This document provides details about Jonathan Sheehan's media studies coursework for a music magazine. It includes progression reports and photos of his preliminary front cover and contents page designs. It also includes a log book describing the magazine production process and research on the established magazines Q and Clash, including their target audiences, color schemes, and publishers.

1. OCR Media Studies – AS Level
Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media
Planning & Research
Name: Jonathan Sheehan
Candidate Number: 2127
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
I started with a yellow
gradient background to
match the school colours.
Next I added all of the
small features such as the
barcode and the social
networking information,
the barcode also held the
date and the issue.
The next lesson I Created
and added my masthead
with the sub heading, I
also made the main story
heading and the sub
heading to that.

4. This was quite a big step
for me, adding the photo
and using the quick
selection tool, inverting
and rasterizing the layer
so that the individual in
the photo could be
placed without the
background.
There were the final stages to my
preliminary front cover, I added the puff
promotion And exclusive story as space
fillers to also make the magazine seem
more vibrant and busy. I am happy with
the finished product.
In this lesson I created
my cover lines and
matched them to the
school colours, using the
St. Andrews logo
efficiently, I also added
the price and school
website.

6. Preliminary Task Progression– Evidence
Contents Page
Step-by-step
I started with the same
canvas as my front cover to
make everything match.
Then I added the basic
features, such as the title
and information at the
bottom.
Afterwards I put one of the main
contents features, the editorial,
onto the page. This took me quite a
long time due the large amount of
writing and features to coincide
around the image using the ‘pen
tool’ carefully for this.

7. I added the main image to show
off of the interesting stories in
more detail.
This was almost half the pages
content and took quite a long
time to write and think of all the
cover stories. Formatting each
one with white text and a blue
background was quite a lot of
effort.
These were the finishing
touches which needed to be on
the page mostly as space fillers,
this includes some of the cover
stories’ images and the puff
promotion and annual
subscription.

9. Section 2 – Log Book

10. Music Magazine – Process
• Date of Publication – The first thing that is done it to set the date the magazine will be published to the
general public. This will help with setting a schedule for the development.
• Managing the Schedule – You must have enough space in the schedule to fix any mistakes before the
deadline.
• Editorial and Budgetary Decision – It is the editorial decisions which involved the content that is covered
in the next issue of the magazine. Once they have made the decisions they look at how much money is
available for them and how much should be spent in the production of the magazine.
• Content Acquisition – Probably the most important step because without content there would be no
magazine. There is in-house staff writers for the magazine and external writers that write about a
specialist nature. There is also artwork and illustrations and pictures in the magazine.
• Sub-Editing – This focuses on the quality control, it involves checking the accuracy of the facts, making
sure words are spelt correctly, property grammar and punctuation are used, make sure that the articles
follow the house style and work on the page layout.
• Page Layout – This person will correctly lay the articles out to put it together as a magazine using powerful
programs such as Desktop Publishing (DTP) or InDesign or PageMaker to do this. The advertisers are also
placed into the content.
• Proof Reading – The editorial department will print a hardcopy of the magazine in order to read through it
and to find any mistakes. Any mistake that is spotted is quickly corrected, the editorial keeps proof reading
until all the team is satisfied there is no mistakes.
• Printing – The entire magazine is send to the printer, Pre-Press’ are printed to check all the colours and
layout is fine before printing hundreds or thousands of copies.
• Distribution – It is the final stage where the company packs the magazines and go to a warehouse to go to
the general public.
Source From: http://hosbeg.com/the-magazine-production-process/

11. Established Magazine for my Research
Main Image & Colour Scheme -
Cheryl Ann Fernandez-Versini,
known professionally as Cheryl, is an
English recording artist, dancer, and
television personality. She rose to
fame in late 2002 when she
auditioned for the reality television
show Popstars. The colour scheme
of this front cover is very simplistic
as it sticks to three main colours –
Black, Red and White. Cheryl’s face
is the main centre piece of the cover
as she is the background to what the
writing sits upon. Cheryl’s makeup in
this photo also fits in with the colour
scheme as she has smoky eyes
which looks as if it has been
drenched with water and a bold red
shade of lips, the rest of the make
up is simplistic much like the rest of
the colour scheme which has been
used.
Cover Lines – Many different types
of fonts have been used, along with
different sizes and shades of white.
One reason to this being used is to
break up the repetitive pattern and
to make it generally more
aesthetically pleasing. The red fonts
match with Cheryl’s lips, the red
may demonstrate passion, danger
and lust.
Barcode – There is no obvious
barcode displayed which allows
there to be more space on the front
cover.
Overlay - The magazine has chosen
to take a different route than most.
Many magazines display the star of
the magazine over the masthead
and some of the texts out of respect
and to show dominance of the star.
However, ‘Q’ have chosen to
express Cheryl underneath which
some may see as disrespect.
However they have made up for it
by complimenting her in may other
ways, such as devoting the sub
heading to her ‘CHERYL COLE
ROCKS’.
Advertisement – The advertisement
is in a different style to the main
feature to stand out catch the
audiences eye.
Convergents – The convergents
follow the same colour theme but in
a sort of random pattern, which
works well with the title and sub-
headings.

