Audience Feedback

Double Page Spread Changes

This is my updated version of my double page spread. I have added page numbers in the same style as I used on my contents page to keep an element of continuity and also as these are an important element in a magazine, I also added a border around the album cover to make it stand out more and added another photo to break up the introductory text which is the image from my contents page. I have also added a small text box at the top of the page which says 'rising star' as I identified from my research that magazines often have small categorising headings at the top of the page and I thought this would be good as the reader would be able to see what sort of artist or article this is and also it used up some of the empty space. Lastly, I reduced the size of the black text box in the bottom right hand corner as it looked too big around the text.

Double Page Spread

This is my first draft of my double page spread, after looking at several different double page spreads I identified that they often have smaller Q&A type boxes that are easier to read for readers who just flick through or who don't want to read an article. That is why I made the 'Aaron's Amplified Playlist' which told the reader what music he listed to which would be regular feature on all double-page spread interviews. I also made the border for that text and the text in the bottom right hand corner, a stripe of white and then the background colour which I think gave a more interesting look and made it stand out. To make the text boxes for the actual article a bit more interesting I added the 'paint splatter' effect to areas using Macromedia Fireworks which I also thought made it look more 'rock' as it has splatered paint has connotations of rebellion and attitude. I also used Macromedia Fireworks to fix some issues I was having with the text in that when the textbox was tilted all of the actual text distorted, so to resolve this I added the text in Fireworks rather than on Publisher and tilted it on there which then did not distort the text. I have also added another image of an album cover, with my model on a motorbike which adds to the alternative/rock image.

Contents Page Changes

Before                                                      After                                              

Here is an updated version of my contents page. I added a graphic into the background so it looks less empty and more like the sort of distressed, eroded graphics that rock magazines use, I have also changed the colour of 'August 2011' to green so it stands out on the new background. I have made the black boxes behind the contents slightly longer for the introducing and backstage pass sections so that the letters were no longer cut off at the bottom. Additionally I changed the numbers on the pictures so that they looked more professional and were more in keeping with the style of the magazine and stood out against the photos. Also the colour of the box at the bottom I changed to purple so that it would stand out better than the teal coloured box and changed the text to white to make it easier to read, I also changed the CD cover image as I changed my mind on the name of the CD. At the bottom of the page I made the twitter name and facebook address smaller so that they could fit side by side and use up the space.

Front Cover Changes

Before                                                       After                                              

Here is an updated version of my front cover, I have removed the black banner at the bottom and replaced it with some Polaroid style images. I chose these images as they were different from my images of my two models as these are of live bands which the magazine would be reviewing. I have also added text into the two circles so that there is a variation of how the cover lines are presented. Additionally I added an imperative style cover line 'Get our free CD!' with an image I created of CD cover. I also added another image of the model Becca Ford and changed the way the text was arranged so that there was more image on the cover and to fill the space. I changed the letter spacing of the 'You Me At Six' cover line so that it was easier to read and moved it down slightly to fill the space between the barcode and the other cover line. I also put on the price of £2.99 as I saw that quite a lot of other monthly magazines were this often and I corrected the cropping mistake where part of his leg had been cut off.

Double Page Spread Article

Aaron

His albums gone platinum, he’s headlining the year’s biggest festivals; but he didn’t want any of it??! Rebecca Fagg talks exclusively to this new singing sensation and finds out just what happened.

Aaron walks into the small hotel room situated in the notorious Camden Lock Hotel, carrying a can of Red Bull and looking somewhat solemn. He apologises for being late and it seems his trademark hairstyle has caused him trouble as the unbelievably diffident singer was apparently ‘hounded’ by fans despite his effort to disguise himself with the classic beanie hat and wayfarers.

 In case you’ve been in a coma for the past six months and have somehow still not heard of him, Aaron exploded to the top of the charts with his first single ‘City Lights’ back in February and he has continued to escalate ever since. His album ‘Nowhere Boy’ went Platinum and he even got the royal stamp of approval as he was asked to play at Wills & Kate’s wedding.

