This document is a student's log book and evaluation for a music magazine production project. It includes: 1) A progression of steps taken to design the magazine's front cover and contents page, including choosing fonts, images, and layout. 2) Research on the established music magazine Q, including its genre focus, circulation, readership demographics, and conventions. 3) Analysis of Q's target audience based on its price, readership data, and focus on aspiring social groups per Maslow's hierarchy. 4) Identification of Q's unique selling point as its special edition releases alongside its sister magazine.

1. OCR Media Studies – AS Level
Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media
Preliminary Task, Log Book and Evaluation
Name: Ella Bamford
Candidate Number: 8237
Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic College
Center Number: 64770
Set Brief - Print
Music Magazine – Production
Preliminary Task Progression, Log Book and
Evaluation

2. Preliminary Task Progression–
Evidence
Front Cover
Step-by-step

3. Step-by-step guide.
Firstly I began by placing my main
image and background picture, to
ensure that it looks interesting and
gripped the attention of the
audience. I will plan to use the
colour’s present as a colour scheme
for my cover lines.
Step 1 Step 3Step 2
After this I will add my masthead and
strapline, I found these via
‘www.dafont.co.uk’ and I chose
‘THEMINION’, because it seems to be quite
bubbly, therefore giving the magazine a
more light-hearted feel. I also made the
writing white, as there is little white
included in the background image,
therefore helping it to stand out.
I used the colour’s that were on my
background images to create boxes to
surround my coverline. I aimed not to
have these coverline overtake my main
images, to ensure that this continued to
be the main focus of the cover. The
coverlines that I included I tried to make
as interesting as possible to draw the
most attention to it.

4. Step 4 Step 5 Step 6
It was important for me to include
images that showed a light hearted feel
to the magazine, and made the students
remiss on what has previously happened.
As well as this I have placed my social
media connections for the magazine, to
make the magazine seem more current
and allow people to view articles without
having to buy the magazine.
Finally to tie together my magazine, I
included I added my PUFF promotion
in a bright bubble, to draw attention
to its importance. As well as this I
placed an arrow to the QR code, and
and put a message to make people
look into the QR code.
I then added the most important
features of a cover page, these include
the date, issue, and price. As well as
this I have put in a barcode and QR
code, that is connected to my
wordpress account, to show other
examples of what I have done.

5. Preliminary Task Progression–
Evidence
Contents Page
Step-by-step

6. Step-by-step guide.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
I began my content page, by placing a
background image that I found in the
school with the name of my magazine,
as well as the label of what the page is
and the month its appearing in.
I then placed a selection of guides to
allow me to pace all the numbers and
writing straight. I then placed my two
main boxes where I would include the
necessary information. I matched the
colour of the boxes to the colour used for
the cover lines on my front cover, to
create a running colour scheme, that
could become associated with the
magazine.
After I added my editorial piece, I used the
same font (‘THE MINION’) as seen on my
font cover, so that the readership could
automatically associated this with the
magazine brand. I aimed to include
snippets of stories that would feature in
the magazine, as well as create a
welcoming feel to the magazine. I then
included my name, signature and picture
so that it created a more professional feel.

7. Step 4 Step 5 Step 6
After I began to create the content page itself,
by including stories that are on the front cover,
as well as other stories that would be
associated with a school. For this I used the
necessary guides to ensure that everything was
precisely aligned. I began by placing the
subheading for each other the categories that
information would feel under, and underlining
them, then I placed the stories and numbers
under each category, with the numbers falling
in chronological order based on each heading.
I then added photos that I had taken in
and around the sixth form to the content
page to support the stories that I had
included. I made sure that the numbers
coordinated with the numbers present
for each story. I made sure that the
pictures and numbers were large that
they would catch the readerships eye.
After I had added the pictures, I
included the finishing touches of
adding the website name, and the
number of the page. This then
created my finished content page.

