Sijanta Thapa evaluated different music magazines to help create their own new music magazine. They followed the conventions of Top of the Pops magazine most closely because of the similar target audiences of pop music fans aged 13-16. For layout elements like the front cover, contents page, and double page spreads, Sijanta modeled them after Top of the Pops because of its proven popularity and effectiveness at attracting its target audience. Sijanta chose to publish their magazine with Bauer Media because it already publishes another pop music magazine, so it understands how to effectively reach the target pop music audience.

1. Media Music
Magazine Evaluation
Sijanta Thapa

2. I used Top Of The Pops, BOP and SMASH-
HITS magazines to help me create my
new music magazine. I followed the codes
and conventions of Top Of The Pops the
most because I thought it suited my
chosen genre of pop music and also
because the age range for the target
audience for Top Of The Pops is very
similar to my music magazine
I used Top Of The Pops magazines’s layout
for my front cover, contents page and
double page spread because I thought it
was attractive and perfectly suitable for
the genre of my magazine. Top Of The
Pops is a very popular pop music
magazine and I decided to use a similar
layout to thieir one knowing that it has
proved to be very effective for Top Of The
Pops in attracting their target audience so
it should do equally good in attracting a lot
of attention from my target audience
because the specific gender of the target
audience for Top Of The Pops and my
magazine are the same and the age
range for the two magazines is very
similar The layout is very busy and
cluttered, which suggests that the
magazine contains lots of gossip and
excitement. This connotation is appealing
to gossipy, celebrity obssessed teenaged
girls.

3. The genre of music for my music magazine is pop music, so to create my
music magazine front cover, I looked at SMASH-HITS, BOP and Top Of
The Pops magazines which showed me the codes and conventions of
pop music magazines. However Top Of The Pops was the one that
appealed to me the most
For my masthead I used a font which made it look like a childish bubble
writing, as this seemed appropriate for a pop magazine because it would
appeal more to my target audience of young females aged between –
. I made my masthead look similar to BOP magazines masthead
because I felt it would help me reach out to more of my target audience
as it seemed to have done for BOP magazine. At first I used the colour
yellow for my masthead because yellow is associated as an iconic
colour for the pop music genre, but then I realised it didn’t match my
house style/colour theme so I opted for another colour usually
associated with the pop music genre: pink. Using the pink for my
masthead made it stand out and easily noticeable and also, pink is
commonly said to be a girly colour so this will be effective in attracting
the attention of my target audience

4. My magazine Top Of The Pops
Instead of just calling it “contents” I chose to write “Inside the mag...” because it is
different and more interesting than just calling it “contents”. Also, I’ve used genre
specific colloquial language here, referring to “magazine” as “mag” because it is
shorter and easier to say, also it sounds cool to teenaged girls. I’ve placed the
writing on a pink banner because the banner makes it stand out and I used pink
to match the house style colour of my mag and also gives it the “pop” look.
There’s a whole separate section which only
includes articles about celebs & gossip.
This is a very effective way of saving time
for the readers because gossip is the main
thing they buy the magazines for because
they want to find out about what is
happening in the celeb world, Who’s
dating who? Who’s got the number 1 hit?,
etc. Interesting points are ‘highlighted’ to
suggest that the target audience are school
aged.

5. My magazine Top Of The Pops
There is a section where you can find
the page numbers which feature
competitions and free gifts. This will
be very use full for the people who
like entering competitions and
getting free gifts from magazines
because it means they can just
check out what page they can find
these features on and go straight to
them, without having to waste their
time by flicking through the rest of
the magazine.
I’ve placed a small image of an artist right
underneath an article teaser which is
about this artist. This way the readers
can see who it’s about.

6. My magazine Top Of The Pops
There is a section called “All about you”.
This is what attracts the attention of
people who like to do quizzes which
tell you which pop star would be your
perfect match, or, which member of a
girl band are you?
This section is all about shopping. This is a
very appropriate section to be included
in my magazine as my mag is mainly
aimed at young females, and females are
associated with shopping quite a lot. I’ve
made it easy for them to find the page
which has articles about the latest
trends, the biggest designer brands, etc.

7. My magazine Top Of The Pops
Instead of listing out all the articles in my
mag, I pasted a smaller copy of my
front cover and included page
numbers along the side with arrows
coming off and pointing to the
relavant article. The page numbers are
pink and the arrows look as if they’ve
been drawn on, I chose to do this
because it gives it a childish look,
which will appeal to my target
audience of young females.
I’ve made it very easy for the girls to find articles
about boys and male pop stars by
highlighting the page numbers on which they
can be found. This way the girls won’t have
to waste their time flicking through the pages
till they find articles about boys, they can just
check the highlighted page numbers and go
straight to them. This makes it really easy for
the girls and saves them a lot of time and
also it’s a way to include the colour yellow
into my contents page because yellow is
known as an icon for the pop genre because
it reflects the lively and happy mood of pop.

