This document provides a mind map and research for generating ideas for a TV magazine front cover called InsideSoap. It discusses the history, publisher, circulation figures, target audience, masthead ideas, color schemes, fonts, image positioning, headlines, and inclusion of social media integration. The conclusion indicates the creator will use an existing InsideSoap magazine as inspiration and Photoshop software to design their ancillary magazine product cover.

1. OCR Media Studies – A2 Level
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio
Mind Map and
Research
Name: Maximilian Stainer
Candidate Number: 2130
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Generation of Ideas for Ancillary Product 1) –
TV Magazine Front Cover
SoapStories

2. Source of Inspiration
History of the Product
-The magazine was first published in October 1992
-The editor of InsideSoap is Stephen Murphy since 2009
-InsideSoap is owned by Nat Mags
-The product started selling weekly in September 2003
Publisher
-The company that published it was Hearst Magazines UK
-Publishing director is Matthew Hayes
Circulation Figures
-In 2016 it reached 102,953, a 12.4% decrease
Socio-Economic Needs
The pricing of the magazine is initially £1.65, which is more expensive
than competitors such as What’s On TV, which costs 60p. This may be
because Inside Soap contains 100 pages of information on soap
operas, giving the reader a great variety. This could be the reason why
this magazine is more expensive than others. This magazine will purely
appeal to the working class people who could vary from E to D. This is
because these groups are presented in the soap operas allowing the
audience to “Personally identify”(Katz) characters that they can relate
with. As well as this the magazine can particularly appeal to “care
givers” (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) as they can feel sympathy for
characters such as the ones on the magazine E.g. “CANCER SHOCK!”.
http://www.insidesoap.co.uk/http://www.hearst.co.uk/

3. Masthead ideas & connotations
• SoapLife- The denotation of ‘Life’ highlights that this magazine
appeal to those who are dedicated and who are emotionally
attached to the soap genre. Therefore those who are addicted to
the soap genre can easily relate to the magazine due to the
outstanding masthead. The result of using the word ‘Life’ will
guarantee that ‘survivors’ (Maslow) will receive the best
information possible as the magazine identifies that the soap genre
is their main purpose as it is a part of their lives.
• SoapUs- One way in which the publication can appeal and attract
an audience is through unity. This is evident through this masthead,
which manages to create a rapport with the reader as ‘Us’ gives a
sense of community with the reader in the soap opera genre.
Similarly, this will also give ‘survivors’ (Maslow) confidence in
purchasing this magazine because it gives the reader security that
they are a part of a culture, following this genre and therefore
retain information about their favourite soap opera shows.

4. Colours
• Red- The colour red is used in all soap opera magazines, mainly to
highlight the dystopian and ‘dark’ side of the soap opera genre which
represents what content occurs in a soap opera. Red also reflects blood,
anger and danger, which will be very effective to use this colour as a
headline to give the reader an indication of this character’s background.
This will traditionally be used for the masthead colour as red stands out
to the audience.
• Yellow- Yellow can both compliment and contrast the colour red, which
will be helpful as a secondary house colour for the magazine. Yellow will
mainly be used to symbolise caution or warning. However, the yellow
colour has been used mainly for pull quotes or for specific words of a
headline. This will highlight the word and emphasise the main detail of
the story, which will allow readers to identify what has happened.
• Blue- Blue can signify the lighter side of the soap opera genre to reveal
that there is some utopian sides of the stories that happen in the soap
opera. However, I will not really use this colour as my magazine will be
heavy dystopian, which will be filled with red and yellow. Therefore, the
colour blue will completely contrast the magazine and may even look
tacky and less professional.

