Equipment

Analysis of Covers

Magazine Institutions

The four main magazine institutions are: BBC - Emap – IPC Media - Bauer

IPC Media

IPC Media Music Magazines are dedicated to music and music cultures featuring many different famous musicians, but also new musicians that specialize in certain types of music. It is one of the UK's leading consumer magazine and digital publishers, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. It was formed in 1963 as International Publishing Company and currently produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults –their websites collectively reach over 14 million users every month. IPC is owned by Time Inc, the publishing company of Time Warner Inc. The company has many sub-brands within their portfolio such as: IPC Media Connect, Market Force, Southbank, Ignite, and TX.
The majority of music magazines only focus on one genre, however they also focus on many genres that have similarities with the main one. They may also include feature articles and up and coming profiles on artists. For example, if you had a magazine on Taylor Swift, she would be represented through Pop and Country so she would span across two different genres. Also each of the different genres of music attracts certain types of audiences. Also each of the different genres of music attracts certain types of audiences. 

BBC

BBC magazine is the magazine publishing arm of the BBC worldwide. BBC provides a varied and wide range of magazines that target many different audiences. They focus their magazines on music, gardening, children’s popular TV programmes, cooking, cars and astrology.
The music magazines that the BBC has published include:
Its Hot - Top of The Pops - Classical Music Magazine
The BBC publishes many different genres of magazines as well as major websites through their digital channels as well. There are only a few magazines that are of the same genre. Top of the Pops attracts age ranges from 11 up to 15 years due to the content, music articles such as ‘Glee’ and ‘X Factor’. TOTP- affectionately known was launched in February 1995 and is released in magazine style monthly, but now has a new website which is updated every day with new ‘Today’s News’ section and new features.

Emap

Emap specializes predominately in the ‘b2b’ (business to business) publishing space. It has specific publications for each genre and in general these are quite different and contain specific content relating to an industry such as nursing, retail and media. This attracts a very wide audience which is attracted through magazines and on-line versions including rss feeds on breaking news within the industry publications.
Emap was established and founded in 1947 and has its Headquarters near Camden in London. The name Emap originates from East Midland Allied Press.

Bauer

 Through Bauer Publishing Group own Bauer Media its publishing company;it is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group. The Bauer Publishing Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries. They also feature heavily online, TV and a wide range of radio stations.
Bauer Media is a multi-media platform UK based media group. The group consists of many sub-brands and companies mainly around two groups – Magazines and Radio – this is widely recognised and being innovative and industry leaders, which is reflected in many awards and accolades they have won within the industry. On average over 12.4 million people listen to a Bauer media radio station. It owns the number one and four top commercial radio stations in London. Kiss is one of their prestigious radio stations which attracts and is targeted at the young dance audience.

Article Analysis

Codes and Conventions

Music Magazine Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9PQLB9V

Propsal

From the research I have done, I have come to a decision that the genre of my magazine will be pop. Even though pop may be the hardest genre to create for a magazine, because of there are so many artists and so much you can talk about with pop, I have decided to take this challenge as a leap and to hopefully generate a decent pop magazine which is not too crowded but not to structured either.  As pop has so many features, articles and stories to it, you mainly see these magazines around and you gain a knowledge about what type of fonts, articles, colours and even celebrities they use.  For my magazine, I have decide to use Taylor Swift. She is an amazing singer and a great inspiration, which is what most readers like to look for as well. The excellent thing about Taylor, is she isn’t just about one genre. Her music is either pop or country which gives a good variety and change to the pop genre.  

 All magazines have practically the same purpose, to entertain, to inspire etc…For my magazine, my purpose was also to inspire and to entertain but not only through text on a page but through social media like, Instagram - maybe the new fashion sense which may correspond with the meaning of the music, for example Taylor’s break up song “we are never ever getting back together”, where she wears pyjamas which shows she doesn’t really care what her ex thinks of her and then party clothes at the end to make him jealous. Facebook could be another example of social media – where you have a post or a picture or a readers post and you see how many likes, shares and comments you get for it, this also includes what people comment regarding or disregarding the post and if people tag friends which may show they are either getting the tagged person to look at the magazine and read about it or there could have been an article which could relate to them in a way. Whichever approach it is, the good thing to look for is how many people are relating to it or impending in it in some sort of way which helps with the amount of readers and subscribers. There are also other ways in which I could draw in readers like Twitter feeds, and telling them to subscribe.

 The target audience for my magazine will be aimed at those who are listen and connect with pop and other genres which are interlinked with it. This would be people between the early teens and the early twenties, 12-21. However there may be a surprise audience, of which the ages will be over 21, although to be fair many people do have children and so they may be reading to them or maybe they just may enjoy the idea of these magazines and prefer them to more well-structured ones.

 

Business model(TBC)

Content of magazine(TBC)

Content of Feature articles(TBC)

Uses and Gratification theory

Analysis of Contents Pages

Analysis of Previous Students Work

For my Analysis of a previous students magazines, I will be using the work of Geeta Gohil who completed her AS Media last year in 2013. The two magazines I will be analyzing will be the Preliminary Task or the School magazine and the Music magazine.

School magazine:

In my opinion, the way in which Geeta has presented her front cover is good because it has a clear layout and it is easy to read. For a starting point of the AS media course, I would say she has kept the front cover pretty simple in order for her to compare it to her final piece in the exam. 

What stood out to me most was her attention to detail on presentation and and her use of vocabulary to draw in audience. For example she uses big, bold story guidelines such as "Double Delight". This phrase is in red and a bold font has been used to draw in her views. Another example is her use of pictures. The main picture was part of the building work and outside the library in St Mary's; the other picture was "Best Results" and two students looking pleased.

As per the contents page, Geeta has designed it to look quite simple yet still effective. Although there are several pictures which are bunched together at the bottom of the page which makes the page look a bit scruffy and the whole page looks cramped together. Despite this, she has managed to get the Haydon school logo in and good eye catching story guidelines.

Music Magazine:

There is a massive difference between the Preliminary Task and the Final magazine and in Geeta's case a lot has been changed and edited to make the final magazine look professional compared to the Preliminary Task. The way the whole magazine has been laid out looks like an everyday eye catching magazine you would see in your local big retail supermarket.

The font is a lot more eye catching and bold so it stands out.The range of colours is very exquisite and used to catch the attention of the audience. The contents page for example is quite crowded however most magazines are like that anyway. Although it may look very crowded, it really brings life, atmosphere and understanding of the music magazine that is produced.