Q magazine is published by Bauer Media Group, a large German publishing company that operates in 15 countries. Q was first published in 1986 and has since expanded into radio and television. Bauer Media uses cross-media promotion across its magazines, television, and radio properties to increase popularity and profits. It promotes Q and other brands across various television channels that it owns.

2. Q magazine is published by Bauer Media Group which is a large German publishing company, that
operates in 15 countries worldwide, as well as TV and radio stations. They produce 38 million magazines a
week. Q was first published in 1986, setting itself apart from other music press with monthly production
and high standard of photography and printing and also emphasising on style.
The Q brand has now expanded to radio and television which allows stronger promotion across the board,
which therefore increases the promotion allowing Q to compete with the other leading rock based music
magazines.
Bauer Media uses cross media production which means that, not does it only advertise but also promote
over several forms of media, for example, magazines, television and radio. By being able to promote it
increases popularity which therefore increases profit. Also by advertising over television, radio and
magazines it allows them to broaden the audience for the type of media produced, allowing it to compete
with other big producers such as ‘IPC’ and ‘Future’, which again produce numerous rock based magazines.
Bauer is able to promote amongst many television channels such as:
 Q TV
 4Music TV
 Kiss TV
 Kerrang! TV
 The Box TV
 Magic TV
 Smash Hits TV

3.  What type of photograph is on the front cover? The photograph on the front cover is a
composition that has been edited to make it look like the three celebrities were together.
 It is a close up, medium shot or long shot? The shot is a medium to long shot, as the photo
is from head to the bottom of the leg, to feet area. However the type of shot seems to
differ between the celebrities depending on the status of the celebrity, for example Jay-Z
has a long shot, whereas Lady Gaga and Dave Grohl, only seems to be a medium to long
shot, meaning that both Lady Gaga and Dave Grohl seem to have a lower musical status
when compared to Jay-Z.
 Discuss the composition of the image. The photo has been edited to make it look like all
Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Dave Grohl were in the same photo shoot. However you can tell it’s
been edited towards the status of each musician. The image of Jay-Z has been taken as if he
looking down on the audience, and not at the conventional face height, that the majority of
photos are taken. Also he has been positioned in front of the other two artists signifying his
importance. This image brings up an issue with representation due to the fact that there is
only one image of a women, secondly that she’s dressed in more provocative clothing, and
that she is still being covered by another artist. This conveys that for women to become
successful its clearly style over substance, whereas for men it’s about the music.
 Why is the image on the front cover important? The image on the front cover is important
because it gives an extract of the type of people that is going to be in the magazine itself.
Also the way that the photo is taken gives an idea of the type of articles that are going to be
in the magazine. For example, if a photo of people, in a common pose based on the heavy
metal genre, that would allow the reader to assume that the articles are based on that
style, and possibly genre of music, letting the reader know if that is the right magazine.
 How does the image attract the audience? The image attracts the audience in a few ways,
firstly by the fact that two of the three artists are facing the audience, brings some sort of
connection between them and the reader, making the reader want to buy the magazine,
also the fact that Jay-Z is looking up, showing some sort of purpose and meaning, possibly
showing the article is important, and needs to be read. Also the fact each one of the artists
represent a different genre of music, it attracts the audience in that it appeals to the
majority as opposed to the niche audience.

