EVALUATION OF COLLEGE MAGAZINE

This is my production of my college magazine cover.

Here, I took some inspiration from another magazine to see how to lay my cover out.

I used a red font to make it stand out and so it was bold. I then used subheadings as a blue colour to keep them bold as well but still not take off focus from the title. Then I used a black font to explain slightly the story which was happening.

I included photos and added a stroke around the edges of the photo so they would stand out from the background and tshirt. I included a font to stand out from the tshirt of the right photo to make sure it could be seen and was in a bold font. I put the picture and font in a white rectangle so it was altogether and stood out from the grey background of the person.

I put 'TOP TEN UNIVERSITYS' in red so it would stand out as this would be a big story for students because of UCAS applications.

I put the website address in a black smaller font under the title, so that it would still be seen but isn't going to blend in with a story on the cover, I did the same for my date so that it was at the top in the right.

I think the spacing works well because there isn't too many empty spaces and even though the background is white, there is lots going on to use this space.

This is my contents page which I got inspiration from a few different pages to make this page.

First, I added the title in black and a bold simple font to make it stand out and so you see it as soon as you turn onto the page.

I then added two photos at the bottom to go with the stories I'm using, and added text onto the photo to explain what it's about.

I then added the pages and what's on them next, using the page number in a bold blue font to make sure it's seen. I then added the black writing underneath, using a bolder font for the main subject and then a less bold font to explain the story more.

I then added two more photos into the space so that the page looked busy and didn't have too much white area and then put the page numbers on for these photo.

Finally, I added a black inner shadow onto the photos to make them stand out slightly more and the pictures look better and not as 2d.

For these two pages, I used Photoshop to edit the page and photos and put it all together, first though I had to take the photos which I took around college on a canon camera.

The strengths of the new media technology, like photoshop is that you can do almost everything on it. You can edit photos, construst text and put together a page like this with effects,

INITIAL IDEAS AND PLANS

For my music magazine, my first ideas was Pop or British Music. I have chosen to do Pop because I think they're is more variety at the moment and more to say about.
My initial plans for price are around £2.00 but I will questionnaire people on how much they're willing to pay for this. Frequency of publication, I first debated monthly or weekly and then chose to do every fortnight for an avergae of these, this gives enough chance to get music news and enough time to produce it without the news going out of date. This also means the pages will be average around 30 because it's not too big without it being too small.
Regular content will include regular feature articles, advertising, dates of concerts coming up, reviews of new albums, new and upcoming music, chart top 40 of singles and albums.
Feature articles.....




Kerrang comes out weekly, the average age is 22 for their readers. With gender being 41% female and 59% male. Their readership is 396,000 and circulation is 44,013. It costs £2.20.  http://www.kerrang.com/
Kerrang has around 70-100 pages.

Q magazine is published. The target audience 15-25, 33% being female and 66% being female. Their readeship is 411,000 and circulation is 64,596. http://www.qthemusic.com/
The feature article for NME is Rihanna on this cover which is ther cover stae on the cover, taking up the whole of the background. This would also engage reader if they saw her and were a Rihanna fan it would mean that they'd be drawn to buy this magazine, so they use cover stars who are big in the news recently. Q has between 150-200 pages.

For NME the launch date was 1952, this magazine is produced every week with a taget audience of 15-34 with more being males. The price for this is £2.40. http://www.nme.com/magazine
Also on the front cover, it says 'THE STATE OF MUSIC TODAY' with a list of music artists/bands, this would encourage readers to buy the magazine to see what it was discussing and the story behind this headline. NME has about 30-60 pages.

CASE STUDY NOTES

NME stands for New Musical Express. This would appeal to readers because it is shortened for new music, this makes it quick and stand for something which will it appeal to it.  The pink colour would appeal to people as it is a bright, young colour which appeals to the target auidence. This may draw more girls towards the magazine than boys.

They've used Rihanna on the front cover because she is a big music person and is a role model for some young girls so if they saw her on the front cover, they might be more appealed to buy it.
The barcode in the right hand corner makes sure that the attention isn't drawn away from focal point of the cover but we still know it's for sale.The grey background fading into white makes the background plain so that everything else stands out but it isn't just plain white so it's still a young look.

They would choose to put a picture of a band because people will want to read about them and they will base it on who it appeals to. The black background with the white font makes it stand out and isn't in a boring font so people will read it.