8. Section 1) – Log Book

9. Why Q magazine?
I have decided to initially research and deconstruct Q
magazine as it is considered as one of the most established
and popular music magazines, this would therefore show a
basis structure to follow in the creation of a music magazine.
Q magazine covers a variety of different genres of music within
each copy; these are produced monthly and can be focused on
Hip Hop stars Jay Z, to pop star Cheryl Cole, to rock bands The
Muse.
By looking in-depth at Q magazine that looks at all music that
is current, regardless of it initial genre. This helps to show
when pop culture is focused on, how this differs to a rock
magazine and what conventions make this obvious.
By deconstructing a variety of Q magazines from each music
genre, this will allow me to gain know of what genre I find the
most interesting, and therefore help me to decide what I
would like to focus on genre wise.

10. Music Magazine – Genre
research
Q was first published in October
1984, by the media group EMAP.
Q is produced on a monthly
version, to therefore encourage
higher quality photography and
production.
In January 2008 EMAP sold
its consumer magazine titles,
including Q, to the Bauer
Media Group.
It includes many sub-genres such as
Hip-hop, rock , pop and R&B artists.
Q magazine aims to include as
much information about music
from the month as possible this
is done through interviews,
essays, PUFF promotions, as well
as information that you would
struggle to find elsewhere.
The circulation of the
magazine is 43,997 stated
from ABC total, from 01 Jan
2015 - 30 Jun 2015
(http://www.abc.org.uk/Prod
ucts-Services/Product-
Page/?tid=1321)
Beginning to place articles
on line

11. Masthead:
The masthead is large and
bold. This will instantly catch
the readers attention,
although not all of it is
shown, due to the bold
colour red with the Q being
white. The masthead and
colour scheme is consistent
with the brand, therefore
allowing brand recognition to
take place
Cover lines:
Q magazine has a broad
audience of readers, and
therefore needs to ensure
that the stories that they
provide account for these
groups, therefore the
include a variety of
different musicians from
all generations to ensure
that it can be enjoyed by
all the target audiences.
Price and
date:
£4.20 – May 2015
Barcode
Story
Separators
Name of artist:
Bring attention to who the
article was about – draws
more attention to the
magazine knowing who it
was the main star was.
Main headline: This is positioned at the bottom of the page,
towards the left-hand side. This represents ‘difference’ (Steve Neale)
as normally the headline is position in the centre of the page with the
main image behind.
Strapline: Q magazine has two straplines that it alternates
between, the other being ‘The UK’s biggest music magazine’

12. Established Magazine for my Research
The chart above denotes that the percentage of
male readers is exceedingly larger that the
percentage of female readership, with 68.3%
being male; whereas 31.7% are female, showing
that the likelihood is the target audience is aim
at the male gender. In addition it states that the
age range which attracts the most interest to
the magazine is 15-24 with 35.5% of readership
being between these ages, with the second
most common readership being aged between
25-34 at 26.3%. This implies that the target
audience for this magazine is aimed at young
males, aged 15-24.
Publisher – Bauer Media Group
Country – United Kingdom
Language – English
Frequency – Monthly
Circulation – 52,781 (ABC Jul – Dec
2013)
Readership-377,000
Editor – Phil Alexander
First Issue – October 1986
Website – qthemusic.com
ISSN – 0955-4955
The chart of the Q Reader also indicates that
70% of the readership belongs to the ABC1
profile, making it appear as a popular
magazine within this profile, as well as making
it appear as a high-class magazine as the ABC1
includes individuals in the jobs:
A – higher managerial, administrative and
professional
B – Intermediate managerial, administrative
and professional
C1 – Supervisory, clerical and junior
managerial, administrative and professional
roles.

13. Target Audience
The target audience for Q magazine can be denoted as males aged 15-24 that belong to a middle-class
background (The Hartley Classification), this would primarily be due to the magazine being considered more
up-market due to its price of £4.20, which is perceived as expensive for a magazine of this genre, however
would still be considered within the middle-class bracket, as it is released on a monthly basis. Q magazine
would conform to being both for ‘social climbers’ and ‘explorers’(Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) this is primarily
due to ‘social climbers’ will aspire to resemble the people they read about because of their wealth and status,
meaning that they will belong to the ‘upper class’; whereas ‘explorers’ will look at the magazine for inspiration
for social change, from controversial singers that are using their music to make a difference for the people, an
example of music that would likely appear in Q magazine and cause this change is Imagine, by John Lennon,
which lead to a sense of peace and equality around the world, which ‘explorers’ would strive for finding in Q. Q
magazines target audience are likely to belong to the main percentage of the readership, as they feel the need
for ‘diversion’ (Katz uses and gratification) this is due to them feeling the necessity to escape their own lives,
and immerse themselves in the lives of the singers and bands through the an array of interviews with popular
artists.
What is the USP of this magazine?
From the research completed into this media product, one of the unique selling points that they commonly use
in Q magazine is its ‘special editions’ that are released every other month alongside it’s sister magazine ‘Mojo’
these focus on the ‘top greatest’ musical times, genres, musicians, and bands for example.
Q also uses a USP in the placing of what is referred to as ‘ spine-line’ on each edition of the magazine, this
message is seen to be an indication of what the magazine will include, and allow the readers to work this out,
therefore making it interactive. Steve Neale would state that this complies with his concept of ‘difference’ as
typically most magazines leave the spine relatively blank, with only the name, date and issue.

