Magazine Evaluation

Christopher Allen

The following is an evaluation of the magazine I produced.

Challenging Forms and Conventions
The magazines front cover generally sticks to traditional forms and conventions. It has the masthead at the top of the page, positioned just below the upper left corner, and the main image takes up the majority of the page. The cover also features essentials including the price, barcode and issue number. The content of the magazine also sticks to regular forms and conventions. The contents page is written in a list form, with regular features and articles separated.

Unique Selling Points
My magazine’s unique selling point is that it aims at a more specific market not covered by any other magazines. My magazine gives equal coverage to new and old bands and their current activity in today’s musical landscape. Unlike other magazines which cover older groups like AC/DC, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, this magazine focuses entirely on the current state of the band, as opposed to other magazines which focus on established group’s past. Its audience is a mix of the readers of Metal Hammer, Uncut and Classic Rock magazine. My magazine covers a broad variety of music genres; in the one issue I created alone it covers rock, metal, country, alternative and experimental whilst also focusing on other reader interests such as TV, game and movies. The overall appearance of the magazine does not stick to a fixed scheme. The magazine essentials such as the cover, contents page and regular features have all been made to appeal to the general target audience, but the articles colour scheme is based on theme and subject matter.
Many of the magazines I researched, when looking at the more established bands, they focused on the groups history, in my magazine more well known groups that are in no need of introduction, are only mentioned in their current state and group history is kept for newer bands.
Based on the demographics of other magazines, my magazine stands out as a magazine that acknowledges that younger music fans are also interested in older more obscure bands. Proof of this exists at concerts, where you see music fans of a variety of different ages, regardless of the age of the musicians performing on the stage.

How would attract/address the audience
When advertising the magazine it would be advertised at rock and heavy metal concerts, places where the desired target audience (males aged 15-30) is largely present and will be focusing primarily on music. I want to advertise on music channels such as Q & Rockworld. one of the channel I particularly want the magazine to be advertised on is MTV Two as it is a channel which programmes music form various genres and from various different decades. The magazine will also try to get the audience involved through its website. The website supplies links to other websites that cover reader’s interests, news and interviews with various bands and artists, plus a forum where people can give suggestions on what they want to see in the magazine, discuss various topics and post their own reviews on recent albums and gigs they’ve attended.

How does my magazine represent social groups?
The representation of various social groups in this magazine mirrors the reader’s broad interests in music. The inclusion of musicians from different countries from around the globe acts as a unique selling point of the magazine, as serious music fans will want to hear music by people from different backgrounds. Serious music fans feel that they can benefit from hearing music from different backgrounds, as they can take from it new meanings and feelings. In the issue created alone, there are bands from the UK, US, Canada, Russia and Australia. This provides the readers with two contradicting views which can be both entertaining and insightful.
The genres and artists included in the magazine will also act as a representation of various social groups as many people are defined by what music they listen. For example the inclusion of heavy metal groups will attract heavy metal fans and their lifestyle.


Institutions
This magazine would be distributed by a smaller independent company, but still be sold through chain stores such as WH Smiths and independent newsagents. Large media institutions such as Future publishing and Bauer media will not publish this magazine because they already have publications which cover subjects that this magazine look at, and the magazine could be seen as a competitor.

Who is the Target Audience?
My magazine’s target audience is men aged 16-30 who has an appreciation for good music from a variety of different genres, his favourite type being rock and heavy metal. Age is not an issue for the average reader and he wishes to see as many of the well established rock groups as possible, whilst also attending concerts of the latest rock and metal heroes. He is passionate about his music, and is likely to play an instrument himself. He has displeasure for mainstream music such as Rn’B, emo, pop and indie, and can see past the ‘fakes.’ It is likely that the reader’s lifestyle is affected by his musical taste, as this may be a deciding factor on who the reader socialises with, what he does for a career and how he chooses to live his life. He also enjoys other non conventional media such as satirical comedy, action video games and cutting edge cinema (horror, thriller, cult films etc.) Many of the readers have a liking for things which are retro and have nostalgic value. Their favourite directors include Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpaugh and John Carpenter. They find themselves enjoying the things they’ve liked since their childhood, perhaps even more so, like Star Wars, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X Men etc.

Skills Learnt
When I carried out the preliminary task, the creation of a magazine for sixth formers, I used a very simple piece of photo editing software to create the front cover. At the time I did not know how to use Macromedia Fireworks, the programme recommended to us by the school. As a result I created a less professional looking front cover for my magazine. I also made several mistakes, one of the main ones being that I didn’t have back up copies of the photo I used, as a result when changes were made to it, it was impossible to revert them. I also used Microsoft Word to create the contents page as I could not work Fireworks. Since then I have learnt how to use Macromedia Fireworks, as a result I made a much more professional looking magazine cover. I made full use of two of the tools Fireworks provided this being the magic wand tool that removes selected areas of the photo I used, allowing me to remove the original background and allowing me to insert a new one. I also made full advantage of Firework’s feature which allows use to edit and rearrange the various layers of an image, even after I had saved the document. This allowed me to make various edits and improvements to my front cover. I made improvements in my photo taking skills as I learnt of how important backgrounds can be, especially when planning to remove them during the editing stages.
Overall I have a much better understanding of the various forms and conventions of magazines.