RESEARCH

ANALYSIS FRONT COVER

{Buzz words and flash : catch reader’s attention

Masthead : make people aware of which magazine they look at, use brand loyalty and attract primary audience

Main image : artistic make up, close up which highlight the gaze of LaRoux as she looks at straight, to have an eye contact with the audience. Our eyes are attracted by her own eyes, which makes this image powerful.

Callout : sentence of the interview in order to make people wonder why she means by this sentence, and so make them want to read more.

Plugs : what other bands are inside, to target a wider audience ( and not just people who are interested by LaRoux).

Coverline : Tell the main article in the magazine, highlighting the number, to show that there is a lot inside to read.

Puff: here to show readers that this issue is special, and so that they would want it

Attract consumers with famous people

{Flash with plugs inside other names that may appeal to a wider audience

Header: over important article in the magazine

Masthead : present the brand, in the background, in order to not hide the singer and make her takea wide space on cover.

Main image : using famous and beautiful pop star to attract consumers (flowers : connotation of extreme femininity, the pink background emphasises this impression womanly perfect beauty)

Cover line : make people aware of who is on cover and that the main article is an interview of her, targeting her fans

The magazine proposes a game to win a bounce back year, with a marketing willing.

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Masthead , with a red and bloody theme font ( to be merged into the main image), shows that sometimes you can slightly change your masthead to make it more suitable with main image.

Main image, bloody and scary, suit to the genre of the magazine

Props used in order to add more fear and horror into the cover, use of connotations : skull and the sharp knife for the death.

Chocking sentence who makes us want to know what is it about, and catch directly the audience’s attention.

A coverline which explains why the cover is so bloody, and shows the name of the band, which seems provocative, and so interesting for a young audience.

{Flash to catch people’s attention

Coverline, attract young consumers who are modern and known as really interested by social network websites.

Masthead, the name is the one of a cult band : use their name to sellCoverline, let us know

who is on cover. They call him “rock god”, which is an exaggeration :, it shows a young mode of address and insists on his international star status.

Plugs : Other articles inside, which are just names of famous people : they use them to attract a wider audience. Main image,

shows Chris Martin with cool, fashion and young clothes , consumers can identify to him or admire his style

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Masthead, presents the brand, but on the foreground (they prefer insist on the main image, as it shows a really famous band’s singer).

Header, really big so important, useOf “hot” : young mode of address to be closed of their consumers and also raise their curiosity

Plugs : Other articles in the magazine, always famous people to attract more fans

Main article, about a legendary band so it can attract a lot of people. The sentence “ won’t be killed “ referred to their career that is still alive despite all these years , and so adds more interest to the article.

Main image in harmony with the sentence, despite all their obstacles they are still there. As it is a band which passed through the years, Q expects targeting an audience which can be young and less young as their fans are from 15 to 40.

ANALYSIS CONTENTS PAGE

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Rolling Stones

Column with all other articles. It directly highlights who and what is inside by the bold titles, and the red stripes create a clear and organised presentation .The colour scheme is predominately white and red and there are five image to make it easier to read.

The cover article is separated from the others, in order to be easy for people who buy the magazine for its cover to find it .

Let people know about the website, hence they can have a wider range of opportunities to consume the brand.

Plot : consumers can participate and so it gives them the impression that the magazine is interested about what they think and make them feel that they are a part of a community .

Use of buzz words as “ exclusive” to appeal to the audience and show Rolling Stone as a frontrunner and show that their unique selling point is that it show articles that you cannot find somewhere else.

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Billboard

Column about the charts, Billaboard introduces inside its contents some information that could interest its audience.

Images here are information about the articles inside the magazine. They can be useful for people who may know better the faces of stars than their names.

“Contents” sign, black and block letters. The black font and the white background make it the most noticeable word in the page.

The bottom of the page is consecrated to events online. Billboard here keeps in mind that its audience is axed on technologies and that it is important to place internet links on the magazine’s pages.

Contents are separated into four categories, this organisation makes it a lot easier for readers to find the article they are looking for.

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Q

As the main image totally capture the attention, the other images are simpler and small.

Features are presented in column, the colour scheme is red, white and rock as it is for many rock magazines. Here, instead of organising articles by categories, Q places them by bands, to allow the bands’ fans to directly look at the articles that they are interested in.

The main image here takes an important space in the page. The number of the page is also really big. Q chooses a graphically interesting and amazing drawing . This strong image is really strong and catchy , hence monopolizes the readers’ attention.

Pull out : « must » is used as an exaggeration and it gives an impression of importance , that you have to know it for your culture and your knowledge of the latest and hippest bands.

