Evaluation - What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine product and why?

Magazine distribution is very important because this is how my magazine gets to my target audience. It is important that the magazine is distributed by a company who have distributed a similar style magazine before and so have experience of marketing and distributing a magazine like my own, for any chance of a successful magazine.

As my magazine is aimed at a mass market, it is important for me to choose a publisher who has previously sold magazines like mine and who is quite popular with the market, publishing well known magazines in the genre op Pop or Rap.

A good example of the institution I would like my magazine to get Published is Crown Publishing Group. It has a history of publishing a variety of different genres of magazines. An example of the types of magazine they release is 'Billboard'. Billboard is an international news magazine devoted to music and the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis. Billboard is a perfect example of the style of magazine I want to publish. This is because they do all sorts of different genres, including my chosen two, which is always very successful. This gives me the impression that my magazine will be very successful and will  really interest the readers of Billboard, because it is the same style, but actually features more and has a twist of two genres, so my target audience can enjoy more for less.
By joining Crown Publishing Group I think it would help my magazine gain recognition as they are fast becoming on of the number one companies for magazine distributors. 


As my magazine is for a younger market, I would like it to be stocked and distributed to shops such as WHSmith and HMV. This is a good place to stock my magazine as, these retail shops are normally where my target would go and buy magazines from. I wouldn't really wt it to go to big supermarkets, such as: Tescos, Morrisons, Asda, ect. This is because supermarkets like these are for a more older target audience and might not sell as well as selling it in a actual music shop, where my target audience would most likely be.

Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The target audience of my magazine is for a wider social group of teenagers both gen. Therefore I featured artists that were teenagers themselves, making it more appealing to my target audience as they would like to see artists of their own age feature in magazines.

My magazine is aimed at both genders as it is filled with things for both male and female artists loved by both genders. The music genre for my magazine covers both areas of pop and rap, as it focuses on new artists and current news from current popular artists in the interest of teenagers.

My magazine also represents the social group of teenagers both genders by the layout of the text in the front cover, contents page and dps. I didn't structure the text in straight columns going across the bottom or down the side because I feel it would turn my targeted social group off, as they don't want to be seeing formal structured text in a magazine, as it is more of a higher age range who actually like this in magazines and like the layout in neat and formal columns. To keep my target audience interested and want to read on, I made the text going in different directions, in both, my front cover and contents page, just to make it look more appealing and informal, like my audience want. I did however use columns in my DPS, but made it more appealing than just straight columns. I did this by making the text go round the model on in the main image. Doing this made my magazine much more successful. This is because it makes my magazine stand out a lot more and gives it a informal and effective look, as well as now looking like a magazine aimed at my particular social group.

The colour scheme is another way I represented my target social group, as I used colours that both genders would like to see in a magazine. I used red, brown and salmon. I feel these colours really appeal to my audience, as they reflect on each other, having a positive effect on the page, making it stand out more. By the colours contrasting so well with each other, it actually makes the text more outstanding and a lot more eye catching, attracting my audience.

The colours on my DPS represent my social group as young, creative and positive. This is because I used a range of different colours, with the main one being bright blue, it connotes that my readers are young and very out going.
 
The magazine content is focused around what my target audience wants, such as names of big stars, competitions, festivals and celebrity battles. However, my magazine does not cover any rock music as I found out that, from the research I conducted, it was not popular within the teenage community; therefore it is not featured in my magazine.

I noticed that most pop magazines are all cluttered with images, however their target audience are, stereotypically females aged 10-15. I also noticed that rap magazines were cluttered with text, however their audience are, stereotypically males, aged 15-19. As my target audience is both genders aged 15-19 I added a twist of the way that both magazines are laid out, creating a unique magazine that both gender at my chosen age range could enjoy.

The title of my magazine 'HOT OR NOT' represents this wide social group, as it is something quite current and informal, but also something that I believe fits both genre of Pop and Rap, that my audience would like.

My product represents the social group I'm aiming for, by the competition on the contents page. It is a chance to win tickets to Wireless festival, which feature both Pop artists and Rap artists, from Justin Timberlake and Conor Maynard, to Macklemore and Jay Z. This competition is hugely in the interest of the social group I am aiming at.

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My magazine is aimed at a mass audience. This is mostly because the two genres of music I am mixing together (Pop and Rap), have the largest audience compared to others, like Rock or classical. I made sure this magazine would appetize a mass audience by adding the names of big artists on the front cover, such as: Tulisa, Eminem, Justin Bieber, Macklemore, etc.

People who would read my magazine would be the huge population of teenagers aged 15-19. The reason why it is this specific age group, is because the magazine I created is a very modern and informal, which I feel would appeal more to that group and not particularly anyone older or younger. I decided to make my target audience aged 16-19 because I am in that age group and I would know what people my age want in a magazine, which really worked out to my advantage.

This magazine is aimed at both genders. This is because it contains features of both, Pop and Rap. Pop genre being aimed at females aged 10-15 and Rap being aimed at Males 16-19. By deciding to mix both genres together, the target audience for my magazine had a wider spread, as both genders can now enjoy the content of my magazine. I interviewed a 19 year old male, who constantly reads Rap magazines and he told me that the Pop icon Justin Bieber was his guilty pleasure. This magazine can allow him to fulfil all his needs as it will contain content of both Pop and Rap artists. Saying this, I also interviewed a 16 year old Female who told me she had a guilty pleasure of the King of Rap Eminem. Again this magazine will fulfil her needs with the content inside.