                Since then, there has not been a festival or concert that Aaron hasn’t been at and there is even talk of another album being released in time for Christmas. Here’s what he had to say about it all.

: So Aaron, it’s fair to say that you haven’t just risen to fame in the past six months, you’ve rocketed, how does it feel to be a number one selling artist?

A: It’s weird; it doesn’t seem real, when I hear my songs playing on the radio and hear fans screaming my name I have to keep asking myself, is that my song? Are they shouting for me?  It’s surreal, I never thought that people would react to my music the way they have.

 

: well they certainly have reacted, your first single ‘City Lights’ went straight to number one, beating both You Me At Six and My Chemical Romance!

A: I know, I never imagined it escalating to that, when we released it I thought maybe it might make the top 100 as I have quite a lot of followers on twitter and YouTube but not number one, it was a very immense, strange feeling when I got the phone call from my manager Mark Johnson. I just couldn’t get my head around how people loved my music when I was just a quiet English student from a small town in Kent.

 

: Is that why you decided to sign to IndieRock?

 

A: Yeah IndieRock is an amazing label, I owe them everything. It’s scary to think that I almost signed with someone else, when I first came into contact with the music industry labels approached me and I turned them all down. I was even offered a million dollar record deal by a large American label but I didn’t want to be famous, I just liked playing my guitar and writing songs.

 

: A million dollars must have been hard to say no to! What made you turn them all down??

 

A: I knew they weren’t right for me as they didn’t understand how I didn’t want to be manufactured into another easily-marketable ‘artist’ who doesn’t write their own songs and lip syncs, that’s what attracted me to IndieRock and made my decision to sign with them, they didn’t want to change me, I spoke to one of their agents and he just said “record a single, slap a few bonus songs on it and if nobody likes it then those other companies were right, if people do like it, then you’ve got yourself a record deal” and I guess I did the right thing as that single, as you said, went straight to number one.

 

: Sounds like you made the right choice, now are the rumours true that you are working on an album to release in time for Christmas??

 

A: Yes! I can officially say it will be out in time for Christmas, I am really ecstatic about this album as there were quite a lot of songs that we couldn’t fit onto Nowhere Boy or that didn’t quite go with the rest of the songs, but this time you can expect to hear some quirkier acoustic songs, some heavier rock songs and a few collaborations that I think everyone will be really excited about

 

: Two albums in one year is pretty impressive how did you fit it all in?

 

A: Well I had a lot of songs from before I got signed that I had recorded myself and put on YouTube so I haven’t really had to write many new songs I’ve mainly been working with an absolutely amazing producer called Ellie Hayes to take those songs I wrote back when I was at uni and work them into potential singles.

 

: Wow, well we’re impressed. Finally, one last question. Can we expect to see you touring anytime soon?

 

A: yeah tickets go on sale for my ‘Somewhere Boy’ tour on September 20^th and I will be touring literally everywhere from the big arenas to the small indie set-ups so watch out and I hope to see you all there!

 

If you didn’t catch Aaron’s last album ‘Nowhere Boy’ it is available to download on iTunes for a limited time at just £4.99!

Contents Page

Front Cover First Draft

Photos

These are all images i have taken for my magazine the montage is of the photo's I took of my models and then the other images are from Wireless Festival (as I knew I would be doing a music magazine for Media AS I took some photo's in advance) and a small local gig I went to. Some of the images I have edited into the shape of polaroids for my front cover.

 

Analysis of a music review

Here is some analysis of two music reviews, one from NME and one from The Sunday Times Music section that I did during my Media class which have helped me to identify what goes into a music review.

Review on Guns N Roses  (Elizabeth Goodman, NME 27 May 2006)

What features about the concert are highlighted in the review?

The singer Axl's appearance, the songs played, and how the band has changed due to the death of Slash and the aging of the band.

Describe the style of language used in the review.

It’s very descriptive at first describing  the beginning of the show, and then it is more chatty, colloquial as if it were a friend talking to you, quite critical but complimentary as well as she says ‘the songs are so epic and transcendent and undeniable that it doesn’t matter'.

