1. Alex Thorne
magazine evaluation

2. In what ways does you’re media product,
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
• Before constructing my magazine I researched into similar music magazines to the one I
would make in order to find out the conventions of a music magazine. From the
research I found that it is conventional for music magazines to have one artist/band on
the cover as the main image and this takes up a large amount of space on the cover. I
also found that the masthead was always the biggest font on the cover, this is because
the logo’s/ names of the magazines are big sellers due to the their fame and so need to
be instantly recognisable.
• I also found it is conventional for music magazines to use 3/4 colours on colour
schemes both on the front cover and on double page spreads this is so the page doesn’t
look like it has to much going on and doesn’t look distracting. I found it is conventional
for the cover story to go across the bottom of the page and the other cover lines to go
down either side of the cover in a smaller font. It is most common for magazines to use
sans serif font (especially on the front cover) and if serif font is used it is mostly used in
the stand first. Kickers are nearly always used at the first letter of an article in double
page spreads.
• I have tried to use these conventions I have found in the magazine I constructed as the
magazines that use them are very successful and this may help the success of my own
magazine.

3. • On my double page spread I incorporated a kicker at the
start of the article which was a convention followed in all
3 magazines I researched. I also used serif font on the
stand first which was another technique I established.
• On my front cover I used one main image of a rapper as It
was conventional to use one artist on the cover. I also
placed cover lines down both sides of the page and made
the masthead the largest most standout font on the page.
• I chose to challenge the convention of placing the cover
story at the bottom of the page as it was something my
target audience disliked in both questionnaires and focus
groups.
• You can also see that I have used consistent
colour schemes on both the front cover and
double page spread limiting to 3 main
colours on both of them.

4. A conventional layout for double
One convention I found is that
page spreads is to have one page
the masthead is the biggest as a picture and the other all text.
font on the front cover and is Its also conventional to use a
located at the top of the page kicker at the start of an article.
Another convention shown on the
cover is the use of sans serif font
throughout and very little serif font
used on the cover. And in the
layout aspect it’s a very common
convention to use one main
picture on the cover relating to the
cover story. Organised layout is
used and there is a consistent
colour scheme used throughout. A
plain background behind the
picture is also used.
Kicker
Cover story is located in large
font near main picture

5. Headline at the top
of the text page.
Stand first used in
lines under
headline to give
more information
on what the
article is about.
A pull quote is used here
Kicker which is conventional in
many double page spread
interviews

6. I followed the convention
In my magazine I have made the of using both a headline
masthead the largest font on the at the top of the page and
page as I found this is a stand first underneath
conventional. to give a lowdown on the
article.
I have also
followed the
convention
of using one
main picture
related to
the cover
story and
the cover
story cover
line is the
biggest on
the cover.
kicker
Pull quote

7. How does you’re media product represent
particular social groups?
• before constructing my magazine I made a number
of questionnaires in order to find out what my target
audience would be, and found that the age group
most interested was from teens to 25 (equally male
& female), this showed our magazine would be
aimed at a young target audience and the content
needed to represent that.
• One of the similar magazines I researched into ‘NME’
aim at a similar aged target audience despite the
different genre I found that there are many things I
can incorporate in my magazine.

8. • Looking at NME I found that they target a young audience.
They used swearing in the magazine, which showed it is
aimed at middle class- lower class young people. It also
promotes festivals and gigs which are mainly attended by
younger people. There are many artists inside each issue as
this is a main selling point for them and the reading difficulty
of the magazine is low.
• In my magazine I included a lot of content that appeals to a
younger audience such as festival and concert news, artist
interviews and competitions. Due to the age of my target
audience the magazine is a monthly release as young people
are less likely to be able to afford a weekly issued magazine. In
my magazine I used simple language and slang words which
would appeal to a younger audience.

9. What kind of media institution would
distribute you’re media product and why?
• When researching similar products I fond that Bauer media
group who publish Q magazine would be suitable to publish my
magazine. They are a German publishing company who also
publish Kerrang!, a popular rock magazine, worldwide circulation
of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amounts to 38 million
magazines a week. This shows that the magazines are successful
and that should it publish my magazine it would be successful .
• Bauer Media Group has a 50% stake in the British television
company Box Television, the other half owned by Channel 4. Box
Television acts as the content subsidiary that produces several
popular music television channels, which include: Q TV, 4Music,
Kiss TV, Kerrang! TV, The Box, Magic TV, Smash Hits TV. This is
an example of cross media convergence as the magazine
advertises the TV channels and the TV channels advertise the
magazine.