8. My magazine Top Of The Pops
The image I’ve used is very appropriate
for a double page spread and the
interview because it shows the artist
laughing and enjoying himself which
sets a calm and happy mood for the
interview as well, so the readers will
feel the same while reading the
interview. I based the colour pallet of
this double page spread around the
colours worn by the artist in the
image and also because the blue
makes it calm and cool.
I’ve used the second biggest
font on the artists’ name so
the readers know who is
giving the interview and I’ve
placed it on a banner to
make it more noticeable.

9. My magazine Top Of The Pops
I’ve placed a banner running across the bottom of my
double page spread saying, “Turn over for a
chance to win Sagar.G’s hoodie – and it’s signed!
OMG!”. This will attract a lot of attention
because the blue makes it stand out and more
noticeable and also because Sagar.G is a very
popular pop artist and all his fans (specially the
female fans) will be dying to enter the
competition where they will have a chance to
win Sagar.G’s signed hoodie. I’ve also used genre
specific language here, “OMG!” is a term
commonly used by youngsters because it’s
cooler and quicker way of sayin “Oh my god!”
By separating the questions by writing them in a different
colour to the answers, I’ve made it very easy for the
audience because now they don’t have to spend time
trying to figure out what bits are the questions and
what bits are the answers. They will simply know that
the bits in blue are the questions and the bits in black
are the answers. The questions are also in Italic, which
makes it stand out more. I chose the colour blue
because it matches the colour pallete of my double
page spread and makes the page look neat and tidy.

10. My magazine Top Of The Pops
The biggest font on my double page spread is the title quote, “The greatest feeling in life is doing
something people say you can’t”, which basically sums up what this article/interview is about,
about how the only nepalese pop star, Sagar.G, recieved no support from his friends and family
on his long journey to fame! I’ve placed the word “can’t” in a black box, enhancing the fact
that Sagar.G has done the impossible and achieved a career in singing even though he recieved
no support, instead, when he told people he wanted to become a singer they would just laugh
at him. That is my second quote. I’ve used these two quotes because one of the first things
people read before reading the actualy interview, are the quotes around it. They read the
quotes and if it is interesting, they then go on to read the whole interview. The quotes I’ve
used will make the readers feel sad and sympathise with the artist, which will make them want
to read the rest of the interview.

11. By separating the questions by writing them in a different colour to the answers, I’ve
made it very easy for the audience because now they don’t have to spend time
trying to figure out what bits are the questions and what bits are the answers.
They will simply know that the bits in blue are the questions and the bits in black
are the answers. The questions are also in Italic, which makes it stand out more. I
chose the colour blue because it matches the colour pallete of my double page
spread and makes the page look neat and tidy. This makes the article easier to
skim read rather than having to spend a lot of time on because teenage girls are
more likely to read in this way, as a distraction rather than because they are
interested in the music.

12. Original choice http://www.ipcmedia.com
IPC Media is a media institution which publishes magazines such as NME and
UNCUT which are rock/indie magazines, and use codes and conventions I
have not used on my music magazine, so at first I thought choosing IPC
Media as my music magazine publisher would be a good idea as they are
very experienced in publishing many different magazines and they know what
their core target audience like, that they try to cater for, then they may know
where there is a “gap in the market” such as a music magazine, maybe of a
pop genre
As IPC Media don’t publish any pop genre music magazines, adding my music
magazine to thier production would be beneficial to my magazine as the sales
for my magazines would be high if the audience knows that the publishing
company also publishes some of their favourite existing magazines
IPC Media distribute their brands across many supermarkets throughout the UK,
which broadens the magazines’ target audience. Making my magazine
available in large supermarkets would make it available to more people, there
fore increasing sales as well as my target audience.

13. Final Choice of Publisher
and Distributor
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk
My alternative publishing company is Bauer. Bauer might be alternatively appropriate because
they have published more magazines then IPC and more of these are music magazines.
This could mean Bauer may have more experience in what codes and conventions a
successful music magazine would need to attract a large but particularly target audience
A plus point of making Bauer my publisher would be that they already have experience in
publishing a pop magazine (Smash-Hits) and there fore know exactly what codes and
conventions a pop music magazine needs to attract a large target audience
Bauer Media company distribute their brands through different types of media, like radio, TV
and online; this would widen my target audience as my magazine would be advertised on
each of these types of media.
I think Bauer Media is the more suitable institution to publish and distribute my magazine
because it already publishes another music magazine of the same genre so adding my
magazine to their production would increase sales because audiences of the existing
magazines would be introducd to mine and take an interest in it as it is of the same genre
as the other music magazine they like to read

14. My reader profile explains a lot about the
target audience of my media product.
97% of the readers are young females
because my magazine mostly features
articles and images of male artists, which
the young females are interested in. The
average age of the reader will be 14, in a
13 – 16 age range. 100% are in
compulsory education and live with their
parents in their parent’s house. They get
£5 pocket money every week. All of my
target audience are in the E category.
They rely on their parents to give them
money for personal use.
The target audience for my media product
has been based upon current statistics
about the readers of Top Of The Pops
magazines.