My target audience's interests would include: Playing Xbox, having nights out with friends, listening to music, going to the gym, watching football, going to gigs and festivals, watching horror/action films, quite into their fashion and hugely into social networking.

The lifestyle of my target audience would be a student, still in school, who may or may not have a part time job. The socio-economic group my target audience fits into would be E group, this is because they have no experience in work, as they are still studying at school, although, for those who have part time jobs, would fit into the D group.

I imagine my target audience to be nicely dressed, quite fashionable. The female, I imagine would wear nice tight fitted clothes; shorts, dresses, skirts and mostly always in nice heels. I imagine the male to be wearing top branded clothes, like Calvin Klein and Gio gio. Mostly always wearing fashionable jeans and really expensive pumps or trainers.

Questionnaire for my Pop/Rap music magazine

Questionnaire for my Pop/Rap music magazine - This is one of many questionnaire I created and asked my target audience. I didn't need to ask their age as I made sure to only ask people within the ages of 16-19.

Gender
Male:
Female:

What sort of music to you listen to most?
Pop: 6
Rap: 8
Rock: 2
Classic: 0
Dubstep: 1
Country: 2

How often do you buy music magazines?
Once a week: 4
Twice a week: 6
Once a month: 5
Once in a while: 3
Never: 1

Where do you usually purchase magazines?
Newsagents: 3
Supermarkets: 3
WHSmith: 8
HMV: 5
Other: 0

What are you hobbies/Interests?
Football: 4
Shopping: 2
Xbox: 5
Listening to music: 4
Going to festivals: 3
Other(Plese state): 1 - Sleeping

What is your favorite colour?
Red: 12
Blue: 5
Pink: 2
Purple: 0
Black: 0
Other: 0

Who is your favorite artist?
Eminem: 7
Cher Lloyd: 1
Macklemore:4
Tulisa: 3
Lil Wayne: 1
Other: 3 - One Direction, Tyga, Muse

Moodboard

This is a mood board that wraps up and summarised my two genres of Rap and Pop, as well as my target audience, that are both genders aged 16-19.

Final Double Page Spread for my music magazine

This is my final double page spread. I decided to chance it dramatically from the one in my draft, as I wanted a more unique and appealing style, rather than sticking an artist right in the middle, I decided I wanted the artist to be more on one side but still have a part of her leg going across the page. I did this because I feel it looks effective, much more eye catching and I feel it would hugely appeal to my target audience.

With the text, I decided not to put it in columns going down the side of the page, like a typical magazine would do, I decided to make it look more interesting and appealing, so I made it go round the artist, which I feel has a unique effect and makes the dps much more captivating and make the reader want to read the article

I did the text in red, as I feel that this colour really stands out with the background, making the reader really want to read the article, without getting bored. The mixture of colours of the text on the DPS, I feel are a really good combination as they go really well together and compliment each other nicely, even the quotation colour fits really well with the whole DPS.

The pictures on the side are there to make the page more interesting and appealing to the audience, as I feel that if I only used the one main image, it wouldn't have been as appealing to my audience as much and may even make the page look a bit boring and uninteresting.

FINAL contents page of my music magazine

This is my final contents page for my music magazine. I decided to stick with one main long shot image. I  also decided to change a few features from my draft. I changed the colours from just one colour (red) to the three main colours of my front cover. 

I started my contents page by editing my main image, and again before I added anything to this image I got the same two people from my targeted audience to tell me what they thought about my draft, what I could do to improve, ect. They pointed out all the good things that I should keep and have on my final contents page, which were, the fire on both ends of   the page, as it fits on the page nicely and makes it more appealing to them and also the pictures going down the side of the magazine and the actual structure of the page, which really made them want to read on.

They both agreed that there was too much going on, on the page but didn't actually tell me how I could tone it down a little, so I didn't put an image with every bit of text, instead I decided to just change the colour and actually keep it as plain as I could so it doesn't look like there is too much on one page.

This time it was actually the 15 year old female said that she would read this magazine, judging by the contents page as she described it as being very brightly coloured and appealing to her interests and is something she generally would read. However the 19 year old male described it as being too feminine for his liking and would like the colours toned down. I took all these comments on board and tried to make the contents to both of their interests and so that it would appeal to both genders aged 15-19.

They both told me that they thought that my contents was aimed at girls, aged 10-15 as it looks cluttered and hugely over the top, just what girls at that age are interested in. That was not at all who I was aiming my magazine at, so I made huge changes from my draft to my final contents page, to a more mature, but not too formal page, toning down the colours and gave it more of a darker vibe, appealing more towards the Rap genre, but still giving it a twist of pop.


Another feature I have kept the same is the Wireless Festival logo on the front cover. This is because it is a recognisable and eye catching feature which will draw in a wider audience, and people who see this may buy the magazine just for the Wireless Festival section, as they may be interested to try and win tickets or even hear more about the line up.

Overall I am happy with my final contents page as it now appeal more to my target audience, it has its own unique layout and I like how the whole page fits together nicely; there's not too much going on but there's no empty space, which would make the page look incredibly boring and not very appealing.