What previous knowledge about the band is expected of the reader?

The reader is expected to know the songs, the albums and the band members along with their history as they are quite a famous, iconic rock band who would appeal to their target audience.

How do you know that the journalist is into the band?

 She seems very passionate about certain songs, about how the new guitarist doesn’t compare to the old one, but praises the songs anyway saying that it doesn't matter that they're not as good cos the songs are 'epic' in her opinion.

What assumptions does the journalist make about the reader?

That they like guns n roses and have a knowledge of all of their songs/albums/band members and also that they have an interest in the band and are as passionate about the music as she is and includes the audience when she refers to 'NME' as she is saying they weren't just the songs she wanted to hear, they were the songs the reader wanted to her as well.

Does the review link to the music publications identity and target readership?

It does link to the publications identity as they are talking about this band to the reader in a way that suggests their readers should know this band, which they most likely would as they are one of the classic rock bands and with NME's target audience of 16-34 year olds who are predominantly male who have a keen interest in music, it is unlikely that they haven't at least heard of this band.

How does the review suggest that there could possibly be an audience of different age ranges? What pleasures do you think that different age fans of Guns N Roses would experience at a gig?

It suggests that it could be for a younger audience of 16-24 as the beginning is very descriptive and creates the buzz of the concert which would be one of the main attractions of the younger audience. It also refers to the bands newer album which the 16-24 year olds may be more familiar with than the old ones. However it also suggests there is an audience of 25-34 or even possibly older as it refers to old songs and band members that the older audiences would remember. The pleasures of Guns N Roses fans at a gig differ as young audiences would just be discovering the music and would enjoy the atmosphere perhaps more than the music whereas older audiences could get pleasure from memories of particular songs or the band in general at one of their gigs, however both audiences would find the gig an escape from their usual everyday lives.

What other possible music publications would review this concert?

Kerrang!, RockSound, Q, any magazine that features rock music heavily.

Clare Maguire review/article (Paul Lester 2010 The Sunday Times / Music)

Before reading the article:

What do you think is the relevance of the term 'Talking Topshop Blues'?

The word Topshop is a clothing shop, blues has connotation of sadness, depression but also of a type of music so suggests something about somebody who used to work in Topshop who wasn't very happy there and has moved on into that type of music perhaps?

How many columns are there?

3

How many images?

1

What connotations does the image give of the artist and the content of the article?

Quite a weird image of her looking to the side and what looks like branches over her face suggesting she’s hiding behind something or something’s tieing her down. She looks almost gothic with pale skin, and black poker straight hair. Overall quite a strange image.

What are your initial impressions of this music feature?

A lot of text which suggests the readers want to read about music and aren't too fussed about image. Could either be about blues music from the title or perhaps from a slightly more rock or indie genre as her pale skin and dark hair make her look a little gothic however her music must appeal to an older audience of about 25+ due to the magazine it's in.

After reading the article:

What techniques does the writer use in the first sentence to engage the reader?

Starts with a declarative sentence ‘Clare Maguire will be’ and compares her to two popular artists of the past two years so the audience will be encourage to read the rest of the article if they like them. Engaging visual technique with larger C.

What does 'ubiquity' mean?

Ubiquity is when you seem to be present everywhere at once

What is the focus of paragraph one?

The sound of her voice and the different style and sounds of her music.

What technique features in Maguire's quote in paragraph two?

She lists all the different things and repitition

In paragraph two, how is Maguire made to sound like an average person?

As she is suffering from a cold

What is the focus of paragraph three?

Her image and style

What do you think is exaggerated in paragraph three?

A noir Florence or ellie in hell – a troubled soul – blues genre

In paragraph five, what point is made about Maguire's relationship with music?

Her relationship with music is her way of dealing with issues

How many artists are mentioned in paragraph six?

8

On what tone does the article end?

Positive, saying that she will do well.

Which current artist is Clare Maguire most similar to?

Ellie Goulding, Pixie Lott and Florence and the Machine.

