The document discusses a print-based music magazine called Q, outlining its purpose to inform readers about music, target audience of 15-40 year olds interested in various genres, and how it differentiates itself through a variety of content across its magazine, website and social media platforms to engage readers.

1. OCR –
Level 3 Cambridge Introductory Diploma in
Media
Unit 13:
Planning and Pitching a Print based Media
Product
P1 Evidence
Name: Oliver Long
Candidate Number:
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Set Brief - Print
Project/Brief –
Music Magazine & Promotion

3. Purpose
The purpose of the magazine is to inform the reader of things
happening in the music world, this can be from a wide range of genres
as Q doesn’t specialise in just one genre, it covers lots of different
artists. This is to entertain the reader by meeting their needs,
according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs which says people fall under
one of 4 categories (social climbers, caregivers, explorers and
survivors), the magazine needs to meet at least one of these
categories in order to have an audience which enjoys the magazine
and wants to read it again.
Q’s strapline is “the UK’s best selling magazine” this connotes that they
pride themselves on being the best selling and want everyone to know
that as being the best selling means they must have good quality
content that people love, so by having it on the magazine it means
people will recognise this and are more likely to buy it.

4. Publisher and Product
Publisher:
Bauer media was created in 1875, the
company now has over 11,000
operating in 19 countries. They are the
biggest magazine publisher in the UK,
but have offices also located in
Australia and all over Europe. It is run
by CEO Paul Keenan
https://www.bauermedia.co.uk/about
/our-company
Product:
The logo is red, this colour is bold so
can be clearly seen and stands out
compared to other magazines with
dull colours. This goes in hand with
Bauer media’s slogan of “we think
popular.” This shows that they want to
be well known and popular, and the
bright red colour helps them to stand
out getting more people to buy it
making it popular.

5. Genre
The genre of the magazine isn't very specific, the
magazine covers a wide range of music types and lots
of different artists mainly popular. The slogan of Bauer
media is a verbal code that shows this. Their slogan is
“we think popular” this shows that they are trying to
‘think’ of ways to be popular and they do this by
targeting a wide audience by not specialising in a
particular genre instead cover a wide range of genres.

6. Content
The magazine has a wide range of content,
which varies each issue, it can vary a lot because
the magazine doesn’t specialise in a specific
genre instead it features a variety of different
ones, so the content can be very different each
issue compared to other magazines which only
focus's on one genre. It usually features popular
artists, but sometimes has upcoming artists and
less well known people in the industry.

7. Contents Analysis The largest thing on the page is this image,
this connotes that the story that goes along
with the image the most important and
therefore will attract people to read this
article.
These are the sub lines, this
section showcases the parts they
deem to be the best sections to
read, this will then make people
read these sections as they will
think they are interesting or
relevant. The article names ae in
bold and the page references are
in red, this makes the magazine a
lot easier to read for the
customers as they can clearly see
what the articles are called, what
the paged number is and then
easily locate it as every page has
a number consistently
throughout.
There is a separate section called “Oasis Special!” the
word “special” connotes to the reader that it is a
must read and that it is a one off, this will make them
feel that it is important that they read this section,
and feel lucky they have a copy of the magazine with
a special in it.
The use of the colour gold for this section only
highlights the importance and how special this
section of the magazine is. It is also highlighted by the
use of an exclamation after the word special, which
clearly connotes to the reader that they need to read
this section
This is the subtitle it clearly
highlights what the page is
making it easy for the reader to
navigate the magazine.
Alongside it it has the magazine
logo, this helps to build brand
recognition as the logo is
constantly in the readers face.
There is a separate section in the corner
called “Every Month” this shows the reader
what the magazine features in every
magazine. This connotes to the reader a
sense of professionalism as they have a
consistency in their magazine issues.

8. Competitors
A competitor of Bauer media is Townsquare media. Townsquare media is a large company 10
radio stations and more than 325 local websites in 66 markets, approximately 550 live events
with 18 million attendees each year. (http://www.townsquaremedia.com/about)
Similarities
They have similar associated products, as they both have several radio stations and magazines
which are in the same genres. This is what makes them competitors as customers are more likely
to choose one magazine or the other rather than buy both, so they have to work to make theirs
better than the competitors.
They have similar technological convergence, as they both have very interactive websites with
links to social media. Bauer have better synergy as they have a lot more social media sites linked,
such as Instagram which isn't linked on Townsquare media. Another way Bauer is better is as it
has a YouTube channel, which Townsquare media does not.
Differences
They have different slogans, Bauer medias is “we think popular” whereas Townsquare media
don’t have one, which isn't very good as slogans are what represent the company, so it may seem
unprofessional if they don’t have anything to represent them. Another difference would be
circulation figures as Bauer media has a lot more magazine brands than Townsquare therefore it
will have a lot more copies in circulation.