10. • However with Bauer media publishing two music magazines it may not
wish to release a third as they would all compete with each other for
sales.
• This could mean that my magazine would not receive the same attention
and effort levels the already established magazines would from the
publishing company which could lead to poor sales.
• Benefits of using Bauer media group is that they would already have
distribution deals in place with suppliers and so my magazine would be
available to a large audience which increases chance of success.
• They currently do not have a magazine covering this genre of music which
means there is a place in the market for my magazine and may receive an
extra push when marketing my product.
• http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

11. One magazine that Bauer
Kerrang! Is a magazine
publishes is take a break Q is a popular music
aimed at males aged
which is aimed at middle magazine aimed at
14-25 and is another
class women. It has a over 25’s. it is aimed
style of magazine that
significantly different mode at a larger larger
Bauer media publishes.
of address and layout to range of genres so it
It would appeal to
the music magazines appeals to a wider
heavy metal and hard
produced by Bauer media. target audience.
rock fans.
The front cover uses a
cluttered layout compared
to an ordered layout used
in Q ( a similar magazine to
mine)
This shows that Bauer produces a wide range of magazines aimed at a number of different demographics
including two major music magazines one of which is similar to my product. This means that my magazine
would fit in well with the publisher as its also aimed at a specific target audience not currently being targeted by
Bauer media.

12. • Bauer Media Group has a 50% stake in the British television company Box Television, the
other half owned by Channel 4. Box Television acts as the content subsidiary that produces
several popular music television channels, which include: Q TV, 4Music, Kiss TV, Kerrang! TV
,The Box ,Magic TV, Smash Hits TV.
• This is an example of cross media convergence as the TV channels promote the magazines
and the magazines promote the magazines especially in the case of Kerrang! That have a
specific channel and magazine.
Bauer media Conglomerate
group
Subsidiary
Kerrang! Q Kiss
Kerrang! Kerrang! Q
TV Magazine magazine
Q TV
Kiss FM Kiss
TV
Examples of cross
media convergence

13. What would your audience be for your
media product?
• I made two questionnaires two find out who my target
audience for my magazine would be, from this I found that
under 25’s are my target audience (both male and female)
and that they are into rap/R&B.
• They would most likely be in the middle class with some lower
class as well. I do not expect my magazine to be successful
with the upper class social class as that is not associated with
that genre of music. And some of the slang and language used
in the magazine may not appeal to that social class.
• I am aiming at a vast target audience and so there is more
chance for my magazine to be successful. And the genres my
magazine covers is always in the charts which shows its
popular and people are interested in the genre.

14. How did you attract/address you’re
audience?
• Because of the young audience I have tried to use bright
colour schemes in my magazine to make it look more
attractive. I have used lots of images in comparison with text
so it doesn’t look like a lot of reading which would appeal to
them more. I have also used an ordered layout which makes
the magazine have a more professional look to it.
• The content of my magazine includes lots of artist interviews,
concert and festival news as these are the things that they
said they wish to see in my initial questionnaires.
• there's a lot of different artists as readers are particularly
interested in them so I have included a lot of this and an
‘artist index’ on the contents page.

15. The hand pose that he uses for the photo
also appeals to the young target audience as I
found when researching similar product NME
that they use swearing to appeal to a young
audience and so I have followed this
convention to appeal to my target audience
The costumes used
I used an artist with a for the photo shoot
similar age to my target appeal to the
audience as they are young target
more interested in audience as he is
people they're own wearing a flat cap
age. which is an item of
clothing that is
genuinely
associated with
young people and
is considered ‘cool’.

16. What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this
product?
• I used a number of different technologies when constructing
my magazine. I learnt how to use adobe Photoshop which was
very useful for editing images I used in my magazine. I also
used apple macs instead of Microsoft windows, which was
another type of technology I have now learnt how to use
effectively. I also used digital cameras for the images used in
my magazine and so I learnt what shots are most effective for
a magazine. I also improved using Microsoft publisher, which
is the best program available to publish the finished magazine
on as it gives the most professional look. I will now be able to
use these technologies effectively in any future projects.

17. Looking back at you’re preliminary task, what
do you think you have learnt in it from?
• I have made many improvements since my preliminary task.
Over the course of constructing my magazine I have been able
to research successful music magazines which has given me a
better understanding of layouts and use of cover lines ,cover
stories and masthead and how to make them look
professional on my product. I have learned a lot about
conventions used in music magazines and tried to include
some in my product. cover of my final product looks far more
professional than the preliminary and one of the main
differences is the fonts I used (all sans serif) which helps the
magazine have a professional finish.

18. In my preliminary
task I found that
my picture was to
small to
Examples
completely fill out of
the front cover and Microsoft
that the fonts used publisher
were not suitable
for a magazine and fonts
that the cover lines used
looked before
unprofessional. I
also found that
using
before researching Dafont
into similar for my
products I did not final
use a suitable
layout for my product.
Bullet points used on
preliminary
contents page. contents page instead
of a list of articles of
featured articles. Also
there was no pictures
used on the contents
page. there was also
lots of blank space on
the preliminary task.

19. Examples of
custom fonts
imported to Artist
the document index
in order to
make it look
more
professional
I have used an artist index and
Yellow lines split my contents page into 3
section out 3 columns to make the layout
separate columns. look more professional and
leave less empty space.