Magazine

Jade Lawrence

Slide 10

History of the Magazine and its title...

• Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth • Q was first published in October 1986, setting itself apart from

much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing.

• In the early years, the magazine was sub-titled "The modern guide to music and more".

• Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine.

• Another reason for the name change, cited in Q's 200th edition, is that a single-letter title would be more prominent on newsstands.

• First issue, October 1986

Brand Description and Audience Profile...

• Since launch in 1986, Q has been the UK’s best selling music monthly magazine. It has delivered the world’s biggest music stars every month. Seeing life through the lens of music, it draws references from the world of sport, comedy, film and even politics. With the magazine at its beating heart, the world of Q encompasses Q Radio, QTV, Qthemusic.com and its legendary lunch-time knees up, the Q Awards.

-Parts of Q include: Q MagazineQ RadioQ Magazine WebsiteQ TV - Sky 364 , Virgin Media 338Q Awards• Readership Profile: Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define

themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy.

• The magazine costs £4 to purchase in the shops so the audience has to have a more well off Job as it is one of the most expensive music magazine around.

Content...• Review section of all latest films, Artists, Albums, live tours • Interviews with popular music artists • Known for lists such as ‘100 Greatest Albums’ or ’50 bands to see

before you die’ • Features such as -The Q50: top 50 essential tracks of the month-Cash for Questions: Celeb/band answer questions from reader -Ten Commandments: Singer creates on commandments on how to

live • Everything you need to know about films, DVDs, radio, books,

games and gadgets

• From the Q magazine I bought this is some of the contents inside, the photo’s taken by me ...

Owners...

• Bauer Media • Bauer Media connects and engages 19 million consumers every week

with the most influential brands in the UK• Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, Europe’s largest

privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.

• Bauer Media joined the Bauer Media Group in January 2008• multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies

collected around two main divisions – Magazines and Radio• Bauer Media is a mass media institution as they not only produce ‘Q

Magazine’ but other magazines and also radio stations including...........

Bauer Today...

• Today, Bauer Media spans over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests including heat – the must have weekly celebrity title, Parker's, MATCH, CAR and Yours and many more.

• Bauer Media is a sister company of H Bauer Publishing, publisher of the UK's biggest TV listings, Take a Break and Bella.

My Q magazine analysis ...The image on the right is the picture I took of the latest Q magazine I bought to help me when thinking about the type of music magazine I want to create. From Slide two which showed a variety of different Q covers this is very similar, They all tend to have the same house style being; the Masthead at the top left and the same colours running throughout, Red, White, Black or Orange/peach.

The colour of the writing and the format of the main headings are all the same, as they are the main story they are bolder and the clearest text to see. The quotes from each artist tells is what we should expect from the interview with them which hooks the reader as they already know what to expect.

This is the main image because they are the main figures and stand out, there are no other images on the page. They stand tall and proud drawing the reader to them. These three artist may have been chosen because they represent different types of music; Jay Z being the main lead he gets much more of the magazine than the two behind him.

This additional piece at the bottom is like the ‘puff’ as its added information to tell us what else will be in the magazine apart from the three main interviews/articles we see featured.

Secondary lead so we know the magazine is not just based on the 3 main artists shown, the use of the large text on ‘42’ is for emphasis and the circle around it makes it stand out.

All of the ‘Q Magazines have the same layout; whereby they have a main image on the front gripping the reader straight away with simple background colour (normally white) to make them the main focus and to make the mast head clearly visible to advertise the magazine.

This is here to create a stand out feature, the shape of the star-like semi circle shows its a key element inside

Contents page...

Main stories are very clear to see just like on the front cover they are the main topics of the magazine and this is the same for the contents page; drawing the audience in to focus on them.

Pages are divided; the first contents page is based on the main articles and the second is the secondary leads and the regular features of every monthly ‘Q Magazine’

Colour scheme is kept the same; simple white background to make the text and imagery stand out, and red for features and masthead

Good use of imagery so that the reader does not get bored with reading lots of text, the images give away the different sections inside, with the page numbers added to them in larger font so can easily be identified as to where to go for that article

Writing under each sub-heading, telling the audience what they are about, this is good because without having to turn to the page they get a sense of what is to come

Clear issue number and image of the front cover is placed inside so the reader does not at any point need to refer back to the front page, they can link it to the stories in the contents

Chosen article...I have chosen to look at one of the main articles in the magazine because when it come to creating my music magazine I need to look at how to design my double page spread. This article; like the front cover and contents page has followed the same simple colouring and large imagery.

‘Worlds greatest rapper’ this indicates why he is the lead and why he receives 9 pages in total.

His posture and pose links to the story. It says ‘The power of Z’, the picture fits, it looks like he has power and authority, very hard looking and covers most of the page.

Plain background to make him and the large ‘Z’ stand out.

His pose in this picture, again like the opening pages of the article, show him to be hard looking, standing proud, strong and important figure. Close up shot for greater effect.

The large ‘J’ to tell us who he is, to show his importance as made the background and for a an effective , eye catching feature.

From reading the article, the language ranges. It is mainly informal where it gives quotes from what he says, however formal and very big vocabulary when the writer is telling us information.

Same house style throughout, the use of red, white and black showing rule of three and to make the image the centre of attention

Good use of imagery to break up the text as lot of text is provided images breaks this up.

Added information, about some of his greatest hits

Quote to tell us what is included in the interview without reading it all, draws reader in.

His pose is linked to the caption ‘most hooked up guy in music’ showing his status and importance by the way he stands strong, bold, full body image to show how he stands with attitude and authority.

All things on the second page are drawn to show as though Jay Z has hand written it; like a plan, puts together things from the interview to draw in the reader.

• In total the ‘Q Magazine’ I have chosen to look at contains 40 adverts. As this is a music magazine they are all based on music, things such as new releases, concerts dates, etc. However there are the odd few that are drinks/games and a perfume advert at the front. From the adverts, we can gain a sort of readership profile for this magazine.

• The reader would be passionate in music but also in their passion for games and drink. The magazine has a variety of reviews on films, DVDs, CD’s and books so we must not just see this as a completely music based audience