Images I need

Images I need to take:
- Photo's of Aaron for front cover and double page spread - playing guitar, looking at the camera, album cover, 'backstage' image
- Photo's of Becca playing some instruments
- An album cover for the free cd
- Photo of concert tickets
- Photo's of bands performing at a live concert

Existing photo's:
I took some photo's over the summer holidays of music festivals/concerts I went to as I knew that I would need them for my AS production as I had just finished GCSE
- Wireless Festival
- Lostprophets and The Blackout

Planning

What I plan to call the magazine: AMPLIFIED
I have chosen this name because: it reflects the rock, metal and alternative/indie music as these genres of music use amps for their guitars and by being called amplified it suggests that it's the loudest,, and it's amplifying all of the bands it features (raising awareness and promoting them)

Reader Profile

Age: 16-25 year olds

Gender: Both genders but slightly more towards males

Hobbies: My reader would like going to concerts and festivals, listening to music, playing music, watching TV (music channels/MTV/E4), photography, watching films (Kickass, Get Him To The Greek, Paranormal Activity), going out with friends, going on social networking sites (facebook/twitter)

What they eat/drink: Energy drinks such as Relentless, Rockstar, Red Bull and other drinks such as Pepsi Max, Dr Pepper and powerade. Sweets like Twix, Mars Bar, Skittles, McCoys crisps, Doritos.

Where they go: My audience would probably go to music festivals such as Download, Reading & Leeds and Sonisphere, local gigs e.g. Battle of the Bands at bars and clubs, places like Camden Market.

Where they shop: H&M, Topman/Topshop, Superdry, American Apparel, DistrictLines.com Doc Marten, Game, HMV, markets, eBay, and smaller individual shops that sell band merchandise.

Music They Love: You Me At Six, Paramore, The Pretty Reckless, Ed Sheeran, Rise Against, All Time Low, Bring Me The Horizon, My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory, Enter Shikari, Korn, Nickleback, Linkin Park, Metallica, Muse, Foo Fighters etc. Mainly Rock, Alternative, Heavy Metal and Ska music.

What they wear: Skinny jeans, band t-shirts, dark clothing, doc martens, converse, vans, harringtons, parka's, beanie hats, studded belts, eyeliner, black nail-varnish, bracelets and festival wristbands.



Front Cover

Coverlines:

The Best of Download 2011 - the years biggest festival in photo's

Becca Ford - "You Should Know Who I Am!"

You Me At Six - talk tour bus tantrums, crazy fans and more mischeif

We Go Festival Crazy! -Download, Sonisphere, Reading & Leeds

EXCLUSIVE! Aaron "Sex, Drugs & Rock & Roll? No Thanks!" - Aaron talks about how he turned down a million dollar record deal!

Free CD - Louder!'s guide to summer 2011

COMPETITION - win VIP tickets to see some of the biggest acts of 2011

Also in this issue: Paramore ~ The Pretty Reckless ~ Skillrex ~ Ed Sheeran ~ Rise Against ~ Hadouken! ~ LMFAO + many more!

Masthead:

I may change the colour of the masthead as I need to see what colour goes best with my colour scheme

Tagline:

Plugged in on all the latest rock & roll

Image:

My model for my front cover is going to be my friend Aaron Presswell, he is 17 and he is similar to my target audience so he would appropriate to use as a rock artist. Also his hair, lip piercing and dress sense is similar to the sorts of musicians that would be in my magazine or magazine similar. This is what he looks like:

Contents:

features:

ON THE COVER

Aaron

Download

Becca Ford

You Me At Six

Festivals

REVIEWS

Paramore

Skillrex

All Time Low

Muse

Hadouken!

INTRODUCING

Ruby McCaffrey

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

LMFAO

Ed Sheeran

A Thousand Lights

BACKSTAGE PASS

Bring Me The Horizon

New Found Glory

My Chemical Romance

The Pretty Reckless

REGULARS

Posters

Competitions

Gig Guide

Time Off

Born on This Day

The Buzz

Images:

The images I need to take are:

Photo of Becca Ford singing

Photo of Aaron

An album cover

Concert Tickets

Photo of Download stage

Double Page Spread:

Feature:

AMPLIFIED EXCLUSIVE!

