In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My product uses forms and conventions of real media products quite regularly as I thought this would give it a more professional look. As my magazine is a mainstream one, I thought it would be suitable to make the magazine look like regular magazine so people could get an idea the magazine is mainstream when they glance at the front cover. I have put my masthead right at the top of the page in big, red capital letters; I copied this from other successful mainstream music magazines. I tried to make my image the main attraction as this is also what magazines like ‘Q’ does. I did this by keeping the writing on the cover quite basic so it didn’t take much attention away from the image. I have a similar colour scheme to ‘Q’.  The colours red, black and white seem to suit a mainstream magazine as they are popular colours used regularly.  I know there are plenty of mainstream music magazines around but I know there is a big audience for them so my magazine could be successful.

I was quite heavily influenced by ‘Q’ magazine as it is covers the genre of music I listen to most and I like the design of it; the lay out and colour scheme. I also like how the ‘Q’ is always in the top left of the front cover so that customers can recognise the magazine instantly. My magazine will always have a big, clear masthead as it is an unknown, upcoming magazine.

As hundreds of other magazines, Q follows the basic convention of placing the magazine title in the top left of the page; however Juice is in the middle at the top. Also, my research exposed the fact that many magazines rotate the barcode 90 degrees in the bottom right of the page, to add more content space. Juice did not follow this convention as I didn’t want it to collide with other text on the front cover.

Another convention I gave to my magazine, Juice, was competitions and freebies for the readers. There is a Bruno Mars competition and posters of famous celebrities for the readers to take out and use. I liked this idea as I think this could engage the readers and persuade them to buy other issues of Juice.

 

evaluation skills

Tools on Photoshop that I found useful

The stroke tool –This allowed me to make my text standout on my front cover and contents page by adding a shadow effect around the letters. I feel this was effective as readers are more likely to take note of text which stands out. I also think it is quite a good design. On my front cover the red masthead is shadowed by a white border which I feel gives it a professional look.

The Crop tool – This allowed me to cut images out that I had previously taken and put them against a different background. This made the images look more professional and more effective. I could also cut out parts of the image I didn’t want, to just leave the bits I did. If I didn’t know how to crop images my photos wouldn’t have suited the background, making the product look unprofessional.

A variety of 'Blending options' - This allowed me to paste in a certain texture, and overlay it on certain image, such as the one on the contents page. This creates a vintage effect, and adds of course, more texture to the page.

As the college magazine is aimed at a neutral audience I tried to make the image more direct and appeal to more people whereas my music magazine is aimed at a narrower target audience.  For my music magazine I used more precision in addressing my audience as I was more aware of their interests.

What kind of mediainstitution might distribute your mediaproduct and why?

As there are many magazines similar to mine, publishing could be seen as a bit of a problem as there would be a lot of competition. My magazine, Juice, is also mainstream so there is likely to already be a magazine similar to mine in most publishing groups. The publishing group is unlikely to have two magazines very similar to each other as they could just be taking sales away from one of their own magazines. I decided that Bauer publishing company wouldn’t be the place to go as they already have magazines such as Mojo, which is quite similar; this is mostly a classic rock magazine. I thought because the genres of music would be somewhat similar it would create too much competition between the two magazines. Bauer also publish Kerrang which, although it doesn’t feature similar music to my magazine, the target audience may be quite close to mine. The public are unlikely to buy two magazines at the same time.  Furthermore, they also publish a 4music magazine which is aimed at a similar target audience to mine as it covers the same genre of music, although 4music is seen as more of a female magazine, whereas mine is aimed at both sexes.

I then looked at IPC media to see if there was a potential place for my magazine. As IPC media is one of the biggest publishing groups in the UK, it engages with 26 million UK adults, I wasn’t expecting much space for a magazine like mine. However, although they do cover a massive range of magazines like golf and soaps, they didn’t seem to cover many modern music magazines. In my view the closest competition they had was NME which is aimed at a very different target audience to mine; the genre of music covered in NME contrasts heavily to mine.  There is also a magazine being published by IPC called Teen Now, which is aimed at a very similar target audience to mine. This could be seen as a competition, however that magazine is more to do with fashion, gossip and beauty. I decided that IPC media would be the place for me to publish as there does seem a place in the market for my magazine.

 

Another alternative would be to self-publish. This would in turn lead to more independence for my magazine as the publishing group would want to make editorial changes to suit them better, along with deciding advertisements etc. On the other hand, a positive aspect of being signed with a large company such as Bauer/IPC is the fact i need to consider Juice need for synergy. Being signed to a corporate media company will give Juice the opportunity to become established, faster- and host sister products such as a radio station and website. If Juice is successful, and is signed up to IPC, IPC will take a large proportion of the profit. Whilst, if it is to be self-published, all of the profits will return to myself, to put back into the magazine and establish the magazine that little bit further. Both options have a strong argument; it is a very hard decision considering i cannot anticipate the success of the magazine.

