Contents Page Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire I have made for my contents page. Click here to take survey I will post the results and the changes I have made on the contents page due to the results soon.

Contents Page: Part 2

This is the finished version of my contents page so far.

 

• I have finished adding the story headlines to the contents page and the page numbers.
• I decreased the font size to make it smaller than I originally had it so I could fit more storylines on.
• I am now going to make a questionnaire asking my audience what they think of my contents page and how I can improve it.

Contents Page

This is the contents page for my magazine so far.

 



• I have kept to the same font and colour scheme that was used on my cover to help create a house style throughout the magazine.
• I have included three photos, one that relates with the main story featured on my magazine cover and the others for another story.
• I have started listing the stories that will be featured in the magazine.

Next, I need to add page numbers and finish the contents list off so people will know what is being featured in the magazine.



Style Model: Contents Page

This is the style model I used for my contents page. It is the contents page from ‘Q.’

 

I have used the same layout as this contents page including the photos, the title and the storylines. However, the colour theme I used is different to fit to my pop genre.

Contents Page Photos

Contents Page Photos - slideshow

Podcast - What I'm Doing Right Now

Completed Front Cover

This is the final draft of my front cover.

 

 

• I have added the other photos, that are presented as posters, using photos I have took at concerts.
• I added the storylines justified down the side, using the colours pink, orange and black, using the house style colours of my magazine, and the colours of the clothes the bands are wearing.
• The magazine's website and social media has been added, as well as the price and barcode.
• Competitions and freebies are added, one as a banner and one inside a circular shape to stand out from the rest of the text on the page.

 

Front Cover Update

 

• I have changed the font of my title to one I downloaded from 1001 Free Fonts, as after asking my target audience, I realised that they liked this font better as it was more fun
• The issue date has been added to the top right hand corner, below the title.
• I changed the background of the posters from white to grey, and then made the pink border slightly smaller as I thought it was too bold before.

 

 

Updated Front Cover

This is now the updated version of my cover with some of my photos on. I used the Quick Selection Tool to delete the background of both the main photo, and the photo that is used at the bottom as a poster. I made the main photo fit the size of the front cover, with one of the models head covering part of the title as typical convention of a magazine cover.

Now, I need to add the rest of the photos onto my cover, as posters, similar to the one that is found at the bottom of the cover. I also need to add the story headlines onto the cover and the strapline.



Editing Photos

At the moment I am busy editing the photos I am going to use in my magazine, especially my front cover photos as that is what I am working on at the minute.

 

This is the photo I started with.

 

I then used the Quick Selection Tool to delete the background of the photo. Afterwards I used the Mask Edge to bring back some of the edge around the hair of the girls so the photo didn't look so harsh. I also brightened the photo slightly as it is quite a dark photo.

 

This is the finished photo after all of the editing, before I put it onto my front cover.

 

 

 

 

 

Front Cover Photos

More Photos

This is a video I have made on Animoto including more of the photos that will be included throughout my magazine.

More Photos

Photos That Aren't Being Used

Out of all the photos I’ve took so far, these are the photos that I won’t be using at all; either because they are blurry, the models aren’t looking at the camera or they are moving rather than doing the right pose.

 

My Photos

I have recently taken the photos that will be the main feature of magazine’s cover and double-page spread. Here are a few of the photos I have taken that may be the photos that I will use:

 

While taking my photos, there were a few problems that I had. For example due to my models moving, some of my photos have turned out blurry. We, also, couldn't think of many poses for the girls to do, so it took a while to get a variety of different photos. Also, I tried to take action shots of the girls jumping in the air, but I couldn’t get the photo taken at the right time. As well as this, one of the lights we were using was broken, so the light kept flickering, altering the lighting at times and making it uneven.

Interactivity

Interactivity has become must more important for magazines over the last few years. Interactivity is the way a magazine allows interaction between the magazine and fans; the fans and artists and fans and other fans.

Most magazines now have websites, helping them to take interactivity even further than they could without these websites due to the fact they can offer technology that can’t be used for interactivity in magazines.

There is a lot of new technology that help interactivity such as being able to stream videos of interviews with artists or videos of gigs; being able to have download links to music; having comment sections where readers can talk to each other and allowing readers to submit their one reviews easily by having a review page.