Aaron

His album's gone platinum, he's playing all the biggest festivals, but he didn't always want a music career. Rebecca Fagg finds out the story of his sudden success and what he has planned for the future.

Results of Music Magazine Survey

These are the results of my survey:

As you can see the majority of my feedback is from females so my feedback may be slightly biased towards females.

As I sent it to a group of girls in each year at my school and posted it on my facebook I got a variety of different ages however the majority of my feedback is from people 12 and under.

The other two answers were: Musicals and Christian. The most popular type of music is Pop, Hip Hop & Rap and R&B this is most likely because the majority of chart music is made up of these genres. However there are no genres apart from country and reggae that are unpopular so I may try to include a variety of genres in my magazine.

Only 31.6% of my audience actually regularly buy  a music magazine so hopefully by looking through my feedback I can try and design a magazine that will appeal to them and encourage more people to buy music magazines.

5. [if you answered no to Q4. move on to Q6.] What magazine do you buy?

   - Rock Sound

   - Top of the Pops

   - We <3 Pop

   - NME

   - Kerrang!

As the majority of my audience were quite young in the 12 and under category the magazines Top of the Pops and We <3 Pop were popular as these magazines are aimed at that age range. The magazines Rock Sound, NME and Kerrang! were also popular which are aimed at a slightly older age range, approximately from 16-30 these tend to be more focused on music than the previous two and Rock Sound and Kerrang! feature a lot of music from the Rock and Metal genres.

6. What would you call a music magazine?

  - the sound
  - louder
  - popsters
  - stereo loud
  - music today
  - the kent music
  - music mag
  - tune times
  - soundcheck
  - la musique

My feedback from this question has given me a few suggestions for the name of my magazine. Firstly i like the name 'Soundcheck' as a sound check is something that happens in music when they check that is sounds okay, suggesting that the magazine is almost like a sound check for music as it is reviewing whether it is good or not. Secondly I like the name 'Louder' as music is very loud so it suggests that the magazine is louder which could make it better than other magazines, also it's almost challenging the music to be louder suggesting it has the best music in the magazine.

The other answer was new albums, these results show that my audience generally are interested in all of these topics but perhaps not as much in Clubbing Destinations, Music Blogs and Celebrity Styles so I may leave these out of my magazine and focus more on the others.

This tells me that my audience wants an even mix of photo's and text which I will keep in mind when I am planning my double page spread.

The most popular colour scheme was black, purple and pink however i think this is due to the majority of females in my audience so when I am making my magazine I might try to make it more gender neutral like the second most popular option red, blue, grey and white. I also could then take the theme of British music for my magazine as it would be the colours of the union jack.

The overall response was that my magazine should be published fortnightly which may suggest that the audience does not think there is enough content in a magazine to keep them interested for a whole month and by publishing every fortnight it would keep them more interested and eager to buy the magazine.

This information has given me some good ideas about what themes and styles of magazine I could make.

Music Magazine Survey

To conduct my survey I used the website www.surveymonkey.com again. I emailed the survey to a number of different aged students at my school and also I posted it on my facebook profile so that I could get feedback from some males as well as my school is an all girls school.
My questions were:
1. What sex are you?
2. How old are you?
3. What sort of music are you interested in?
4. Do you regularly buy a music magazine?
5. What music magazine do you buy?
6. What would you call a music magazine?
7. What content would you like to see in a music magazine?
8. Which do you prefer?
9. What colour scheme should the magazine have?
10. How often should a music magazine be published?

I used the two different types of question format; multiple choice and open text box so that I could get views from my audience as well as their choices from my selections.
My survey can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K5JJGNG

Analysis of Music Magazines and their websites

The following are examples of music magazine's front covers, contents pages and websites

NME magazine:

This magazine covers all genres of music and is aimed at [FIND THIS OUT]. The cover has one main image which is of the singer Florence and the Machine which is centred which then has a few other coverlines around the main image and another image at the top of another main coverline. At the bottom of the page there is a small list of the other bands that there are articles about in the magazine so the reader can look and if there are bands that they are interested in they will want to buy the magazine. The contents page has quite a conventional layout with the main coverlines accompanied by large pictures taking up the majority of the page, there is then a list of the different sections of the magazine and their page numbers rather than the different coverlines so the reader can to look to the sections that they like first.