15. How much are you willing to pay for
a music magazine?
£0 - £0.99
£1 - £1.99
£2 - £2.99
£3 - £3.99
£4 - £4.99
£5 +
My magazine is priced at £ . because my results showed that the two popular
choices for the price were £ -£ . and £ -£ . , so I decided to price it half
way between the two choices. I think this is a reasonable price for my magazine
because my target audience get £ a week as pocket money so they can save
up £ a week, for two weeks, and buy my magazine, as my magazine is going to
be issued fortnightly. When pricing my magazine, another factor I had to
consider was how much pocket money my target audience got. % of my
readers lived with their parents and the average pocket money they got per week
was £ and my magazine is published fortnightly so therefore, I thought £ .
was a reasonable price for my magazine and all the readers have to do is save
£ each week from their pocket money to buy my magazine

16. I used Photoshop to create my magazine and from this, I learnt
how to create a attractive and professional looking
magazine front cover, contents page and double page
spread
I learnt how to use the layers feature to hide unnecessary parts
of an image or to place the writing over an image. I also
learnt that Photoshop is very good for resizing photos
without the quality becoming worse than when it was when
uploaded from a digital camera, which would have been
diffiult if I had used a program like Microsoft Publisher. A
useful thing I learnt while creating my music magazine was
thatyou could easily resize an image by simply pressing &
holding down the ‘shift’ key, this was very useful as it
prevented the image from distorting
I thought the ‘fx’ tool on Photoshop was very effective in
adding special effects to my text which made it stand
out and easily noticeable
For example, on the text on the left, I used an effect called
‘drop shadow’ because I wanted to give a feeling that
someone had just scribbled this on the front cover of
the magazine

17. While using Photoshop, I learnt how to edit image
so they are suitable to use on the front cover of
my magazine and follow the conventions of
other music magazines of the same genre
For example, I used the ‘magnetic lasso’ tool to cut
around the body of the artist and then the
‘magic wand’ tool to edit it so it could be placed
on my front cover
Prior to creating my media product I had never used Photoshop before. Working on my
media product taught me the basics of Photoshop and now I’m able to use my
knowledge of Photoshop in future product designs. By using Photoshop I was able to
make my product look like a professional magazine
Using Photoshop was much easier and more effective than using programs such as
Microsoft Publisher because Photoshop has more advanced features which can
be used to create and edit products to a high standard and quality. Also, I found
it quite easy to to use Photoshop and learnt how to use it quite quickly. Though it
was time consuming, it allowed me to create my magazine to a high standard

18. I used Microsoft Publisher on my prelim task. I had used Publisher before so i knew
exactly what I needed to do and had no difficulties in doing so. Publisher was
much easier to use than Photoshop because everything you could do on it was
basic, however because of that, the quality of my prelim task was not as high as
my final music magazine product
I used a digital camera when taking the images for my magazine. I used a CANON
which is specialised for taking professional quality photographs. The pictures
have high resolution and megapixels which means that they are big images and
didn’t get pixelated when I enlarged them. It was important to use a good camera
for my media product because I wanted to make it look as professional as
possible

19. I used the internet to search for information and images of current brands of media
products. The internet was useful for searching up old material to influence me when
designing my music magazine, by looking through the older issues of Top Of The
Pops, BOP and SMASH-HITS on google images. This was very useful as it meant
that I didn’t have to go out and buy lots of old magazines to use, so by using the
internet to look for old magazine issues not only did I save myself some time, but I
also saved some money
I also used the internet to search for a website that lets you generate your own barcode
and you can customise what you want written on it
http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php
Because % of my target audience regularly use FaceBook, I used
this to my advantage and sent a link of my survey on Zoomerang
to a lot of people who fitted to my target audience category. By
doing this I saved myself and the audience some time as it only
takes a couple of minutes to fill out a survey online
http://app.zoomerang.com/Report/ResultsPage.aspx?qn=1

20. The type of consumers my magazine is aimed at will be interested mainly in good looking
male pop artists, so because of this, on my contents page, I decided to highlight all
the page numbers and articles which featured male artists so the young female target
audience of my music magazine would’nt have to waste their time flicking through the
pages to find these articles and images which feature male artists.
I decided not to put an advert for a subscription on my front cover or contents page
because the age range for my target audience is 13 – 16 and they won’t be on a long
term income as they will still be in compulsory education.
In my contents page I used genre specific language, e.g. “Inside the mag...”. My target
audience are young and using the word ‘mag’ instead of ‘magazine’ because it is
used by young people and it also makes it look cool.