AS Media Coursework Main Task - Analysis of existing magazines

As I have now established my target audience for my music magazine, I am now going to start developing ideas for the magazine itself. To help me do this I am going to an analysis of existing magazines of the same genre (rock/pop/indie).

I am going to analyse two magazine covers, one contents page and one double page spread:

This is a front cover of NME magazine from February 2008. On the cover there is a Sans Serif typeface making it have a relaxed informal 'feeling', which is good as it's would attract their demographic factors of their audience which is of young male adults as they want that 'cool' feeling.
The cover has incorporated lots of pictures to draw the reader in and makes the article seem more exciting.
There are pull quotes from the body of the text which make the reader want to read more about the article, especially if the quotes are dramatic (such as, "I was sick before going onstage at Wembley").
On this front cover, there is a feature listed as '569 UK Gigs Listed' which reflects that they know who their target audience is, as, in their media pack states that their audience enjoys going to gigs, so, obviously this would attract the target audience.
The use of colour on this page gives a relaxed feel as there is no dramatic colouring, which I feel would attract the target audience of young males as they would probably read this magazine to chill out and relax, and not worry about dramatic things. Even though the target audience consists of social groups ABC1, there is no intellectual language used on the front cover, it is all very informal, this is probably because the magazine is a young mans 'break' from the world. The masthead is at the top of the page, in red, which makes it bold, even though the rest of the text is in more relaxed blues and yellow colours.
The main image used to go with the main article, is a very relaxed picture of a band which give off that cool, humorous, care free attitude which a young male audience would have and appreciate in their leisure time. The overall feel of the magazine cover is of a colloquial style.

I am now going to analyse another magazine cover - Mojo Magazine:

Mojo magazine's demographic factors are young males, aged between 16 - 30 in social groups ABC1.
The use of colour on this magazine cover is very basic, there are 3 main colours, black (for the masthead) red for the background, and white for the text. I think that this is good as it is basic yet affective as it is more of an upmarket magazine (attracting ABC1) and doesn't give off a 'tacky' feeling to it.

As the target audience is males in social groups ABC1, the typeface is Sans Serif, and as its a music magazine, it doesn't want to seem to formal as this would make the reader feel like they couldn't 'relax' and although they may also read something like the financial times magazine which would have Serif typeface, this is a totally different genre and the reader want would to get a different feel between Financial Times magazine (also as they have the same social group audience, the age would probably be different) and Mojo. The language used on the magazine cover is overall informal, but with exceptions with words such as 'triumphant' being used.

The main image being used for the headline article takes up the whole page and is a medium close up, and has a angry dominating expression on their face, which goes with the main flash and the subhead 'Heroin, God...And everything'.

I feel that Mojos overall design of its cover page is effective and attractive to their target audience as it is informal and easy to read, which I feel their target audience of young males, either in full time education or work, would appreciate in their leisure time.

I am now going to do an analysis of an NME contents page:

This contents page on NME magazine has a very simple colour scheme to it, with the main colours being black, white and red (similar to NME's front cover). The pictures used on this page go with a magazine article (which helps to attract the reader to the article). Again, similar to NME's front cover, the typeface is of Sans Serif which gives the reader a more relaxed informal feeling to the magazine. The language used is informal, which again gives off a relaxed feeling.

I am now going to analyse a double page spread of a magazine:

This double page spread, from which I have taken from NME magazine has alot of information on it, but also has a large picture which takes up most of the fist page, which gives the reader more interest in what they are reading about as they can visualise it in their head.

Again, the colours used on this double page spread are simple to the ones used on NME's front cover and contents page, with it being simple, probably not to distract the audience from what they are reading. (with the colour scheme being black, white and blue).

The main articles text is in a Sans Serif typeface, but the article heading is in a Serif typeface which makes it stand out to the audience as it is different to any other type of text inside the magazine (it gives a big impact). The overall magazine design is relaxed with masculine colours which would probably attract their target audience even more, as, it is mainly aimed at men, and the majority of men wouldn't want to read a magazine with came accross as feminine, e.g. with a pink font colour.