The document discusses a print-based music magazine called Q Magazine published in the UK. It provides details on the magazine's purpose, target audience, content, and ownership structure. Q Magazine aims to inform readers about new music and artists. It targets 12-50 year olds and covers a wide range of music genres. The magazine includes features on artists, reader mail, and a top albums list. It is published monthly in the UK by Bauer Media, a large European media company.

1. OCR –
Level 3 Cambridge Introductory Diploma
in Media
Unit 13:
Planning and Pitching a Print based Media
Product
P1 Evidence
Name: Billy Simmonds
Candidate Number: 3133
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Set Brief - Print
Project/Brief –
Music Magazine & Promotion

3. Purpose & meaning
The purpose of this magazine is to
‘inform and educate’ (Katz) readers on
new music and artists.This front cover
brings awareness to the reader of the
‘star’ (Richard Dyer) Jay Z and they are
provided with an exclusive interview.
Therefore, it will inform and educate
(Katz) the reader on jay z’s new music
that is coming out.
The strapline “discover great music”
can covey to the audience that Q
magazine features the best artist in the
world in their magazines, furthermore
this can attract people to want to read
their magazines.

4. Genre
The genre of Q magazine is eclectic meaning the audience are provided with a wide range
of genres.The main image on the magazine above (top right) is of Jay Z who is a hip hop/
rap artist. Having a wide range of genres is an important factor for a magazine as it then
means there are more people following Q magazine as a whole which overall means they
will become better as a whole and will make more money. As you can see in the table
below Rock music is the most popular music genre stated in 2013 this is significant because
Q magazine also covers Rock music as it is an eclectic genre.
https://www.statista.com/chart/1783/
album-sales-in-the-us-by-genre/

5. Bauer Media is a European-based media company,
headquarters is located in Hamburg manages a more
than 600 magazines, 400 digital products and 50
radio and TV stations around the world. Bauer was
invented in 1875 and has an amazing figure of
employees:11,000 which was reported in 2013,
furthermore this connotes that their target audience
is vast world wide, in the UK Bauer has sold their
products to 30 million customers.
Source: https://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/q-magazine
Q magazine is a very popular
music magazine published
regularly in the United
Kingdom. Q first got published
by EMAP. It was founded in
1986 by Mark Allen and David
Hepworth.They published
their first magazine in October
1986.

6. Content
Q magazine has a content page to keep the target audience
interested in their magazine and allows them to get involved.
This is established by a section in the page called ‘Q Mail’
where the audience can get involved by asking questions about
the magazine to the publisher. Furthermore there is also cover
story to tell the audience a bit of information about the stories
that are going on in the magazine. Also there is a cover story
placed in the content page which conveys to the audience that
they are telling a story about the person who is featuring in the
magazine this is significant because this makes the reader want
to read on if they are interested in the specific person. Lastly
there is a big subscription box which may attract the reader to
subscribe and get a magazine delivered to their door step once
a week.
Subheading is
exactly stating what
the article is about.
Subline is a article that
states what the article
will be about
Content title

7. Operating model
These are owners
of Bauer media.
For example ‘Paul
Keenan’ is the
manager of Bauer
media.
These are the key
people of Bauer
media, for
example Paul
Keenan is the CEO
of Bauer media.
https://www.bauermedia.co.uk

8. Bauer magazine was founded in Hamburg in 1875 and is now currently
is in its fifth generation of family ownership.
The Bauer Media Group operates in 19 countries including the UK,
Germany, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA and has
11,000 employees worldwide. Bauer in the UK reach over 25 million
consumers a year which is an outstanding figure which therefore
connotes howToday we are Britain’s biggest magazine publisher;Our
Women’sWeekly magazines include ‘take a break’, which has been
for a longtime the UK’s best-selling women’s weekly title, but recently
Bauer have released a new magazine which is called ‘modern gardens’
for a target audience for people who enjoy spending their time in
there garden.
Sourced from : www.bauermedia.co.uk/about/our-company
Ownership Structure

9. Frequency
Q magazine is published every single month. A
magazine being published every month is a good
thing as it enables the producers of the magazine
to get the best and most content to give to the
audience. Furthermore, it enables the audience to
have the best information surrounding the music
industry.

