research into similar products analysis

Research into similar products analysis

Design- from the research into similar magazines I have found what designs are conventional in music magazines for front covers, double page spreads and contents pages. I have found that all 3 of the magazines I researched use one main picture on the front cover and takes up the most room on the page. I also found that the masthead is always the largest font used on the front cover, as the magazine name is a big selling point alone as they are all very successful.  I have also found that in the double page spreads all three magazine use drop caps to start the article.  I also found that most cover lines were placed down the left side of magazine covers and so I will use this technique in my magazine. I have also found that the double page paged spreads tend to only use one picture and often have it on one page and fill the other page with the text, which is again something I aim to do in my magazine.

Content- I found that all magazines advertise their best stories in the contents page instead of a table of contents summarising every page. On the contents page the main stories will be advertised with pictures and text, and the pictures used in the contents will be different to the ones in the double page spread and front cover so there needs to be a range of pictures taken. I also found that it’s conventional for magazines to use a subscription advert on the contents page. I also found that magazines often use a pull quote from the text on the double page spread. Most double spreads also use a stand first under the headline which gives a lowdown on what the article is about. I have also found that most of the text is in sans serif font but certain bits of an article use serif font (usually pull quotes or stand firsts) and or different colour font.

Mode of address- from the research I found that magazines with a vaster target audience (Q and rolling stone) address the audience differently than NME who has a specific genre it targets and so directly addresses the audience and uses words to directly address them. I found that NME focuses on rock and roll lifestyles a lot and speaks about sex, alcohol and drugs more as its aimed at a young target audience ( a similar target audience that would be interested in my magazine according to my questionnaire results) and makes them feel part of the lifestyle. Rolling stone and Q have vaster and older target audiences and so cover more genres and so do not directly address the audience a lot in the text.