Sean Wayne created a front cover and contents page for a music magazine as a preliminary task. For the front cover, he added elements like the masthead, background colors, title, main image, articles and social media links. For the contents page, he included the masthead, editorial, article titles and summaries, and thumbnail images. He made minor corrections like making the signature bolder and changing some wording for clarity. In his research log, Sean analyzed the genres, target audiences, and unique selling points of established magazines like Q and Classic Rock to inform his own music magazine project.

1. OCR Media Studies – AS Level
Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media
Planning & Research
Name: Sean Wayne
Candidate Number: 1254
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Set Brief - Print
Music Magazine – Production
Preliminary Task Progression and
Planning & Research

2. Section 1) –
Preliminary Task

3. Preliminary Task Progression–
Evidence
Front Cover
Step-by-step
First of all I had to get a template for
the magazine cover. This template
shows the house colours of the
magazine.
Then I had to create a Masthead for
the magazine. I decided on the name
‘The A Star’. The font used was
‘AbadiMT CondensedExtraBold’, with
blue letters and a yellow stroke
around them. They are in Italics, and
all of the letters are capitals.

4. Then I used the gradient tool to give
the background some school related
colour. The colours that I used were
the house colours, blue and yellow.
I then put the mast head onto the
background that I had just created, as
well as adding the strapline and the
web address to the website. Again
these has a blue font with a yellow
outline, just like the masthead

5. I then added in The bar code in
the bottom right corer of the
page, using a different white
layers to make the barcode
clearer, with any social media
links the magazine might have.
I have then added the main title
of the magazine in the center of
the page in a bold font. I
inverted the colours for part of
the title to make it stand out but
still have the same house colours

6. I then added the main picture of
the magazine on the front cover.
I used the quick selection tool to
crop out the background. And
then put in a puff promotion
next to it, using a font I found on
DaFonts website, on the top left
of the page.
After that I placed in the articles
around the pictures using the
pen tool. And I added related
pictures to each of the articles
(using the quick selection tool
again).

7. Here is the final product of my
preliminary front cover, with
all of the different parts added
on.
No corrections needed for the
prelim cover page.

8. Preliminary Task Progression–
Evidence
Contents Page
Step-by-step
First of all I had to create a template
for the contents page of the magazine.
This template denotes the house
colours of the magazine, just like the
cover page.(the same background was
used)
Then, using the same font as the
masthead I created a title for the page
with the masthead next to it (in a
smaller size). This has been done to
give the page brand identity.

9. Then I produced my
editorial for the
magazine, which included
my picture, a drop
capital, my signature and
ways of contacting me,
the editor (including
twitter and email).
After this I began to add
in the stories in my
magazine on the contents
page, with titles and a
summary for each.

10. I then added in the main
picture of the magazines
contents page.
After this I added other smaller,
thumbnail pictures around the
contents page, relating to the articles
I then added the web
address again with the
page number of the page.

11. Here is the final product
of my contents page,
with all of the different
components fitted on it.

12. Contents page Changes
The changes that I have made to my
prelim contents page are..,.
• That I have made my signature bolder
and easier to identify
• Changed the image on the top right of
the page to a image with George, and
added a page number and description
of the picture.
• I have spaced out the articles so that
there is a larger distance between
them.
• Changed ‘Dec’ to ‘December’, to make
the article description clearer, and
more professional
• Changed the wording of the
description of ‘Find out what George
has to say!’ so that it makes more
since and flows more fluidly.
• Added a thumb nail for the
‘Movember’ story.

13. Section 2) – Log Book

14. Music Magazine – Genre research
• The genre of music that Q magazine covers is eclectic music. This genre of music includes
different styles and tastes of music from a large and varied range of musicians and sources. Q
typically contains about one or two main feature interviews with artists or bands, and then
smaller interviews with a few more less well known artists or artists that haven't recently
recorded any new songs or albums.
• On this diagram it shows the most popular music genre in different places in the world.
Eclectic music tends to cover the different styles of music that is shown on the map, this
means that they are able to cover the whole of the areas colored in with the content that
they provide.
• Due to Q magazine being able to
cover such a large variety of
music, the covers of the Q, also
show quite a large variety of
different types of artists,
reflecting feeling of excitement
that the magazine gives off.
http://time.com/3697123/music-genres-around-the-world-grammy-awards/
http://lauranatmason.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/analysis-of-q-magazine.html

15. Established Magazine for my Research
Masthead
Making the
magazine more
recognizable
Main
Headline
To peak
peoples
interests
Cover Lines
(secondary
stories)
See what is
featured in
the magazine,
to peak
peoples
interests
Main Image
The shot type used in this
particular issue of ‘Q’ is a close
up shot of Florence that’s angle
has been taken straight on.
Barcode/
Price/Date/
Issue
Strapline *
A ‘slogan’ to
give the
magazine a way
to be
remembered
‘Star Appeal’
(Richard Dyer)
Someone people
would recognise,
making the
magazine more
appealing
*Strapline
Continued
The verbal code
“Discover” connotes that
the reader is able to find
new up and coming
artists that might interest
them that they have
unlikely heard of before.
“Discover” gives the
impression of finding
something new.