12. Target Audience
‘Q’ magazine could be denoted to Inform and Educate, seeking a target audience of 18-45 year olds, due to the
artists involved inside. Much of the description about the artists is quite factual, revealing up to date
information about what is occurring with their lives and music career. Influenced by Maslow's hierarchy of
needs I would state the magazine is searching for survivors – people who want security in what they read;
because ‘Q’ magazine has a range of artists for everyone and isn't specifically targeted, for example the ‘Rock’
genre. The vast majority of readers are men (70%) however there is a small percentage of women readers
(30%). ‘Q’ Is targeted at middle class audience, priced at £3.99 it is available to most anyone to purchase.
The USP of this magazine?
I think the main unique selling point of the magazine is the color scheme – the immense red ‘Q’ masthead in
the top left corner is located on every copy; this applies to the sub headings, cover lines and main headlines
which follow the same patters of red and different shades of white. Also one aspect which ‘Q’ uses differently
to other magazines is the that they display all the information on the front cover over the top of the artist
featured, which most others either display around or print the text hidden behind to create a 3D effect, which
is also another feature not present.

13. Publisher research
The institution that publishes ‘Q’ magazine is ‘Bauer Media’ – a multi platform UK based group
entailing of many companies. Today Bauer Media spans over 300 brand names covering a wide range
of audience, examples would be ‘Heat’ ‘Kerrang!’ ‘MOJO’ ‘Closer’ and many more. The company was
founded in 1875 and now operates in 15 different countries. Their wide portfolio of influential
brands gives them an advantage over magazine or radio. Their magazine tradition stretches back to
1953 with the introduction of Angling Times and the purchase in 1956 of Motor Cycle News. The
seeds of the company’s radio business were planted in 1990 with the acquisition of London dance
station Kiss FM (now called Kiss 100), followed by the acquisition of Liverpool's Radio City and later
by TWC and the Metro Group.

14. Overlay – The magazine has chosen
to choose the traditional route
which is displaying the star over the
masthead. The sub heading and
cover lines are hovering over the
star however this is necessary as
they wouldn’t be readable
otherwise.
Cover Lines & Convergents - The
simplistic approach has been carried out
with the cover lines, all being in the
same font and colour. This is the same
with almost every CLASH magazine and
they have decided to keep this as a
pattern. The cover lines have an array of
famous artists which will automatically
draw the attention of the readers. This is
a good small promotion method –
displaying all the best parts of the
magazine. No stories apart from the
artists have been mentioned this could
be because the audience of CLASH are
mostly artist based.
Barcode – is not obviously on show
and is conspicuously in the bottom
left corner with the price
underneath. This shows that the
other features on the page are more
important such as the star.
Established Magazine for my Research
Advertisement – There is no advertisement on show, again
keeping the simplistic approach and not cluttering the free
space. Advertisement wouldn’t suit the magazine either. I
would like to have this feature and place the advertisement
somewhere inside the magazine.
Main Image & Colour Scheme - Rita
Sahatçiu Ora is a British singer,
songwriter and actress. Her debut
studio album, Ora, debuted at number
one in the United Kingdom, and
spawned the number-one singles
"R.I.P." and "How We Do". Rita’s body is
quite revealed as she is only in a short
dress, however she has a lot of jewellery
as shown on her wrists and neck along
with her hand tattoo. Rita looks
extremely modern and her make up is
simplistic which suits the colour
scheme. The colour scheme sticks to
two colours pink and white. I aim to
copy this style (not the colour).

15. Target Audience
The target audience for CLASH magazine is 18-35 year olds which is described as the ‘download generation’.
They achieve this target audience by alternating between bands and solo artists ranging from The 1975 to Lana
Del Rey to Rita Ora. Also audiences that are attracted to film and fashion can be lured into the magazine it
covers almost 1/3. Most of the text is easy to read, meaning that the magazine is casual and doesn’t use
complicated language, which is why they achieve their young audience. According to statistics the male to
female readership is 50/50 which is present within the magazine as it caters for both sexes.
The USP of this magazine?
CLASH magazine has some very clear unique selling points, one being the simplistic view, shown throughout
the magazine, displayed clearly through most inside pages consisting of a picture filling most of the space, with
small font text in the corners or to the sides – the front cover also has a small amount of information, only
consisting of the masthead, main headline and cover lines, no promotion or coverage. Another feature is the
vintage approach they have on each picture, which has become very popular in photo edits within the past 3
years; this appears very individual. Lastly, CLASH uses a black typewriter style front exhibited with a white
highlight creating a retro feel to the magazine, fitting in with the quirkiness of the genre of music.
Source from: http://www.slideshare.net/laurenbarrettphotography/textual-analysis-clash-magazine-new

16. Publisher research
• Publisher - John O'Rourke
• Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine and website based in the United
Kingdom. It is published 10 times a year by Music Republic Ltd
• The brand's content alternates between modern bands as well and hip-hop artists.
• Editor: Simon Harper
• Categories: Music magazine
• Frequency: monthly
• First issue: 2004
• Country: United Kingdom
• Language: English Source from: http://www.slideshare.net/BeatriceYates/clash-magazine-analysis-29820674