The document discusses the conventions of music magazines that the author researched and incorporated into their own magazine design. These included using one main artist image on the cover, a large masthead, 3-4 colors, and consistent color schemes. The author challenged the convention of placing the cover story at the bottom. They aimed the magazine at teens to 25-year-olds and included content that appeals to this audience.

1. Alex Thorne
magazine evaluation

2. In what ways does you’re media product,
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• Before constructing my magazine I researched into similar music magazines to the one I
would make in order to find out the conventions of a music magazine. From the
research I found that it is conventional for music magazines to have one artist/band on
the cover as the main image and this takes up a large amount of space on the cover. I
also found that the masthead was always the biggest font on the cover, this is because
the logo’s/ names of the magazines are big sellers due to the their fame and so need to
be instantly recognisable.
• I also found it is conventional for music magazines to use 3/4 colours on colour
schemes both on the front cover and on double page spreads this is so the page doesn’t
look like it has to much going on and doesn’t look distracting. I found it is conventional
for the cover story to go across the bottom of the page and the other cover lines to go
down either side of the cover in a smaller font. It is most common for magazines to use
sans serif font (especially on the front cover) and if serif font is used it is mostly used in
the stand first. Kickers are nearly always used at the first letter of an article in double
page spreads.
• I have tried to use these conventions I have found in the magazine I constructed as the
magazines that use them are very successful and this may help the success of my own
magazine.

3. • On my double page spread I incorporated a kicker at the
start of the article which was a convention followed in all
3 magazines I researched. I also used serif font on the
stand first which was another technique I established.
• On my front cover I used one main image of a rapper as It
was conventional to use one artist on the cover. I also
placed cover lines down both sides of the page and made
the masthead the largest most standout font on the page.
• I chose to challenge the convention of placing the cover
story at the bottom of the page as it was something my
target audience disliked in both questionnaires and focus
groups.
• You can also see that I have used consistent
colour schemes on both the front cover and
double page spread limiting to 3 main
colours on both of them.

4. Similar products I researched
I analysed front covers,
double page spreads and
contents pages from NME, Q
magazine and rolling stone.

5. How does you’re media product represent
particular social groups?
• before constructing my magazine I made a number
of questionnaires in order to find out what my target
audience would be, and found that the age group
most interested was from teens to 25 (equally male
& female), this showed our magazine would be
aimed at a young target audience and the content
needed to represent that.
• One of the similar magazines I researched into ‘NME’
aim at a similar aged target audience despite the
different genre I found that there are many things I
can incorporate in my magazine.

6. • Looking at NME I found that they target a young audience.
They used swearing in the magazine, which showed it is
aimed at middle class- lower class young people. It also
promotes festivals and gigs which are mainly attended by
younger people. There are many artists inside each issue as
this is a main selling point for them and the reading difficulty
of the magazine is low.
• In my magazine I included a lot of content that appeals to a
younger audience such as festival and concert news, artist
interviews and competitions. Due to the age of my target
audience the magazine is a monthly release as young people
are less likely to be able to afford a weekly issued magazine. In
my magazine I used simple language and slang words which
would appeal to a younger audience.

7. What kind of media institution would
distribute you’re media product and why?
• When researching similar products I fond that Bauer media
group who publish Q magazine would be suitable to publish my
magazine. They are a German publishing company who also
publish Kerrang!, a popular rock magazine, worldwide circulation
of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million
magazines a week. This shows that the magazines are successful
and that should it publish my magazine it would be successful .
• Bauer Media Group has a 50% stake in the British television
company Box Television, the other half owned by Channel 4. Box
Television acts as the content subsidiary that produces several
popular music television channels, which include: Q TV, 4Music,
Kiss TV, Kerrang! TV, The Box, Magic TV, Smash Hits TV. This is
an example of cross media convergence as the magazine
advertises the TV channels and the TV channels advertise the
magazine.

8. • However with Bauer media publishing two music magazines it may not
wish to release a third as they would all compete with each other for
sales.
• This could mean that my magazine would not receive the same attention
and effort levels the already established magazines would from the
publishing company which could lead to poor sales.
• Benefits of using Bauer media group is that they would already have
distribution deals in place with suppliers and so my magazine would be
available to a large audience which increases chance of success.
• They currently do not have a magazine covering this genre of music which
means there is a place in the market for my magazine and may receive an
extra push when marketing my product.
• http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

9. What would be you’re audience be for
you’re media product?
• I made two questionnaires two find out who my target
audience for my magazine would be, from this I found that
under 25’s are my target audience (both male and female)
and that they are into rap/R&B.
• They would most likely be in the middle class with some lower
class as well. I do not expect my magazine to be successful
with the upper class social class as that is not associated with
that genre of music. And some of the slang and language used
in the magazine may not appeal to that social class.
• I am aiming at a vast target audience and so there is more
chance for my magazine to be successful. And the genres my
magazine covers is always in the charts which shows its
popular and people are interested in the genre.

10. Initial questionnaire into target
audience
7. What colours do you want to see?
• 1. What gender are you?
Bright colours (red, orange and yellow): blue: black
• 2. What age are you? &white: mixed:
• Under 16: 16-25: 26-34: 35+: 8. What special offers would you like to see?
• 3. How often do you read magazines? Tickets to gigs: free music downloads: other:
• Never: weekly: monthly: 9. Do you want to see a famous celebrity on the
cover?
• 4. How much would you be willing to pay for a magazine?
Yes: no:
• Under £1: £1-£2: £2.01- £3: over £3:
10. What do you expect to read?
• 5. What genre of music do you like?
Articles on artists: album reviews: artist tour dates:
• Rap: R&B: rock: pop: indie: all of these:
• 6. What do you like in a magazine?
• Pictures: articles: other:

11. How did you attract/address you’re
audience?
• Because of the young audience I have tried to use bright
colour schemes in my magazine to make it look more
attractive. I have used lots of images in comparison with text
so it doesn’t look like a lot of reading which would appeal to
them more. I have also used an ordered layout which makes
the magazine have a more professional look to it.
• The content of my magazine includes lots of artist interviews,
concert and festival news as these are the things that they
said they wish to see in my initial questionnaires.
• there's a lot of different artists as readers are particularly
interested in them so I have included a lot of this and an
‘artist index’ on the contents page.

12. What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this
product?
• I used a number of different technologies when constructing
my magazine. I learnt how to use adobe Photoshop which was
very useful for editing images I used in my magazine. I also
used apple macs instead of Microsoft windows, which was
another type of technology I have now learnt how to use
effectively. I also used digital cameras for the images used in
my magazine and so I learnt what shots are most effective for
a magazine. I also improved using Microsoft publisher, which
is the best program available to publish the finished magazine
on as it gives the most professional look. I will now be able to
use these technologies effectively in any future projects.

13. Looking back at you’re preliminary task, what
do you think you have learnt in it from?
• I have made many improvements since my preliminary task.
Over the course of constructing my magazine I have been able
to research successful music magazines which has given me a
better understanding of layouts and use of cover lines ,cover
stories and masthead and how to make them look
professional on my product. I have learned a lot about
conventions used in music magazines and tried to include
some in my product. cover of my final product looks far more
professional than the preliminary and one of the main
differences is the fonts I used (all sans serif) which helps the
magazine have a professional finish.

14. REAL PRODUCT
PRELIMINARY TASK