14. Publisher research
http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands/q
Europe’s largest
privately owned
publishing Group
Offers over 300
magazines in 15 different
countries, as well as other
media platforms including
online, TV and radio.
Website
www.bauermedia.co.uk
The CEO is Paul Keenan
The revenue in 2013 was
approximately 2.4 Billion Euros
Attracts 19 million
consumers every
week through their
various media
products
Their strap line is ‘we
think popular’
connoting that they
aim to reach the mass
audiences with the
media products
they’re supplying
Bauer only publishes 4
entertainment magazines
Founded in 1875

15. Genre - Popular Music
Masthead
The brand is considered as
recognisable to the masses – the
actual logo for the brand alternate,
between white and black based on
the background colour of cover
photo.
Price
$6.99 – US
$8.99 – CANADA
£5.50 - UK
Strap line
‘Experience the Buzz’
First issue was released on
the 1st November 1894
Issues are released
biweekly
Owned by the Prometheus
Global group.
Website – www.billboard.com

16. Founded on 9th November
1967
Founded by Jann Wenner and
Ralph J. Gleason
Publisher – Jann Wenner
Website – www.rollingstone.com
Genre - Popular Culture/Rock/Entertainment
Released biweekly
Price - £6.00
Colour scheme – Red, Black and
White
Total circulation
1,464,943 (2014)
In the 1990’s Rolling Stone
changed their approach with the
magazine to make it more
appealing to the younger
generation, they done this by
including more youth-oriented
shows, film actors and popular
music.
The Rolling Stone magazine is primarily based on the distribution of
music new to the masses, although it ha been seen to place a heavy
emphasis on politics and have written some controversial stories

17. Genre – Rock/ Indie/ Alternative
Founded in 1949, by Theodore
Ingham
This is published by Time Inc. UK
Colour Scheme – Red, Black and
White
Website – www.nme.com
Total Circulation (2015)
15,380
NME magazine provide a number
of events that work alongside the
magazine, these include the NME
awards and the NME involvement
at festivals such as Reading and
Leeds.
Released on a Biweekly basis
Based in the London, UK
NME have also made ventures into the
radio and TV industry, which focused on
indie and rock playlist that were easily
accessible to all.
In July 2015 it was confirmed that
NME would become a free title
magazine. The first free title was
published on the 18th September
2015, with Rihanna posing as the main
cover star. The initial print run for the
free title was 300,000; whereas
weekly sales for the paid title in 2015
was around 15,000.
The free NME includes a broad
coverage of films, fashion, video games,
although the main focus still remains
on music.

18. Genre – Pop Founded in Autumn 2011 by Egmont
UK
Egmont have claimed to be ‘a
leading UK children’s publisher of
books and magazines’
Released on a monthly basis
Target market is young girls, aged
between 13-15
Website – www.welovepop.co.uk
As well as being a music
magazine with al the pop gossip,
we love pop also includes
information on different styles
that are current, as well as
advice on boys and problems
that can arise in school or
socially. This is considered to
make it a very rounded
magazine for young girls as they
are impressionable and
therefore need guidance from a
source that will have the least
confrontation approach possible
The magazine will allows aim to
include a puff promotion in local
shops that are considered well
known to entice the young girls.
The magazine understands the importance of social media and the internet, so
therefore aim to ensure that they have the current magazine cover up on their
website, as well as a variety of snippets for the stories present in the magazine,
so that the young girls are always able to see what is coming up in the next
issue.
The magazine uses words
like ‘you’ and ‘I’ to make the
readers feel like the editor is
speaking directly to them,
and therefore have active
engagement in the
magazine.