9. Market Position
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/full-2015-mag-abcs-breakdown-cosmopolitan-
bucks-trend-uk-magazines-decline-average-4-cent/
This table displays the circulation figures of some magazines in 2015.
it highlights that Q magazine has had a 12.2% drop in circulation
figures. This could be explained by the increase in digitalization of
magazines and media in general, because of this less people buy
hard copies of magazines and instead look at them online

10. Form and Style
The magazine has a consistent colour scheme throughout. It uses simple colours of red
white and black. This is a good colour scheme as the red helps it to stand out on
shelves against other magazines, but the white and black are simple colours so don’t
distract the reader from the text or the images within the magazine.
The front covers are set up in a traditional way, they are very similar to other
magazines on the market. The masthead is located in the top left corner, usually being
covered slightly by the main image which is in the middle surrounded by the main
headline and other headlines.
The font styles are very basic, there is no swirly or comical fonts, they are all standard
looking fonts, this is so the magazine looks professional and is easy to read for the
consumer, this is important as if the magazine is difficult to read it wont be enjoyable.

11. Synergy
Q magazine has a very good synergy. It has a website which is very interactive
and has links to several social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest,
Instagram and YouTube) it is important that Q has good synergy and has
pages on all of these social media sites as the majority of younger people do
not buy magazines anymore instead they look at social media and read things
online, so for the magazine to stay popular it must use these forms of media
otherwise the target market may never see the content Q is publishing.
Another reason it is good for Q to use social media is because content can be
put on there which cannot be put into magazines, for example YouTube and
Instagram can be used to post video content which isn't possible to do in a
magazine. As they are using these to post more content it means that a wider
rage of people will be interested in the magazine.

12. Technological Convergence
Q magazine has a website which some articles from the magazine can be read. This is effective as
people may read articles from the websites and get gripped making them want to buy the full
magazine.
Also on the website there is links (synergy) to several social media accounts Q has, such as Twitter,
Facebook and Instagram. It is important for the magazine to have synergy with social media as it
allows them to target a wider range of audience, as the majority of young people use social media
whereas a small amount of people would buy magazines in comparison. Using social media is also
important as it is interactive therefore videos, slideshows and other forms of media can be used that
cant be used in a magazine. It is also a way of showing customers thing which they cannot show in
their magazine, for example on their YouTube account they have interviews with music artists, this
content could not be put in a magazine unless converted into words, which may not come across as
well as the artist speaking through a video. This allows Q to publish much more content which will
please the customers as they have much more content to look at.

13. Brand ideology/ethos
The denotation of Bauer’s slogan is “we think
popular”, which connotes that they want to be the
most popular publisher and that they’re thinking of
ways to do so. It could also be a play on words as
the magazine focuses on pop music and artists. The
word “think” could mean that they don’t know if
they are popular or not they just think they are. It
could also show that Bauer is trying to be down to
earth rather than being confident and saying they
are confident. This may be effective to target a
bigger target audience.

14. Main image: Kanye west is on the
cover, he is positioned in front of
the masthead. This connotes to the
reader that he is important as he is
in front of the masthead which
shows more people will buy the
magazine because of him rather
than buying it because it is Q
magazine. This links into star appeal
as Kanye west is one of the most
recognized artists in music and is
also known in other industries such
as fashion. Because of this massive
star appeal the editors would want
him to be in front of the mast head
as it will attract more people to buy
the magazine as his fans or people
interested in him will buy the
magazine to see what he has to say
or what he is doing
Masthead: The masthead
is bright red so stands out
and can be clearly seen on
a shelf. The Q is in a simple
font. This has connotations
that the magazine can
target a wide range of
people as it is simple and
doesn't’t target a small
group, instead it tries to
target the majority of
people.
Main Headline: The main
headline just says his name in the
largest text used on the whole
cover, this connotes that he is
important as they want him to be
the first thing people see when
they look at the magazine. This is
because of star appeal as Kanye
West is such a well known artist
that he will make more people
buy the magazine. Also in the
headline it says “the audience
with the ultimate antihero” this
will make people want to buy the
magazine to find out why he is
the ultimate antihero, this is
because the word ultimate
connotes that he is the best at
being an antihero and the word
antihero connotes that he has
one something bad, which will
make people buy the magazine
as they want to see what he has
done because he is famous for
being a antihero so they want to
keep up to date with what he's
done
Date, price and Barcode: This just
shows the customer how much the
magazine costs, when it was published
and allows it to be scanned at tills so it
can be purchased.
Front Cover Analysis
Cover Lines: The cover lines
work ion the same way the
main headline does. They
have a name of an
artist/band in large as this
creates star appeal. As there
is so many artists it means
that the audiences from all
these artists will be
attracted
Strapline: Q’s strapline is “the UK’s best selling
magazine” this shows that they pride themselves on
being the best selling and want everyone to know that as
being the best selling means they must have good
quality content that people love, so by having it on the
magazine it means people will recognise this and are
more likely to buy it.

