The New Musical Express (NME) is a UK music magazine that began as a newspaper in 1952. It was originally focused on singles charts and emerging British bands. Throughout the 1960s-1980s, NME championed rock music but struggled with competition and declining sales. It transitioned to a glossy magazine format in the late 1990s and focused on new indie bands into the 2000s. However, circulation continued dropping after 2003.

1. Music magazine case study

2. Introduction
 The New Musical Express, popularly known by the
initials NME, is a music publication in the United
Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It
originally started as a newspaper; it was the first British
paper to include a singles chart in 14 November 1952. It
became the best-selling British music newspaper, and
eventually moved onto become a magazine in the
1980’s.
 Magazine Website: http://www.nme-magazine.com/

3. History
 NME was bought by music promoter Maurice Kinn, at
the time it was called “Accordion Times and Musical
Express”, and it was then re-launched under its new
name “New Musical Express”. Its first issue was
published on the 7th of March 1952. It was initially
published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard
newsprint, On 14 November 1952, it created the first UK
singles chart, the first of these was, in contrast to more
recent charts, a top twelve sourced from the magazine
itself using sales in stores around the UK. The first
number one was Al Martino’s “Here in my heart”.

4. How it developed - 1960’s
 In the 1960s the paper
championed the new British
groups emerging at the time,
at this time NME reached its
high point, under Andy Gray,
the editor form the 1957-
1972.

5. How it developed – early 70’s
 In the beginning of the 70’s NME was starting to lose
public interest to Melody Maker magazine. Therefore NME
started to change their face of the magazine and this
appeared to bring the readers back. In 1978 the paper saw
a new editor as Nick Logan moved on, Neil Spencer
became the new editor, his first task was to oversee the
redesign of the logo, by Barney Bubbles, which is still used
today with very few alterations. The paper started to
advertise for “hip young gunslingers” as this proved
effective in bringing back readers and getting them new
ones. Bands also wanted to be recognized by the NME as
they had the biggest circulation once again.

6. How it developed – late 70’s
 By the 1970’s NME had lost many of its readers,
because it had failed to keep up with the
development of Rock music. Early in 1972 the
paper found its self in the verge of being closed
by its owners IPC who had bought the paper from
Kinn in 1963, this made the paper change; to be
unlike any other British paper had ever been. In
mid-1973 Alan Smith handed over the editor’s
chair to Nick Logan.

7. How it developed – 1980’s
 In 1981 NME released the cassette tape C81; this was
available to all readers by mail order at a low price. The
tape featured up and coming bands such as Orange
Juice and Linx, it also had a number of some better
established numbers such as Robert Wyatt, and Ian
Dury. Later that decade in 1986, they also released a
new tape named C86. However sales were dropping by
the mid 80’s. The NME had hit a rough patch and were
in danger of closing.

8. How it developed – 1990’s
 From 1998 onwards, the paper was no
longer printed on newsprint, and even
more recently it shifted to tabloid size,
it has full, glossy, color covers. As the
weekly music magazine market was
shrinking people thought that the NME
would be next to close down after
Melody Maker. In 2001 NME
reasserted its position as an influence
in new music and helped to introduce
bands including The Strokes, The
Vines and The White Stripes.

9. How it developed – 2000 onwards
 In 2002 Conor McNicholas was appointed editor. The
magazine now focused on new British bands such as Bloc
Party and the Kaiser Chiefs who emerged as "indie music"
continued to grow in commercial success. In October 2006
NME launched an Irish version of the magazine called NME
Ireland; Poor sales in the Republic of Ireland resulted in the
magazine's demise in November 2006.
 In May 2008 the magazine received a redesign, aimed at an
older readership with a less poppy, more authoritative tone,
however sales were continuously dropping since 2003 and in
the second half of 2011, the magazine’s circulation was
23924, 66% down on a 2003 figure of 72442 readers.

10. Content and publisher
 The magazine content - A typical issue of NME is
around 70 pages long and focuses on mainly guitar and
rock music; Oasis, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones and
many more have all featured in past issues.
 The publisher of the magazine - NME is currently
published by IPC Media, the UK’s leading publisher of
consumer magazines and websites. Over 26 million
adults read an IPC Media magazine and over 350
million copies are sold each year.
 IPC Media Website: http://www.ipcmedia.com/

11. The typical reader profile
 The media pack shows that a majority of readers
of NME are male with an average age of 25 this
matches the audience they targeted so what the
magazine provides must be popular among the
target market. It also shows the majority of its
readers come from middle class families so it is
aimed at those with money, with 63% of the
readers choosing to listen to indie/guitar bands,
because this is what its main audience likes the
NME has to provide this from any format that it
use such as the web, TV or radio in order to keep
their audience happy.

12. Layout trademarks of the magazine
(House style)
 The most recognised part of NME is the logo itself
as it hasn’t changed much for many years with
very few alterations or a special edition of an
issue, also unlike most magazines, NME does not
have a contents page, but a band index instead.
This is particularly evident in the news section,
due to the dominant use of the colours black,
white and red, along with the bold headlines and
articles written in columns.

13. Does the magazine reflect the values
of its audience
 NME is able to match the values of its audience by
having the latest and most up to date pictures,
information and interviews with the bands which the
readers are interested in, this halps them to keep the
readers happy and coming back for more. They also
have info on live concerts and up and coming bands
which allows the audience to find new bands they might
like.