Magazine Research!!!

Soul Magazines Hot or Not???

In recent years, the popularity of magazines that are particularly soul genred have declined, with magazines such as Ebony and Jet taking a tumbling in profits. Magazines such as Jet nevertheless still maintain support from publishes, with the magazine itself being taken over only in 2010 by Johnson Publishing Co. However, the question still remains as to why these magazines are losing thier popularity. It would seem that soul magazines have too specific a target audience. For example, magazines such as Ebony are aimed at mostly black audiences, therefore lacking the purpose and the audience specifications to appeal to the modern audiences. This is an areas where my magazine can make a real difference and change the outlook of soul magazines, particularly in the UK.

Magazines are dependant upon advertising to increase their profits and yet over the last few finanical quarters Jet has decreased 15% in ad pages within the magazine. Despite this, EBony magazine has still maintained a great circultation within the US with 1,285,865 copies sold in 2011.
Ebony magazine, i think has been one of the most successful magazines so far. The magazine started in 1945 and has now become a monthly released magazine that is focused on Black politicans, celebrities and mostly musicians, particularly in it photography. With an upbeat, contemporary style, the magazine frequently makes headlines not only in the mainstream press but in public blogging.

Soul magazines, particularly in the UK are virtually non existant, in terms of popularity, as they are heavily based on a single target audience and they are all made upon the presumption that only a particular kind of person can be interested in soul music. But that is one of the things i love about soul music as a genre. The music itself can reach to anyone and cannot be specified so easily. I know a wide group of people who love soul music and come from a range of different backgrounds. In my magazine i am going to try and base it to appeal to everyone.

The most common magazine that encoporates soul music within its content is VIBE magazine, which has gained its success due to a wider range of topics and interests for its readers, rather than its competitors. In June 30, 2012, Vibe had a circulation of 300,943, of which 202,439 was paid, and 98,504 was not paid. Because of its popularity, it gains a large advertising profit, ranging from fashion houses to record companies. Not only does it gain a large advertising profit but it also manipulates its popularity by further releasing hip hop focused books and holding an annual music based award ceremony to further enhance profits and expand the brand.


I feel that the UK is lacking the circulation and enjoyment of soul music, particularly within media, as there are very few soul related music magazine. The most successful magazine so far ( i feel) is SoulCulture. There is no doubt that soul/ RnB magazine cannot be popular given that the US has had great success in producing magazines such as Ebony Vibe and Soul Culture. Additionally there have been previous attempts at releasing a soul magazine, for example Soul Underground which was a Uk based magazine that began in 1987 yet was disbanded in 1991. However their main problem is that it was entirely focused towards the black community, excluding any other potential audiences,which is something that magazines such as Soul Culture have avoided.

School Contents Draft!!

This is the final draft for my school magazine contents page. When doing this i wasn't really sure of the convetions of a magazine which is why i am not very happy with it. I think my attempt to capture the school enviroment would have worked better if i really tried to appeal to my audience through the fonts and colour scheme etc...

Magazine Comparison.

This is some of my research into actual magazines.

After examining lots of magazines, It helped me narrow down all the different aspects of a music magazine that i should include. For example I think i should use around £ 2.70 for my pricing as it is an average price for a music magazine. Additionally what is common in a music magazine is a comparison of different artist or listing the 'best' singles/ artists/albums.

Final School Magazine Cover

 

 

My original cover picture, i think was a good picture for the cover. My only problems with this picture is the proportions of the picture and also the fact that the image is so dark and so it will not be clear enough for my front page. Which is why i went to photoshop to edit and create my front cover.

 

 

Final Cover.  

 

For a first attempt at creating a magazine, i am very proud of what i have done. I think that i have used a good range of colours that stand out well on the page, and also by including the common conventions and subjects of the magazine, i think i have appealed to my target teenage audience well. The only thing that i am disappointed with, is that my proportions wrong, so it doesn't fit the magazine size. I think that my width was too big and so it looks out of place. Also i think my main image was a little too dark. These, however, aren't massive mistakes and they are mistakes that i can learn from.

School Magazine Draft

Drafting my school magazine, using the conventions that i learnt from my school magazine research and texual analysis. It was important to draft to see the different conventions and ideas that are common in a school magazine, so that my magazine would be attractive to my target audience but still has an unqiue edge to others.

School Magazine Anaylsis

For my preliminary task, I have to create a school magazine, just to get a feel of how a magazine works and how the layout of the magazine works. First what i needed to find was the codes and conventions of a magazine, for inspiration and to find out what a music magazine consists of.

 

What One Would Find in A Magazine!

Hello again All,

As mentioned before this blog follows my media studies, and at this point in time focuses on Print Media.

What is a Magazine??

A Magazine is a regularly released publication that is a collection of articles, images, stories and features that presents a assortment of topics depending upon the genre and audience.