15. Pull Quote: The purpose of
the pull quote is to interest
the reader making them
want to read the entire
article. On this double page
spread the pull quote is “do I
ever have a casual Friday?
Absolutely!” this makes the
reader want to read the rest
of the article as they want to
find out what he does on a
casual Friday as they want to
get to know the artist on a
more personal level. The
word “absolutely!” will make
the reader want to read on
as it makes it seem really
interesting what he does on
his casual Fridays so the
readers want to find out
what it is
Drop Capital: This shows the
reader where they are
supposed to start reading. This
makes the magazine easier for
the reader to read, therefore
they are more likely to enjoy
Page Number: The page
number is on every page,
this makes it easy for the
reader to locate pages that
they want to read about, as
there is a contents page
Differentiated Questions and Answers: The questions used in this double page
spread are a mix of informal and formal questions. There is informal questions such as
“does Davey Havok ever have a casual Friday?” or “so what's your secret?” but there
is also formal questions such as “has internet led to the death of the rock star?” this
mix of informal and formal questions is effective as it will appeal to a wider target
audience, because some people may only be interested in formal questions or only
interested in informal questions, but they have both so all parties are happy.
Double Page Spread Analysis
Main Image: The image is
made to look dark and quite
gothic as it showcases the
persons tattoos and large
earing, the purpose of this is
to attract a certain audience,
which would be people who
enjoy rock music. This is
because the interview is of a
rock artist so it will only
interest people who like this
genre of music.
Stand First: The purpose of this is to give the
reader an idea of what the interview is going
to be about and to give a brief summary of
who the artist is, this means the reader will
have a better understanding, which will make
it more likely for them to enjoy the interview

16. Target Audience
• Q magazine has a large target audience, this is because it is a pop magazine so therefore targets a
large amount of people, because pop is the biggest genre in music.
Hartley’s Theory
Age: the age would be around 15-40 as most people between this age would be interested in current
music which is what Q magazine covers, the majority of older people would be more interested in music
from their time.
Gender: the target gender could be either as q magazine covers popular artists regardless of if the
artists have larger male or female fans.
Class: the majority of people buying the magazine would be from working class or skilled working class
as the magazine costs quite a lot for what it is so lower classes may not be able to afford it. Also people
of higher classes have a taste in different music like classical which isn't covered in Q magazine
Katz’s Theory
Inform and Educate: The reader will learn about what the artists are doing or what they are promoting
in the magazine.
Personal identification: The readers may relate to the artist or their stories if they are talking about
having nothing then working hard to gain fame, which may inspire people who have nothing to go out
and make a name for themselves.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
The audience for this theory I think would be caregivers as the people reading the magazine want to
read the articles about artists they like and sympathize with struggles they are having or something
similar.

17. Website Annotations
on the website there is links (synergy)
to several social media accounts Q
has, such as Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram. It is important for the
magazine to have synergy with social
media as it allows them to target a
wider range of audience, as the
majority of young people use social
media whereas a small amount of
people would buy magazines in
comparison. Using social media is also
important as it is interactive therefore
videos, slideshows and other forms of
media can be used that cant be used
in a magazine. It is also a way of
showing customers thing which they
cannot show in their magazine, for
example on their YouTube account
they have interviews with music
artists, this content could not be put in
a magazine unless converted into
words, which may not come across as
well as the artist speaking through a
video. This allows Q to publish much
more content which will please the
customers as they have much more
content to look at.
It has a layout which is quite
similar to a magazine, as it has
the logo at the top which is
like a masthead on a
magazine, it has a main image
in the center and has links to
different stories at the side of
the website which is similar to
cover lines .
Similarities of the website to a
hard copy, is the layout it has
a very similar layout to a hard
copy with several elements
being the same or very alike.
Another similarity is the
content a lot of the content is
identical to what would be in a
hard copy of a magazine.
There is also differences, the
main one being the
interactivity of the website,
instead of flicking through
pages which may be long and
tedious for some people, you
can click links taking you
directly to the stories you
want to read. Also as it is
interactive videos can be
shown which can allow visual
content to be shared which
wouldn't’t be possible in a
hard copy.
On the website it has a lot of content which can be
found in the magazines, with tabs at the top taking you
to interviews, columns, and win which are all things
which can be found in the physical copy of the magazine.
It also has extra content which isn't found in magazines
such as playlists and videos.