10. Associated products
Associated products
to Bauer are
magazines that are
stated in the picture
for example ‘Garden
News’ and ‘Golf
World’.

11. Deconstruct a front cover
Strapline: The verbal code‘Awards
Special edition’ is a superlative to make
people want to buy and read the
magazine to see what is hidden inside.
The verbal code special connotes they
are providing you with exclusive
information therefore this will attract
the audience to want to read the
magazine.
Barcode – the barcode contains the date/issue/price
this informs the reader how relevant the magazine is and
how much it will be before they go to the till.
Main image: the
main image in the
magazine is a mid shot.
The ‘star appeal’ (Richard
Dyer) is Ed Sheeran who
would appeal to a wide
range of audience for
example 12-50 year olds
(Hartley)/
Masthead: The Q
magazine logo only has one letter
which makes it stand out more.
Also it is red which gives off the
connotations of passion. Passion
the audience have for Q
magazine and passion the
producers of Q magazine have
for music and delivering the best
content.
Puff promotion:
The 50 albums of 2014
will attract people to
read the magazine and
see who is in the top 50.
This is significant as it
symbolizes ways that
magazines attract
people to come and
read their magazine
over others.

12. Target Audience
According to the socio economic
needs the audience would best fit in
E,D,C2 and C1 .The target audience is
12-50 year olds.The 12-16 year olds
would be in category E because they
would most probably be unemployed.
The 30-50 year olds would be in
category C2. C1 and B as they most
probably would be in full time jobs.

13. Target audience
The target audience of this Q magazine front
cover would bepeople who are in to pop music and
enjoy love and romantic songs.The target
audience for Ed Sheerans music would be more
addressed at young adults aged from around 16-
30 years of age. According to Hartley's theory
stereotypically pop music is addressed to mainly
females and maybe some boys that enjoy love and
romantic type of music, the music in the magazine
illustrated in the picture in the right reflects that
older people may not listen to pop music.

14. Target Audience
According to Katz Uses and Gratifications the audience would be able to ‘personally identify’
with the star appeal (Richard Dyer) Ed Sheeran because they are well known artist in the
music industry and the artist appeals to the target audience age 16 -30.They will also be able
to personally identify with some of the stories inside of the magazine especially the
interviews where the artist talks about their hobbies and interests. Furthermore the audience
will be able to ‘divert’ from everyday situations such as work by reading the magazine that
will entertain (Katz) them.The magazine will ‘inform and educate’ (Katz) the reader of new
music information and will keep the reader updated.
According to Maslow the target readership would be ‘survivors’ because they will like the
security and routine of knowing that the magazine will be produced monthly for their
entertainment.

15. Deconstruct a Double page
spread
The drop capital has been
used to illustrate to the
reader when to start
reading. Usually the drop
capital is the same font as
the mast head on the front
cover.
The pull quote “I’m
bringingGinger back”
stands out and anchors
Ed Sheerans hair. A pull
quote is usually an
interesting quote that will
attract the reader to read
the article.
TheQ
magazine logo
on the bottom
reminds the
reader the id
entity of the
magazine
whilst they
read through
the magazine
The main image of Ed
Sheeran standing in front
of the famous landmark,
this is symbolic as he has
his hands in pockets like
nothing is happening
allowing the audience to
feel comfortable and to
‘personally identify’ (Katz)
with him, his clothing and
the setting.
The PUFF box is
advertisement of Ed
Sheeran new album,
even though it is
separate from the
article it is still trying to
promote his new music.

