Media Coursework – Market Research

What magazines are published in the UK?

Magazine

Q Music Magazine is published by Bauer Media Group. Bauer publish a wide range of car, photography and gardening themed magazines amongst many others. Kerrang! is also published by Bauer Media Group, Europe's largest privately owned publishing group.BBC Music Magazine is published by the BBC, they also publish History, Good Food and a Top Gear magazine.

Q Magazine

Mission statement

“Kerrang! will ensure that we are constantly appealing to or spectrum of readers. From the younger teenager readers who are more open to different genres of rock music – from emo to thrash etc, to the readers who respect Kerrang! as an authority when it comes to our scene’s heritage bands. Each issue will include a balance of bands and scenes to guarantee that we’re providing for our readers’ need for variety and their passionate appetite for their favourite bands as well as their desire to be introduced to new music within our world.”

Mission Statement

“Our industry is changing fast and we want to be leading from the front. At our heart we will always be about editorial quality and content creation; it’s how we’ve built up some of the UK’s most successful magazines. Today we live in a truly connected world and it’s changing how people engage with our special interest brands.Our future success will revolve around using our own platforms to change the way people interact with the content brands they love. We’ll grow and deepen our relationships with our readers by being a brand-led business.”

Each issue has the same sophisticated format with the Q logo in the left corner and the majority of the time a long shot or medium close up of the celebrity featuring in, in the centre. Having a consistent format like this for each issue makes the magazine easily recognisable to existing readers but also makes it appealing to potential new readers.

Q magazine adopts a serif font in the Q title/logo. This is fitting as its target audience is approximately a late 20’s/ early 30’s category.

The theme of red is especially apparent in this issue of Cheryl Cole. The majority of the masthead is in large font in red, along with cover lines coloured red along with Q’s logo, Cheryl Cole also has red lipstick on to tie in with the red theme. This makes the issue stand out as red is an eye catching colour and colour coordination makes it more appealing.

Puff

Plug

Cover line

Q’s Tagline

“The Secrets of Coldplay” is an eye catching title and is suggestive that Q Magazine are close to the stars featuring in their magazines to get to personally know them and their secrets

Puff-The cover line here, “12 hot new artist we love” shows that existing readers value the opinion of Q magazine and that it is likely to be a key figure in the music industry.

The colour scheme on this particular issue with Coldplay featuring in the splash image has a multi coloured background, I think this is representative of Coldplay, being the main artist featuring in the issue, it sets a theme of indie/rock. This is also emphasised by the way Chris Martin is positioned in the long shot.

Puff – The suggestion of an opportunity to win something will attract readers as it gives them the incentive of a reward for buying the magazine

Masthead – the masthead is in bright white, in a blocky, harsh font. The font used is Kerrangs trademark masthead. This makes it easily recognisable to readers. Plug

Puff – Words such as “exclusive” appeal to potential readers and makes the magazine seem desirable

The left hand side of the magazine Is much busier than the right hand side as readers will start at the left of the magazine. Therefore the features of the magazine that are likely to appeal to potential readers are placed on the left hand side.

The subject of the image is partly blocking the masthead and is saluting. The caption underneath the image is “we salute the return of 30 seconds to mars” this may imply that Kerrang respect 30 Seconds To Mars as a band and as he is saluting back, it may be a gesture of respect towards Kerrang”

The image of Adele dominates this contents page as it takes up the majority of the page it is the main focus. This may signify that Adele is the main feature in this particular issue of Q magazine

The contents page follows the same sophisticated layout as the Q front cover with the Q logo situated on the left third of the magazine. It also continues the red theme with important headers highlighted in red. This will draw the readers’ attention to these sections as the red stands out against the white background.

The page numbers for each section within the features are easily identified as they are in a bold, red font. There is a clear title in bold, block capitals with a brief description underneath.The Women In Music feature has a grey background making it stand out from the rest of the text. It draws attention to it and also separates it from the other features of the page.

This image is much smaller than the image of Adele which may imply that it is less important as it is less of a focus

The capitalised “L” printed across the text is Q’s signature mark used when interviewing or writing about a particular celebrity. They print the letter of their name. The letter is in red font which continues Q’s colour scheme of red, black and grey.

The image of Lady Gaga is quite seductive but funky at the same time, possibly a representation of her personality. The image is in black and white, contrasting with the red “L” and following the traditional colour scheme of Q magazine.

The font of the text is simple and basic which may be suggestive of the mature and sophisticated nature of the magazine and its readers