Audience Research; Questionnaire Results

Audience Research Questionnaire Results

1.    Male= 3          Female =4

2.    10-13=1         14-18=4         41-50=2

3.    Yes=7

4.    Yes=1

5.    KERRANG

6.    Don’t want to read about music, just listen to it=2 / Doesn’t interest me=3 / Too much money=1 / I feel I’m too old=1

7.    Pop=5                        R&B=2           Indie=2           Rock=2          Classical=4  

Don’t know=2

8.    Yes=4             No=3

9.    Pop=2                        Rock=2

10.  Whether the cover is appealing or not=2           The music style=0   

The celebrity on the front cover=4                        Other...The cover lines=1

From my questionnaire I can see that not a lot of people actually buy music magazines because they just don’t interest them. This is going to be an issue that I will have to take into account when I produce my music magazine. The last question that I asked will be very useful when I think about planning the front cover of my magazine. It has given me a clear insight on what everyday people look for when deciding whether to buy a music magazine or not.  

Audience Research; Questionnaire Template

Audience Research Questionnaire

1.    What gender are you?            Male/Female

2.    What age are you?         10-13       14-18    19-30    31-40     41-50    51+

3.    Do you like music?                  Yes/No

4.    Do you buy music magazines?    Yes/No

5.    If ‘yes’ then what magazine do you buy?

6.    If ‘no’ then why don’t you buy music magazines?

7.    Name three types of music magazine genre...

8.    Do you have a favourite genre of music?        Yes/No

9.    If ‘yes’, what is it?

10. What would make you want to buy a music magazine?

Whether the cover is appealing or not/ The music style/ The celebrity on the front/Other......................................................................................................

Research into state of current music magazine sector

Research into current state of music magazine sector


Q retains its pre-eminent position as the number one music monthly brand in the UK and across Europe of 112,532, alongside an ever-increasing digital reach via q4music.com.
MOJO’s sales are up on the period to 106, 367 and is second only to stablemate Q in the sector. Combined Q and MOJO deliver almost half (43%) the share of the monthly music market. MOJO – which brings classic music to a new generation and new music to established fans – consistently delivers a bespoke fix of high quality journalism and iconic photography to music fans alongside mojo4music.com.

Reference: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Press-Office/News/Bauer-Media-ABC-Magazine-Sales-Figures-Jan-Jun-2008/


IPC Media's weekly rock magazine NME suffered a year-on-year circulation slump of 17.3 per cent in the first half of 2010 as sales of music and film titles slumped.
NME had an average weekly circulation of 33,875 in the six months to the end of June, according to figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Rivals to NME also suffered in a bad set of results for entertainment titles. Circulation of Bauer's Q Magazine dropped 10.7 per cent compared to the first half of 2009, taking it to an average of 89,450 per issue.
Mojo magazine, a stablemate of Q at Bauer, fell by 6.2 per cent year on year to a monthly circulation average of 91,678.
NME's sister title Uncut fared slightly better but still fell with a 3.2 per cent year-on-year drop to a monthly average circulation of 74,067. Bauer's heavy metal weekly Kerrang! increased its average per-issue circulation by 1.8 per cent to 44,013.
As for film titles, the situation is just as bad. Future Media's recently relaunched Total Film saw its sales fall by 10.5 per cent year on year to 76,088, although Future will be hoping the new-look title manages an uplift in the next ABC results in six months' time. Bauer's Empire magazine fell by 7.7 per cent year on year to 179,064.

Reference: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=45844&c=1

The top selling music magazine at current is NME, which sells £33,875 on average weekly. However, it also loses the most sales annually, 17.3%. NME’s weekly sales are a lot more than other music magazine sales. An annual sale for The Fly music magazine is £108,207 that would total to be a lot less than NME’s average sale.

WHSmith sells around about 12 music magazines in store. This proves how the popular music magazines will get very high sales whereas the new, or less-known music magazines will perform weaker. This is one of the main reasons for success or failure of music magazines. They have very specific styles of music included in the magazines, so their target audience is very particular and small. Music magazines have to compete greatly against each other because there is only a minority of genres around.

Analysis of Two Covers of Music Magazines

This is a front cover of the very popular music magazine ‘NME’. The most eye-catching part of this magazine is the very bright, red hair of the model as it contrasts so much with the pale blue background. Also, the text helps to bring attention to the hair colour as it says ‘Gerard sees red’. This makes it obvious that the magazine is trying to highlight the red hair as an important feature of the magazine. The eyes of the model are also very intense and draw you into the magazine. The style and facial expressions of the model set the genre of music that the magazine includes. The genre of the magazine is of an indie rock and roll style. The layout of the magazine is quite basic which is pleasing to they eye. It doesn’t look too busy and therefore doesn’t pull your attention away from the model. I like this magazine front cover because the male model isn’t portrayed stereotypically. The use of some of the text also backs up this point. The quote “We loathe what goth has become” proves that the magazine are trying to pull away from the stereotypical views of the magazine. This makes the magazine unique however, it decreases the amount and type of people who will buy the magazine. The target audience is probably 16 to 25 as the music taste is mainly popular with the younger generation.  

