Magazine Analysis Kerrang

The company that produces Kerrang is 'The Bauer Media Group' the target audience for the magazine is 15-19 year old's mainly focused at Men, and for the target audience of people who are interested in rock/punk/grunge/indie music etc. I get this impression because of the bands listed at the side of the cover who will be inside the issue and because of the central image of the magazine they are of the rock genre. The magazine costs £2.20. It is published weekly. The circulation of the magazine is 42,077.

The title of the magazine is Kerrang, the title connotes the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar. The strapline of the magazine is 'Rock's greatest heroes' this is the strapline because it is in the centre of the page and it is what draws your attention to the page. The main image is the background to the magazine, it is the main image of a band, the facial expression of all four members are different, perhaps even a gaze which could be seen as intimidating but it represents the rock genre which is the magazine type. The direction of gaze would be straight towards the camera, the clothing of the band members is quite casual but again clothing that would represent the rock genre, also the hair reflects the genre of the magazine. This would all engage the reader because they know exactly what the target audience wants and the magazine is engaging the reader of a certain genre. Other images such as small versions of the posters inside appear on the front cover, this shows what is involved inside the magazine and shows value for money. The content which is promoted by the cover lines is focusing on the target audience such as a university guide, and exclusive interviews with people, again showing what the target audience wishing to buy the magazine will get for there money, the fonts used to get these messages across are bold ones, and in the house style of yellow and red, although some of the text isn't in bright colours you can still get drawn to them because they have used a bold fonts, and fonts that stand out on the page. Also the magazine producers have used banners, circles and arrows to put some of the information on to again stand out and make the magazine look different to others. Although there isn't a lot of language and written information on the page the language which has been used is to just describe the artists that are in the magazine, so although the writing doesn't necessarily match the music genre it's hard to judge because it is only music band names.

The cover talks to it's reader by showing exactly what is on offer, the cover doesn't look that similar to other magazines of the same genre type such as NME, because NME is much more structured, Kerrang takes the more messy look, and piles a lot of information and images onto the front cover.

Throughout the whole magazine there are 63 pages in total with 13 of them being adverts. This therefore would question value for money with so many pages revolving around adverts. Howevermost adverts are music related to do with tours and gigs and up coming music.

Here below are some off the advertisments offered:

Feedback

Letter of the week

Tweets off the week

Royal Republic Tour

Garage Tour

Kerrang Notice Board

Yellowcard Tour

The Maine Tour

Rival Sons Tour

Trivium Tour

(Bold related to music industry)

                        

Magazine Analysis NME

NME = New Musical Express 

The magazine is produced by IPC Media, it has been produced for the last ten years. It's target audience is mainly focused at Men aged 17-21 who enjoy the soft rock and indie music genre. The price of this magazine is £2.80, the magazine is published weekly. The circulation of the magazine is 23,924 (According to Wikipedia).  Online presence was put into place in the 1996. This means NME is a multi platform brand. The website alone gets around 7 Million users per month.  The genre is indie/punk rock, which attracts a fairly niche audience as it is not the most popular genre of music. The target audience is 17-21 year olds  are likely to also buy the magazine; widening the target audience to young adults.

The main image is the band in a portrait position the picture matches the genre of the magazine but is a very simplistic image, the clothing of the four members are matching all wearing a red military coat this matches the colour of the title 'NME' and the house style and the mise-en-scene of the clothing all match and follow. This reaches out to the target audience which we established as men around 17-21 because although it is simplistic it could show what they perhaps would want to wear if they wanted to follow the band. There is no other image on the magazine front cover except the main image in a portrait position, this could be because the magazine wanted to put it's main focus to the band which the magazine is perhaps revolving the issue around. The content that has been promoted by the cover lines is perhaps the idea of an exclusive interview with a band that have reunited after 10 years, this could involve readers because it is a reunion of an old band which could interest people. 

Also the coverline of 'the untold story of the liberties' would also involve the target audience because the content is again trying to show that the magazine has an exclusive story perhaps again that would be seen no where else. The house style of the magazine follows through because there is a set colour scheme, although the fonts do not match this could be seen as a strapline because certain fonts would draw you into specific information. Also the graphics that have been used, such as the yellow band, and the red circle draws the reader and the audience into reading certain information that could be seen as most important, this is just another technique to engage a reader. The language of the magazine is minimal not giving too much away, except names, but it is formal. I think the publisher left the writer at it's minimum because it makes the audience want to read on. Personally I think the cover doesn't look like other magazines because in comparison to the magazine Kerrang, Kerrang looks much 'messier' the information load is a lot more than NME, also Kerrang has a lot more images although the house style does still follow. The NME magazine offers the ability to not put too much information on the front cover making people buy the magazine to find out all the stories and information. The main distinctive difference between NME and a music magazine such as Kerrang is that NME is a bigger size.