Another way that helps the magazine interact with the readers is through social media websites. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is a simple way that magazines can interact with readers due to fact readers can instantly reply to the magazine. Fans can post there gig photos and videos instantly through the social media websites too, and tagging the magazines name in the post allows any fan that search the magazines name to see these posts too.

Social media is an excellent way to get the readers opinion on the magazine. For example: the editor of Kerrang!, James McMahon, tweeted asking fans about who they wanted to go on the cover of their new music special. As well as this, he also invited demos from new bands and applications from aspiring writers. This is a great example of how music magazines keep their audience by engaging them, allowing the reader to feel like they have a say in what happens.

Majorie Ferguson's Theory

Uses and Gratification

Uses and Gratification - slideshow

Naomi Wolf's Theory

In my magazine, I will be using photos of girls on my cover, as well as double-page spread. They are represented as sexually attractive women which attracts to my target audience of teenage girls because they want to be like the attractive people on the magazine.

Naomi Wolf, the American feminist (1991) says that images of attractive women are used to help sell products to other women. She means that women have been conditioned into aspiring to be like what is fashionable now, by a male dominating society.

By using attractive women in my magazine I will be exploiting her theory that an attractive model is used to sell a product leading women to think if they buy the product, they will look like the model.

Second Draft Front Cover

This is now the next draft of the cover:

I changed the shade of pink used on the cover and decided to change the title to pink with a black outline as it stands out more than the original title of orange, outlined with pink, since more people from my questionnaire didn't think this stood out. I added a header, and footer of orange, to keep in with the colour scheme and added a yellow arrow with ‘POSTER PERFECTION’on it, which is often used in other pop magazines. I kept the layout of the magazine cover the same as my first draft so far because most people who answered my questionnaire liked this.

I finish my cover page and add my photos I will keep updating the progess.

Front Cover Questionnaire Results

These are the results of the questionnaire that I handed out about the first draft of my magazine cover:

 

More people answered no to the first questions meaning they thought that my title didn’t stand out. For question 2, there wasn’t a great difference, but more people thought that the colours matched. For question 3, most people liked the way my cover was set out.

'Poster Perfection' Inspiration

After seeing this ‘We Love Pop’ magazine cover, I decided to make a section on my front cover advertising free posters inside the magazine. I used the same idea as ‘We Love Pop’ with the arrow pointing to the posters as I think it can catch the reader’s eye.

First I used the shape tool in Photoshop to create an arrow, I chose the colour yellow as it stands out from the colours I have used on my cover so far, attracting the reader’s attention.

 

I then put a yellow square over the arrow to make it wider, and then added ‘POSTER PERFECTION.’ I used the same phrase as I thought it was catchy and fun.

 

 

I then added this to my cover, alongside three posters of different artists and bands that I have took and added a pink border around them to fit the house style of the magazine.

Cover Questionnaire

I made another questionnaire talking about my front cover and am now going to hand it out to people of my target audience. This will allow me to know what people think of my front cover so far.

 

First Draft Magazine Cover

This was the first draft of my magazine cover:

 

I tried to keep to the colour scheme that was picked by my target audience in my questionnaire. I didn’t like the first draft for the title too much so decided to have a play around on Photoshop with colours and fonts for the title, as well as other colours for the rest of the cover.

What I Need To Do Now

Flat Plans - Double Page Spread

 

These are the flat plans for my article.

 

Flat Plans - Contents Page

 

This is the flat plan for my contents page.

 

 

Flat Plans - Front Cover

This is the flat plan for my front cover.

Publishing Companies Part Two - IPC Inspire

IPC Inspire is one of the three divisions from IPC Media.

 

A quote from the IPC Media website:

‘With more than 60 iconic media brands, IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events.  As the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher we engage with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. Our award winning portfolio of websites reaches over 25 million users globally every month.’

The three publishing divisions of IPC Media are: IPC Connect, IPC Inspire and IPC Southbank.

IPC Inspire, has a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands includingNuts, Mousebreaker and NME. IPC Inspire targets the market for men so this will not be a good publisher for my magazine as my target audience is women, and there will not be a high percentage of men that will read the magazine.

