College Magazine Contents Page

College Magazine Front Cover

College Magazine Questionnaire Analysis

              College Magazine Questionnaire Analysis

 

In the survey took today regarding the college magazine, 55% of the people surveyed were female and while the remaining 45% were male. When asked if they would pay for the college magazine, 70% of responses replied with no but the three most wanted things the magazine to include were free stuff, music and college information which gives a clear representation of the age of the people questioned. 80% of everyone questioned check and read their emails regularly so, the magazine could send out emails when it is about to be released as most of the target audience would become aware. Of the people surveyed, half of them said they would want to the college magazine to be issued out every month but only 25% of them would contribute.

When questioned on what they most want in the magazine, the main subjects that came up were music, sport, events, trips and gossip which all would be featured on the contents page more regularly than some of the other features such as the Agony Aunt and politics.  People were also interested in discounts and competitions so advertising these on the cover and the contents page could entice more readers.

For the front cover, the people surveyed wanted bright colours, pictures of the students and them photographs being taken by the students to feature. Although many of them had an idea of what they want the college magazine to look like and they would be interested in the contents, currently 100% do not read the college magazine which could either mean it is not highly publicised enough or the information featured isn’t what the students want to read.

College Magazine Analysis

With this college magazine, you can clearly see it is aimed for a young, student age range and both sexes by the colours and articles featured. The girl on the front cover looks like she is also a student and this shows that the magazine is appealing straight to the college audience and her smiling gives off an happy and positive impression to the reader. She is behind a backdrop of some grass and trees that are green, which represents relaxation and calm which could be encouraging for the students reading the magazine.

The masthead used is to the point and the red writing contrasts with the green background which makes it stand out as well as tying in with the girls top so the magazine cover looks professional and tidy. The blue and black writing stands out against the green and the white of the sunshine on the grass which makes it easy to read and also manages to attract the reader’s attention while still remaining quite small to fit on the cover.  It’s in a suitable font and is also bold which helps the reader further to read it from a distance and is also available to read for people with bad eyesight.

The overall layout of the magazine is quite simple as there is a lot of white space to make it appear clean and spacious and the articles are positioned away from each other so their easy to read and understand.

Magazine Contents Page Analysis 2

NME Magazine is a working class magazine, aimed at a male audience at around the ages of 14 to 25 years old.

As they do in every issue of their magazine, they make a clear connection towards the front cover and the contents page as it has photos of the two different issues in the centre of the contents page to draw your attention to it. The magazines have a shadowing effect underneath to make them stand out and for them to look like their actual magazines on a surface. The two magazines featured on the contents page can be recognized as a pair as they have the same new music banner, use similar colours and have an alike layout with the text and the band.

The magazine tends to have a template contents magazine, as do many magazines as they want to be seen as professional and consistent to their reader to give a good impression, even before they actually start reading the magazine as this will give a further impression to what the rest of the content in the magazine is like. This template tends to feature many square photos, with the page number in a white box in a corner of the picture along with a pulled quote and a few lines from the article in a columned position. The page also has a white border around the pictures and a lot of white space to make the magazine look more sophisticated and less cluttered while still having a full contents page and looking like a specialized music magazine. They use many different fonts on the contents page which could be as their trying to show the different articles in the magazine and they can show the different people talking by having their own font.

The NME contents page does have a newspaper-look to it, which is because they want to show that they are a serious magazine wanting to report on musicians and bands that they will be interested in which is more likely to attract an older audience than if they used a more teenager-aimed page style. The colours used also add to this look with it being in black and white and the lettering having san-serifs. Although NME are aimed a mostly working class male audience,                                                                                                                                                                                              they do try an appeal to the middle class, female audience by replicating the style of a newspaper and showing how informative it is. The ‘PLUS’ in bold is there to show the reader how much more news they couldn’t fit on the contents page to entice them to buy it as well as helping them with the page numbers underneath so they can find what they want to read quickly.