16. Market position
• Q magazine publish more than 30 magazines with all different types of genres,
working out overall to produce over 35 million magazines a year
• Bauer media have 3 of their published magazines in the top of the best
magazines in the United kingdom, which are: Q magazine, Mojo and Kerrang.
This ‘signifies’ (De Saussure) that Bauer media are are very well known as a
whole.This is significant as this can convey to the audience how well known
Bauer Media are and how well they are doing as they have three of their
magazines in the top 5 in the UK.
• Q magazine is way ahead on the leaderboard of the most published magazines
with an outstanding figure of ‘158,271’ magazine sold in a year which could
convey that Q magazine is the best magazine that Bauer Media have ever
published.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/au
g/17/pressandpublishing.circulationfigures4

17. Brand ideology/ethos
The denotation of the strapline is “The UKs biggest music
magazine”.
This connotes how Q is progressing as they are getting more and
more famous by every music magazine that’s gets published.Q
magazine has a strapline which is stated on the top of the
magazine, which connotes that the editor of the magazine is
trying to increase their target audience to increase the popularity
of how many people read their magazine.Therefore this means
that they want as big off audience as possible to make as much
money of the magazines as possible.Alternatively the non-verbal
code of the main image is a picture of the famous Cheryl Cole who
is a well known famous artist whom has a lot of fans. Her
presence denotes an element of ‘star appeal’ (‘Richard Dyer) to
the reader, which is common on most front covers that Q publish
and other magazines.

18. Technical convergence continued
Bauer Media reach over 22 million UK adults every week with new magazines, this is
because they use convergence in order to gain people to gain interest in new and
upcoming magazines. Bauer media do use synergy in multiple ways to connect to their
fans. As you can see in the above picture, they also have twitter which could connote
that they love to keep their customers/audience updated with new magazines that will
be upcoming, which therefore means more people will be waiting on new magazines to
come out and then they will sell more overall. Bauer Media’s twitter page has 11.7
thousand followers which could insinuate that it is successful and they are still updating
the page to today point so therefore it must be working well.
https://twitter.com/bauermedia?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%
5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

19. Technological convergence
Q magazine has ‘Facebook’ which they will keep their target audience posted on new up
coming magazines. This is illustrated by q magazine having ‘120,883’Likes on their Facebook
page this is because everyone in society uses social media so therefore this is where q
magazine gets a lot of there fans from. Also on the Facebook page they advertise new
magazine that have been released recently which informs the audience which magazines are
coming out or have just come out, this conveys that that they may have fans who regularly
check up on the Facebook page to see if there has been any magazines recently dropped.This
Technological convergence could be seen as as advantageous due to the fact as they may get
more people purchasing each magazine every time that they get published.
https://www.facebook.com/Qm
agazine/

20. Synergy
• Synergy is the simultaneous release of different products to boost both. Synergy can be used most often by bigger companies
which work together to promote linked products across different media.
• Q magazine use social media such as Facebook andTwitter to publish their magazine company as much as possible they do this
by sharing and re-tweeting their own brands. Furthermore this allows them to advertise their company as much as possible.
This is illustrated by q magazine having ‘120,883’ likes on their Facebook page this is because everyone in society uses social
media so therefore this is where q magazine gets a lot of there fans and customers from.Also on the Facebook page they
advertise new magazine that have been released recently which informs the audience which magazines are coming out or have
just come out, this conveys that that they may have fans who regularly check up on the Facebook page to see if there has been
any magazines recently dropped.This could be seen as as advantageous due to the fact as they may get more people
purchasing each magazine every time that they get published.
• http://www.slideshare.net/jphibbert1979/synergy-6807548

21. Website annotations
Q magazine has its own available e-
media website to reach a mass
audience. A different they have on
the website compared to a hard copy
is that they have videos.They do this
to reach out to a broad audience and
a young (Hartley) male and female
audience. Furthermore this will
increase the amount of customers if
they have a website as well, this is
ane example of technological
convergence. Also on Q magazine
website there is a ‘win’ section which
attracts the audience to visit this
section of the website and allows
them to take part and win something
and this will entertain the reader.
There is an ‘interview’ section which informs
and educates (Katz) the reader about artists
who have been published on the magazine, this
is significant because there is a lot of
information on the website page for all
customers to read.