This is a double page spread from NME. The picture of The Vaccines is over one and a third of the pages and the title 'THE VACCINES' is in capitals, big bold black font. This lets us know easily who the article is about. The article is then underneath this in black font, with a blue quote which breaks the article up and blue letters which also break the black font up. The blue squares and lines across the the page break up the page and font and make it look as if it has had little bits stuck onto the page. This links with the font colour of the blue and adds an abstract look to the page which is for an artistic look to the page, it links to the alternative genre of music by breaking up the page.

The name of the magazine 'KERRANG' almost sounds like a guitar sound so it appeals to this genre of music. This would add to the target audience of the magazine. The colour theme is quite a fierce colour which appeals to young people as opposed to older people.

On the page, the subheading is 'READING AND LEEDS' in the middle of the page with a yellow background, this is a focus as it'll draw you towards it and Reading and Leeds is a popular festival so people will want to read about it and see the pictures, this is matching the target audience. The yellow and black is also the theme of Leeds festival which links to that aswell as it standing out for people to see. The different pictures on the page link to more pages inside and link to the genre of the magazine. The yellow background with black font saying 'PLUS...' stands out from the dark background which draws us to winning something which may appeal to try and win something, drawing people into the magazine.

This is a double page spread from kerrang. There is a picture of Linkin Park across one and a half pages. Then it has a quote over the whole left part of the page in black bold.

There is then an orange banner fading into the picture below this with a white font. The article is in white font over the picture in the bottom right page.

This makes us appeal to the quote straight away which will draw us towards it.

In the picture they're all wearing a similar colour, all in blacks and browns, this makes them look co-ordinated and fits to the colour scheme, they have a dark background but with a white font which makes the font stand out and we are able to read it.

The font on the right hand side is different sizes and colours so it appeals to the target audience as it isn't just a boring, standard font. Cheryl Cole would also appeal to younger people and she stands out from the background, covering the whole page. The black banner at the top saying 'THE UK'S BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE' with a white font, makes it stand out as underneath the logo is 'Q' in a red background with white font. So this works well because both stand out as we are drawn towards the Q but the banner is above it which would make us look at it after this. Also the red and white stand out from the black, dark background and sticks to the colour theme. Cheryl Cole has a song called '3 words' this links to the cover, saying '3 words... Cheryl Cole Rocks' this links to her song and also links to an insight of the magazine inside.

This is from Q magazine double page magazine. There is a picture going across one and a half pages which links with the article. Then the article in the bottom right page in back font, with a bold first letter of the article. There is also USA and 'got the love' on the page with USA behind the person in grey which breaks the page up a bitand 'got the love' in a bold italic black font, this makes it stand out and breaks up the page.

NME:
British Music
IPC Media is the publisher
Mike Williams is the Editor
7 March 1952 is when it was first published
Weekly magazine
£2.40
Bought from shops such as WHSmith and places which sell magazines and also can subscribe to it

Kerrang:

Rock Music

Bauer Media is the publisher

James McMahon is the Editor

6th June 1981 is when it was first published

Weekly magazine

£2.20

Bought from shops such as WHSmith, Boots, etc and also can have a subscription to the magazine so it'll be delievered.

Q Magazine:

Popular Music

Bauer Media Group is the publisher

Andrew Harrison is the Editor

October 1986 was the first issue

Monthly magazine

£3.90

Bought from shops which sell magazines and also can subscribe to it.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH

This is my questionnaire which I handed out to people, some people didn't realise there was a back side so I had to tell them which was a bit of a problem but was quickly sorted.

I asked 15 females and 15 males, this is the proportion of that shown on a graph.

This graph shows the age range of people I handed questionnaires out to. There was 7 who were aged 13-16 and 27 aged 17-25.

I asked people which type of music they prefer, these are the results:
5 people said Rock music, 12 people said pop, 6 people said rap, 3 said dubstep and 4 people said other.

This is the amount of people who would buy a magazine with a free item, this wasn't as useful as 15 people said maybe so there should have been a following question asking what type of free item people would buy. 2 people said no and 12 said yes.

This is what people would find appealing in a magazine. 16 people said fresh music, 5 said news, 6 said reviews, 4 said competitions, 12 said interviews, 9 people said Q&A, 12 said Top 40 and 3 said music equipment. For this question, they could answer whichever applied to them and which they were appealed to.