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Metal Hammer Here, the image which

illustrate an article represent a man doing a F*** with his hands. There are no many magazines which allow themselves such an attitude, but it at least show a willing to be closed to its audience, as it is a young and rebel attitude, as their consumers.

Metal Hammer does not really belong to my genre, but it still respect some conventions that I can use. The Gothic theme font is a connation of metal music, and hence directly shows the audience the genre of the magazine.

Finally, the other images illustrating the articles, represent people with a dark and metal appearance, follow the idea that we have about metal bands.

The colour scheme is black, white and red, which are all stereotypical colours of the metal genre ( e.g red lets you think about blood, or passion) but could also be applicable for a rock genre, as it is really used by rock bands for their logos or CD cover ( e. g the famous Rolling Stone’s mouth).

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NME

The title here, highlighted by the black font and the block letters on a white background, shows that the magazine is a weekly magazine. This information is given for new readers, in case they do not know the magazine, and lets them understand that they could buy it each week.

The magazine uses some callouts, instead of organise article by categories or bands’ names. It is an original way to present it, and in addition to the wide number of images, it makes the page be more attractive and could be nicer to read for a young audience

Subscription offer from the beginnning of the magazine, to directly offer to its new readers to become a weekly consumer. It target a primary audience. So if the new reader is not subscribe yet, it lets him know how and how much will it cost to do it , and make it a discount that could convince him to buy.

ANALYSIS DOUBLE SPREAD

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Hanging Indent to begin the article by catching the attention. The font is simple, so nice to read. The colour scheme of the page is white, black and pink, which automatically gives a really girly impression, and so we would look at her as a real and feminine woman.

They introduced a quote of the artist inside the article. The most important words are highlighted in pink. The sentence is catchy, and makes us want to read this sentence in the context to really understand what she means.

Huge and funny image. She wears a sexy costume but with her mickey’s ears, it seems that she can also be funny. Moreover, this image can let readers know what her concerts look like, and so could give them the desire to go to see her.

Graphic features: Images which represent her in her private life. They make fans feel closer to her, as they can see her in her intimacy and so know her better.

Billboard

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Metal Hammer

Title : blood. It is a connotation of metal genre. « Baptized in blood » is also a sentence a bit provocative, as it mocks the religion. It directly targets the audience, which always see any forms of provocation as interesting and cool.

Flash : with fire. It shows the energy of the band, it is linked with the word “ hot”. You can understand that they are , as the fire, hot, strong and unstoppable.

The Main image shows the band, jumping in the air. Their appearance are suitable to the metal genre: tatoos, young clothes, beards, and their attitude is rebel and young to once again attract the audience as it can identify with them.

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NME

The image is shown on the whole page, to be sure that fans when they are looking for this article can find it easily. The bands are dressed in young and casual clothes, we have the feeling that they could be our friends, or us, as they look like normal young people. With these type of costumes, the aim is to make people identify with them, and also allow them to easily copy their style.

The title is enormous. The black font, the size of the words and the white background assure it to be the most noticeable thing on the second page. It competes with the main image, hence when we see these two pages, our gaze is attracted first by the image and the title.

On the page, there are not a lot of words. It seems that the magazine understands that its audience is young, and that they have to present their articles in a way that readers want to read, so it has to be clear with some drops caps to improve the presentation.

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Q

The main image is huge, and really sexy ( she is half naked) . The black and white make us think about fashion picture and make the image look professional and beautiful. This two distinct impressions on this picture can attract an mixed audience, boys for the sexiness and girls for the aesthetic aspect of the image.

Drops cap : a huge “L” is placed at the middle of the article. It seems to represent Lady Gaga, and make it easier for one of her fans to find the article inside the magazine, as it would directly catch the eye.

Header : «  Lady Gaga », which is a really famous name among young people nowadays, hence the article appeal to a wide audience. The difference of font for the two words, lady and GAGA, seems to highlight why she choose this name : for her two personalities : a lady, smart and well behaved but also gaga, crazy . The magazine plays with this two contrasting words and manages to make us wonder about this name.

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Rolling StonesReally sexy picture (she is wearing underwear and has a straight and intense glaze) . It catches the attention, and plays with her sexiness to attract consumers. The place is a kitchen, an usual place, to make her seem like a normal girl and let fans see her in her private and daily life.

Sort of introduction in the middle of the article. “Underneath her brassiness” is highlighted by the size of the font, it shows that the point of this DPS is to make her seem normal and much more than just a hot and untouchable star.

Drops cap : makes it easier to read for the consumer and keeps a clean and simple presentation. The article is shared in columns, in the same willing to organise the article in a way which make readers want to read it.