Written and Electronic Drafts

Overview of Magazine Industry

Today, the magazine industry isn’t as prominent as it was in previous years. The print industry seems to be declining whereas the e-media and social media side seems to be ever evolving. Magazines are a centre point of discovering genres and acts as a way to communicate and express yourself through music or shared interests. To combat the magazine’s industry decline, leading music magazines including NME and Kerrang! have launched online and digital versions of the magazine, containing the same content in a digitalized package. The magazine has a wide audience and a wide range of purposes. There are over 8000 published magazine titles in the UK alone. These magazines can classify in under seven different types of magazine.
 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.

 My music magazine would be a consumer magazine. The majority would be sold in specialist music shops and the leading entertainment retailer, HMV. The magazine is a consumer specialist as it ties down to a certain interest – rock music. The biggest consumer magazines are Bauer Media Group which accounts for 255 of publishing including Kerrang!. Time Inc. , formerly IPC-Media own 20% of the market followed by our license-fee paying BBC magazine with 7.5%.

 Overall, the magazine industry, despite an average of 500 new magazines have been launched every year in the past decade. Only 3 out of 10 magazines that are released last on the shelf.

Rock Music Questionnaire and Questionnaire Response/Analysis

Full Magazine Analysis - NME (New Musical Express)

For this analysis I will overview the industry and status NME magazine has produced from its launch in 1952. The magazine was the focal point of their company and through the development of e-media and social media, NME as a brand, has expanded to various different formats for it evolving target audience.

The New Musical Express, as its fully known is a British weekly music journalism publication. It provides a wide range of articles and exploratory insights to the world’s greatest bands. The genre of the magazine is associated with rock, indie and alternative music. This genre provides the target audience of people who enjoy listening and participating in these musical events and cultures. The purpose of the magazine was to provide weekly entertainment and information to the audience. This later became a nationally known music hub for music lovers to gather and interact.

The benchmark of NME’s success occurred in 1996. This was the launch of NME.com, an online version of NME. It now stands as the world biggest standalone music site, with over 7 million users per month. The website includes its iconic logo, image slideshows, recent and online exclusive news, ticket information regularly updated. 

Recently, the NME magazine has been released as a digital form on the NME website and a new and improved mobile phone/tablet application.  They provide ease to the audience and can stay connected with new technology. The digital copy provides the same content; however links and QR codes can be incorporated for instant access and content to the user.

NME have also launched several social media pages to keep up to date with the modern day audience. NME Magazine on Facebook, @NME on Twitter and 'nmemagazine' on Instagram all improve direct communications between the brand and the audience.  They often provide links to their website, which remains their hub if activity and consistently release their magazines weekly in all stores.

NME as a franchise is constantly growing, from what has started off as a magazine; it’s evolved across all media platforms. NME has also become part of an influence for clothing and fashion, with indie music’s profile raised; the fashion has impacted from this. Even t-shirts with the NME logo are made, however, not for readers of the product; it’s considered a fashion icon – a true indication of the evolution of this magazine.

The NME TV music awards have also been created, as with Kerrang! Music awards, It seems these two magazine snot only headline the music magazine shelves, yet a global impact on music as a whole. Overall, NME has come a long way since it’s creation by Theodore Ingham in 1952. Now, NME is not only a magazine, it’s an empire and an essential part of music’s evolving life-cycle. 

Location, Props and Costume Report

Moodboard's and Analysis

Original Ideas Statement

My original idea for my music magazine is to reflect the rock genre of music. This will be focused more on the magazine Classic Rock, which covers rock and roll through the ages accompanied with it’s simplistic yet stylish layout and house-style. I am to replicate the ideologies of the magazine and genre within my product, including products such as guitar’s to symbolise my target audience.

I also aim, to have a male (either friend or uncle), to be the focal point of the magazine. This is because my audience is more male-orientated and links back to many successful icons of the rock world.

The article itself is still undecided however an interview type article intrigues the reader to find information about their aspired artists. This can also be achieved by a generic informative article by including quotes and statistics to enhance the knowledge of the genre. Pull quotes and a sidebar will also be implemented as its common criteria of a magazine. It adds colour and diversity to a magazine and gives the reader and alternative option, to the article itself.

Overall, I would like my magazine to be similar with Classic Rock, with my own ideas helping create a realistic rock music magazine.

Original Images for Media Products

Advertising Moodboard - Rock Music

Target Audience Analysis MoodBoard

Questionnaire - Rock Related

Information on Magazine Publishers - IPC Media and Bauer Media Group

Textual Analysis