NME website:

Their website has similar ideas to the magazine in that at the top of the page there is different tabs for each different section for example News, Artists, Festivals. There are coverlines of a sort which are accompanied by images under the heading 'News' on the homepage and in addition to this a slideshow of other main coverlines at the top of the page. One way we can identify that it is for a magazine is that it still has the masthead at the top. Also the website has similar adverts on it to those that would be in the magazine.

Kerrang! magazine:

This magazine is different to NME in that it is aimed at mainly men interested in heavy metal and rock music. It features a lot of red, yellow and black which are quite harsh masculine colours which also reflect the style of the music. The front cover is very busy with an engaging main image of the band 'New Found Glory' and lots of other images placed around coverlines which have all been slanted to be parallel with the main coverline. The contents is interesting as it follows the common convention of having images of the main coverlines and setting the contents out in different sections, however instead of putting the names of the articles they just have the band names so the reader can just go straight to an article about a particular band which makes it easier for the reader to find the information it wants.

Kerrang! website:

The design of this website reflects the audience and the type of music genre greatly as the backgrounds are mainly black or differing shades of grey and the yellow headings are the same colour and font as toxic warning signs. This website also has the different tabs at the top but not quite as many as NME and they are more general, it also has the slideshow of coverlines as one of the first things the reader sees suggesting these are the main coverlines and the same masthead as the magazine.

Mixmag magazine:

This magazine is quite different from the previous two as it is aimed at a younger audience of 18-25 year olds and is based around the clubbing scene. We can see this from the neon colours used on the front cover, the model on the front has an outline of neon pink and purple almost like he has a strobe light behind him, also the main coverline is highlighted in a bright yellow which represents the bright lights of clubs and draws attention to the text. The contents is again, set out it in a generic way with images for the main coverlines, the numbers however on the images are in a font which suggests the neon tube lights used outside many clubs and bars. The content is arranged into different sections but far more general ones with two of them being 'Regulars' and 'Features'.

Mixmag website:

This website is quite similar to the previous two in that it has a masthead, a slideshow of the main coverlines and tabs for the different area's of the website. One thing that is different is that the image to text ratio on the homepage is much stronger towards images with little text on the webpage at all. It also has a tagline at the top of the page and advertising that would be seen in the magazine too like NME. The website appears quite exciting to the reader as there are lots of varying fonts, colours and photo's of people clubbing and having a good time.

Top of the Pops Magazine:

This magazine is drastically different to the other magazines as it is aimed at 11-14 year old girls and its content is more on pop music, celebrity gossip, shopping and true life stories. It is also the one magazine out of these four that isn't that focused on music despite it being a music magazine. The colour scheme suggests femininity with different shades of pink and lots of love hearts, the younger audience is appealed to the use of youthful slang like 'cringe' and 'fitties'. The contents page has an image of the front cover with arrows to the page numbers of each coverline, and the other coverlines are set out in five sections 'We ♥ shopping', 'All about you', 'Wins & offers', 'We ♥ boys' and 'Celebs & Gossip' none of these relating to music in the slightest, also there is an emphasis on boys as every article that has boys featured in it is highlighted which suggests this is what their audience is most interested in.

Top of the Pops website:

internet. The email that they send out looks like it could be similar to the sort of content that would be put on their website if it had more on it. In addition to this, the website is obviously quite old as the masthead for the magazine has actually changed suggesting that they don't really change the website either. 