This is a front cover of a pop magazine called ‘Top of the Pops’. Unlike other magazines, the first thing that I noticed was the main cover line; “No more secrets”. This stood out because of the use of the colour yellow on the pink background. These colours contrast with each other, making the yellow pop out. The main celebrities on the front are The Jonas Brothers and they are more noticeable than the other singers on the cover because, the picture is bigger and they are central, automatically bringing your attention to them first. This cover is unlike the NME magazine front cover because this is very stereotypical. It has a well-known, good-looking, popular Disney band of brothers and they’re posing in a less serious manner. This is probably aimed at young girls and young teenagers because it contains a lot of gossip of celebrities who are more likely to be known to younger girls. The uses of celebrities such as Cheryl Cole also contribute to the stereotypical vibe that this magazine gives out because she is an example of the ‘perfect’ woman. The cover lines also include competitions to ‘win signed stuff from Ashley, Miley & Jo Bro’, which attract the target audience because younger children enjoy competitions.  

Student Magazine; Design Work- Front Cover

Date Task Completed: 19/11/2010

Student Magazine; Design Work- Contents Page Flatplan

Date Task Completed: 19/11/2010

Student Magazine; Original Images

Date Taken: 5/11/2010

IPC Media Case Study

IPC Media produces over 85 iconic media brands, with their print brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men. All together it’s almost 27 million UK adults and their online brands collectively reach 20 millions users every month.

‘The Field’ launched in 1853 and within a year became the largest newspaper in Europe, with 24 pages. Eight further IPC titles that are still thriving today were launched in the late 1800’s, for example, Country Life, Horse and Hound, Shooting Times and more. In the early 1900’s there were three new arrivals to become a part of IPC Media – Yachting Monthly, Cage Birds and Motor Boat. In the 1920’s, Ideal Home, Homes and Gardens and Woman and Home were all launched. In the 1930’s, Woman’s Own, Woman, Caravan, Stamp Magazine and Prediction were all published and are still going strongly today. In the 1940’s, a key wartime role was played in IPC’s women’s weeklies, keeping up the morale of Britain’s women and supplying an essential information service on behalf of the Government. In the 1990’s, What’s on TV, Loaded, Now, NME, IPC Connect, IPC SouthBank and IPC Country & Leisure Media. In the 2000’s, Nuts, Pick Me Up, TV easy, LOOK and a few more were published. Right up until modern times, IPC Media were still publishing or reconstructing more magazines.

The Publications IPC Media is associated with are:

MEN’S PORTFOLIO

Country Life (IPC Inspire)
Horse & Hound (IPC Inspire)
Rugby World (IPC Inspire)
Decanter (IPC Inspire)
Nuts (IPC Inspire)

FAMOUS WOMEN”S WEEKLIES

Look (IPC Connect)
Now (IPC Connect)
What’s on TV (IPC Connect)


UPMARKET WOMEN”S DIVISION…LUXURY FASHION

Marie Claire (IPS Southbank)
InStyle (IPS Southbank)
Essentials (IPS Southbank)

The Structure of the Company:

Pinpointing exactly how far IPC's roots stretch back into the midst of publishing history is a complicated business. The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963 following the merger of the UK's three leading magazine publishers – George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications – who came together with the Mirror Group to form the International Publishing Corporation (IPC). And IPC Magazines was created five years later, in 1968. But those three original magazine businesses each had their own illustrious history, having been established in 1881, 1890 and 1880 respectively, with a number of the titles they launched in the late 19th Century still being published today under the IPC umbrella. And when The Field, launched in 1853, joined the IPC stable in 1994 following the acquisition of Harmsworth Magazines, it saw our family tree reach back even further.


IPC Media has a many different types of magazines ranging from music to golf. There are also beauty and fashion magazines, country life, interior design and TV/Radio genres. As the magazine types range massively, it would conclude that the target audience is varied too. For example, Ideal Home would probably be targeted at women aged 20-50 because it’s about starting a home or creating the perfect house for yourself. On the other hand, Golf would be more likely to be aimed at males. The age range could be very wide because golf interests a lot of people at different ages.

Date Completed: 1/10/2010

Preliminary Work; Proposal

Proposal:

My target audience for my magazine is female college students. The magazine will contain information about college and fashion. The content for the college information will be on back to college, starting college, college supplies and a copy of the college map. The fashion part of the magazine will include fashion tips and the latest styles in autumn and winter.

