Magazines

Magazine

A magazine is defined as a periodical publication containing articles and illustrations which is often on a particular subject or aimed at a certain readership.

Key Features

Front Cover

• Masthead
• Main image
• Cover line
• Left side third
• Date
• Barcode
• Lead article
• Main cover line
• Model credit

Inside Pages

• Images
• Text
• Editors page
• Contents

Distribution

Paid Circulation

This is when the magazine is sold to reader at a price either per issue or by a subscription where there is an annual or monthly fee to be paid and readers are sent the issues in the post. Examples of this are magazines such as Private Eye which is a fortnightly current affairs magazine.

Non-Paid Circulation

This means that there is no cover price and issues of the magazine are given away in places such as street dispensers, airlines or included within other products and publications. Examples of this are magazines such as TNT Magazine which is a weekly travellers magazine.

Controlled Circulation

This is often used by 'insider magazines' or industry based publications. They are often free examples of them are magazines such as Computing which is a weekly media and IT magazine.

Online

Since the start of the internet the interest of real life copies of magazines have become less popular and now some institutions have taken to using the internet and selling digital copies which makes the distribution easier yet keeping reader stats and figures at the same regular pace. This prevents smaller independent companies from going bust and keeping magazines alive and current with the technological movements.

Ads
Online and print magazines are a critical part of advertising for artists as they are aimed directly at a target audience all around the world helping them to branch out.

Examples
Q

Q magazine is an alternative music magazine. It is published monthly in the UK by the company Bauer Consumer media (Emap). Mark Ellen and David Hepworth founded the magazine because they felt it was a niche market as there wasn't a magazine for the older generation who still buy CD's. It was first published in 1986 and was different from other magazines due to its high quality photography and printing as well as being targeted to the older generations making it seemly more sophisticated compared to other magazines. It was originally called 'Cue' however this was changed to 'Q' due to the possible confusion of it being a snooker magazine. As well as this the use of a single letter is thought to be more prominent when displayed on a newsstand. The magazine includes a wide range of reviews on not only music but also television, films and games. however the majority of the magazine is filled with interviews and compiling lists. Promotional gifts are often given away with the magazine such as CD's and books giving smaller bands a chance to promote themselves to their specific target market as they are seen as such an individual audience. Q has a history of association with charitable organisations and launched its own radio station in June 2008 however it is only available on digital TV. They also own their own music channel called Q TV. Its circulation figures are 103,017, go which 81,240 being in the UK and its cover price ids £3.90. The target audience for the magazine are people in their 30's and 40's who are looking for a different mode of address.
They are known to publish articles on a range of different artists giving each genre to get publicity.

This front cover features indie rock band the arctic monkeys. This along with many other advertisements helped promote their comeback to music. Theres are no conventional indications that they are promoting an indie rock band on the front cover making it approachable from a wide range of people and interesting new audiences to this type of music. It is not until we go inside the magazine that we find out about the band and changes developing. Instead we are shown the lead singer to promote and advertise the band.

NME

NME magazine is published by IPC and first started in March 1952. In the 1970s it became the best selling British music magazine. The readership of this magazine is at an average age of 25 with 73% of that being male and the remaining 27% being female. It started as a music newspaper and gradually moved towards the magazine formate during the 1980s and finally changing from newsprint in 1998. NME stands for New Musical Express. They also have an online version of the magazine which was launched in 1996 and it now the worlds biggest standalone music site with over 7 million users per month.

This front cover features the band oasis. It has stuck to typical conventions of the genre as the colour scheme has been kept very basic. The issue is based on promoting the band and their music despite circulations of 'bust ups' within the band. This message would of been seen by a wide range of their target audience. The main article of this is within the magazine so to sell the story we can see well known and highly popular band members 'celebrities' to gain interest from the readership.

MOJO

Mojo magazine is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer. It is distributed monthly in the UK and was first published in November 1993. The first issue contained stars such as Bob Dylan and John Lennon to gain popularity. It has been in constant battle with competing magazine 'Q' to become the biggest circulation paid-for music magazine whilst drops in magazines such as NME and Kerrang! have been happening in the rock magazines. On average their circulation is 100,507. Its target audience is predominately male at 72% of their readership being male.

This issue of Mojo is promoting the alternative rock back radiohead. Although colourful the layout of the front cover has been kept fairly basic and discrete. The typical use of an image of the band is being used to not only promote them but also the magazine as this is what will first attract the target audience that they are wanting to reach out to.