Original Ideas Statement

I want to make an indie/rock music magazine also with fashion. This means my target audience will mostly be aimed at females however will still be approachable to males. The age range I intend to aim to 16-18 who might be classed an ‘indie’, however being teenagers do not have a high income.

The format of my magazine will use the colours, deep red (burgundy), black and white as I think that will suit the subject it being music and fashion. The price will be about £2.50-£3.50 mark, being a slightly high prices magazine it will make it slightly upper market, and it will specifically target those who have a passion about music and fashion. In addition it will still be suitable for my audience to afford.

I hope to publish my magazine fortnightly or monthly depending on the price. If it was more expensive it will be published monthly as then it will appeal to my target audience more as they are teenagers with not a particularly high income. If it was published weekly I think it would be too expensive for my audience then will not be a successful magazine. 

Magazine Publishers

Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as different e-medias, for example online; (e-media) TV and radio stations (broadcast e-media). Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions – Magazines and Radio. Their magazine heritage stretches back to 1953 with the launch of Angling Times and the acquisition in 1956 of Motor Cycle News. Today, Bauer Media spans over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests including ‘Kerrang’, ‘Bird Watching’, ‘Classic Car Weekly’, ‘Heat’, ‘Mother & Baby’, ‘Trout & Salmon’ and many more. Bauer Media connects and engages 19 million consumers every week with the most influential brands in the UK.

Condé Nast is a premier media company renowned for producing the highest quality content for the world's most influential audiences. Attracting 95 million consumers across its industry-leading print, digital and video brands, the company’s portfolio includes some of the most iconic titles in media: Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Brides, Self, GQ, The New Yorker, Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Lucky, Golf Digest, Golf World, Teen Vogue, Ars Technica, Style.com and NowManifest. The company’s newest division, Condé Nast Entertainment, was launched in 2011 to develop film, television and premium digital video programming. The company was founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast and has been owned and operated by the Newhouse family since 1959.

Livingly Media formerly known as Zimbio, Inc publish the three most popular sites in fashion & beauty, entertainment and home design for 25 million+ trendsetting, millennial women. They only publish online media (e-media). They publish Stylebistro, Lonny and Zimbio. In May 2006, the company launched its first website, Zimbio.com which focused on entertainment news including movies, music, TV and celebrities. In July 2010, the company launched StyleBistro.com to focus on fashion and beauty - including what celebrities are wearing, trends and products. They launched Lonny Magazine in 2012, re-launched it on their platform as Lonny.com. Brands can connect with their massive audience through any of their platforms – desktop, tablet, mobile.

Overview of the Magazine Industry

In Britain there are more than 8000 titles which are organised in categories such as:

1.     Consumer (general and specialist) sold in newsagents and available online;

2.     Business / trade / professional / B2B - for people at work;

3.     Customer magazines that organisations to give to their customers as a form of marketing;

4.     Staff magazines to inform staff about their company

5.     Newspaper supplements- come free as part of daily or Sunday paper;

6.     Part works - a set number of issues builds up into an 'encyclopaedia' on a specific topic;

7.     Academic journals - for university-level discussion of all sorts of arcane topics.

The masthead of the magazine may be general titles that aim to entertain and inform, for example Elle, Radio Times, Glamour or there is a consumer specialist titles that are aimed at specific interest or hobbies, for example Car, Total Film, Gardeners’ World etc.

The biggest consumer magazine publishers
Bauer Publishing – 25%
IPC Media – 20%
BBC – 7.8%
Hearst – 7.3%

In 1980 there were only 1,383 different consumer titles however now there are over 3,200.
1.4 billion magazines are sold each year, it was 2.1 billion in 1970 and 1.2 billion in 1992.
85% of population reads a magazine.

Advertisers spent £745 million in magazines.

Consumers spend £2 billion on magazines annually.

An average 500 new magazines have been launched every year in the past decade.

Only 3 in 10 titles survive for more than 4 years.

Facebook is the indisputable leader in terms of page likes in the magazine industry, totalling 198 million of page likes. Instagram comes 4th, with 20 million of followers, and right after Pinterest with 19 million.

Feature Article Textual Analysis

Contents Page Textual Analysis

Front Cover Textual Analysis

College Magazine Questionnaire Analysis

College Magazine Questionnaire Analysis

• ·         Out of the college students we asked, 65% were female and 35% were male.

• ·         95% said no, they don’t read the college magazine. This suggests the product doesn’t work and is not reaching its target audience. 

• ·         The colours which were picked were: green with 5, blue with 11, black with 7, white with 9, red with 6, grey with 1, gold with 5, purple with 4, pink with 1, yellow with 6 and orange with 2. In conclusion the colours which the audience would like to see is first blue then black and then white. Red, green and yellow also could appear on the front of the magazine. 

• ·         85% of the students asked said they would pay 50p or nothing for the college magazine. 

• ·         70% said it should be published either monthly or half term.

• ·         The house style they would like is informal with 50% or mixed (informal and formal) with 40%. Overall it would need to be mostly informal.

• ·         The contents which were picked were: sports with 7, TV/Film with 7, music with 11, fashion with 7, problems with 4, college trips with 9, quizzes with 1, competitions with 1, free gifts with 7 and technology with 6. In conclusion they would like to see mostly music, college trips, free gifts, fashions, sport and TV/film. 

• ·         The majority of students asked would like to see a student on the front cover with 40%, and then celebrity and nature got the same with 30% each. This means that the image on the front of the magazine would have to vary by having a different one each new issue. 

• ·         A jobs page would definitely be included in the magazine; this is because 100% of people said yes they would like to see one. 

Real College Magazine Analysis

This is a real life college magazine; it has used 3 different colours and 2 different fonts. The colours used in this magazine cover are yellow, blue and white. The colours are bright to attract its target audience, which are college students and to make the magazine stand out, they also are easy to read and clear on top of the background. The fonts which are used are simple to read furthermore the sizes of the fonts are big to also stand out. The masthead on this magazine is their logo which is iconic as it will be associated with that magazine, it is also big and goes across the whole page, it is yellow to make it stand out and appeal to the audience. The main image in this magazine is of a young girl, she appears to the audience as happy as her code of expression is happy; this could appeal to the audience as they could think she is happy as a college student. Her code of dress is sophisticated so it will also give a positive image of college students to the audience and people who glance at the magazine. The image also on this magazine is in the middle with even amount of sides at each side, this is rules of thirds. By having rule of thirds makes it more appealing as it looks neater. The cover lines all give a clear understanding that it is meant to appeal to the teenage audience who are at college, this is because there are ones on there that mention sex. It could interest teenagers as that is what they think about quite a lot, in addition there are things that appeal to men and women for example it mentions NCAA Basketball players, and this could appeal to mostly men as its sport. It also mentions ‘campus to catwalk’; this implies fashion and women are mostly interested in that. A barcode as to appear on every magazine so it can be brought in the shop, however they are normally tucked away in the corner, this magazine is no different and is in the right corner. 

College Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page