4.  How do we know what is inside the magazine? Due to the subheadings, and headings on the left hand side of the magazine.
 How is information arranged on the front cover? The image has been put on the middle to right hand side of the magazine, and fills most
of the page, whilst allowing space for an eyebrow. Then the subheadings have been arranged in a column on the left hand side
 Why has this information been arranged like this? For the image to attract the readers attention, and then text to back up the photo, as
the text and photo go hand in hand.
 What colours have been used on the front cover? The magazine has used red, black, white and pink.
 Why have these colours been used? Red, black and white are usually the colours that represent rock music, however the use of the pink
settles the tone, making it seem or a generalised magazine as opposed to the typical rock magazine.
 Are there any iconic signs? Yes
 What are they? The three celebrities are used as iconic signs to represent the type of music they make and the colours red black and white
which shows more of rock music.
 What colour is the masthead? Red and white
 Is this significant? For a rock orientated magazine this is very typical, therefore it symbolises that this is another rock based magazine.
 What type of font is used? Arial
 Why do you think this font has been chosen? Arial is a sans serif type of text, therefore meaning that it is slightly more relaxed and less
formal, showing that possibly Q can appeal to wider range, or for people with an eclectic music taste.
 Is there a website for the magazine referred to? Yes
 Why do you think this is? To boost online sales and self promotion of the magazine, as the majority of customers read the online version,
as opposed to buying the hard copy.
 How much is the magazine? £3.99
 Where are we told how much it is? Bar code on the bottom left side in this particular magazine
 What representational issues can you identify (e.g. gender, stereotype, positive/negative, mediation. Gender comes up as an
representational issue as the fact that there is only one women on the front cover, and she is covered by another male, then on top of that
the fact that she is dressed very provocatively, making it seem like for a women, image is more important and any other factor to succeed
in the music business, whereas for the man it’s the other way around.
 How is language targeting the audience? In Q they don’t use any kind of slang or cursing, which would imply that the nature of the
magazine would be very rock and roll orientated, intended for the younger audience, so in trying to ignore that they have used more
general kind of text which allows Q to appeal to wider majority as opposed of aiming the magazine to a specific age audience.
 Who is producing this magazine? Bauer Media Group, by using a cross media company, it allows the promotion to rise allowing the
competition to fall for other products and magazines that compete against Q

5.  There are 166 pages in the Q magazine
 40 pages in the magazine are just advertisements
 And 126 pages which are just editorial produced by the Q magazine
itself
 64 of those page are just editorial images and 62 pages are editorial
copy
 The price of the Q magazine is £3.99 and the price of MOJO is £4.50,
MOJO gives out a free CD with the magazine, however Q is more
generalised in that it appeals to wider audience, then on top of that
the lower price will attract a larger audience.
 Out of the all the imagery used in the magazine 44 are original and
115 are from photo libraries

6. •¾ of the whole magazine is original, showing that less money
is spent as the any of the copy that is produced by the writers
is already owned by Q, so extra expenditure is no required
•Although ¼ of the copy has been taken from newspapers,
other magazines and freelance writers, by doing this it
increases the costs spent, as money has to go to the writer or
producer of the copy itself. Even though some of the copy has
been taken from other people, it’s only a small percentage, so
the majority of the copy has been written by Q’s hired writers,
which cuts the cost quite a lot, therefore the base price of the
magazine gets kept down. Also money not spent on the copy
can be spent in other places, such as advertising, type of
paper, which makes the magazine seem more appealing.

7. •Q magazines used high quality glossy paper, however as this
magazine is a monthly magazine, it can afford to use higher quality
paper, on a less regular basis. Also by using glossy paper it increases
the look of the magazine making it seem nicer in comparison to
others on the market.
•Due to the fact that Q is £3.99 shows that why it can afford to use a
higher quality paper, however when compared with other monthly
magazines, £3.99 is a cheaper price, for example MOJO is £4.50, and
classic rock magazine is £4.99, which both of them use glossy paper.

8. •Unlike many other music magazines, Q magazine doesn’t have a
particular genre of music, for example NME is rock orientated,
Kerrang is heavy metal orientated, Classic rock is older rock and roll
orientated. Q likes to appeal to a wider audience by using both pop,
rock and sometimes hip hop figures and articles. This allows
competition with other magazines, and a wider range of advertising
for the magazine.
•Q use’s informal language, however not language that is in either
way based at any kind of generation, a type of language that is
understandable to all ages.
•The original age for Q magazine was an older generation of people
who have an eclectic taste in music, although with more recent
editions the appeal has grown for slightly younger generations, who
are more interested in slightly more commercial music.