16. Target Audience – Katz, Maslow, Hartley and/or socio-economic needs
According to the Q readership profile, 71.% of its reader are in the A,B,C1 categories with
70% of the readers being in employment. The magazine mainly appeals to 30 to 40 year
old white males that are interested in alternative music and purchasing CD Albums
(Hartley). These people are most likely looking for information about different artist,
including their personal life, their professional career, as well as the issues being discussed
in the magazine. This is so that the readers are able to build up admiration for the subject
of the interview as well as immerse themselves in the content (‘Diversion’ - Katz).
Most of the target audience is ‘Explorers’ (Maslow) which means that they are influenced
by social change.
What is the USP of this magazine?
From the research that I have completed into the product, I would assume
the unique selling point to be the column that has been written by a award
winning radio DJ Zane Lowe about guitars, also Some well known celebrities
from a variety of genres have be mentioned (such as Skrillex etc.). Also the
main focus of this issue of Q magazine is Florence (and the machine), that has
a large fan base that would be interested in reading about her and what she is
currently doing (career/personal life etc.).

17. Publisher research
http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands/q
The ‘We think popular’ slogan that Bauer (the publisher) of Q
magazine is able to connote to the reader of the magazine that
their content is covering all of the current popular music.
These statistics on the right of the page shows that The
circulation of the magazine is on the decline , from roughly a
total 540,000 readers in March 2011 to roughly 360,000 in
June 2012
This magazine is able to be purchased from any newsstand ,
post office and corner shop, as well as super markets and
other well know Shop organisations. This means that the
magazine is available to a large range of people, mostly being
those in group A,B and C1.
http://origin.mediauk.com/magazines/36219/
q/readership-figures

18. Established Magazine for my Research
Masthead
Cover lines
(secondary stories)
See what is featured in
the magazine, to peak
peoples interests
Strapline*
To make the
magazine look
more appealing
( Showing the
standard of he
magazine)
Main
Headline
Barcode/Price/
Date/Issue
Main Image, ‘Star
appeal’ (Richard
Dyer)
Someone people would
recognise, making the
magazine more
appealing.
The shot type that was
used in this particular
issue of ‘Classic Rock’ is
a medium close up of
Led Zeppelin that has
been taken with a
straight on angle
Puff
Promotion/Com
petition
This is done to draw
the reader into buying
the magazine
*Strapline continued
The words “Fastest-growing”
connotes that this magazine is
becoming more and more
popular, quicker with every
issue. This caused potential
readers to feel a sense of
urgency to buy the magazine so
they don’t miss out on what it
has to offer

19. Target Audience – Katz, Maslow, Hartley and/or socio-economic needs
The that classic rock magazine mainly appeals to white men that are in groups B
and C2, ages between 35 and 45. this is shown by how the language used in the
article is very refined as well as the fact that the magazine mainly features older
music which will appeal to a slightly older range of men(Hartley). This target
audience tend to prefer having issues that they are able to identify that informs
them about the topic being discussed in the magazine rather creating a diversion
or building a ‘personal relationship’ (Katz). The target audience are usually ‘social
climbers’ (Maslow) which means they are more materialistically driven.
What is the USP of this magazine?
After my research I can conclude that the unique selling point of this magazine is the darker
colours that are used in the front cover that creates a more serious tone to appeal to a
certain audience. As well as that the magazine focus on Led Zeppelin that has a huge fan
base that would be interested in reading about what he has done, on top of that he is one
of the most well known people in the rock genre, meaning that people will associate his
music (which is very popular) with the magazine. Also In the magazine there is a reviews
article about U2 as well as talk of a new ‘rock god’ about Jimmy Page, attracting more
people to read the magazine.

20. Publisher research
This magazine has experienced circulation declines in there first ABC report
since they moved from Future Publishing to Team Rock. It saw a circulation dip
of 4.6% as the year go on, going from 56714 in 2012 (December) to 26273 in
2013 (December). But this is less than the previous year when they had
reported a 9% circulation decline from 2011-2012.
This magazine is available to purchase at any news stand at a post office, corner
shop and supermarket. As well as that there is a monthly subscription to the
magazine, which is when that months issue is sent directly to the reader via
post.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/futures-classic-rock-and-metal-hammer-bought-
former-gmg-radio-execs-£102m-deal