Article Planning

The article:
My article will be an interview with a new band after releasing their debut album and just before going on tour to promote it. I will be asking them questions about their album, the reception it has received, and also about their upcoming tour.


Style:
The introduction to the article will be written in third person. However, the article itself will be written in a Q&A format, therefore the questions will be second person, and the answers will be written in first person. I will use language similar to that used by magazines of the same genre, such as slang terms as well as swearing.


Beginning:
The introduction to the article will be a summary intro. In order to get the readers' attention, I will use a rhetorical question at the start of the paragraph, as well as mentioning that it is an exclusive interview. This would make the audience want to read on, as they will not read this information anywhere else.


Extra text on the page:
As the article will feature questions on their tour, I will include a list of all the tour dates and venues. Also, I will include a link to the magazines website, where readers can listen to an 'exclusive' acoustic performance of one of their songs.

Image Analysis and Composition

In this image of Paolo Nutini, we can see that it is a medium shot, and that his eyeline is in the middle third, which shows a direct address with the audience, and allows us to empathise with him. However, he is looking down and away from the camera, and his shoulders are dropped, which suggests that he is shy and sensitive, and makes the audience sympathise with him. The lighting in the image is dark, which suggests that his music has dark connotations. On the other hand, we can still see a small area of light in the background is shining on him, which suggests that all eyes are on him, although he has his back to the light, which suggests that he is not interested in the fame and is more focused on his music. His costume and facial expression suggest he is moody, which further emphasises that his music may have deep meanings. The image is very open framed, which shows that he isn't controlled by anyone. This could help identify the genre of the artist.

In this image of The Goo Goo Dolls, we can see that the eyeline of the person in the centre and on the right is higher than that of the person on the left. This suggests that they are the more dominant members in the band, which can be further proven by the fact that he is stood slightly behind them. Their eyeline also suggests that they are dominant over the audience, whereas the reader can have more of a personal connection with the man on the left. The costumes are generally dark with some splashes of colour, suggesting that their music is slightly moody, but at the same time can have positive connotations.

Primary Audience Research

I conducted some primary audience research in order to:

• Find out what appeals to my target audience
• Discover any flaws or potential improvements that could be made to my magazines genre
• To identify any gaps in the market and place a refreshing new twist on the genre

These are the chosen products that I conducted my research on.


The questions I asked were:

• Who is the target audience?
• What do you think the genre of the magazine is? Why?
• What parts of the magazine appeal to you?
• What could be improved?
• How effective is the layout?
• How effective is the language?

From my target audience, I found that:

Secondary Audience Research

Magazine title: Q

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q/ -Accessed 26th January 2012

This is the link for the brand description and reader profile for Q magazine. The brand description states:

The UK's biggest selling monthly music magazine, Q is the arbiter of quality music. The magazine sits at the heart of a cross-platform brand that discovers great music of substance for its consumers. The Q brand has developed a worldwide reputation as a trusted and premium quality voice of musical authority amongst fans, musicians and the music industry alike - one that is founded upon Q's unrivalled access, world-beating exclusives and outstanding production values. This reputation is extended not only through the magazine but also across online, radio, TV and on into Q's unique events, which encompass exclusive, intimate live shows with major stars and the world famous annual Q Awards.

The reader profile for Q magazine says:

Q's audience is composed of passionate, engaged and open minded music fans driven to continually discover new music - and to use this lust for discovery to influence their friends. The audience is split 75% male to 25% female and is affluent (with 68% ABC1).

 http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q -Accessed 26th January 2012


This link shows a more detailed reader profile for  Q set out as a diagram, which focuses on the male/female ratio, age range, and ABC1 profile.

Magazine title: Mojo

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Mojo/ -Accessed 26th January 2012

This is the link for the brand description and reader profile of Mojo. The brand description is:

MOJO is the world's biggest UK music magazine, delivering a monthly dose of world class journalism and iconic photography. It represents a carefully crafted musical archive, providing its audience with an authentic, independent and emotional connection to the music. Classic sits comfortably with cutting edge, with quality and integrity being constant.

The reader profile for Mojo says:

Discerning and passionate music aficionados, the MOJO audience is predominantly male (77%) and affluent (63% ABC1). These heavy consumers of music see their passion as discovery without boundaries, genre and decade being secondary to quality.

http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/mojo -Accessed 26th January 2012

This is a link to a diagram of the Mojo reader profile. As with the previous diagram for Q, this shows the male/female ratio, ABC1 profile, and the age range.

Research into institutions that distribute similar products

http://www.mediauk.com/owners/88/bauer-media - Accessed 23rd January 2012
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/ -Accessed 23rd January 2012

Bauer Media owns several magazines in a wide range of genres, including men's magazines, celebrity gossip magazines and music magazines. Big selling products include Closer, FHM, Kerrang!, Q and Zoo. However, they also sell lesser known 'niche' magazines like Angling Times (fishing). They also own a lot of radio stations all over the country, as well as in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Bauer Media owns three music magazines in total-Q, Kerrang!, and Mojo. Distributors tend to publish more than one music magazine in order to reach across different genres. If a distributor has several music magazines across different genres, then they are likely to attract a wider audience. I think Bauer Media would be interested in my magazine as although it contains features on popular artists and bands, it focuses more on newer, unsigned acts, which is a concept that other magazines owned by them don't really have.

Textual Analysis

Print Prelim