Magazine price research.

 I have been looking at a variation of music magazine prices and their frequency of publication. I have done this to help me in ensuing whatever frequency i  choose (weekly, monthly etc) I wont be over charging for it or under charging it meaning my magazine will fail to produce any sort of profit. Instead of looking at target specific magazines which are similar to mine i have just looked at a variation of different magazines, these being;
Q Magazine;
The monthly cost of Q magazine is £3.70 an issue, but they offer a deal were you can buy a years worth for £30 meaning that eventually you will have only spent £2.50 on each issue. I like this idea as offers the audience their favorable magazine for a good price which would hopefully mean better sales. However, i have decided to make my magazine a weekly edition so i dont believe this strategy would be beneficial to my magazine although i could come up with a similar idea to promote some form of discount.
NME Magazine;
NME is a weekly magazine which sells for £2.40 for every issue brought. However, NME have also incorparated an idea to allow subscribers to purchase a yearly supply of the magazine at £74.99 meaning they would be again selling for a discounted price at £1.47. This would again be in order to increase the sales of their magazine and to let the subscriber feel happy that they have had a discount. I do like this idea as it does seem like a good way to improve both sales and profit.
Classic Pop;
For one issue of the classic pop magazine is £5.99 but they offer a deal for three issues for £9.99. i believe this is a bit pricey however, in the magazine it does offer alot for the money you pay so it sort of balances itself out.
VIBE;
VIBES deal is £9.95 for six issues which works out at £1.60 for each issue. I think this works out very cheap for what you are getting. If i was to follow a similar way i would be able to increase my price slightly for individual issues and still have a magazine that would be still worth the money that they paid.
Kerrang;
Kerrang is a weekly magazine which has a deal of buying the magazine monthly cost at £7.50 working at £1.88 an issue. This again works out very cheap for the subscriber which is a possble reason for why the magazine does so well.
We love POP;
We love pop is a monthly music magazine which sells for £2.99 for every issue sold. I dont know of any yearly they do but £2.99 seems like a reasonable price for a monthly magazine as it is not under or over priced. This magazine is closer to my magazine topic then any of the other however mine will be sold weekly so i cant really justify this price range for mine other then not to go above it as it would be too much.

Masthead research

I have been looking on a website called visual thesaurus which allows you to type in a key word such as 'sound' or 'music' and creats a mind map surrounded by word associated with your selected key word.

Say i typed in the word 'POP', to the right a mind map would appear with words such as;

- Popular

- Bulge out

- Pop out

- Burst

- Fire

- Throw

- Split

- Break out

- Collapse

Another word i could pick is 'beat', and the words that would appear would be;

- Drum

- Scramble

- Pulse

- Vibration

- Pace

- Exhaust

- Amaze
- Jam
-Glitz

I liked how this mind map idea gave me loads of words associated with the main word meaning i could have a range to pick from. Or even if i didnt like the words that came up, it would give me some inspiration. I like the name 'Glitz' and think that will be the name for my magazine. I like the way it is completely unrelated to POP but this is what attracts me too it.

Questionnaire Analysis

Here again are the questions i asked 20 people in my sixth form common room as they are around the age range i want to aim my magazine at. I was at an advantage having a large amount of people around the same age to answer my questionnaire.

1.       If you where to go out and buy a magazine, what would be your prefered genre?

· Pop music

· R&B

· Rock/ Heavy metal

· Other

            Please specify   .....................

2. How often would you say you go to buy a music magazine?

· Daily

· Twice a Week

· Weekly

· Monthly

· Rarely

· Never

3.       Whats types of topics would be most likely inclined to want to read?

· Editorials

· Artist Interviews

· Reviews eg; music, music related films etc. 

· Other (please specify) .......................................................................................

4. On average how much would you to expect to spend on a music magazine?

· £1.00-£2.00

· £2.00-£3.00

· £3.00-£4.00

· £4.00 +

5. What colours would you like/expect a pop magazine to follow?

· Bright colours

· Sophisticated colours

· Dark colours

· Light pastels

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Questionnaire Result Analysis.

