Mixmag began in 1983 as a newsletter for DJs but evolved into a magazine covering dance music and club culture. It focused on genres like house, acid house, and rave culture. Today it covers all electronic dance music genres and club culture aspects. It has always included a cover mount CD. Ownership has changed over time but it is now owned by Development Hell Ltd, an independent media company focused on dance and clubbing content across multiple platforms.

1. Case Study

3. - First
issue was printed in February 1983 as a 16
page black and white magazine, intended as
a newsletter for DJs
- With the rise of house music, editor/DJ David
Seaman turned the newsletter into a magazine
which covered all dance music and club
culture
- Focused on acid house and rave culture
within the mid 1990s, then started to focus on
the rise of superstar DJs and Ibiza

4. The mid 1990‟s saw Mixmag tending
In the late 1980‟s Mixmag focused to focus on rave/acid
on house music/early dance music house/electronic dance music culture

5. - Nowadays the mag tends to focus on all electronic
dance music and aspects of club culture
- Has always included cover mount in the form of a CD
by a different DJ or artist
- Was sold from DMC publishing in mid nineties to EMAP
Ltd, and was then bought by Development Hell Ltd in
2005
- Development Hell relaunched the magazine in 2006
with a new, revamped design
- Sales have risen and fallen throughout the years; the
circulation for the year 2011 was approximately 20,000
- In 2009 the magazine launched a Brazilian edition

6. - Costs £4.50
- Released monthly
- Calls itself “the world‟s biggest selling dance music and
clubbing magazine”
- Has its own website, and, as stated earlier, a Brazilian
version of the magazine
- The pages of the magazine present a combination of
both images and text, with articles themselves tending to
appear text heavy. Nevertheless, the magazine is kept
interesting through a use of funky futuristic fonts and
bright colours and images which capture the essence of
clubbing
-The mode of address used is also friendly and colloquial
appealing to the reader and signalling genre (i.e. “big
tunes”, “club radar”, “party”, “glam”)

7. Here we can see that the
pages appear text heavy yet
manage to stay interesting
through a use of vibrant
colours and fonts...

8. • Aged around 26 (26 = median age)
• 72% male, 28% female
• Single, with a high disposable income
• First to recommend new songs or fashion
trends to their friends
• They are trendy, unique, urban individuals
who are just as in touch with technology as
they are with music
• Tend to spend money on nights out with
their mates, on on-trend clothes, music (i.e.
vinyl, albums, etc), technology (such as the
latest mobile phone/ipod, sound systems, DJ
decks, etc)

10. • Album and single reviews, rave/festival
reviews, interviews with artists, a technology
section, fashion section, letter page, articles
on issues regarding the genre and
gig/festival/rave listings are commonly
found in Mixmag
• Artists that commonly feature are: Benga,
Rusko, Jack Beats, Calvin Harris, Fat Boy Slim,
Carl Cox, Skream, Kissy Sell Out
• The Magazine ALWAYS has a cover mount
CD, showing just how seriously its readers
take their music

12. • The magazine always has a vibrant colour scheme, making it grab
attention easily
• Throughout the magazine text and images tend to be set out in
column/row format giving Mixmag a sophisticated, mature feel
• The style of the magazine tends to be set out in columns and rows,
with repeated fonts and a spacious layout and the magazine has
headers featuring throughout – all these factors help maintain a clear
brand identity
• Features different, vibrantly coloured texts and unique and kooky
fonts; the magazine is quite text-heavy. Therefore this would keep the
reader interested, whilst also creating an edgy, club/rave feel
• The front cover of Mixmag always looks extremely similar with its
layout; the main sell line is placed in the middle or top left, with
smaller sell lines placed in columns going down on the left and right
hand side. The images seem to be of a single artist or model and so it
creates brand identity for Mixmag as they either seem to be a DJ in
front of a basic background or a model presented in a provocative
way.

13. Bright colours such as
yellow, white and blue
create a party/club feel
to the magazine
The sell lines relate to the
genre of dance music
and are organized in
columns
The front cover is stylish
and simplistic; all it has is
one main image and
text rather than lots
going on at the same
time, creating a sense of
sophistication and
maturity

14. • The mode of address commonly used by
Mixmag is friendly, trendy and colloquial
• It features words that the target audience
would know of and use, signalling the young
audience of twenty-somethings
• The mode of address will attract the
audience; they will be able to relate to the
magazine and will feel as if they have a
connection to it

15. Features words and
adjectives which will
excite the audience
and make them
anticipated
Intertextuality is used
creating a humorous
feel to the
magazine - the
audience will feel
clever that they can
recognise this

16. Examples of mode of address include:
• “meet the young things that run tings!”
• “with our lass in the grass”
• “glam, bam, thank you ma‟am...how Alison built
her wonderland”
• “clubland”
• “california screaming”
• “every raver should read”
• “Britain‟s club scene is still killing it”
• “..brew of booty bass, gutter house and weirdo
techno”

17. • Mixmag was originally published by DMC Publishing,
was then sold to EMAP Ltd, but is now owned by
Development Hell Ltd
• Development Hell is an independent media
company based in Islington, London
• As well as publishing Mixmag, Development Hell
also publish the Mixmag iPad app, the website
mixmag.net, Mixmag TV, Mixmag Events and
dontstayin.com (“the worlds biggest clubbing social
network”)
• Development Hell have also provided consultancy
for some of the biggest publishers in Britain and
have produced tour brochures„ for chart topping,
international artists.

18. Being owned by Development Hell benefits Mixmag in the
following ways...
• It owns „dontstayin.com‟, the world‟s largest clubbing
social network, which gives them easy access to
clubbers to find out what they want from a magazine
and what the current trends are. This allows them to
produce a dance mag that is current and relevant for its
audience.
• It is an independent company, so it is fresh, edgy and
cool.
• It focuses solely on dance and clubbing material without
branching out elsewhere. This means they are likely to be
experts within this field.
• They are on top of embracing technological change to
maximise e-media and cross media synergy.