Evaluation of School Magazine and Contents

I decided to name the magazine 'Miss Study' as it was one of the suggestions I had from my survey which I really liked because my school is an all girls school. I chose the font for my masthead as it reminded of the fonts used for schools conventionally in the media, especially in America. As the background was both dark and light I placed coloured boxes under the coverlines so that they were easy to read and so that they stood out, in addition to this, to break up the normal coverlines I placed some of the coverlines in shapes so that they drew attention to those coverlines. The main coverline I put in a diagonally placed rectangle with the font in bold so that it was clear it was the main coverline. My background I thought was appropriate as it is a picture of a student studying who looks smart which reflects the school in a good light, I used an image of a student as in my survey the overall feedback was that students wanted a picture of another student on the cover. I chose a colour scheme of blue and purple as blue is one of our school colours and purple made it a bit more feminine without being over powering. For the contents page I used the same font for the page title that I used for my masthead to carry on a theme. I also carried on using a blue and purple colour scheme so there is an element of continuity in the magazine. I used one main image here but i think if i were to do it again I would include more images and make the editors letter a bit smaller. I arranged the different pages into three sections so the reader can find the articles they are interested in more easily. Overall I think my front cover looks quite professional however if I was going to improve it I would maybe use different fonts and a brighter image which catches the attention of the audience and my contents could possibly have more images and a font that is a bit easier to read than the one I chose here.

School Magazine Contents

This is my finished contents page for my magazine

School Magazine Front Cover



This is  my finished magazine cover

Front cover image

I am thinking about using this image I have taken of a student in the sixth form common room for my front cover as my survey showed that students wanted a picture of another student on the cover.

Basic Layout

After looking at the existing magazines I have started to look at the layout my magazine will  have, this is a basic diagram of a possible layout I could use:

Reader Profile for School Magazine

This is a mood board type reader profile of who my audience are and would be interested in

My audience would be mainly girls which is why all the things on my reader profile are quite feminine as I go to a girls school. They would be between the ages 11-18 so I have generalised their interests as:

- Fashion & Shopping

- Gossip, fashion and celebrity magazines

- Soap operas and reality TV programmes

- Mobile phones and iPods

- Boy bands and young male singers

These are their interests unrelated to school.

Relating to school they would be interested in things like:

- Events in school i.e. disco's, trips.

- Universities/colleges

- Work experience

- Changes in school i.e. new teachers/buildings

- Achievements i.e. Results, competition winners, awards

- Uniform



Similar Texts

To get some ideas about my school magazine I looked at several existing school magazines.

'Source'

This magazine has quite a bold image on the front cover which catches the audiences attention straight away with the words 'Where's your head at?' taking up the majority of the space. This is their main coverline about interviews with old and new headteachers which is accompanied by images of two older people (presumably old headteachers), although this catches the readers eye, as it is aimed at a younger audience I think there should be images of younger people on the cover. The colour scheme of yellow, blue and red is good as it is quite neutral so it is not leaning towards one gender and the masthead is very bold and stands out on the page. The name 'source' does have connotations of academia as a source is somewhere students look for research. I think the magazine could have a few more coverlines on it as it only has the 'Where's Your Head At?' and 'Aliens Exist!' coverlines, if it had more then it would draw the attention of more people.


'Tallulah Falls School Magazine'
The first thing I noticed about this magazine is that it didnt have a very creative name as it is simply called 'Tallulah Falls School Magazine' however this magazine does have a tagline unlike 'source' which says 'The Light in the Mountains' which more promotes the school than the magazine. The main image is of a young girl painting which will appeal to the younger audience it is aimed at, there are some coverlines but they are unclear due to the very thin, italic, white font chosen. The colour scheme is in green which again is a neutral colour and the main text on the magazine is on green rectangles which gives the magazine quite a professional look.





 

'Underground Art School Magazine'

This magazine is quite clearly different from the other magazines in that it is more creative as it is for an art school. There is no main image as the masthead is an image in itself which is very bold as the fonts have shadows to appear 3D which catches the eye of the audience. The overall look of the front cover looks like somebody has just doodled on a piece of paper which is quite original and different to other school magazines I have looked at. The coverlines are all about things that would interest students at an art school and the tagline for the magazine actually tells the reader about the content which is 'Art. Creativity. Life'. However, one point I would make is that the masthead is so bold and large it overpowers the coverlines which are supposed to stand out too.