Advertising in NME:

The advertising in NME relates to it’s audience well as most ads are for new music releases, concerts, technology and DVDs. There are 68 pages in the magazine and 26 of these pages are used for advertisement, therefore 18% of the magazine is used for advertising. There are also no inserts in the magazine and as it is published by a global coorporation there are four different cover prices; NME costs £2.80 in the UK, $6.70 in the US, $7.99 in Canada and €3.70 in Spain. The lack of advertisements in NME affects production value, so they use matt paper as opposed to glossy paper. This is because it is cheaper to produce a magazine with matt/newspaper paper than it is to produce a magazine that uses glossy paper. Although it still has a very finished look to the magazine and doesn't look like a cheaper magazine.

NME’s style:

NME tend to ignore particular ‘rules’ when it comes to layout and design. For instance, most issues of the magazine ignore the rule of thirds on cover; they feauture unjustified lines and there is a strong similarity in layout and design of covers. 

Red and black text is used with the same fonts appearing throughout and sections are broken down using bright colours like yellow. They use these fonts and colours to create a unity throughout the magazine so that it sticks together well. The page number is always near the edge of the page as opposed to in the middle this is a unique yet pleasing layout.

Inside

There are 68 pages with 16 of them being adverts. Adverts along the lines of gadets to tour dates to subscription offers.The features/article topics present are bands, live events,tour dates, interviews, stories and reviews. There are 11 double page spreads. Ranging from a variety of different artists and bands however they all still fit into the music indie genre, this ultimately shows what the magazine is all about and how it interlinks all the information it has to offer also.  

Contents Page

The contents page in NME is always situated one page into the magazine on the right face; it takes up one page. There are seven images on the contents page. The images are accompanied by captions and corresponding page numbers and the contents is presented numerically with important articles being highlighted. This is one advertisement on the contents page which is for a subscription to NME. However there is a centre image to look at the free exclusive CD that has been offered. Three fonts are used on the contents page in about five different sizes and two colours (black and red).

Double Page Spreads

There are four double page spreads in this issue of NME. They share one similarity in the fact that they both feature at least one small image with a white border also all go across more than the perhaps typical two pages. They all have multiple photos. 

Aside from this, they are quite different. 

Firstly, 'The Libertines' this is very much a come back interview 'Ten years ago The Libertines released 'Up The Bracket' one of the most chaotic...' this is the introduction of the whole of the DPS. Overall, the page consists of seven pages and in total of fifteen different sized photos. Overall there is alot of content throughout the pages, this is could be because this is one magazine article that the band has featured on in along while (ten years)! 

The Second DPS 'Pete Doherty' although he is part of the band they done a separate interview on him as a person. This consist of seventeen different images, mainly small images. It shows different stages throughout his life, from when he was very small child up till him today.

The other Two DPS show again across multiple pages, and again with a lot of images throughout the pages. Overall, in all articles they use captions for the majority of smaller images, leaving the larger photographs to speak for themselves. Both articles use a standfirst to give the reader a brief summary of the article all but one use pull quotes from the text. The language used in both of these double page spreads is similar; it is quite informal and colloquialisms are used. This is the type of language that NME readers are used to – correct punctuation is always used and the articles use a wide vocabulary rather than sticking to plain and simple language that you might expect to see in a magazine aimed at a younger demographic.

Initial Planning



This shows the research and initial ideas that I have for my whole project, this gives me guidance in which I will follow, it will be a step to step guide on what needs to be done. This allows me to follow some research pattern so I ensure that every aspect that needs to be covered is covered. Also should give me a rough idea on what needs to be done first in order to do other things in the later part of the project. It also creates time management skills in order to show what needs to be done by a certain deadline. Overall it should prioritise  things. 

Preliminary Task

Here is my Front Page off my Preliminary Task, I chose to use this photo as it captured the girl at work, which shows what is expected at Wilmington Grammar, the main focus was the model due to it being in the centre of the page. The house style fitted in well with the overall colours of Wilmington with the blue of the blinds tying in nicely. 

I also decided to put the badge on as it shows identity. The cover lines show what the magazine has to offer, they all link to the idea of being a sixth form magazine with grade expectations and how to survive a crucial year. 

Preliminary Task

Here is my contents page for my preliminary task I used photoshop to make the contents page, and imported the Wilmington Grammar school badge on, and faded this to the back so I could write over it. 

I then imported two pictures that I took myself onto the contents page, these photos would be used to attract the audience to show what Wilmington would have to offer. This also show identity brand to the specific school.

The house style is obvious through the yellow and the blue coming through from the school badge. Also I focused on the minor details such as choosing a model with a blue shirt so I can ensure the house style comes through in all area aspects.

Overall, I wanted to create a look that would all neatly tie into one, I wanted to ensure every aspect came from the badge as this was my main focus throughout. Using photoshop it allowed to me to change and edit a lot of things due to the layers.