18. Production Process
I emailed Bauer media, using a email found on their website.
They didn’t reply so instead I found the information out myself.

19. Production Process
1. Choose Content: The magazine needs to include interesting content which will
engage the audience making them enjoy reading the magazine.
2. Choose main article: This needs to be the article which will draw the most
attention, this can be done in different ways
3. Choose cover image: This image is the most important as it will be the main focus
of the front cover, star appeal can be used to attract people to buy the magazine.
4. Write Articles: This step is important as the articles make up the majority of the
magazines content, so they must be written in a consistent way, this could be
professional or informal depending on the magazine.
5. Incorporate Graphics/photos: Adding visual content to go alongside the verbal
content is important as it will make the readers more engaged in the articles as
they will have pictures to relate to the text, bringing it alive.
https://www.lucidpress.com/blog/2014/02/20/how-to-make-a-magazine-in-twelve-steps/

21. Purpose
• The purpose of this magazine is to supply the target
audience with information about the hip-hop/rap
world in order to entertain them, also to promote
this genre of music and the culture that comes with
it. Neither the magazine or publisher has a slogan so
it is hard to know exactly what their purpose is, but
judging on the content in the magazine this is what I
think the purpose is.

22. Genre
• XXL is hip-hop/rap magazine, its usually
features the more popular artists from the
genre. It is aimed at a younger audience as the
majority of artists featured and the stories are
bout current people in the hip-hop/rap
industry as opposed to older artists which
would appeal to older customers as its what
they grew up listening to.

23. Form and Style
• The magazine keeps simple colours throughout,
mainly white on every page. This is so the reader
focuses on the artists featured, this is effective as
they have star appeal meaning people are
attracted to the magazine because of them rather
than because the magazine is brightly coloured.
• It keeps a consistently professional form through
the entire magazine with normal fonts (rather
than swirly or comical fonts) and a mix of the
same three colours (red, white and black)

24. Masthead: The mast head
is bright red so can clearly
be seen even though the
main image covers a large
section of it. Also the
colour red could symbolise
blood, violence or anger
which are some of the
things associated with rap
and hip-hop culture which
is what the genre of the
magazine is. This may
attract people to buy the
magazine as they may be
interested in this culture
which they know will be
covered in the magazine.
Main Image: The main
image is a picture of A$AP
Rocky, he is a rapper who
is well known in the
industry. As he is so well
known it gives the
magazine a star appeal as
fans of him will want to
purchase the magazine to
read the story about him
and get to know him
more.
The main image covers the
masthead, this shows the
importance of A$AP Rocky
and how much faith they
are putting in star appeal,
as the publishers believe
that more people are likely
to buy it if they see him
than if they were to see
the masthead
Main Headline: The main headline is “A$AP Rocky
Young Fly and Flashy” this is is an effective
headline as it uses a triplet so the reader is drawn
in to read the article. The use of language is also
effective as it appeals to the target audience of
the magazine, by using the word “fly” which is a
word used by people apart of the hip-hop/rap
culture,. This will then help them relate as
language they are familiar with is used.
Cover Lines: The cover lines work
in the same way the main headline
does. It only has the name of an
artist/band. Therefore they are
relying heavily on star appeal to
attract people to the magazine. As
there is so many artists it means
that a wider audience will be
attracted. They also show passers
by what genre the magazine is as
they will recognise the artists and
now what genre they are from.
Date, price and Barcode: This just
shows the customer how much the
magazine costs, when it was published
and allows it to be scanned at tills so it
can be purchased.
Front Cover Analysis

25. Drop Capital: This shows the
reader where the start of the
article is. This makes it easier
for the reader as they can
clearly see the large letter in
red, standing out against the
black text. If the reading is
easier it is more likely the
reader will enjoy the magazine
and want to read it again.
Pull Quote: The pull quote is “its frustrating seeing rappers talk
about the same stuff all the time there's so much to write about!”
this is a good pull quote as it may bring up feelings of the reader
who could agree with what the quote says, therefore because they
feel a certain away about what the quote says they will want to read
the entire article to get a full idea of what the artist is talking about.
Differentiated Questions and Answers: The questions used in this double page
spread are a majority of informal questions. This is because the majority of people
would rather get to know the artist than learn about facts that are more suited in a
professional magazine targeted at an older audience.
Main Image: The main image is a
picture of an artist, it is very simple,
he is wearing plain, unbranded clothes
and is standing in a plain white room.
This gives the reader a sense of
mystery as the image doesn’t give any
idea away of what the text will be
about.
Double Page Spread Analysis
Stand First: The stand first
tells the reader what the
interview is going to be about,
and gives a brief summary of
the artist. This is important as
people who are not fans of the
artist could read this and be
attracted to rest of the
interview to find out more
information about the artist.