The magazine will be released in the beginning of the college year, September. It will be an autumn edition and will be helpful for new students to learn about the college and what to expect. The magazine will be published monthly so that it allows enough information to be built up about college gossip and up-coming exam mocks or exams and revision. I think that if it was produced weekly then there wouldn’t be enough new information to be published and the consumers would get easily bored. The monthly edition also works with the fashion area of the magazine because fashion doesn’t change every week, so there would be more updates available every month. My magazine will be priced at £0.20 because students aren’t going to want to pay a lot for a college magazine, and I think 20p is a reasonable amount to pay, which I myself would be willing to pay.

I thought a lot about what I wanted my main cover line to be about. It was between college and fashion, my final decision was fashion. I thought that my main cover line should be eye-catching as it will be one of the main attractions consumers will have to the magazine. The main cover line that I am going to use is ‘Wooly Explosion’ because I think it fits in well with the genre of magazine and also the name of the magazine. The title of my magazine is ‘WOAH!’ and I chose it because it’s very catchy and short, and also, it relates to both fashion and college. College is a big step up from secondary school and ‘woah’ refers to the emotions of the first year students starting. It can also relate to the rest of the college year and students because ‘woah’ could also be said in a sigh of relief or relaxation. This will have a positive effect on the students because it is encouraging relaxing and reading the magazine just by its title. The title ‘Woah’, also fits in with the fashion part of the magazine because new trends are always unexpected and sometimes slightly over-the-top. It also expresses how amazing and surprising the new styles are.

I originally wasn’t going to use a tagline on my title because I couldn’t think of anything that could represent college life and the fashion industry. After a bit of thought I came up with ‘WOAH!...Express yourself’. I think that this is suited for my magazine type because ‘express yourself’ can mean through your image/clothes, or also through your work and life. It’s very to the point and snappy which makes it easy to look at, creating a positive attitude to the audience.

The font I am going to be using for the title is Hobo Std. I chose this font because it’s styled, bold and girly. This means that it will attract my target audience because it looks feminine but, it also looks powerful and important. For the tagline I am just going to use Arial because I don’t want it to over-power the main title. It’s important, but most magazines don’t make the taglines stand out as much as the brand name.

The size of my magazine will be A5 because it makes it easier to carry around and much more convenient as a whole. At college you have a lot of equipment to carry already so a small magazine would be perfect because its compact and can fit in your bag. I wanted the colour scheme to be girly, but also the fit in with the season. Autumn colours however are quite dull and misty so I will have to use a mixture of girly and autumn styles. I have decided on a trio of colours to use on my front cover and these are green/teal, orange and cream. I have chosen these three because they are all very autumn colours and will give a cosy and welcoming feel to the magazine. Also, the teal, orange and cream are girly colours which make the magazine suitable for the target audience. I went against my initial colour scheme of purple, red and cream because it didn’t match the background of my picture I had taken.

My front cover picture is going to be of a two students in the cafe at college. I want to take the picture in the cafe because it shows the college side to the magazine aswell as showing the craziness of college too. This will encourage a wider range of audience to consume my magazine. I will take this picture in my own time and will take it on college grounds.

In the contents page I would like to use two black and white images. One would be of autumn fashions and the other of a smaller version of the college map. I will take both of these pictures myself and will edit them into black and white. The colour scheme for the rest of the contents page will be teal (the same shade as the front cover) and black. I chose these because it matches the front cover still, bringing the magazine together as a whole. It also sticks to my initial ideas of girly but bold colour choices.

Date Completed: 29/10/2010

Preliminary Work; Initial Ideas

Initial ideas:

 Type of magazine- Fashion magazine

Target audience- Female college students

Season of being released- Autumn (September)

Content- Back to college, starting college, college supplies,
               Autumn/winter fashion, college map

Cover Lines- showing a sneak-peak to what’s inside the magazine,
                     Such as…’Wooly Explosion’ or ‘Fashion Favourites’

Title- Font type: Braggadocio
                        Blackoak Std
         Flowerchild Plain
                   Hobo Std
        Rosewood Std
        Princetown LET
I want the font to be stylish and bold but also sophisticated and girly in order to catch the eyes of my target audience. The above are just a few examples of font types that I have found and may use for my final title font.
    
Name Ideas:

•    ‘WOAH!’ I thought this would be a good idea for a name for my style of magazine because the expression ‘woah’, explains the emotions of the first year college students. It also fits into the fashion genre because the new fashions always come as a shock to everyone.

•    ‘TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL’ I think this is a catchy title name that will catch the attention of the students because it’s slightly humorous. The only disadvantage to this name is that it only relates to the college side of the magazine, rather than applying to the range of content.


Tagline- WOAH!...express yourself

Front cover image- Picture of a students    at college
                               Natural environment of students working at
                               college
I will take these pictures myself in my own time.

Colour Scheme- I want the colours to be girly but also fit into the
                           season that it will be published. The colours may
                           include deep purples, reds and even creamy
                           colours. 

Size of magazine- A5

How often it will be published- Monthly

Date Completed: 22/10/2010