19. My Chosen Music Magazine
Genre
I have chosen to focus my magazine on Popular culture, I felt this was a suitable choice of genre as when completing
my research on a variety of different magazines and the conventions, as well as the target audience were both
interesting and something that I could change to make it more applicable to the magazine I wanted to create.
The magazine I decided to focus my work around, and model what I was creating on was ‘Top of the Pops’ this is
primarily due to it being the most brought and read popular culture magazine for this generation in this niche of
market. I also feel that Top of Pops is a good magazine to base my own magazine on due to it being
quite colourful as well as a clear structure.
As well as modelling my magazine on Top of the Pops, I felt it was important to refer
to another popular culture magazine for inspiration on colour schemes and the
placement of cover lines and photos. Whilst looking into the Popular culture genre I
have noticed that there are many ‘similarities’ (Steve Neal) between magazines in this
genre.

20. Conventions of a Music
Magazine – Front Cover
Masthead
Headline
(Main cover story)
Barcode
Date
Price
Issue
Picked out quote
Branding
Cover lines
Cover line images

21. Conventions of a Music
Magazine – Contents Page
Subheading about
what the page is about.
All the different parts
of the content page is
separated into heading.
They use swirly writing
and hearts to show that
they are for a specific
target audience.
Picture that is related
to an article is made
to standout to draw
attention to it.
Number related to the picture
The content page number is
consistent with the rest of the
content page.
A screenshot of the
front cover which has the
numbers linked to each
story meaning that they
can navigate their way
around what they want to
read by referring to the front
cover.

22. Conventions of a Music Magazine –
Double Page spread
Main image, focus
primarily just on
him, and his to an
extent his laid back
approach to life.
Informing the readership what
They are about to read.
Pulled out quote
from his interview,
showing the what
the article is going
to include, therefore
making the
readership more
Interested.
Page numbers, same according content
page
Information on
Personal demands
An insight to what
the interview will
be about, and
what it should
include.
Key information about
release dates
Article –
conversional
Image relating
to article

23. Target Audience
The target audience for Top of the Pops magazine can be denoted as young girls aged 12-15, due to the initial
design and contents of the magazine (Hartley’s seven subjectivities). Priced at £3.99 the magazine have chosen
to price it at a mid-range, so that these teens will be able to afford it with pocket money which they would
considered as an ‘achievement’ to have saved this money in accordance to Maslow Hierarchy of needs. Top of
the Pops would also aim ‘Inform & Educate’ (Katz uses and gratification) by allowing the the readership to learn
about the celebrities and the latest music trends through an array of music interviews and chart updates; as
well as this it allows the readership to build up a ‘personal relationship’ as they are encountering information
that makes that they would not usually be able to know about the celebrity, making them feel like they know
them personally, and therefore will help the celebrity gain a larger fan base.
What is the USP of this magazine?
From the research completed into this media product, I think the unique selling point of Top of the Pops is that
there is not a variety of music magazine that are accessible to this genre, this means that as a magazine itself it
makes it unique; this would therefore be considered as a ‘difference’ by Steve Neal, as many would not be able
to view a music magazine for this target market. As well as this Top of the Pops magazine began from a music
television program that appeared weekly and discussed the top charts, this means that many individuals will
find this as a Unique Selling Point as they will have prior knowledge of what the magazines will include and that
it is based around the popular culture.

24. Publisher research
Founded in London and
Bristol, England on
November 1st 2011
Publishes over
34 magazine
titles and
maintains
over 50
websites
CEO –Tom Bureau
Immediate media is
made up of BBC
magazines and Magicalia
Provides magazines for a
number of different target
markets
AdultTeen
Pre-teen
Educational
Pre-school
Website – www.immediate.co.uk
Owned by Exponent Private Equity
‘Immediate Media Co
is an award-winning
special interest
content and platform
company, and one of
the biggest consumer
media businesses in
the UK.’

