Magazine Research

NME Magazine

On the cover of the music magazine ‘NME’, the brands colours are clearly shown. The masthead, title are all in red writing in the same font clearly shown for the audience to study. There are also cover lines on the page which are presented under the main article. The headline would also be described as a banner as it covers the whole of the middle tier of the page and extends onto another line beneath. There is also a cover price on the page situated underneath the masthead.

The contents page contains all the articles which are in the magazine. The contents page is headed with a title saying ‘Inside this week’ and the date which the magazine was released is below the title. The articles are situated randomly around the page. They are in different fonts which could show they are all different fields of the industry.  Also the remaining features of the magazine are listed in descending order in a little column underneath the biggest photo and subhead.

The double page spread in the ‘NME’ magazine filled with artists that are performing at the ‘CMJ 2011 Awards’. The artists are spaced chronologically across the spread with images of them in action and a description of their personality and music. Some of the information around the images are in the same colour as the borders on the page which indicates that that is the colour the ‘CMJ Awards’ are recognized by. There is also information underneath the subheads about the day and time they are on.

Q Magazine

The cover of the ‘Q’ magazine is predominantly covered by a advertisement of the free CD given away with the magazine. The spot colour for the advertising is orange with yellow highlights and the text is a similar colour but on a white background on the page. If you peel back the advertisement sheet you see the actual front cover which has a full page of the 4 members of ‘U2’ one of the most successful bands of all time. In the background is the masthead of the ‘Q’ magazine and also the advertisement of the ‘Q Awards’. They are self-advertising their awards in the form of a border round the page. There are also subheads on the cover which are about the bands which performed at the ‘Q Awards’ which is presented in a box which descends in front of the image.

 The contents page is spread over a double page and shows all the articles in the magazine in a random order. At the top of the 1^st page there is the Masthead along with ‘Contents’ and a slogan to entice the readers. They have images of the artist/article in question with the same colour used for the background on the advertising cover.

The double page spread is from page 22-23 and is named ‘Captured’, which contains snap shots of music icons either making a fool of themselves, or pictures annotated to make the stars look silly. The pictures are mostly close ups of well-known musicians in random order across the pages. They are annotated with captions about the picture and trying to make it sound funny.

Mojo Magazine

The cover of the music magazine ‘Mojo’ is filled with information. It contains a image of the band ‘The Who’ in their heyday also with subheads and main cover lines above the image on the page. The masthead is situated behind the image in a stocky font in black ink which captures the style of this magazine which is a mod style. The magazine has its cover lines in descending columns above the image. There are also subheadings above the masthead with images of who the article is about.

The contents page is quite bland compared to the others. There is a black and white image of an artist on the corresponding side of the page to the features. The features are in a quite dull font and in black ink on white background. It has the masthead at the top of the page and locations situated with the publishing of the magazine. It also has the issue number and month issue beneath the masthead.

The double page spread is on page 10-11. It is also on a dark dull background with images of ‘mods’ sketched in. The page contains the list of all songs on the free CD given away with the magazine. The page has the images of the artists with a short brief about them and their music. The artists are ranked chronologically from 1-15 which is how many songs are on the CD. There is also a little advertisement beneath the artist saying which album they have done where you can find the song which was chosen to be put on the mixed artist CD.