Research Institutions - Bauer Industries

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands

I started my industry research by looking at the websites of different companies, the first I looked at was Bauer Media.

The website for this company is very modern. It is all purple/blue and white, all of the buttons are the same/similar shades of an indigo shade which all work together.

The first thing visible is the long list of Bauers existing products, it's an extensive list and while looking though this list I found that they are the producers of Kerrang! magazine which is a rock magazine, quite similar genre and target audience to the magazine I will be creating and so they will not want another product similar to an existing one, so this is not the right company for my magazine production.

However, the amount this companies products are advertised and how wide an audience they reach is something I should be aware of for my magazine as many of their products can be found online, in apps, in newspapers/magazines, on television or even a combination of different mediums. If I include this idea then I can reach a larger audience and instead of being a regional magazine, it could turn into a national product or even global with the right marketing.

Research Institutions - Egmont Industries

Their Website:
http://www.egmont.com/about-egmont/

Egmont industries has a variety of magazines already available, however there is none that fall into the category of magazine I have chosen to make and there is also no existing Egmont product available for my particular target audience.

Their website says their main focus is to influence more children to read and enjoy reading books and magazines, from toddlers to teenagers, I think this would be a suitable company to publish my magazine as they want to appeal to teenagers and that is my target audience, older teenagers.

The company sell over one million books and one million magazines a month so I know my magazine would be well promoted and in turn earn a lot of sales which would mean I could improve the quality of the magazine.

The company also regularly do research to see what children and teenagers are interested in recently and also keep up with important events and news to keep children educated and aware.

The photo along side shows just a few of the magazines run by Egmont Industries.

Egmont industries own a range of social media accounts which allow potential audience members to interact with the company and their products. The social media they use are among the same accounts that I would want to include for my magazine to allow the magazine to stay modern and interactive while allowing readers to keep up to date with the latest news and releases while waiting for the monthly issue to be released. Along side is a screen capture from the Egmont website which shows their social media links. These allow a range of ages to access them as the older generation audience may not have Instagram and Twitter and the younger audience may not have a LinkedIn account or use their emails frequently.

Egmont Industries is based in the Nordic region but they distribute worldwide which would be a benefit for my magazine as I could not only reach a regional audience but also distribute my magazine globally which would be an added profit and ensure a larger success rate for the magazine. Egmont develops apps, interactive games, digital communities, books and magazines for children and young people and I want to add a slightly older audience to this as they have a gap in their company for a rock magazine and this magazine could be an opportunity to expand their audiences and also their product range. 

Rock - Magazine Double Page Spread 4

This double page spread is from the same magazine as the Pierce The Veil magazine cover, this is the article based on the cover story. The article is from Rocksound magazine, this is identified by the mastheed featured in the corner of every page in each issue which has become a convention.

Synergy is created as Vic Fuentes is wearing the same hoodie in both the front cover and this double page spread in one of the photos. The other pictures are just simple band photos to go around the large amount of text. There is only three photos on this page and while it does work for this article I would like to use more pictures on my double page spread as the amount of text on this one is excessive and it would bore me if I were to see this in a magazine. The text used is also very small so that means there is more of it, and it also makes it a little harder for the target audience to be able to read the writing so I would like to make the text on my double page spread a little bigger so it's easier to read.

There is a lot of white space which is better when there is large amounts of text so it is not distracting when reading but there is a slight pattern behind some of the text which is a more translucent version of the same colour as the bold pink text. This colour is also in Vic's jumper and this colour is used throughout, like the same colours were used throughout the front cover. The rest of the text is black like the clothing of the band members on the photo above the article. The use of only Vic wearing bright colours suggests he is the more important member (as he is the lead singer and also plays instruments for the band)

The white interview pull quote on the picture is the same colour as the background of the pages, this colour is used to show through the bright colours of the picture. 

In all the pictures the band look really happy, carefree and themselves, which although seems like it would defy Dyer's theory of representation, they have still been directed to act like this and therefore supporting Dyer.

Rock - Magazine Cover Analysis 4

This is a magazine of the same genre that I would like to use for my own music magazine, I chose to analyse this particular magazine as it has one of my favourite bands on the front cover and the colour theme is effective and could appeal to females as most punk rock magazines are mainly aimed at males and I would like mine to be a female based magazine.

The purple, is mainly knows as a rather feminine colour but as it is a dark, more blue based purple, it has turned from a typical female colour to a darker, more rock styled colour, this is why it works well with this genre of magazine. The purple in this article is used throughout the cover as part of the article titles, the free download available with this issue and also in the housestyle of the masthead (the masthead changes colour with each issue dependant on the other features of the cover but it is always in the same place and font).

I usually dislike the white backgrounds on magazines as they create a lot of white space and make the cover look less imaginative but this works well as most of the background is covered with the text or with pictures and it also makes the masthead stand out even more which is one of the most important parts of the magazine to me, this is why I want my magazine masthead to look bold and stand out.

