Task 6: Magazine pitch

Task 6: Layout plan of magazine

Task 5: Newsstand task/Distribution of magazines

I visited WHSmith to find a magazine newsstand. I came across this newsstand where the magazines were laid out orderly according to what type they were. The images above show the music magazine section that I looked at. I realised that the magazines were ordered according to their genres. For example Rock and Q magazines are put next to each other, which show the competition between them and how important it is for the magazines to stand out.

·        Country magazine on the top part of the newsstand stands out with its Unique Selling point (USP) as it has a larger masthead with a different layout and has been placed in the front of other magazines on the same row, catching attention and reinforcing itself.

·        I can also see that more of the popular magazines with large mastheads are placed in the front whereas the less popular magazines are placed at the back, showing that the magazines behind have used larger mastheads and different colours that can catch the attention of buyers in order rather than the ones in the front that are much more recognizable and easy in persuading the buyer to buy them.

·        Some of the cover lines on the magazines at the front and the cover star images also catch attention and are visible enough for the buyers to see.

·        More popular magazine companies have their tag lines on the borders of the newsstand. For example NME magazine has their masthead printed out with their tag line “Bringing the best in new music”, which can encourage buyers to have a look at the magazine and look for it, even if it’s behind other magazines or in front of them.

·        Magazines such as Mixmag and Terrorizer on the bottom part of the newsstand have free gifts such as CD’s of the cover stars which catch more attention and may be more encouraging for buyers as it can be seen as USP, because most of the other magazines do not have CD gifts.

·        Hammer magazine behind has a large masthead with a golden colour, which is a USP as it is the only magazine with a large masthead and gold colour. It can catch attention easily even though it is behind a lot of other popular magazines.

Magazine distribution Magazines are published by what we call institution publishers. They produce various different magazines and have small independent publishers that publish other magazines. They deal with the shape and design of magazines, what it contains and many more. They also control the advertising of the magazines. Advertising is important to publishers as they have a lot of financial contributions to the profit the publishers make. There are four main publishers in the UK. These are EMAP, IPC, Conde Nast and NatMag. These publishers use circulation figures which include sales levels and other related information which helps them and supports them on the number of issues produced for each magazine and which locations they should be distributed in.

Sale or ReturnThe Sale or Return system is used by many publishers today. WHSmith is an example of aretailer that is in agreement to the Sale or Return system. The magazine/newspaper distributors who work for specific publishers are people who run this system. It is one of the oldest but still the most popular method publisher’s use. The way it works is that the distributors send out copies to retailers. All of these copies are expected to be sold, however if less are sold from the expected number, the copies are sent back to the distributor. They are retuned with no costs involved to the retailer. This system has many benefits and drawbacks to it. It is beneficial to the retailers as for them there aren’t anything being wasted or any risks involved. There are also no costs that are under risk which is beneficial to the retailers. More of the drawbacks are to the distributors/publishers. It is a wasteful and expensive process that has a large negative impact on the environment, and is very risky.

Distribution networksPublishers use distribution networks after all the magazine ideas are put altogether. The network of distributors deal with what happens to the magazines and each step it goes through until the last step where they are placed in newsstands and where they are sold in. Magazines are first took to the regional distributors. These distributors take the magazines to the shops/markets/newsagents who place them on newsstands according to the information they have been given by the regional distributors. The placement of the magazines are very important as they can determine how much of them are sold and if they are successful enough or not.

Direct distribution (Freemiums)Direct distribution is another popular method after the Sale or Return system. Free issues of magazines are given to people or freemium versions of magazines are produced. These magazines are given to the public more in the areas that are busy of places such as stations and/or iconic public locations. These magazines feature a lot of adverts, and therefore make almost all of its profit just from advertising. This is an effective way of advertising the magazine itself, as if the freemiums are considered interesting enough, the original magazine may be bought by a lot of customers, and may be successful.

Postal/electronic subscriptionBuyers that usually purchase most issues of magazines who are considered to be the ‘readers’ of a magazine, can choose to be a part of the subscription. People who are subscribed to a certain niche magazine can read magazines by having them posted to their houses, generally at an inexpensive price. It is an easy method of constant readers, and makes the relationship between the magazine and the reader stronger. It is beneficial to the buyers as it is a cheap way of buying the magazine a multiple times rather than paying a high amount individually. In addition to this these types of magazines usually feature gifts along with the magazine, which is another benefit to the customers.  Postal subscription can be beneficial to the publishers of the magazine as issues are not wasted like they are in the Sale or Return system. It is also a profitable process to the publishers. 

Similarly, customers who are subscribed to a magazine electronically will benefit from the same things. However the only difference between postal and electronic subscription is that the magazine is sent to buyers electronically, usually to a tablet such as an iPad or Kindle Fire.

EzinesEzines are electronic magazines similiar to physical magazines. They are different from normal magazine websites as the viewer can turn the pages around, see the adverts and view page numbers. An example of a music magazine is RWD. It is an example of a magazine that gives the ezines for free and the electronic features it includes such as video clips are very effective.

