NME Contents Page Annotations Research

For extra research into making my contents page for my AS coursework, I decided to do research on some other music magazines that have a similiar target audience age as my music magazine. NME, has a similiar set target audience, of around 15- 30 and my target audience covers this age range of about 14-20.

• This contents page has a plain white background, however with black and red font, this works really well as we can see the text easily. It is also simple, however works effectively. 
• The page is split into seperate sections, in order so it doesn't look too cluttered. This works with the headings being larger then the actual text and also having a black background of the heading, so we know where to look.
• The page has a lot going on for example there is subscription details, whats in the magazines, band index's and so on. This makes the page look more realisic and also reliable as a music company.
• The main heading of the magazine, has the music magazines title also, in a seperate colour compared with the rest of the heading, this is like a brand identity of the magazine. Also using the red colour for the page numbers is another brand identity for this magazine, as this follows throughout all of NME's music magazines.
• It includes the date so we still know what issue we are reading.
• It has a main image in the centre of the page to draw our eyes to and one of the first things we see. This would probably show that this is the main article in the magazine and covers the majority influence of this issue of the magazine.
• In the right bottom side of the page, there is a small flash. This interests readers into fully reading the magazine.
• It shows a band index, giving us as readers a full idea of what the magazine consists of and also makes us as readers be given a friendly approach as the magazine interacts with us personally giving us extra details.

PowerPoint Presentation of Pitching Feature Page Ideas

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Analysing Features Page Pitching Results

As you are aware, for our AS coursework we were to produce a features page of a music magazine. I created this features page, and then printed it out onto A3 paper. I then produced a PowerPoint presentation  evaluating my features page and also mentioning what I have included and why. I showed a small group of people in my class, who are actually my target audience age, and asked them seven questions and asked them to score from 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. I asked them to comment on my styles, features and layout, forms and conventions of features pages, language style, mode of address, camera angles, variety of shot distances, fonts and text sizes variety and selecting an mise en scene. All the results I received were a mixture between threes, fours and fives. For my style, feature and layout the majority of people gave me threes and fours along with one five. The comments I received were how people thought my layout worked well. For using forms and conventions I received mainly fours. I had a lot of comments, stating how my features page does actually look realistic and something that would be seen in a music magazine aimed at people aged 14-20. I then spoke about my language style and mode of address. People scored this as a 4, which I was happy with. My mode of address was specifically aimed at my target audience, and I wanted to make my features page in a sense, formal, to show maturity. We then asked about variety of shot distances and variety in fonts and text size, from this question I received again, mainly fours and fives. I wasn't actually happy with my photography for my features page, so receiving this was promising, however I think I may retake some images for my features page. With variety in fonts and text size, I received all fours. I was happy with this result because I myself liked the variety I had in sizes, however perhaps I could add more variety in fonts, using more than one font on my features page. Lastly, the question was judging my mise en scene. For this I received a mixture of fours and fives. This interested me because I purposely went for a black and white theme for my features page, so clearly this did actually work out well.

Planning My Contents Page

Here is my general, first plan of my music magazine contents page. These ideas here are my first ideas, so I will be most likely to change these sometime during the course and production of my music magazine!

First Flatplan Draft of Contents Page

Here is my first draft of my flatplan of my contents page. I have created this in order to show in stages how my first ideas could change compared with my final design of my contents page.

Planning Of my Music Features Page

Here are my first ideas on my content of my features pages. I have brainstormed these ideas here, to give myself and others seeing my final work an impression of what my first intentions were and whether I stuck with these ideas or adapted them or even didn't use them.

Survey Monkey Questionnaire

I created another questionnaire to find out some more information about my target audience and what they are actually looking for. I asked a variety of questions and here are my results displayed in a powerpoint presentation:

My Own Readers Profile

As you have already seen, I was researching and looking at magazine's readers profiles. Although we have only just begun to start thinking about creating our music magazines, to get an idea of who the target audience could be for my magazine, I created my own readers profile. I haven't included any information or statistics or facts about my magazine, but I've chosen images in which I think suit my target audience the best. Here is my readers profile:

First Plan of Features Page

During class, we were doing our first drafts of our features page. Although they were very basic, they gave us a rough idea on what we wanted to do and how to prepare for it. I don't think I will be using this plan though. I chose for my masthead to be at the top on the left, with then the mini head and page leads across the rest of the top. I chose this because I wanted all the main lines to be at the top, in order for them to be the first thing people see. I then made my main image in the centre, as this is what drags people to the middle of the page, this then gives a vague description of what my article will be about. I have then put images randomnly around the pages, in order to seperate text so it doesn't look as much for people to read. I have then put a pull quote in, again to break up the text but also for people to have a quick indication of what the text and article is about. 

Annotating Three Music Feature's Pages

As extra research, I have annotated three different features pages. These are all real features pages and they are from actual music magazines. These are my three annotated features pages:

Reader Profile Research

In extra research, I was searching through the internet looking at reader profiles. I looked at 'Uncut' reader profile and I also looked at 'NME' reader profile.  I will first begin to speak about 'Uncut's' reader profile. This reader profile is very detailed and lively. It uses a lot of colourful images to entice people into the actual magazine itself. The profile consists of images that would relate to the target audience, and also shows old editions of the magazine. It states what the magazine is and about the technology of the magazine. It then gives us statistics of the magazine. Having a reader profile, is useful for the instituion because it gives us as the readers an insight into the background of the magazine.

This is also similiar to the reader profile of 'NME'. The reader profile is intrestingly very similiar to Uncut's reader profile. As soon as you come onto the profile, your screen is covered in colours and images, this makes it look friendly and very welcoming. The images are of general everyday things, for example random tshirts and so on. So here they have used images so people can then relate to that. Yet again like Uncut, they have also provided old editions of the magazine through time. The information then included for the readers profile is information the same as Uncut, being the technology behind the magazine, the age of the readers and intertesting statistics and facts like that. It even goes in to such detail, it speaks of the dimensions of their pages! Having a reader profile for NME helps, as NME is such a successful magazine and has a lot of readers, readers are then able to have knowledge behind the magazine they are reading, and strangely enough, they are also able to trust the magazine company, in the sense that they feel as readers that the magazine is telling us the truth and being honest, this makes everything feel more personal.

This is the link for Uncut's readers profile:

http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/ie8ggqzju8kgqdditq67k9hj.pdf

This is the link for NME's readers profile:

http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/hvcjivb3x8p8oqk9bw285ffu.pdf