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.

School Magazine Survey Results

These are the results of my survey:

My school is a girls school which is why the majority of the responses are from females but I also asked some males as there are males in our sixth form and it is good to get a wider range of opinions and ideas.

My responses were from people ages 13-21 as these are the ages of students at school or college, these are also at the age where they could potentially have part time jobs so will have money to spare for magazines.

 

66.7% of people asked said they would be interested in a school magazine.

4. What would you call a school magazine?
my responses were: FSGM, The Folkestone Yeller, SchoolLoving, School Sucks, FSG Mag, FSG Know It, School Is Cool, Miss Study.
Out of all of the responses I personally like Miss Study and I am considering using it for my magazine.

By asking this question I have an idea of the topics that my audience will be interested in which will help when I am deciding on tag lines and content.

55.6% have said they would not be interested in theme issues so i do not think i will do this.

My responses show that the majority by far at 55.6% would expect to see students on the front cover so I am thinking of using an image of a student or a group of students for the cover.

I can see from this question that it is clear my audience prefer informal articles so I will make sure that the content features mainly this type rather than in depth articles and I will use more colloquial language in an easy to read format.

This feedback shows me that my magazine needs to probably be a monthly publication so i will need to look into topics which would be of interest for that month.

The majority of my audience think the magazine should be free, however if they want a printed version of the magazine this would be impossible as it costs money to print the magazine, however this could be resolved by making it online or in a format that can be emailed where no cost would be needed.


This feedback has given me some good ideas of the kinds of tag lines and content I will include, what I will use for the front cover and even the name of my magazine.

Survey For School Magazine

I started my research for a school magazine by creating a survey that would give me information on what sorts of interests and topics people would have in a school magazine. I created my survey on http://www.surveymonkey.com/ , I kept it short with only 10 questions and emailed the link to various different people to get their feedback.My questions were:
1. what gender are you?
2. how old are you?
3. would you be interested in a school magazine?
4. what would you call a school magazine?
5. what would interest you in a school magazine?
6. would you be interested if the magazine had a theme for each issue? for example: each issue is themed on a different department of the school
7. what would oyu expect to see on the front cover of a school magazine?
8. would you prefer more indepth articles like in a newspaper of more informal articles like in a magazine?
9. how often should a school magazine be published?
10. how much should a school magazine cost?

I used a variety of multiple choice tick-box answers and open text box answers for different quesitons where appropriate. Here is a link to my survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RTNZWMB
and an image of it in the web browser