Apps and electronic brand extension
Most magazines today have apps on smartphones such as iPhones or apps on tablets such as the iPad, that show some features and content from them. These are usually connected through a QR code or some sort of a barcode that can be found on the front cover of a magazine. Most magazines today also have social networking accounts on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Magazine information can be followed through these sites, and it allows the magazine companies to develop. When developed, the companies can develop further with other events such as launching gigs, all for the overall benefit of the magazine.

Task 4: Preliminary task evaluation

Preliminary task evaluation

Front cover:
One thing that went well for me was my use of text. From the feedback I received, I was told that my masthead is very appropriate for a college magazine, and is large enough to be recognised as a masthead. My cover lines are also appropriately written in relation to the target audience of college students and that the colours of the cover lines and the masthead match to the book the cover star is holding, keeping the house style in place. The font sizes I used for each cover lines are also appropriate, as I have made my main cover line clear and used the specific colour of black to reinforce the focus of the cover story. I also have small lines of descriptions below cover lines again with a suitable size. I was told that my font styles are also conventional to the magazine and are clear and readable. However in terms of the text used on the front cover, the colour scheme needs to be improved on as it clashes with the colours of the image and therefore is not clear on some areas it is put on. In addition to this features, I used icons of social networking sites on my front cover which I linked to my contents page, again to keep the house style, which was another thing that went well for me.

The photography of the front cover also went well as I used the correct shot type of medium close-up when I was taking the picture. However, the cover star stood in front of a busy background, which caused me a lot of problems. I couldn’t put the cover lines and other information I wanted to put in the areas I had planned to. This meant that my page layout was not the way I wanted it to be and I had to cram most of the features altogether which limited the interesting look of the cover. To do my front cover, I used photoshop. At some points in the process, I used it very easily without any problems. However, I had problems when trying to blur out the busy background on the photo, and it did not turn out the way it was planned. Again, the busy background made it difficult for me as the colour scheme did not go along well with it which was an issue. This affected most of my plans about the front cover.

Contents page:
The first thing that went well for me was the photography I did. I took pictures of different areas in the college and different students to represent the different contents in the magazine. I also took a second image of the cover star again to represent the cover story and to link it with the front cover. From the feedback I received, I was told that I have good use of text and that it is clear. My journalism skills were also considered ‘good’ with minor grammar errors. I was also told that having small lines of descriptions with headings in the contents page gives it a structured, clear and understandable look. In addition to this, I separated and gave more space to the cover story, naming the header ‘cover story’ in order for it to stand out, and to reinforce the most important topic in the magazine on the contents page. This is a conventional feature for most magazines. The colour scheming for the text used is also good and there is a good colour combination of all the headings being green and all the descriptions being lilac.

 The page numbers are also written in a green colour to make it stand out, which is a conventional feature in all contents pages.  However, the page numbers are not in order, which may be something I would need to improve on, even though I did not do in them in the right order because I ordered the magazine contents from most exciting to less exciting, instead of putting them in the order of the page numbers. I was told that having page numbers on the images were helpful on referencing and matching stories with images on the page and that it gives it a modern and clear look. However, due to the colours in the images, I had problems with picking colours for the page numbers on them as I wanted all numbers to be black, but it was not visible in all of the images, and I therefore had to make them different colours, but the colours I picked are still a part of the theme colours. To improve, I will make sure I take clear images and the use the right type of colour over them. I used InDesign when creating the contents page. I didn’t have a lot of difficulties using it, but the layout I wanted to use didn’t work out. I wanted to use columns on each side but due to the layout of the images it didn’t look in place, so I had to cram the columns of text which affected the whole layout of the contents page. To improve, I will make sure to try and change the places of the images and the text so the columns will look right. Another feature I used to keep the house style of the magazine is the use of social networking links. On the front cover I only used icons of social networking sites. However I matched it with the icons on the contents page where more information was given such as account usernames, again conventional of a magazine as the audience can follow the magazine through them. I used a large title for the contents page and included the masthead along with the phrase ‘contents page’ to keep the house style of the magazine.  I was told however that this could’ve been improved further where I could’ve used one letter of ‘C’ between ‘LSC’ and ‘Contents’ to make it look more interesting and styled.

Key points for development when producing music magazine:

Front cover:

·        Taking more appropriate images – Images that have a limited amount of writing or a busy background will help me when putting text over them as this can affect the whole layout of the front cover.

·        Appropriate colour schemes – The front cover will look better and will be more readable if the colour scheming is right with appropriate colours that go along with the image used.

·        Spacing – Using more spacing between the cover lines and other features means that not everything will be crammed and will look more attractive to the reader rather than it looking boring.

Contents page:

·        Right use of columns – Using more space between the headers and descriptions mean that the columns will be distributed in an orderly way, and will be more conventional rather than it looking like there is writing all over the page.

·        Use of layout – Putting the images in different places will mean that the columns will work out and the whole contents page won’t be affected.

·        Not making it too busy – It may reflect a boring look if the contents page looks busy with a lot of text in it. So I will try and use a limited amount of text and images in my music magazine contents page.

Task 3: College magazine front cover

Task 3: College magazine contents page completed

Task 3: Work in progress...