OCR – Level 3 Cambridge Introductory Diploma in Media

Unit 01: Analyzing Media Products and Audiences

Evidence

Name: Morgan PearsonCandidate Number: 2110Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

Set Brief - Print

Project/Brief –

Music Magazine & Promotion

Content• Focus on publisher and product (Slide 3)• Ownership structure (Slide 5) • Ownership model (Slide 6)• Brand ideology and ethos (Slide 7)• Technological Convergence (Slide 8) • Associated products (Slide 9)• Market position (Slide 10)• Competitors (Slide 11)• Content (Slide 12-13)• Contents Page – (Slide 14)• Front Cover Analysis – (Slide 15-17)• Double Page Spread – (Slide 18)• Production Process – (Slide 19)

Focus publisher and Product

• Development Hell Ltd is an independent media company based in Islington, London.

• It was founded in 2001• They also produce Mixmag; iPad app,

mixmag.net, Mixmag TV, Mixmag events along side with.

• They have provided consultancy for some of Britain’s biggest publishers

• They also produced tour brochures for some of the biggest artists in the world.

• Development Hell have also brought DontStayIn.com which has a average 1 million unique users each month, with most aged between 18 and 24.

• Based on their total assets Development Hell limited is the 337th largest in the Plimsoll Magazine Media analysis.

• The company's line of business includes the publishing and printing of periodicals.

• The first issue was printed on 1 February 1983 as a 16-page black-and-white magazine published by Disco Mix Club, a DJ mail out service.

• Development Hell re-launched the magazine in May 2006 with a revamped design

• The magazine, which reached a circulation of up to 70,000 copies during the height of the popularity of acid house

• It covered acid house, the subsequent rave era, the rise of superstar DJs and Ibiza

• Mixmag, in association with its original publishing company, DMC Publishing, released a series of CDs under the "Mixmag Live" heading

• In 2001, the magazine teamed up with Virgin Records to release a double album titled B!g Tunes.

Publisher Product

Ownership structure• The board of Development Hell is chaired by Peter Strong • Managing Director Jerry Perkins• Editorial Director David Hepworth• Finance Director David Joseph.• Development hell ltd are a global business and in the past 30 years has

transitioned from uk magazine into digital and events business.

Source: http://www.developmenthell.co.uk

Ownership model CEO -Jerry Perkins

Editorial Director David Hepworth

Finance Director David Joseph

He has been working for development hell ltd since 2003 and the present day.

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/david-joseph/35/b21/bba

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jerry-perkins/15/b41/454

Advertising director – Juliet Cromwell

Publisher of; smash hits, select, kerrang, Q and mojo. Advertising sales at Q magazine. He set up development hell Ltd himself with David Hepworth.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/juliet-cromwell/27/8bb/841?trk=pub-pbmap

She is working on international brand partnerships, marketing and advertising with Mixmag magazine, Mixmag apps, events, sponsorship and Mixmag TV

Brand ideology and ethos Development Hell Ltd is a independent publisher. Set up by David Hepworth and Jerry Perkins. They have 35 years experience with titles; Q, Empire, Mojo and Heat. Development hell ltd also produces Mixmag and owns the dance music website ‘Don't Stay In’. Development hell ltd publish three magazines in the first six years from their company starting up which were; Word , Mixmag and Don’t stay in. It doesn’t have any sister companies as the publisher is still quite small. Mixmag is over 30 years old. In the last 3 years it has made the transition from a UK magazine into digital and events business. In this time Mixmag have become a global company. Mixmag’s Slogan is ‘Creative, Positive, Credible’. The connation's behind their slogan could be that Mixmag are ‘creative’ is they are new and unique compared to other magazines. This could lead them to stand out more as begin one of a kind. As Mixmag state in their slogan they are ‘credible’ this implies that they take pride in there magazine and what they do. In taking pride of what they do they almost promise to release their best content and want to be recognised for it. I believe that Mixmag audience will agree with their slogan as the content they produce in there magazines is very unique compared to other magazines which focus on the same audience as well as being controversial.

Technological ConvergenceMixmag do sell their magazine issues over the internet although this isn’t on a website but it is only restricted onto the iTunes store where are able to purchase the magazines through the app on a e-book. This is also available on the play store.

