Sunday, 25 November 2012

contents draft

 
 
This is another draft for my contents, I got the idea for this contents page off one I had looked at in my earlier research...
I like the positioning of the star in this contents, it suites the genre of my magazine and it is quite unusual - attracting the audience. However, I have slightly changed it as I'd have bigger number pages on the contents and I'd have a catchy title like 'What's New?'

dps draft






This is a draft of one of the ideas I had for the layout of my contents page.
I really like this idea for a contents page because it looks full and busy so it can give the demographic audience the feeling that there is a lot of gossip and a lot of things to talk about, and as the audience is teenagers to young adults it fits perfectly. The only concern I have is I want the contents page to link with the double page spread but I don't want the double page spread to be full and busy.


This is a double page spread draft; I like the layout of this DPS, the only thing I am not fully content with yet is the title, this is something I may edit if I use this DPS.

Target Audience Profile

I have been thinking about my demographic audience for my magazine and this is what I have come up with...

Gender; My magazine is aimed at both male and females, but I'd say it lent more towards females as it involves beauty and fashion; this is something males would not be too interested in.

Age; 16 - 25
I have chosen this age because my magazine will include formal and informal language, and to understand the language in my magazine you will have to be educated well in some way; whether its educated with the new and upcoming music, or educated when it comes to understanding proper english.
If I started the age even younger I am afraid it may not be right for them as some things may cause offence, e.g. my pictures may have a model with very high heels on, or short shorts and this is something children below the age of 16 should not be seeing as they could copy it and parents would not like it. I feel people over the age of 25 would be too mature perhaps, so they might not relate to the magazine as much.

Interests;
My audience would be interested in R'n'B music and maybe rap music as this is something that will be included a lot in my magazine. Fashion is another thing that will be included in my magazine so my demographic audience may have a feel for new and upcoming fashion. My magazine will also involve little features like beauty and horoscopes so my audience may be concerned about their looks and what their horoscopes say.

Magazines they buy;
The magazines my audience may already buy are magazines similar to mine; these would be magazines such as vibe and blender. Both of these magazines talk about R'n'B music and rap also and involve artists that are new and known very well.

Questionnaire Answers

I have asked managed to ask 20 people the questions on my questionnaire, these are the results I got...

1) This is the first question on my questionnaire; I asked this question to make sure the genre R'n'B is the right genre to use for my magazine as if it's not that popular with the target audience I would need to re-think the genre I am using. However, I have found out through my research that R'n'B is the most popular out of the rest of the genre's which conveys to me that I am making the right choice in using the genre R'n'B for my magazine. As long as my genre was the most popular or the second most popular I would be happy as I then know there are plenty of people that would buy a R'n'B magazine.

2) My second question was 'What colours would you associate with the genre 'R'n'B' ?' I asked this question so I had an idea of what colours to involve in my magazine so I don't have any colours that look out of place, e.g. Black and Dark Blue - these colours would be associated with rock rather than R'n'B so to put them in there may put the viewer off buying the magazine. A lot of the people I asked said Simplistic Colours would suite an R'n'B magazine, for e.g. Red, Blue, Yellow. Other people said Bright Vibrant Colours like Turquoise, Pink and Purple would suite the magazine, these are the main answers I got when asking this question. I am going to involve basic colours however I might brighten them slightly so I am pleasing more of my target audience.

3) My third question was asking how often people buy magazines; I asked this because it will help me decide how often I publish my magazine. I would not publish my magazine 'Every Two Months', 'Annually' or 'Never' for that matter, however I involved those answers so I got an idea of how often my target audience actually buy magazines, as if a lot of them said 'Annually' or 'Never' I would have to re-think my target audience or genre maybe. The answer with the most votes was 'Monthly', I am happy to publish my magazine monthly as its when my target audience would buy it most.



4)  For question four I had two questions that were similar but slightly separate, the first question was 'How much would you spend on a magazine that was sold weekly?' and the second was the same however asking how much the audience would pay monthly instead. Originally in my questionnaire it is just the one question however whilst asking my target audience that question they queried whether it was a monthly magazine or weekly magazine as that would change their answer, so I altered my question slightly by adding in 'monthly' and 'weekly' at the end. For a weekly magazine, the most popular price was £1.50p - £2.50p whereas for a monthly magazine the most popular price was £1.50p-£2.50p and £2.50p-£3.50p. This conveys to me that people would pay less money for a weekly magazine and would pay more for a magazine sold monthly. In my third question I managed to sort out how often I would publish my magazine; this helps a lot with deciding the price I will have for my magazine. I have decided the price range will be from £2.00-£3.00.


5)  For question 5 I asked whether my audience would rather advertisements for Free Things or Competitions in my magazine. I asked this question so I know what sort of Pug to put on my front page, as most of my audience answered Free Things I will put an advertisement for Free Things on my front page. The general comments I got from my audience is that sometimes the 'Free Things' can be a trick into you actually spending money however they would prefer Free Things to Competitions because with competitions there is a very small chance of you winning.

6) For question 6 I asked whether the audience would prefer a formal magazine, an informal magazine or a magazine that involves both a formal and informal style. I found out that my audience would like a magazine that involves both a formal and informal attitude. I asked this question so I knew what type of sttitude my magazine should have, as this could have an effect on how well my magazine sells.