This question gave me an idea of how much people wanted to spend on magazines. 20 people said £2-£3.99 and two people said £4-£4.99 but said it depends on how much it had in it and what it was based on. 8 people said they'd only spend £0-£1.99. This gave me a better idea on what people were willing to spend and depending on what they got with the magazine.

This question was what appeals to people on a magazine which makes them by it. 15 people said cover story, 12 people said feature stars, 12 people said freebies, 7 people said price, 4 people said colour scheme, 15 people said genre. They could choose all which applies to them. This showed me, most people chose the magazine because of what was on the front of the cover, so I have to create something which people will want to know about and want to read and also the genre. People aren't going to buy a magazine which they have no interest in. 

PUBLICATION PLAN

Magazine Title:
To get my title, I tried to find a different name for 'popular' but which related to music, as I'm doing a pop magazine. From here, I got 'Noted' I think this relates to music too as of a music note.

Target Audience:
The target audience is about 16-25 and because I am between this age range, so it'll be easier because I know the type of the music people like and the people who people this age listen to. I also have an easier way of finding out what fashion and interests are around at the moment and what people this age are interested in.

Positioning Statement:
The biggest selling fortnightly pop magazine. This will be at the top of the page with a black or grey background and white font.

Frequency of Publication:
Fortnightly - this is because I found most music magazines are weekly or monthly, so I thought by having a fortnightly one it gives people the option and more frequency to buy it but not too much. This will also mean there will be more music news than there is in a weekly magazine.

Publishing Company:
Bauer Publishing Company

Price:
£2.20

Distribution: Newsagents, supermarkets eg, WHSmith, Boots, etc

Rationale: A look into what fans want, shown, articles, interviews and concert news will be provided. I'll find this out from questionnaires done to see what is a popular feature etc.

Regular Features:
Top 40
Articles
Interviews
Concert Information
Editors Note
Subscription information

Feature Article: 
Bands news
Bands who're getting back together/splitting up.

House Style:
Black and white picture, using a red background with white font for the title. A banner at the top of the page to say it's a big selling fortnightly magaine. Also, a red font for the main part linking with the photo.

Use a medium close up for the cover star on the front cover, this will also be the same person on the double page spread because the stories need to link together. For the contents page, I will either have a big portrait photo or two landscape photos. Also, a picture of the editor on the contents page with an editors note. For the subscription, I will put a picture of my front cover on there, so people know what they're subscribing too.

WRITTEN PLANS

Cover Page:

The cover image will be black and white of a girl in the middle of the photo. This will have barely any white background so that the contrast is high with the use of black and white. The title 'Noted' will be in red in some way or have a red background so that it stands out but not too big so that it doesn't take attention away from the photo. There will be a banner at the top of the photo if there is enough room and depending on the rest of the layout of the page.
Down the left hand side of the page, I am thinking of having several different fonts and sizes and boldness in white with a list of things inside the magazine - I have seen this inside a version of Q magazine and I thought it looked really effective and split the text up slightly.
There will be a quote mark in red, bold, and with a slight drop shadow going across the photo to explain the cover story which will link to the double page article.

Contents Page:

The contents page will have 'Contents' or 'Inside this week' at the top of the page. On the left side there will be a list of pages with subheadings and page numbers in black and red page numbers.
On the right side of the page, there will either be two landscape photos or one big portrait picture covering the majority of the page. I am planning to have a subscription somewhere at the bottom of the page, depending on how much room I have which will have a picture of the front cover to show what they're subscribing too. I will also have an editors note at the bottom of the page too, with 'editors note' being in red to stand out and possibly an italic font in order to split the page up and so people know its different from the page numbers. But I will split this up with a different background and possible different font colour.
Some of the smaller pictures will have a stroke around the pictures so they stand out from the other photos but still don't take any attention away from the main focus picture.
Double Page Spread:

For my double page spread, I am planning to link it in with my cover page story, so I need a similar style of image from this and the same model.
I would like a simple layout for this, probably using a rule of thirds for the photo so that the focal point is towards a side of the photo and then having the photo on one side of the double page. The title will stand out in a bold colour which will contrast from the background and the subheading will also stand out in someway, but not take the attention away from the focal point in the picture of the main heading.
The article is going to be about a girl leaving the band which will be a famous band so people are attracted to this story and it will be advertised on the front cover.

SKETCHES AND DESIGNS

These are my cover, contents and double page spread designs. I have taken some inspiration from other pop magazines to create a similar style, I will try to stick to it as much as possible but depending on my photos it may change slightly.