Mixmag also are on twitter: https://twitter.com/MixmagThis is where they will give out their latest information about there magazine and what other events they do. Also other people can tweet them to discuss further debates which they write about in their magazine and the reader can talk to other people. They also have a Facebook page.

This is the Mixmag Website here they have links to their Facebook and twitter. They also have a beatport link which is a music website.

There are also advertising a new album which has come out called ‘Ten Walls’. They would of paid Mixmag to put this advertisement on their page.

Technological Convergences means that lots of different media and bring them together for one purpose.

Associated ProductsDevelopment hell ltd also own a online magazine called Don’tStayIn.com. This website is a search engine for clubs, bars and parties. All you have to do is enter in your location into the search bar and they will find any near nightlife activity near you.The complain was founded in 2003 and is described as ‘ the granddaddy of the night life sector’. With over 2.5 million registered users worldwide and over 11 years it has constantly changed to uphold its customers and their market position. In may 2013 Don’t stay in was rebranded, re-designed and re-built which gave it a completely new make over.The Website also has a app where you can view the nearest night life activities on your phone.

Don’t stay in’s: History

2003: Founded

2005: Won ‘House Music Awards’ prize for ‘Best web resource’

2006: Won the Hard Dance Awards ‘best Website’ award

2006: Won the Hard Dance Awards ‘best Website’ award

2006: Won the Musik 4 You ‘Best Website’ award

2006: Compared to Myspace and named clubbers’ preferred option by Trend Catching

2007: Number 1 on Hitwise in the nightlife entertainment category

2007: Won Hard Dance Music awards ‘Best Website’. Again

2007: Won Hardcore Heaven Awards ‘Best Website’

2009: Taken over by Mixmag

Market position

• Mixmag’s have a readership of around 246,000 people and each magazine costs £4.95. So the average revenue is £1,217,700.

• Mixmag's have a digital copy of their magazine with 1,000 digital download which makes a revenue £4950 annually.

Title Publisher Price

Tilllate David Faulds 2.50

DJ times Testa Communications

4.95

DJ magazine Thrust Publishing 3.95

Competitors List 5 competitors:• DJ magazine - British monthly magazine electronic dance music and DJs. It was founded 31 January 1991

and translated into 11 languages. The magazine publishes Top 100 lists, one for DJs and one for nightclubs twice a year. As of 2010 both polls are based on a public votes.

• Shook - Shook is a underground independently produced British music magazine, based in London, which covered various forms of black music and electronic music. The magazine covered the current black music scene in both the UK and around the rest of the world.

• Tilllate – It was established in Scotland in 1988. Tillate is a dance music, club culture and lifestyle magazine. It is now an online magazine with the option to print on www.tilllatemagazine.com .

• Street cred - It was founded in 1997 . Street Cred Magazine is a multi-cultural urban entertainment and lifestyle magazine based in Birmingham. Its target audience 16-30 year olds interested in the music, fashion and entertainment lifestyle. Now running for 14 years, it has over 400,000 monthly readers in the UK and is available for free on streetcredmagazine.com.

• DJ Times- Established in 1988 by Testa Communications. DJ Times is an American music-trade magazine specializing in the disc jockey market. The magazine is published in the USA

ContentMixmag covers a wide variety of content which is aimed at their target audience’s values and ideology in a magazine. The magazine cover mostly Festivals and other gigs which take part monthly in the UK and across the world. Mixmag include these festival dates and location within their magazine, usually near the front. These advertised festivals follow a trend of either having a dark background with bright colours. These colour are seen as brighter as they contrast the background. These colour could signifies the festival atmosphere at night were lights are the only thing you can see which links in with the dance and clubbing genre as this is what their music gigs are like.

Exclusive stories: Mixmag mostly cover small exclusive stories. This is too keep their magazine popular as there wouldn’t be that information anywhere else and their readers will be able to get that information first. These stories are usually only one page long, for example ‘Toy Stories’ also Mixmag’s own opinion on subject’s in the dance and clubbing genre. They are only meant for a quick read.

Reviews: The magazine continues they get into the more detailed stories about different festivals which include bigger picture and more text. These articles are designed for those who are more interested in festivals and want at description on what it was like with Mixmag opinion. An example of this would be the ‘Big Three’ page were Mixmag review the top three night clubs of the month.