In modern society, magazines are one of the most popular media texts and sources of information, with an ever increasing market and number of niche magazines. (Niche magazines are the type of magazine that is suited to a specifc audiences interests, abilities or demands) Because of the rising number of magazines, its important that each magazine has a specific audience and that it is clearly evident of that genre/audience. So magazines such as female teenage fashion magazines would have entirely different content than a magazine aimed at male fitness.

Despite the many magazines in the print media market, they all share the same codes and conventions, identifying them as magazines.

Inside a Magazine.....

• An Advice column
• A Letters page -To intereact with the audience and also draws them in as they gain a voice in the magazine
• A Contents Page - Clearly identifies what's in the magazine
• A Makeover page
• Competitions -encourage the reader to return as there is an opportunity to win interesting items
• A Next Issue page - Also encourgaes the reader to come back to the magazine

They also, commonly have a

• Main Story or Headline Story -That orginally draws the reader in to buying the magazine
• A Review page -Which is also a form of advertising
• Advertsiments

On The Front of A Magazine....

What i noticed about magazines and what seperates it from things like books, is that the magazine cover is constantly on display which means that most people would base if they want the magazine on what it looks like.What many fail to realise is that a magazine cover has been very carefully designed in order to stand out on the newspaper shelves and to attract the particular audience with appealing features.
What is always seen on a front cover is..

• A Clear Masthead ( aka a magazine title.) So the audience has something to refer back to. Magazine titles often carry connotations which give an insight  for the reader if the magazine is for them.
• Many Features ( or plugs) to invite the reader to buy the maagzine.
• A Tagline/Strapline - a secondary sentence that attracts the reader to magazine. Using this, commonly links in brand identity and the ideas of the target audience.
• A Main photograph linked to the main feature of the magazine. It is often a woman/man staring into the camera and often reflects masculinity/femininity. Also the magazine can use a 'pap shot' or and airbrush. Which ever used normally indicates what kind of magazine it is.
• A Price, Barcode and Issue Number ( the higher number the issue number is, indicates the length of time the magazine has been published for)
• A Clear Link between the colour of the magazine, the text, the images and the month of which the magazine has been published.  

Also the use of Fonts and Colours clearly indicate the brand identity and target audience.

These codes and conventions are always present within a magazine whether the audience are aware of it or not. But given that magazines are such a mass market and having looked over a variety of magazines, it has become clear to me the effectiveness of the codes.

Magazines are made in a variety of different sub-genres such as Music ( which i am doing now) Lifestyle, Hobbies, comics, online editions etc. They are consistantly more detailed in their articles but not often completely up to date, in comparison to a newspaper and the subject are more general in terms of information than a newspapers, which is fixed on 'hard news', which means that they are much more permanent and can be read at any time.

Magazines vary on when they are released, ranging from weekly to quarter annually and they tend to have a much more focused audience as they are much more catergorized by their genre. This also means that the audience apperciate the information more as it supports their interests.

Back soon!

 

PLAN!!!

To meet the deadline, I have to plan out everything I want to do for my music magazine so that I can acheive everything that I want easily.


Deadline: 22th March 2013



Date: 11th to 17th February 2013

• Layout Designs
• Textual Analysis
• Plan Photoshoot
• Magazine Comparisons
• Questionaires
• Music Magazine Research ( Genre popularity,Circulation etc)
• Colour Samples
• Treatment sheet

Date: 18th to 22nd February 2013

• Plan photoshoot
• Take photos
• Edit pictures on Photoshop
• Select Best Pictures
• Final Layout design
• Plan Magazine/Article content

Date: 23th to 1st March 2013

• Front cover
• Drafts!!
• Final Research
• Gather audience response
• (Complete unfinished work from before)

Date: 2nd March to 8th March 2013

• Make Contents page and Double page spread.
• Start Evaluation

Date: 8th March to 22nd March 2013

• complete all outstanding work and any research
• Perfect EVERYTHING!!

FINISHED!!!!!!!!!! :)


 

Welcome

   Hi Everybody


   Welcome to my brand new blog. This is my Media AS blog, where i will be posting all my finding and research about my studies of Print Media and other areas of the media that i will be following over the course of the year. So far we have looked up in close detail the concepts of TV Drama, but now we are moving on to examining Print Media, which is the area of the media that i find most interesting and is an area that i hope to pursue in the future. So this part of the subject and also this blog is vital to my increasing education. It been interesting to learn so far the different codes and conventions that are involved in Magazines and thier different genres such as Teen Magazines. Previously, i hadnt realised before that such minimal things such as the colour of the fonts or the positioning of the model could have such an effect on the reader and it has come as a suprise at the effect that the media can have on society without even realising it.

I  hope you enjoy my findings!!

Speak soon!!

Montaz !! :)