1.     1.  If you where to go out and buy a magazine, what would be your prefered genre?

· Pop music

· R&B

· Rock/ Heavy metal

· Other

            Please specify   .....................

From question one, four people picked the rock/heavy metal option, six people choose the R&B option and the remaining ten picked the pop music option. I was glad to see that the genre of music magazine i wanted to do, was the one that people most liked. This has gave my me more confidence to go through with my decision of a new pop music magazine and begin to produce my publication plan and start the process of what i want my magazine to look like and the sort of topics i want  to inlcude.

2. How often would you say you go to buy a music magazine?

· Daily

· Twice a Week

· Weekly

· Monthly

· Rarely

· Never

From the results i gathered from question two i could tell that the majority of people went for the same option of buying a music magazine weekly with a result of fourteen people selecting it. Two people answered rarely, one person picked never and the remaining two choosing daily. Again, i can gather that in producing a magazine that comes out weekly rather monthly would possible do and sell better. This gives my magazine a fair chance of being succesful.

3.       Whats types of topics would be most likely inclined to want to read?

· Editorials

· Artist Interviews

· Reviews eg; music, music related films etc. 

· Other (please specify) .........................................................

The results i got from this question was a lot more varied. This was as six people choose artist interviews, another six people choose editorials and the other eight people choose the different types of reviews. Straight away i have learned from this that i want to to include at least two of the three if not all three. Even if two were basic and i concentrated on just one, at least i would be catering for a whole bunch of different people allowing my magazine to reach out to a bigger audience.

4. On average how much would you to expect to spend on a music magazine?

· £1.00-£2.00

· £2.00-£3.00

· £3.00-£4.00

· £4.00 +

For a weekly magazine, the average answer came out at the price of £2.00-£3.00. This was as fifteen of the people i asked selected this answer. Three picked £1.00-£2.00 and the other two picked £4.00+. For my magazine i think that between the £2.00-£3.00 margin is a respectable and cheap amount to ask for. I think that anything higher would be too much for a weekly magazine making people less inclined to want to buy it.

5. What colours would you like/expect a pop magazine to follow?

· Bright colours

· Sophisticated colours

· Dark colours

· Light pastels

Again, the people i concluded answers off choose the option of bright colours with tweleve people picking this option. Four others picked sophisticated colour and the remaining four people picked light colours. I think using bright colours would attract more people to the magazine as it would look better and stand out more on the shelf. However, if i was to use light or sophisticated colours, it would put the magazine at a disadvantage as it would look very boring.



Language analysis

      For a magazine, the language used is very important and crucial. This is as it allows us to conclude who exactly the target audience is. Every single word included has been idividually put there for a specific purpose such as showing how the techniques of puns etc are used on magazines to capture the readers attention. Also, it helps to examine how both image and text go together to product meaning. This all helps to add different effects to the magazine itself. Factors of language are things such as;

      Tone; When writers want to include different tones of writing in their article the normally have to ask themselves these three basic questions to gain purpose of their writing;
- Who am i aiming this at?
- Why am i writing this?
- What will the reader eventually want to learn, understand or think about when they have read the article?
In writing, tone is often shown through what the author feels than what the reader feels to show portray how the author feels about the topic. Tone can be sometimes confused with voice which is where the author shows their personality through their own writing.

      Style; With style, it refers to more of how the language is shown to what is actually written. Different styles would obviously change for different magazines under different genres. This is as they are each appealing to a unique target audience which are all different to one another. For example, a rock magazine such as 'Q' would have completely different language styles to the pop magazine 'Top  of the Pops'.

      Vocab; Vocabulary used in magazines go together with style, this is as they have to differ to different magazines to relate to the specific target audience. Words will have been carefully chosen to link themselves to the magazine which is beneficial to the reader as it makes sense and is not completely irrelevant.