26. Target Audience
Hartley's Theory
Age: id say the target audience is quite young as the genre of the magazine is rap/hip-hop which is
mainly listened to by teens or young adults, 15-30. Another reason is because the artists featured in the
magazine are current, so a mainly followed by younger people.
Gender: I think the majority of the audience would be male, as stereotypically males listen to rap more
than women
Class: I think the class could be anything below the upper middle class, as the genre of music is mainly
listened to by people in lower classes because of the culture that is associated with the music.
Katz’s Theory
Personal Identification: The reader may relate to the artists if they telling stories of how they grew up
with nothing and rose to fame, which is very common in this genre, this could inspire readers if they
have dreams of becoming famous
Inform and Educate: The magazine will tell people about what the artists are up to and what upcoming
music they have, therefore they are being educated and informed about the artists covered in the
magazine.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
I think the audience would be caregivers as they will sympathize with the artists stories and issues in the
articles but also I think they could be explorers as in the culture of rap and hip-hop a lot of people strive
for social change

27. Website annotations
The website has lots of
tabs to different
sections, this is effective
as it makes the website
easy to navigate and
organises it into
different sections which
the audience can choose
whether to read or not
making the website easy
to use and therefore
more enjoyable.
The look of the
website is good, it
follows the same
colour scheme and
font styles of the
magazine, this makes it
consistent and look
professional, the
colour scheme is good
as it is simple so it
doesn’t draw your eyes
away from the text
The website has several
links to different social
media sites. It is
important that they have
good synergy as a large
amount of their target
market will only look at
their social media and
website, not the physical
copy of the magazine.

28. Production Process
I emailed XXL using an email I found on the contact us section of
their website. They didn't’t respond so I researched the
information myself.

29. Production Process
1. Choose Content: The magazine needs to include interesting content which will
engage the audience making them enjoy reading the magazine.
2. Choose main article: This needs to be the article which will draw the most
attention, this can be done in different ways
3. Choose cover image: This image is the most important as it will be the main focus
of the front cover, star appeal can be used to attract people to buy the magazine.
4. Write Articles: This step is important as the articles make up the majority of the
magazines content, so they must be written in a consistent way, this could be
professional or informal depending on the magazine.
5. Incorporate Graphics/photos: Adding visual content to go alongside the verbal
content is important as it will make the readers more engaged in the articles as
they will have pictures to relate to the text, bringing it alive.
https://www.lucidpress.com/blog/2014/02/20/how-to-make-a-magazine-in-twelve-steps/

30. Market Position
XXL’s market position is dropping, this is
highlighted by its termination of printing
magazines in 2014, since then it has only been a
digital magazine. This shows that it isn't making
enough money to sustain a printed magazine,
meaning they must be dropping heavily in their
market position. This could be due to newer
magazines like complex which have started to
dominate the market.

31. Brand Ideology
XXL’s slogan is ‘hip-hop on a higher level’ this
denotes that XXL’s content is better than all its
competitors, as it says ‘on a higher level’
meaning it is above any other magazines of the
hip hop genre. It could also mean that they are
helping the hip hop culture by pushing them to
a higher level, and possibly attracting more
people to the genre, which could be represented
by their large following on social media.

32. Technological Convergence
XXL has good technological convergence, firstly it has a
website which shows off loads of stories and articles
which are also featured in the magazine, this is good as it
works as a way of making people interested which then
leads to them buying the magazine, so they can make
more money. They also make money through
advertisements on the website. They also have social
media pages, such as instagram. On their instagram page
they have 776 thousand followers, this shows that they
have great technological convergence and a big base of
followers. They also have a YouTube account with 643
thousand followers, and 753 videos which further
highlights how good XXL’s technological convergence is.

33. Conclusion
• This LO has helped me to understand a print
based media product, in particular Q
magazine, and XXL. Through this section I have
analysed different pages of the magazines,
explaining possible meanings behind things
they have done, as well as discussing possible
competitors and the target market they aim
for.