The rest of the colours used are the colours which are on the jumper of the lead person in the band shown on the cover, Vic Fuentes. His jacket is tie dyed and the green, red, blue and yellow in his jacket are also used as banners, article titles and pugs/puffs on the cover. The black banner along the top is linked to the black clothing of the other band members.

The cover shows Pierce The Veil, who are a rock band but have some softer rock songs and some more punk rock songs which makes them ideal for the cover of this magazine. They are dressed in their usual attire with no heavy make up or over grooming, this defies Richard Dyers theory of representation as they are not being made out to be whatever will sell or what the producers want them to be? they are represented as themselves and they are keeping their own identity.

Along with the photographer of Pierce The Veil, there is eight more photos, all smaller by a long way but they are still strongly noticeable and they all advertise a certain feature that's in the magazine. For example, the photo of Oli Sykes is representing the article about his band, Bring Me The Horizon and the six photos along the top show the posters that are available in this issue of Rocksound.

Research Institutions - D.C. Thompson Co Ltd

Contents Page Analysis 3

This magazine cover is one of the best ones I have seen as I love that it is mainly pictures so the reader doesn't get bored with the amount of text, the text is just the article titles, page numbers and a brief summary of the contents of each article.

The pictures represent the genre of the magazine as the bands/artists shown are all rock/punk singers and they are dressed in the same way they usually would, which is how the magazine has modelled them which shows Richard Dyers theory of 'a star is an image not a real person' as they have been positioned and dressed to sell this magazine.

The same sanserif font is used all the way through the contents, except for the masthead which is serif font and very bold and larger than the rest of the text.

The article titles are bigger than the description and the titles are also in red whereas the descriptions are in black along with the page numbers.

The colour theme of black and red is used throughout the contents as these colours further highlight the rock theme as these have become signs of a rock genre.

Contents Page Analysis 2

This contents page is from the popular teenage magazine 'Top Of The Pops'. The masthead is subtly displayed by showing the front cover on the contents. This magazine, although aimed at both genders, is mainly aimed at females, as shown by the vibrant pink which is a consistent feature throughout the contents page. Pink is commonly known as more of a feminine colour which is why it is used so much through the details in the page. The pink is used in a banner across the top where the page title is written in white, the san-serif font used is swirly and girly and will more attract a female audience as this is the type of font teenage girls would typically use, it also looks as though it could be a girls handwriting which makes it more personal. The pink is also used for most of the page numbers as it is a very bright colour and so will demand the audiences attention and therefore create more chances of the reader looking at those articles. Another way the pink is used is to shadow the title boxes of all the categories on the contents, this breaks up some of the white space because there is a lot of space that is white with no colour, even if there is text covering it.

Red is also used for some of the page numbers for the features shown on the front cover which is shown on the contents. The articles that the red page numbers point to are ones where male celebrities are mentioned, this is because red is more of a masculine colour but it also signifies love and hotness which would be how the majority of the girls that the magazine is aimed at would see these celebrities. The red colour used also links to the bright red of the jacket that Zayn Malik (who was at this time a member of One Direction) who is also an attractive male celebrity.

  

 

The red page numbers are also highlighted in a yellow colour, as shown above. The other articles around the contents page which are highlighted are those which also mention male celebrities. This shows they are trying to separate the articles that would probably only interest girls to those which may interest boys. The yellow used to highlight this text is also the same yellow used in Selena Gomez's top on the front cover creating synergy to link the pages together. This use of Selena Gomez would attract a male based audience as she is a very attractive modern star.

 

The features in the magazine that the publisher feels are the most important or will get the most attention are more prominent to the reader as they are the ones which have pictures to accompany their article titles and their page numbers are bigger than the rest of the text. They are also separate from the rest of the articles on the contents as most are in a list under category headings but the main features are scattered around the page. For example below is two screen captures of the contents page, one shows some normal articles in a list and one shows a main feature.

The main feature is larger as it is about One Direction, one of the biggest bands in the world and they are very popular with this magazines target audience which is why the producer will have thought to have made the image of them bigger and given the article more importance. To give the main articles more attention it is also featured in one of the lists. 

The article name of 'One Direction get flirty' is also sure to attract female attention therefore securing the target audience.

By separating the articles into categories it makes it so much easier for the reader to be able to find things that would appeal to them to read. The different categories are used in the same way in every issue of 'Top Of The Pops' and so this has become a recognisable convention of this brand. The categories are all things that teenagers are interested in like fashion and gossip so this will again secure the target audience identity.

This is something I would be highly likely to use in my own magazine as teenagers would get bored reading an entire contents page if they do not have an interest in all of the articles and this is likely to happen as not every article will please every reader.