22. Competitors
• IPC media: IPC media is a similar institution to Bauer media group. IPC media are a worldwide company
that have global offices.
• Hearst Media: was invented in 1910 and is a British fiction magazine. It is also a very large magazine
company which is why its competitor is Bauer Media as they are a big company as well.
• Future PLC:They are are an international publishing group and leading digital business. Set up in 1985
with a single magazine, Future has grown to a portfolio of over 200 print titles, apps, websites and events.
They Approximately 500 people work across our offices in the UK, USA andAustralia.
• https://www.hearst.com/magazines/digital-media
• https://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/about-us/

23. COMPETITORS OF ‘Q’
Advantages disadvantages
Mojo Age range is different to Q magazine,
therefore they will have different
target audience
Have a larger circulation.
Lower readership and
circulation compared to Q
magazine.
Vibe They have a higher circulation than Q
magazine
Q magazine has been around
for longer therefore, more
experience .
Kerrang! They have a higher percentage of 15-
24 year olds in their target audience.
Lower readership and
circulation than Q magazine.

24. Form and style
The use of red and white in all of their magazine front covers could convey
that they are passionate about providing the audience with the best music
and industry information. Red also is a colour that stands out as it is bold
therefore it entices a pass along audience.
The magazine publisher uses star appeal (Richard Dyer) to attract people
to come and read the magazine. For example, on this magazine is Adele
who is a famous singer and they have used Adele as a role model as she is
a famous pop artist who is loved by many people.
The magazine always has a barcode which also states the price in small
writing this could be because some people may not see it until they
eventually go to buy it and then they may not care as much of how much
the price rather than before when first looking at the magazine.
Lastly the reason why all the conventions are similar on all magazines
maybe because it will make it easier for customers that read Q magazines
on a regular basis.
Q’s style if formal and simplistic to attract a reader. Bold neat font styles
are also used.

25. Retail outlet

26. Retail outlet(2)
• Q magazine is a very popular magazine article
company, which is illustrated by the shops that
it is sold at for example Q is sold at Sainsbury's,
Tesco, Asda and Great Magazines this is
symbolic as these shops are the biggest and
most popular shops in the United Kingdom and
Q magazine is sold there.

27. Production process
In this email I have wrote to the publisher of the magazine article Bauer
Media asking them about their production process of publishing a
magazine, but I am hoping on a reply with a answer to give me more
information to answer my question. However, I did not get a reply from
them.

28. Production process
• Date of publication-When the magazine is finished and when the publisher wants it to be released to the general public.
Then they will need to produce a schedule about the production process and when each of the process will occur.
• Managing the schedule-This is the most significant task there is in the production process of a magazine. If the publisher
wants there magazine to be published at the best standard possible then.The schedule should be made in a way of an
action of providing or supplying something for someone to use, just in case a accident occurred during the process then
they can still meet the deadline.
• Editorial and budgetary decision- the next step that occurs in the production process of a magazine is the
content/editorial decision.The editorial decisions is the topics that get decided in the next issue of the magazine.They talk
about various contents that will be upcoming in the next magazine. After thinking about what articles or topics, stories on
the news and photographs that will be used in the magazine.Then they look at the budget they have to spend on the
overall production of the magazine process.
• Content- Content needs to be decided inside the magazine and this is a very important step because without content they
wouldn’t of been able to publish the whole magazine in the first place. Content is therefore is very significant. Not only
content but photographs need to be decided for the content which the graphics are designed with a computer program.
• Sub-editing- Sub editing focuses on one major thing which the quality control on the magazine as a whole. Quality control
focus focus on checking the accuracy of facts in the article, marking sure spelling, grammar and punctuation is accurate in
the magazine and making sure that articles follow the house style.
http://hosbeg.com/the-magazine-production-process/