Charts: Mixmag also a dedicated four page to showcase the charts list and interview with some of those artist on the charts. The charts cover the top 10 DJs of all time and tracks sold. These page include a one page spread of the Top selling genre by year where it show which sub genres are more popular this year compared to others. These include; Dubstep, Breaks, DNB, Trance, Progressive house, electro, House, Techno, Tech – house and Deep house.

ContentInterviews: Mixmag have a eight page to their exclusive interview who is on the front cover to their magazine. These eight pages cover multiple question and answer which go in and out of their personal life with lots of details of; past experiences, like or dislikes, their future. This is popular for readers as they idolise this exclusive knowledge.

Fashion: Mixmag also cover fashion which suits there genre. Although there fashion is half normal with t-shirts and jeans the other is the more controversial fashion of piercing and other clothing.

Smaller Artists: This magazine also covers ‘Tunes’ which includes the months more niece artists and bands with new songs and albums on the way or already out.

Dates :Towards the end of the magazine at the back they include the months best photos of some festivals and all the dates to the upcoming festivals.

Contents PageThe front cover is on the contents page.

This is information about the free CD which comes with the magazine. It also includes what songs are on the CD as well.

This is the issue of the magazine. This has the same text style as on the front cover.

This shows content of what is in the magazine. This is separated in articles and stories inside. The stories at the front of the magazine are the ones that are more appeling to the reader so they won’t loss interest while skimming through the magazine.

This is the rest of the content inside the magazine which aren’t stories and articles. This is near the back of the magazine. These are at the back of the magazine as they aren’t related to the content at the front

Images related to page number, articles

The colour scheme is follows suit from the front cover as it is mostly black although, it doesn’t have the light pink at the top page.

Masthead : The denotation of the magazine masthead is ‘Mixmag’ the large white master head has a pop art font which catches the readers attention as the white contrasts well the dark background making it stand out more to the reader. The White could also connotes that Mixmag is new and fresh which would be appealing to their target audience as that is what they want be seen as. The verbal code ‘Mixmag’ could imply a mix tape which would be a collection of all your favourite song in one place.

Barcode

Date, price and country: September 2014 and UK £4.95This magazine is published monthly.There website is also here.

Promotion: This Mixmag magazine offers a free CD of ‘Julio Bashmore’ which could attract more readers to purchase their Magazine as there is a free sample. This is anchorage text.

Mixmag does not promote any Convergence’s or even their website on their front cover. This could imply that cooler group of people will already know about their social media and website so they want too keep it more exclusive to loyal fans.

Front cover Analysis

The magazine background of the magazine connotes the artist to be dark and mysterious

Main Headline: Mixmag haven’t chosen a headline. They have done this to try and make their reader want to find out more about what’s inside the magazine. This makes the magazine more controversial compared to other magazines in the dance and clubbing music genre. This could imply a higher respect for the artist ‘Julio Bashmore’ as more of his picture has been shown and have not been covered by other topics in the magazine.

Strapline: Mixmag describes itself as the ‘The world’s biggest dance music and clubbing magazine’ This is at the top of the page. The denotation shows the importance of their reputation and that they value it and are proud. This is included in the same place on every issue of the magazine and will always follow the colour scheme of that particular magazine. This also implies that their slogan is part of them and never changes.

Cover lines: There is a question in the cover story about are ‘ Night Slugs the most important label in dance music?’ Mixmag magazine have a wide audience which includes many popular artists, not just Night Slugs. Thus a debate has been present so more reader will want to buy this magazine too see Mixmag’s opinion. The majority of the target audience will want to know more as they are young 16 – 25 year olds who will be interested into going to these events so want to know what it is like and can compare it to other festivals.

Story separators: Once again Mixmag have been controversial as not to include story separators. This could give the image that their magazine isn’t like their other competitors and they are unique, original and rebellious which also coincides with their stereotyped audience of young adults.

Production processAt first in the production of a magazine you should agree with all department on a deadline for different stories, design schedules, time to proof read, time to print and distribute.After each department will go and brain storm together on what their content is going to be about.When that is finished the head of each department will go and read over what content has been written and make sure that it makes it; sense, has no spelling mistakes and in good enough to put into their magazine. Now that all the content is done a content creator will work on the way the magazine is laid out and what it looks like. This is when they make the front cover look nice and make the text colourful to make it more appealing for readers. The magazine will now be printed and produced after it is checked then it’ll be distributed. It will go to different shops ready to be sold.