25. Photography planning
In order to take a successful photos for my magazine, I needed to ensure that I had a
carefully planned photoshoots in place. This meant I had to think a suitable location, a
model that would fit with my genre and the mise-scene that could be used.
I thought that my friend Sara would be a perfect fit for my genre and the celebrity that
I had chosen to focus on , I was very lucky that she was co-operative through the whole
process. We spoke of a suitable time that would benefit that would benefit the two of
us, as well as the chose of costume. In total we
completed two photoshoots; one for the front cover and the
second for my double page spread. I encouraged her to try a
variety of different poses, to help find the one most suitable
for my magazine.
By taking into consideration the questionnaires that took
place, I decided that it would be important that the cover
photo to have a message, as the young girls reading it will be
more susceptible to what is shown in media magazines,
therefore I didn't’t want it to be primarily on what she was
wearing or the make-up that she has on but isn’t the meaning
of the article.

26. Questionnaire Prep
I devised this questionnaire to ask my target
audience, based on questions that I found while
researching magazines, from different genres. I
thought that it would be important to see what
girls from this target audience wanted to see, as
well as why they though this was important, by
asking them to state why.

27. Questionnaire results
These are two examples of
questionnaires that were filled out by my
target audience on what they wanted to
see on magazine. This meant that I was
able to avoid things that my target
audience did not like, and focus around
what they feel is important.
The two examples I gave, work in
accordance to Steve Neal ‘similarities’ as
they show that the target audience,
wants the see many of the same thing in
the magazine.

28. Questionnaire results
a - effective
colour scheme
20%
b - large and
catching
masthead
25%
c - interesting
stories
11%
d - celebrity
front cover
16%
e - promotion
28%
What do you look for on a
front cover?
a - effective colour
scheme
b - large and
catching masthead
c - interesting stories
d - celebrity front
cover
e - promotion
Interesting stories was considered as the most
important element of a front cover by my target
audience, therefore giving it the smallest
percentage; whereas a promotion was considered as
ineffective to make my magazine more desirable by
my target audience, therefore giving it the largest
percent.
a - bold and
bright
50%
b - short and
memorable
40%
c - a play on
words
10%
d - unique
0%
What does the name have
to achieve in attracting you
to read/buy the magazine?
a - bold and bright
b - short and
memorable
c - a play on words
d - unique
I then assessed what my target audience found the most to
appear on my front cover, this showed that my target
audience found that it was important to include a bold and
bright title with half of my target audience rating this the
most important. This is in contrast with unique which none
of my target audience ranked as the most important.

29. Questionnaire Results
0
2
4
6
a - White
and Silver
b - As
colourful
as
possible
c - Black
and red
d - White
and blue
What do you feel is an
effective colour scheme that
would attract you?
Most
effective
colour
scheme 0
5
10
a - Large
images
b - Smaller
images
c - Both of
the above
Should the article focus on a
large image, a group of
smaller images or both?
Image sizes
for double
page spread
I thought it would be important to look into what my
target market would find as the most effective colour
scheme for the magazine, although it was quite close
between the white and silver option and as colourful as
possible, I found that making the magazine colourful
would be more effective as then I could follow the
general colour scheme that is used for other magazines
in this genre.
I found it was necessary for my target audience to see
what they felt would be more effective regarding my
double page spread, as it would need to be eye-
catching to draw in the attention of my audience, it
was clearly shown that they wanted to see a
collection of large images and smaller images, so that
they would be able to see more able the musician
than merely the image taken for the initial interview.

30. Questionnaire Results
a - Yes
80%
b - No
20%
Should the article be conversional with
questions being asked, or merely a
block speech that has been scribed
from what they have said?
a - Yes
b - No
0
2
4
6
8
10
a - Yes b - No
Is social media involvement
important?
Is social
media
involvement
important?
Due to the age of my target audience, it was clear that a
conversional interview would be more effective, due to
them finding it easier to navigate and are able to have a
clear understanding of what the musician is being asked,
without having to infer, this was clearly shown through my
questionnaire as the option for a conversional interview
was far more desirable by my target audience.
I felt that social media’s involvement throughout the
magazine was important, due the extent it’s used
within this age range, therefore I found that the
readership would benefit from this by having the
ability to refer back to this, and look at certain
stories online. My target audience seemed to be in
agreement with this opinion as primarily it was
voted highly on due to the opinion that it made the
magazine ‘current’.