7) For question 7 I asked my audience what attracts them most to a magazine, the options were between the image on the front cover, the coverline, the masthead, the features, the colour and the font. I asked this question so I know what element to focus on a lot more and to make sure its at its best standard. The most popular answer was the image on the front cover with 7 people out of 20 voting it, and the second most popular was the coverline with 5 people out of 20 voting it. The least popular was the font with only 1 person voting that. This shows to me that I need to focus on the picture on the front cover and the coverline.

8) For question 8 I asked the audience what sort of article they would most like to be included in the magazine out of a real life story, a star interview, a star story, a review and fashion advertisements. I asked this question so I had an idea of what to do for my double page spread. The most popular answer was a star interview with 8 out of 20. The least popular was a review, this conveys to me that a star interview would attract the audience more to the magazine and help it to sell.

Thursday, 22 November 2012

My Questionnaire

My Questionnaire
I have created a questionnaire to help me with ideas for my magazine and to make sure my magazine has the correct elements it needs to get it to sell to my target audience. These are the questions I thought of...
1) What is your preferred genre of music?
  • Pop Music
  • Hip Hop/R'n'B
  • Rap
  • Rock
  • Other
2) What colours would you associate with the genre 'R'n'B' ?
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3) How often do you buy magazines?
  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Monthly
  • Every two months
  • Annually
  • Never
4) How much would you spend on a magazine?
  • 80p-£1.50p
  • £1.50p-£2.50p
  • £2.50p-£3.50p
  • £3.50p-£4.50p
  • £4.50p+
5) What would you rather have on the front cover of a magazine; An advertisement for a competition or an advertisement for 'Free' downloads etc. ?
  • Competition
  • Free Stuff
6) Would you like a magazine to be formal or informal?
  • Formal
  • Informal
  • Both
7) What attracts you most to a magazine?
  • The image on the front cover
  • The coverline
  • The masthead/name of the magazine
  • The features
  • The colour
  • The font
8) What articles would you most like to be included in a magazine?
  • Real Life Story
  • Star Interview
  • Star Story
  • Review
  • Fashion Advertisements
I will ask 20 people these questions to get a wide range of answers so my results are reliable and to help me make my magazine fit what the target audience would like. I will be asking teenagers up to adolescents as that is who my target audience is and so I meet their needs.

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

PUBLICATION PLAN DRAFT

PUBLICATION PLAN DRAFT


My Magazine.
Selling Line; As of yet I haven't got a selling line for my magazine as I am still thinking of what my masthead could be, although I do have ideas, these being; Best Of British, Britain's Award Winning/NO1Music Magazine.
Frequency of Publication; I have decided my magazine will be published weekly because there will be enough star gossip to write about each week
Price; I haven't decided on an exact price yet, however it will not be too expensive as the magazine is out weekly and if it is expensive it is less likely to sell.
Distribution;

Rationale; My magazine will include a lot of information about R'n'B artists and other artists, it will also include fashion etc.

Style; My magazine will be aimed at teenagers up to young adults, simply because the older generation may not be interested in the music artists involved in the magazine. The much younger generation may not understand it or it could be inappropriate if the story involved in the magazine is quite personal and descriptive.

The Regular Content; I have not yet came up with a regular feature that will be presentin the magazine each week, this is something I will think of as I am developing ideas for the layout of my magazine.

Feature Content;

House Style; The house style is something that I have not quite decided on, I definately want 2/3 main colours and maybe one odd colour for a pug that will stand out.

Contents Page; I have many different ideas for the layout o my contents page so cannot fully desribe what it will be like as I have not chosen yet, I will be sketching out my ideas and uploading them to my blog to show the different ideas I have.

Double Page Spread; In my double page spread I will use colours that are in my front page and contents page to link it all together, I will also make sure the star that is in my double page spread looks the same as what she does on my front page.

My Magazine

Magazine-



Analysis of my Magazine;

In my magazine there is direct mode of address, this is where the cover star is looking directly at the camera giving the effect that the cover star is looking at the audiences almost persuading them to buy it because of the eye contact. I have put the cover stars name in big letters across the picture to either get the viewer to know who she is or if the viewer already knows then having the name in big would attract the audience to see what the story is about her, underneath her name I have put 'blows us away' I have chose to wrote this because it causes slight suspense for the viewer as we do not know what she has actually done to blow us away; this would make the viewer want to read whats inside which gets the magazine to sell. I have put the masthead in the top left hand corner because when it is put on the shelves in stores most of the magazine will be covered apart from that half of it therefore the regular readers will notice it straight away by its masthead; the masthead is very simple as its one letter with a bright red colour in the background, the simplicity of the masthead makes it easier to remember and the bright red draw attention almost like a red warning sign would. I have put a pug at the bottom of the magazine slanting across the cover star because it is quite unusual which would draw attention, the bright yellow colour has been used also because it is not part of the colour scheme which adds to it being unusual. In addition to that having the word 'free' there would help to sell the magazine as the viewers would see it as there getting something 'free' out of it.