However, IPC Connect may be better as it targets the mass market’s women. Though IPC Southbank also targets women, I wouldn’t publish my magazine with IPC Southbank as it targets upmarket women whereas my magazine is targeted towards teenage girls.

Publishing Companies Part One - Bauer

A Quote from the Bauer website:

 

‘The Bauer Media Group is one of the most successful media companies in the world. More than 570 magazines, over 300 digital products, and 50 radio and TV stations reach millions of people around the globe. The company’s portfolio also includes printing companies, postal services and services in the fields of distribution, marketing and media sales. The Group’s turnover is stable at more than two billion euros. With a new global positioning strategy, the Bauer Media Group underscores its passion for people and brands. The claim “We think popular“ highlights the Bauer Media Group’s perception of itself as a publisher of popular media and provides inspiration and motivation to its more than 11,000 employees in 16 countries’

‘With the recent addition of the former Emap Consumer Media titles, Bauer is now the largest consumer magazine publishing company in the UK, playing a primary role in the Women’s Weeklies, Women’s Interest, Women’s Lifestyle, TV Listings, Puzzles, Men’s Lifestyle, Music & Film and Specialist magazine markets.’

The Bauer Media Group publishes music magazines such as Q and Kerrang! as well as lifestyle magazines such as Take A Break and That's Life!

Bauer may be a good publisher for my magazine, as it publishes magazine that targets women, as well as  music magazine, which is good as my magazine is a music magazine that targets women. However they don’t publish a pop magazine with a target audience of teenage girls so my magazine is bringing something new to their company and bringing new business in for them.

Reader Profile

 



This is the reader profile for my magazine.

A reader profile shows the social and economic characteristics of the typical reader of the magazine. It shows what type of things the typical reader likes to do, buy and what they believe is important.

I took inspiration for my reader profile from the reader profile for the magazine, NME.



Questionnaire Results Part 2

Questionnaire Results Part 1

These are the results of each question from my questionnaire. I put the results of each question into pie charts so they were easy to read.

 

Questionnaire

This is my questionnaire:

 

I handed my questionnaire out to 100 people around Newcastle City Centre. I tried to hand it out to people around my target group of females aged 14 – 17 but also handed it out to other people out of my target age. Results will come soon.

What I've Done So Far

Double-Page Spread Analysis

No title - slideshow

Music Magazine Contents Page Analysis

Music Magazine Cover Analysis

Cover Analysis from menhamcharlotte

Music Magazine Pitch

For our next task we have to create a music magazine. I intend to create a magazine that follows the conventions of current music magazines; to help achieve this I will research covers, content pages and articles of current magazines so I can learn the stereotypical conventions that are used throughout the music magazine industry.

My project will contain a front cover of high quality, a contents page, that is easy for the reader to understand and can navigate the magazine, as well as featuring a main article that will be related to the music industry. To create all of this I will use Adobe Photoshop.

The genre of the magazine I am going to make will be pop. Since my magazine is a pop magazine the target audience will be girls. Though a lot of pop magazines are targets for girls aged between 10-14, I am going to make a pop magazine with a target audience of girls primarily aged between 14 and 17. The secondary audience for my magazine will be girls aged between 11-13. 

Task 1: School Magazine

Our first task for our A Level Media work was to create a school magazine. This included a front cover, and contents page.
 

 

Before starting the task, we went out around the school and took photos that could be used for the magazine. The two main colours I used were blue and yellow as these are the colours used in our school logo. I cut out the main image and enlarged it so it fit the size of the page and took up most of the room as this is a convention of a magazine. The title is the largest text of the cover so it stands out on the page. I included the school’s website and twitter because they are typical conventions of a magazine and allow the reader to find out more information about the school. The headlines are justified to the side as this is again a typical convention of a magazine and give hints of what stories are included in the magazine.
 

 

 

For the contents page I kept the background white so the writing stood out and it was easy to read. I kept the font the same style as the font on my cover to help create a house style but changed it to black instead of yellow or blue so it stood out and was easy to read. To help create a house style for my magazine included the colours blue and yellow again on the contents page. I made a blue banner and included a yellow title inside so it stood out and still kept the house style colours. I also included small photos on my contents page that went with the stories, and gave these a yellow border so they kept in with the house style.