5. Font style and Punctuation
Arial Black- The Arial font have a consistent feature of
boldness, which is prime for a magazine. This therefore can be
used for both the masthead and headlines to stand out from
the images. It also looks very professional with its basic style,
which is commonly used by majority of users as it is the norm
font to use.
Punctuation- In terms of other soap opera magazines, they
always have punctuation in their headlines specifically the
exclamation point and question mark. The exclamation point
is used repetitively after every headline to highlight
importance and emphasise the point. The question marks will
be used rhetorically to appeal to the audience and force them
to discuss their thoughts about the headline.
ABCDEFGHIKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZ

6. Positioning
Masthead- The positioning of the masthead on the soap opera
magazines are traditionally located on the top left or the top
centre of the front cover. By being at the top it will direct the
reader’s attention along with its bright and bold red colour. Also
by having it located at the top left corner is good positioning
because when the magazines are stacked and presented in a
shop, this will be the area showing, therefore having the main
masthead will address the reader, by having a bold font which
will seek the reader’s attention.
Headline- the positioning of the headline will be located lower
down in the centre of the page. This is because this will lead the
reader to look at the masthead then be directed to read the main
headline. The space in between the masthead and main headline
should be the main images, which should relate to the main
headline.
Images- Main image should be located right at the centre of the
magazine as this could be the main opportunity for “star appeal”
(Richard Dyer). Also there are images, which are specifically
taken to precisely tell the reader what has happened without any
detail.

7. Headlines
Mysterious Murder!?- the use of alliteration engages with the reader as
reader can effectively read it out fluently. The fact that there has been a
murder will increase the reader’s curiosity and will tempt them to read into
this case. The exclamation point and rhetorical question forces the reader to
want to know who the reader is as the murderer could be a shock.
Where’s Sam!?- the questioning of this headline hints that a protagonist has
gone missing, but doesn't’t reveal where or why he has gone. This will make
the reader want to investigate in this storyline to understand the build up to
the character going missing.
Divorce!- as the main headline, it is short and sweet, which allows the font
size to increase to stand out further. Additionally, being short is effective as it
doesn’t give away any information about the main story line.

8. Images and price
Main image- the main image in the soap opera magazines are
usually a medium close up or close up. This is purposely done
to emphasise their facial expression, which will be able to
signify how they are feeling. The protagonists within the main
image will also likely be apart of the same storyline to identify
how they contrast each other through their body position and
facial expression. In my magazine front cover I will have two
characters within the main image as I can portray them to have
very different and contrasting emotions about the dilemma
they are in. I will also place the male character in front of the
female as this will idenitfy that the male is more dominant and
that he is the problem between the two.
Price- The price of the magazine will be the same as InsideSoap
at the price of £1.50. This is a suitable price as it is still a very
affordable price and the price will suggest that it is a premium
magazine, suitable for both the working class and even higher
class audience.

9. Language/ Puff promotion
The language that is used in the majority of the soap opera magazines are
more informal and colloquial than formal. This may be to firstly reflect the
characters in the soap opera to reinforce the realism that the audience may
feel. Also this language would have been adopted by the magazine in order to
relate to the targeted audience as they are the working class who are
stereotypically known to have more conversational language compared to the
upper class. This is highlighted by the broken up, short sentences along with
the exclamation marks. Sometimes, in a magazine there will be puff
promotion using words such as ‘free’, ‘win’ or ‘new’. This will appeal to the
target audience as they will be buying this due to something they can receive
from buying it or they will get exclusive information on certain stories.

10. Synergy (social media)
Through analysing a range of soap opera
magazines, the use of synergy with social media is
not very clear and is lacking. I thought this would be
a prominent feature as knowing the working class
they will be heavily indulged in their social media
applications such as Facebook or Twitter. As a result
of this I will add in social media icons within my
magazine to allow the audience to connect and
follow the company and keep notified with recent
updates.

11. Conclusion
For the production of my magazine, I should find a copy of a magazine
front cover from InsideSoap to use as my magazine of inspiration.
Therefore I will create my magazine while having the magazine of
inspiration beside it. As a result of this it will allow me to follow the
professionalism used within the magazine.
I don’t think I will need to download any fonts as I can just use the
basic and bold fonts which are on the default Photoshop selection.
However, if I did need a different font, I would go on to Dafont and
download a specific font and add it to Photoshop.
The software I will be using will be Photoshop as I have recently been
using this and have became more comfortable with the shortcuts I
could possibly use and how to perfect images on there as well.