Magazine Contents Page Analysis 1

Dazed and Confused is a middle class magazine aimed for women aged 18 to 30 with an interest in music, fashion and lifestyle.

The contents page has a clear connection to the front cover by using the same band and the same blurred effect on top of the people on a white background which gives a sophisticated look to the magazine to appeal to its target audience. It has a very limited colour scheme by using black and white, which creates a lot of tone within the picture and defines the people from the background even more, which draws your attention to them.

The text is very simple and being on a white background doesn’t really grab your attention which makes you focus on the band and the title of the magazine at the top. They also section off their magazine into paragraphs to make it easier for the reader to use and so they can easily find what they are looking for. The headings are a little bigger and bolder than the other text which splits the page up a little, so the page doesn’t appear cluttered and jumbled; as the contents page of a magazine often gives a representation of the rest of the magazine and they want to give a good impression to their potential reader.

The page numbers are clearly laid out at the left side of the column so the reader can easily find the page numbers they want and the spacing in-between the numbers and the text makes the page look very neat, which gives the magazine a classy and cultured appearance. The blue ‘DAZED‘ at the bottom of the page stands out from the rest of the text as the colour blue is often used to represent technology and innovation. The page contains a lot of ‘white space’ which is used to attract the reader’s attention and to create a balanced layout from the text, as well as adding class and sophistication to the magazine. White is seen as a ‘pure’ colour which could mean the magazine is trying to show you that it’s a respected and clean-cut magazine that concentrates on what its readers want to know about. Whereas black is seen as a dark and stylish, as well as contrasting white the magazine wants to be seen as modern and fashionable, much alike its target audience.

Magazine Cover Analysis 3

NME magazine is based at a working class, male audience for the ages 14 to 25, with a median range of 23. This is a purely music magazine but does review cultural aspects such as films, books and shows that their readers may be interested in.

This front cover is unusual compared to NME’s usual front cover as its in black and white compared to the normal colour scheme of black, white and red. As well as being in black and white, the writing is all in pink and white, which could suggest that this is a special or limited edition issue as NME rarely use pink on their covers, being a male orientated magazine. They have also changed the traditional red title to pink and is overlapped by the picture of the band which shows they know that the readers can instantly tell the difference between NME and other magazine and is has become a staple and looked up to music magazine. The pink and white writing also highly contrasts with the black and grey clothing of the band, as does the black ‘THE’ in the pink A. The cover has very similar font throughout and is quite bold which gives it a 3D effect as well as standing out to anyone walking past the magazine. It is aimed at a more working class audience, so the black and white does make it seem more sophisticated but the stretched out headline and amount of writing makes it appeal more to its target audience, unlike a more middle class magazine which tends to have limited writing on the front.  The barcode is placed at the bottom corner of the page so it’s not a distraction from the band or any of the other information as well being aligned with the names of the other bands featured in the magazine which gives the cover a neater and tidier appearance and making a good first impression for the reader.

The bands image on the cover is quite defined and has a lot of tone and shadows which make them stand out compared to a normal colour image. The positioning of the band it typical for a music magazine, with the lead singer being in the middle and to the right a bit to draw your attention from the other band members as he ‘fronts’ the bands image and they all have quite a serious expressions which is quite common for NME’s covers. The two front members of the band are wearing lighter colours than the other two as it brings your attention to the centre of the magazine and has almost a gradient effect, with the clothing darkening and the edges.

The bands used on the front cover are mainly aimed at a younger audience, although it does have posters of older artists which are there to attract an older reader. NME also are involved in many performances and festivals that run throughout the year, which are again aimed at a younger audience so the magazine are likely to feature artists than appeal to a younger demographic. There is a range of well known and more alternative artists on the cover but NME tend to focus on up-and-coming artists that haven’t been in the charts and played as often as bands and singers.

Being aimed at a male audience, the adverts are likely to reflect that by advertising music orientated shops such as HMV, clothing, technology and alcohol. Cd’s and albums are also advertised a lot in the NME as the readership of this magazine are music enthusiasts.