29. Production process continued
• Page layout- Normally there is a specially team that focus on the page layout for the magazine
which they call themselves layout staff.There job is to make sure that the page layout is perfect
for the whole magazine.
• Proofreading- Now they will print out a hardcopy of the magazine and check if everything in the
magazine is correct, any mistakes that are found get corrected on a DTP file instantly and then are
corrected.
• File emailed to printer- The whole magazine is sent to the printer and then printed of after
proofreading the magazine.
• Distribution- This is the last stage in the whole of the production process of a magazine.
http://hosbeg.com/the-magazine-production-process/

30. XXL

31. Purpose & meaning
The purpose of the magazine
article is to inform and educate
(Katz) the reader that XXL is a
large hip-hop music magazine
that reaches a wide audience.
For example they use 50 Cent on
the front cover as he is a famous
Hip Hop/ rap artist who
connotes star appeal (Richard
Dyer) and highlights to the
reader that it will be an up to
date music magazine.
Furthermore, the cover lines
inform the reader what music
information will be in the
magazine.The strapline denotes
‘HIP-HOP ON A HIGHER LEVEL’
connoting that this will be the
best hip-hop magazine you will
read and the producers work
hard to give you information on
a ‘higher level’.

32. Genre
The stereotypical Genre of all of these XXL magazine articles is hip hop/rap.This is significant because
XXL mostly focus’ on a similar type of Genre which could illustrate they don’t have such a big target
audience like Q magazine do, which could be a positive thing for the audience of XXL magazine due to
the fact that there will be more music that they will like as they are all the same. A negative aspect on this
could be that they aren’t as popular as they don’t have a big variety of genres like Q magazine does.
Also the second most famous genre inAmerica is R&B/ Hip Hop this is significant as XXLs main genre is
R&B/ Hip Hop.
https://www.statista.com/chart/1783/album-
sales-in-the-us-by-genre/

33. Sub-heading is
exactly stating what
the article is about.
Here is a contents page from XXL magazine, featuring
Soulja Boy and 50 Cent who are both famous hip hop
artists; this is significant due to the fact that they are
famous and both are role models to people which could
lead to people wanting to read the magazine as they see
them on the front cover.
The denotations of the masthead ‘theA-side’ is in bold
writing allowing it to stand out from any other magazine
this is significant as it usually changes throughout each
magazine from XXL. XXL magazine follows the same
conventions for the content on almost all of there
magazines and also usually has either one or two artists
featuring, this is important and popular magazine
publishes try to keep something the same on the
magazine to symbolize something significant. Secondly,
the magazine also has general themes that run through
all of there magazine and that is red, white and black.
Also on the content page it states all the features that are
in the magazine which could attract someone in the
target audience if they see an artist that they like they
may want to buy the magazine or even subscribe to it.
Sub-line is a
article that
states what the
article will be
about

34. Front cover analysis
Masthead: The masthead is
bold and eye catching with a
red background and white
writing denoting ‘XXL’.The
colour red connotes passion
and excitement which could
highlight XXL’s love for music
and their audience.
Cover line - relates to
the photo and gives
more information
behind the cover story,
symbolizes to the
audience what is in the
magazine.
Main headline- the main
headline grabs the readers
attention as it is in bold red
writing which is a key
convention of the XXL
magazine.The headline
anchors the main image.
Cover lines – These are located usually
down the left and right handside of the
side are give further information about
what will be inside the issue of the
magazine.
Main Image- The main image of Wiz
Khalifa and his wife Amber Rose is
significant for the front cover of the
magazine as it will stand out to a
audience, which will make people
want to read the magazine as they
see them on the front. ‘Star appeal’
(Richard Dyer) is really important in
enticing a reader in.

