of the band or the person in it.
20. CONVENTIONS
A convention is that all of the pictures are medium close ups of the artists.
Moreover, the images are not in the music setting and a more personal setting,
which suggests the magazine articles are more about the person.
21. MY MAGAZINE
From my research, I have planned and decided on
some of the features which I will want to be in my
magazine as well.
22. MY MAGAZINE - COVER
• Similar to the other magazines, my magazine will
have a full page picture on the cover page, as
this is a convention of the music magazine. I
will have various advertisements around the
page. I will have the masthead in bold sans serif
font on the top left corner. The cover will be in
a similar style to the NME magazine as I like the
way it is laid out.
23. MY MAGAZINE - CONTENTS
• On my contents page, I will have the contents
numerically ordered down the page. I want it to
be a fairly simple layout like Q magazine, so that
the reader can easily navigate around it.
24. MY MAGAZINE - DOUBLE PAGE
SPREAD
• My double page spread will be based around the
Q magazine and NME magazine double page,
with one picture covering one page and text
covering the other page. I think that this
structure works well because the picture draws
the reader in and the separated text makes it easy
to navigate.
25. MY MAGAZINE - STRUCTURE
• My magazine will be based around a simple and
easy to navigate structure. So for example, this
would include: clear headings and sub-headings
and clear columns separating each part of the
page. I want it to be like this because I believe
magazines work better the more basic they are
as magazines are generally an easy read.
