Institution to produce and distribute my product

IPC Media is a leading UK consumer magazine publisher. Almost two in every three UK women and over 44% of UK men read an IPC magazine. IPC media produces and distributes 80 magazines including, Pick Me Up, Now, Marie Claire, In Style, Ideal Home, Nuts and NME, including digital properties such as NME.com, the third largest commercial music website in the UK. Therefore, as my magazine is of an indie genre, similar to NME, IPC would be an ideal distributer for my magazine.

Circulation figures

Below is a list of eight of the top titles. The bold figure is the July-December 2008 sales figure. The two figures in brackets are for January to June 2008 and July to December 2007.

Classic Rock 70,188 (66,632 / 67,399)

Kerrang! 52,272 (60,294 / 76,937)

Metal Hammer 50,269 (48,540 / 45,809)

Mixmag 30,159 (34,073 / 35,817)

Mojo 100,507 (106,367 / 106,218)

NME 48,459 (56,284 / 64,033)

Q 103,017 (113,174 / 131,330)

Rock Sound 20,011 (22,527 / 23,021)

These figures show that sales have dropped dramatically, for both kerrang and NME. Where as mixmag, which is a pop/dance magazine's figures have risen, this means there is a gap in the market for an indie magazine. This is perfect for my magazine, which is an indie magazine aimed at both males and females.

Conventions of a music magazine

Conventions of a music magazine

Music magazines all include many of the same conventions, these are things that are typical of that music magazine, so the target audience can recongnise it immidiatly. AIDA is a acronym used in marketing, which can link to these conventions.
A-Attention, this is to attract the attention of the customer, and so magazines use big, bold titles on the front cover, these are recognisable to the target audience, such as NME.
I-Interest, this is were they raise the customers interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits. Such as using captions like "Exclusive" and "First look".
D-Desire, Convincing the customer they want the product and that it will satisfy their needs. Here they use things such as pictures of famous musicians and celebrities. Big, bright captions and sometimes they'll put things like "only £1.99!"
A-Action, This leads the customer towards taking action/and or purchasing. So magazines will make the cover recognisable to the target audience and use strap lines to show whats inside.
Magazines also use a colour scheme to suit their genre, and a mode of address, which tends to be direct address (when the person on the front cover looks straight out of the magazine).
Therefore when making my magazine, i am going to focus on these conventions and try to include them all in my own work. This will then illistrate my genre, target audience and look eye-catching to them.

Questionnaire reflection and findings. My target audience

I carried out a questionnaire to find out what teenagers from 16-18 years old like to see on/in an indie magazine. 15 people did my questionnaire, and my findings specify my specific target audience and genre. Using my questionnaire, I asked my target audience which title they would prefer for my magazine. The choices were; That base line, Dead Beat, indie cindy and living Loud. Six out of the fifteen people choose "That Base line." However As shown in this questionnaire, one person suggested "The Base Line." Therefore as this is suggested from somebody who is part of my target audience, and would possibly buy my magazine. I am going to use this, or possibly just "base line" as it's short and snappy, for my magazine title.

My questionnaire, helped me to decide on a colour scheme. Here are my results in the form of a pie chart. Most people choose blue, purple, black and white. Therefore i will use these colours within my magazine.

I also asked the question do you like to see small pictures on the front cover, as well as the main focus picture. Here are my results in the form of a bar graph.

Finally, i asked my target audience what they would like to see in the magazine, and what would entice them to buy it. Their answers included, updates on new albums and gigs, celebrity interviews, and fashion statements. Therefore my target audience will be for teenagers of both sexes, who are interested in fashion, gigs and celebrity gossip! 

Looking at Demographic profiling and the socio-Economic scale, i can identify my audience, using variables such as gender, class, religion, and age. My group description would be; E, unskilled, pensioners, and unemployed, as teenagers are generally in education, and therefore are unemployed and unskilled. However it can be problematic as people in the same class or religion etc are not all the same, therefore psychographic profiling is now used. This type of profiling assumes the audience to be complex and to have certain needs to be gratified. The Young and Rubican's Cross-cultural Consumer Characteristics puts the audience into four categories, based upon these aspirations,

1. Mainstreamers

2. Aspirers

3. Succeeders

4. Reformers

My target audience falls into Mainstreamers, the largets section of the market, who seek security and buy well known brand names.

Feedback 24.11.09

Well done Keira. Good work on prelim. Get started on the research now. You need to outline the conventions of music mags and upload and analyse a front cover, contents and dble pg feature of similar genre to your intended project. Discuss how it targets the audience, suggests genre etc. Try to include relevant theory - AIDA, U & G theory etc. See me and checklist for more advice and guidance.

Mrs A

Preliminary task

Here i have created the front cover to a college magazine. I like the idea of cutting out my image, however the cutting is rushed and looks untidy. Therefore if i was to do this for my music magazine, i would have to zoom in on the picture and take my time to make it look neat and professional. I also think the white space makes it look boring and unoriginal, as well as the simple fonts. So when doing my music magazine i will experiment with different colours and fonts, to make my front cover look exciting and unique.

I have used a mast head, as this is a convention of a magazine, as well as strap line at the bottom, this gives it a professional look. As well as headlines of the latest stories, plastered onto the cover, to interest the buyer.

I have done a basic sketch of my contents page, showing the articles and there page numbers and have drawn boxes to show where pictures would be placed relating to the articles. This relates to the conventions of a typical magazine, however when making my music magazine i will look closely at contents pages of similar genres to see how they illustrate their articles and catch the readers eye.

11th November, Initial ideas

I have chosen to do a music magazine, as i think this is something i will enjoy and do well. The genre will be of an Indie/rock theme aimed at a unisex teenage audience. Its unique selling point is it's genre and style, which will be immediately recognizable, and interesting for the reader. My article and front cover will use a young male band, new to the music industry. This is my main USP (unique selling point). I will look at products similar to my own, such as NME, and will look at how to make my magazine of a similar style, and also try and add my own ideas to make it better and more appealing. I will do this by doing questionnaires for my target audience, to see what they like to see and read in their magazines.