Information on magazine publishers

IPC Media

IPC media has more than 60 iconic media brands; it creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events. They engage with 26 million UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and over 40% of UK men. Their award winning portfolio of websites reaches over 25 million global users every month. IPC Media is committed to working in partnership with its consumers, advertisers, business partners and employees to deliver exceptional value, service, innovation and creativity. This publishing industry distributes magazines such as Marie Clare, horse and hound and nuts. This shows it publishes a wide variety of magazines. IPC media is a Time Warner company.

Magazine case study

Music Magazine Case Study

Introduction

Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology. Q was first published in October 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing. Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Q's 200th edition, is that a single-letter title would be more prominent on newsstands. The publisher of the magazine is Bauer Media Group. The monthly readership of this magazine is 371,000; it is the UK’s number one actively-purchased music magazine. 2/3 of the readers are male and only a 1/3 are female. Here is a chart to show the age range of the readers

15-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+

        38.3%                   23.8%                  19.5%                   13.6%                  3.1%                   1.8%

Content: The magazine has an extensive review section, featuring: new releases (music), reissues (music), music compilations, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. It uses a star-rating system from one to five stars; indeed, the rating an album receives in Q is often added to print and television advertising for the album in the UK and Ireland. It also compiles a list of approximately eight albums, which it classes as the best new releases of the last three months.

Technology: Q also has a radio station to enhance its audience across different media devices. After a few years as a magazine Q Radio launched in June 2008 as a full service radio station with a complete roster.

In the cold play edition of Q, Chris Martin, the lead singer, is the image on the front cover. The cover is a lot different to most covers and makes it stand out to readers, it also informs the audience that this edition is focused on the band Coldplay.

This edition has a featured article on Coldplay where the band announces their 50 favourite albums and says why they like that specific genre of music. They also answer personal questions so that fans of the band will be interested in reading the magazine.

In this special edition they also have an article called ‘Q’s view of 2011’ which looks back at the stand out happenings from the year and the most memorable things. This article will be sure to attract attention from readers as it may create a difference in opinion on the editor’s views.

 

Advertising: As the majority of readers are from the younger generation there are a lot of fashionable advertisements for clothes, watches, headphones etc. the headphone company ‘Maxwell’ are often seen in the magazine advertising their new products. Also because there are a lot of male readers there are some sport advertisement such as clothes and equipment. The products advertised are probably for the higher- middle- class people. Furthermore there are a lot of sweets and chocolates, such as kit kat and skittles, advertised. This is probably aimed more towards the younger readers as they are more likely to buy sweets or chocolates.

Magazine Industry Overview

Magazine Industry Overview

 The magazine industry is going through troubled spells mainly because of the current economic climate. The guardian predicts that smaller, weaker titles will struggle the most, with advertising being a big problem. Maintaining or increasing revenue from ads will be the biggest challenge for magazines from all sectors this year. Most insulated perhaps are the top-end glossies - the Vogues, GQs and Elles - which, while not recession-proof, are unlikely to be hit hard by a plunge in advertising revenue.  They also predict that larger publishing houses in the business-to-business and consumer sectors will be looking increasingly dominant. This year greater emphasis will be placed on editorial in these titles: get the quality of content wrong and magazines could find themselves in real trouble.

Niche-appeal consumer titles that rely on devoted, engaged readerships are also more favourably placed than most when it comes to advertising. There is a more unique audience which means it may be easier to advertise items that you think they will be interested in.  Mainstream magazines may have a harder time when it comes to advertising as the range of readers is so large; it is hard to assume what sort of items the readers will want to see in the magazine as advertisement.

Technology is a big factor when you consider how the magazine industry can grow. Having a TV station can be a source of advertisement for your readers as it will be easily accessible for readers to watch. Large publishers such as IPC Media, Condé Nast and Future Publishing, which have invested in extending their brands into TV, web, mobile, radio or shopping, are more likely to weather the impact than those with standalone products or thinner portfolios of titles. TV is such a big part of people’s lives in the modern era so making a TV channel is a great way of expanding the name and company. The web is also heavily relied upon in today’s world so having a website for the readers is very recommendable. People who surf the net can type in one word into a search engine, and every bit of information about the magazine can appear. This can easily help the expansion of the magazine if people like what they see or read on the website. The web is also another way in which you can advertise bringing in more income for the business. Overall, in the UK we spend about £2 billion pounds a year for magazines.

Music magazine case study

Music Magazine Case Study

Introduction

Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology. Q was first published in October 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing. Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Q's 200th edition, is that a single-letter title would be more prominent on newsstands. The publisher of the magazine is Bauer Media Group.

Content

The magazine has an extensive review section, featuring: new releases (music), reissues (music), music compilations, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. It uses a star-rating system from one to five stars; indeed, the rating an album receives in Q is often added to print and television advertising for the album in the UK and Ireland. It also compiles a list of approximately eight albums, which it classes as the best new releases of the last three months.

Technology

Q also has a radio station to enhance its audience across different media devices. After a few years as a magazine Q Radio launched in June 2008 as a full service radio station with a complete roster.