      Forms of address; This is when the language is used to relate and connect with the reader. Connecting with the reader through language using  things such as rhetorical questions, will allow the reader to be apart of the magazine itself. This eventually will involve the reader in the magazines activities and then begin to make them start thinking.

     Register; Using a certain register in language is changed in different social settings. These types of different settings could be teenage slang, informative language, formal/informal langage etc. Changing the register in your magazine will again allow the differentation between different target audiences, making it more relevant and current to the magazine.

Magazine questionnaire.

Here is a questionnaire i have made to gather information to see just exactly what the public would want from the magazine i create. I thought doing such questionnaire would be some what crucial as it would help me gather a clearer understanding of what sort of magazine would be wanted and popular.

1.       If you where to go out and buy a magazine, what would be your prefered genre?

· Pop music

· R&B

· Rock/ Heavy metal

· Other

            Please specify   .....................

2. How often would you say you go to buy a music magazine?

· Daily

· Twice a Week

· Weekly

· Monthly

· Rarely

· Never

3.       Whats types of topics would be most likely inclined to want to read?

· Editorials

· Artist Interviews

· Reviews eg; music, music related films etc. 

· Other (please specify) .......................................................................................

4. On average how much would you to expect to spend on a music magazine?

· £1.00-£2.00

· £2.00-£3.00

· £3.00-£4.00

· £4.00 +

 

5. What colours would you like/expect a pop magazine to follow?

· Bright colours

· Sophisticated colours

· Dark colours

· Light pastels

I want to carry my questionnaire out on 15+
My questionnaire is quite basic as i didnt want to make it too long with unecessary questions. This is because as i aim to base my target audience around teenage/ younger youth, meaning i had to ensure they would be able to answer every possible question. After collecting my data, i will then analyse my questionnaire results on another post.

Potential target audience for my magazine.

   In todays world, a product such as a magazine, can not afford to not have a target audience as it is impossible to please everyone. However, just because there is a target market designed for your product it does not stop people outside your criteria from buying it. The factors i would have to take into account to work out my target audience are things such as;

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Income level
• Education
• Marital or family status
• Occupation 

And also;

• Personality
• Attitudes
• Values
• Interests/hobbies
• Lifestyles
• Behavior

      When I have looked and took all of these things into account i will have to ask myself will there be enough people to fit the criteria of my target and will they potentially make my magazine popular making the sales rise.

    To understand my disired target audience of teenage girls (15+), i have been looking into some previously popular pop music magazines such as the history of 'Top of the pops' and 'Smash hits'. I have found that typically the colours, cover lines, and young boy celebrity endorsements are aimed at younger generations, specifically girls. In order to make my magazine a successable, realistic piece, i will have to follow, or replicate some of the previous magazines uses of the codes and conventions. However, i would obviously have to ensure that is was different and unique so it wasnt samey samey. 

My own magazine with a current logo. (Top of the pops)

Here i have created my own mock up, pop magazine using a current magazine masthead 'Top of the pops'. I decided to go with a girly colour scheme of pinks, purples and oranges. i did this because the magazine is designed more for younger girls so i am trying to connect with this audience. Following the codes and conventions of a magazine i included a barcode, dateline, celebrity endorsement, many coverlines, a puff, a pug etc. With out some of these aspects the magazine would not look as real as it could look un-realistic.

Q magazine double page spread analysis.

Here i have analysed a double page spread from Q magazine. I like the layout with the big photos because they make the pages more asthetically pleasing. Also i like how the colour scheme of red is carried out throughout the three pages i have analysed, this also applies for the logo sign of the 'Q'. I would like to include these familiar characteristics on my own magazine.

Q magazine contents page analysis

Here is my analysis of a Q magazine contents page. Although i couldnt find the contents page to match the Q front cover i did, i still commented on the traditional aspects of a contents page and also the things i liked about it.

Q magazine front cover analysis

Here is my analysis of the front cover for Q magazine. I had to do a cover page, contents page and double page spread.