Magazine Cover Analysis 2

Dazed and Confused is a music magazine based for a female, middle class audience at a 18 to 30 age range. It focuses mainly on music but it is also a lifestyle magazine as it reports on fashion, arts and culture, film and political and social issues.

The front cover has a very limited colour scheme and only uses white, black and a gradient blue. Blue is known to be most people’s favourite colour and the light blue has a calming effect, which fits in with the band’s music and image. They use the same writing throughout the cover and the bold white writing contrasts well with the blue background and the bands hair. The cover also lists over features included in the magazine under the title, which although printed small, still stands out as your eyes are diverted straight to it after seeing the name of the magazine. Being aimed at a middle class market, they used sophisticated colours to make it look like a high quality magazine and by using the colour blue makes it suitable for men and women to buy it. They also have a lot of free space on the cover to make it seem clean and less cluttered than other magazines which could give off the impression that it’s a high end publication and will get to the point with their articles.

The appearance of the band on this cover is quite unusual as their blurred into the white which gives a smudged effect but the outlines of the bands faces and hair makes them stand out, as does the contrasting black jacket behind the white ‘XX’. The positioning of the band is normal for a music magazine, with the main singer in the middle to show the importance of that person to the band and the significance of them to the bands image.

Dazed and Confused also publish a lot of fashion content within their magazine which would appeal to the female audience and so the music featured is also likely to be aimed at females as well. The use of designer brands such as Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton in the magazine would further suggest it’s for a middle class audience who would be able to buy the clothes and this would give an idea to some of the adverts used in the magazine which are likely to be for clothing, perfume as well as band tours and arts and culture related shows. The magazine being aimed at an older audience, it has politically motivated content but the magazine will stay neutral with its adverts and not use any publicity for political parties or groups so it doesn’t offend or put off any of its readers.

Magazine Cover Analysis 1

Q is a magazine aimed at a majority middle class male audience, with over two thirds of the buyers being male and 38% of them being between the ages of 15 and 24. Although the magazine focuses on music, it does incorporate aspects of a lifestyle magazine and does report on things that their readers are also interested in. 

The front covers use a similar bold writing throughout the front cover, with the only change being the iconic ‘Q’ and some of the writing on the gold banner to make the names of the artists stand out to the reader to persuade them to buy it if they are interested in that specific artist. Also, the white headline on the band makes it stand out as it contrasts with their dark clothing, as does the bright blue ‘Exclusive’ circle to grab the person’s attention if they walk past and attracts their eyes straight to the cover. There is a of a use a limited palette of colour with the red, black and white and the gold strip which makes the magazine look a higher quality and more aimed to the male, middle class market, but still suitable for a female and a different age range audience. They have limited writing about the actual articles of the front cover, which differs from some more female-orientated magazines and focus on the people that they’ve reported on to make people want to buy. The barcode is placed at the edge of the magazine as the want their reader’s attention to stay in the middle of the magazine and by being it at the side, it’s out of the way and doesn’t interfere with any of the headlines.

The positioning of the band is to make sure that their the main focus of the front cover and although their picture overlaps the ‘Q’ signifies that they are bigger and more important than the magazines normal look and the magazine is already recognizable and respected. The lead singer of the band is positioned in the middle and in front of the other members to show his leadership in the band and represents that he ‘fronts’ the bands image.

Although the artists featured on the cover are mainly aimed at a younger audience, some of the older bands can also attract an older audience which makes the magazine more marketable and suitable for a wider age range. Some of the musicians mentioned aren’t that well known in the mainstream audience which would appeal to the more alternative fans but Q also reports on many well-known and popular artists, which is likely to appeal to a broader market.

Being aimed towards a male audience, the adverts used are likely to reflect that but their music taste would also be taken into consideration. Music magazines often have adverts for bands performances and Q would advertise mainly pop, alternative and rock musicians which corresponds to the bands and singers that they write about in their magazine. Adverts could also include ones for technology and fashion, which the band could influence if their fans wanted to wear similar clothes to them.