35. Target Audience
• According to Katz Uses and Gratifications the audience would be able to ‘personally identify’ with the
star appeal (Richard Dyer) 50 Cent because he is a well known artist in the music industry and the artist
appeals to the target audience age 20-30.They will also be able to personally identify with some of the
stories inside of the magazine especially the interviews where the artist talks about their hobbies and
interests. Furthermore the audience will be able to divert from everyday situations such as work by
reading the magazine that will entertain (Katz) them.The magazine will inform and educate (Katz) the
reader of new music information and will keep the reader updated.
• According to Maslow the target readership would be survivors because they will like the security and
routine of knowing that the magazine will be produced weekly for the audiences entertainment.

36. Target Audience
This symbolizes that the common age
for XXL magazine is 25-29 and then is
21 -24 so overall the age rate for XXL
magazine will be seen to be 21-29.
Also males most commonly read XXL
magazines maybe because it is a hip
hop genre type of magazine.

37. Deconstruct a double page spread
The colour of this double page
spread article is significant as the
colors are black and white which is
the same color of his suit which could
anchor the text and also symbolize
that Rick Ross is the king of hip hop.
Main Image - It is a interesting factor
how the picture of Rick Ross does take
up half of the double page spread. In
the image it looks like Rick is
celebrating. I presume that this is
because he is the man of the year in
the hip hop industry, this is indicated
by him holding a bottle of champagne
and balloons behind him.The size of
Rick in the image could also insinuate
how famous he is in the music industry
and he is celebrating this by drinking
champagne.
Drop Capital - at the start of the article
there is a drop capital which is much
larger then all of the other letters, this
could be because it is a important
article about him, this creates a point
of interest that draws the readers eyes
to the article.
At the bottom of the page of the double page spread, the name of the
photographer and the author of the article, this is to make sure that they
are credited in the magazine article.
Tile of page - ‘ man
made’ could
symbolize that Rick
Ross is a superior
person compared to
other people due to
his career in hip hop,
this is significant as
the mast head draws
peoples eyes which
makes them want to
read the article to see
why it says ‘Man
made’.

38. Form and style
The form and style of XXL magazine is simple and
usually consists of the colours red, white and black.
The font is very simple, and the main cover line has
been bolded out to further increase what this issue is
on about and to fit the feel of the magazine.The
picture of Jay-z is symbolic as it is trying to say that
Jay-z is bigger than Hip Hop, this is why Jay-z is
superior over NewYork(which is his hometown) also
it could convey that he is the king of the city in the
hip hop world.

39. Website annotations
The logo at the top left of the website is significant as
it represents the website in red and white bold writing.
This is an example of brand identity.
Also on the top right of the website there is social
media links (technological convergence) which could
represent that they want you to visit their page and
follow it and get the latest magazines coming out.
On the XXL website there is several main
images of famous hip hop artist which could
connote that in their magazine they will
usually have famous people featuring in their
magazine which is what the audience will
want.
On the website
there is
advertisement
promoting other
business’.
The news section on
the website could
connote further
information that is in
there magazines this is
significant as this will
allow more people to
find out information
which could persuade
them in buying a
magazine.

40. Retail outlet
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XXL-MAGAZINE-HIP-HOP-
ON-A-HIGHER-LEVEL-MEMORABILLIA-COLLECTORS-
/331863813015?var=&hash=item4d449feb97:m:mgvmT
FEdQJzIdDtahxnDlIw

41. Retail outlet (continued)
• XXL magazine are sold in various of shops such
as Amazon and Ebay. XXL isn’t sold in shops such
asTesco, Sainsbury's but is still sold on an
Amazon and EBay but this could convey that
they aren’t a vast company like Q magazine are
as they sell their magazine articles in most shops.

42. Production process
In this email I have wrote to the publisher of the magazine article, asking
them about their production process of publishing a magazine, but I am
hoping on a reply with a answer to give me more information to answer my
question.