Magazine Research: "NME"

"NME" or "The New Musical Express", is a popular music magazine. It was first published on 7th March 1952 by "IPC Media". It changed the music magazine scene, by introducing a singles chart for the first time(14/11/1952 edition). In the 1970's it gained the "Best-Selling British Music Magazine" title. "NME" began its life as a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint, named "Musical Express and Accordion Weekly"; but when bought by London Music Promoter Maurice Kinn, it was relaunched as "NME"

"NME" represents its audience as more educated readers, whilst keeping the young style similar to "Kerrang!" As part of the age analogy, "NME" is the middle-aged magazine, using younger language than "Q" but not quite the same as "Kerrang!"

Editor: Krissi Murison - Murison became the first female editor when she was appointed as the 11th editor on July 29th 2009.

• Publishing Director: Paul Cheal
• Publisher: Faith Hill
• Ad Manager: Chris Dicker
• Head of Marketing: Tim Pearson
• Syndication & Licensing: Andrew Horton

Magazine Research: "Q"

"Q" considers itself to be the most critically-acclaimed music magazine. It is released monthly and published also by Bauer Media. It was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, because they saw a gap in the market for an older generation, feeling that their music was being forgotten. It was first published in October 1986, instantly creating an impression with its high standards of printing and photography, subtitled "The modern guide to music and more."
Paul Rees, formerly of "Kerrang!", now edits "Q". It is mainly focused on heavier rock music and alternative styles.

The main target audience are younger readers, with 1.9% of people aged 15-44 reading "Q" with only 0.3% of the people aged 45+, despite the thought that "Q" would be for the older generation. 1.5% of men read it compared with 0.6% of women.

Bauer Media announced this as their Audience Profile:
Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy.

Here is the e-booklet for "Q": Bauer Media "Q" Digipak

-

"Q" represents its audience as being older than the other two magazines I've analysed. It takes itself much more seriously; and is typical of critical acclaim. It tends to review bands in an important manner, and judge them quite harshly, as though in an attempt to make them do better next time. It is seen by some as the old classic, that still plays the best songs from over the years, sticking to when music was best, and only including the decent recent ones.

Here are some older "Q" OFC's:



Textual Analysis

As with "Kerrang!", the newer editions have better appearances.The logo is always in the top left corner of the page, sometimes partially covered by the main image. "Q" tends to allow the logo to be the top layer of the magazine, sometimes blocking over the image, presumably as importance of the magazine over the featured artist. The palette is similar to "Kerrang!" using red, white and black.

Occasionally "Q" does special editions with several collectible OFC's, like this John Lennon one. They will usually show a variety of similar images with the same headlines but a slightly different layout to entice fans.

Magazine Research: "Kerrang!"

"Kerrang!" is a popular weekly rock magazine, which features a variety of top bands, and new undiscovered bands. It costs a reasonable £2.20, which is a suitable price for its target audience (see below).

The name "Kerrang!" name is a clever choice because it uses onomatopoeia so it sounds like a guitar power chord. It is published by Bauer Consumer Media and distributed by Gordon and Gotch.

Paul Rees was the editor from 2000-2003, however he left to edit "Q". He was replaced by Ashley Bird until 2005, then Paul Brannigan brought sales back up until 2009, where Nichola Brown now edits.

The main target audience are younger readers, especially teenagers; with 1.5% of people aged 15-44 reading "Kerrang!" whilst only 0.1% of the people aged 45+. 1.1% of men read it compared with 0.6% of women.

Bauer Media announced this as their Audience Profile: Individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty.

Here is the e-booklet they have released about "Kerrang!": Bauer Media Digipak

-

I found some of my old "Kerrang!"s and scanned the OFC's, the contents page, and some of the main articles so I could analyse the features that set it apart from other magazines. I'm going to do this with "Q", "NME" and "Total Guitar" as I have a few copies of each I can scan in. I'll have a look at some others on an images search and upload the most relevant ones.

Here are the "Kerrang!" OFCs I found:

2001, 2002, 2004:

2006, 2010 x 2:

2010 x 3, 2011:

Textual Analysis

The newer editions have far superior appearances, using more editing and more experimental designs with logos and colours etc. It is consistent because the logo is always at the top of the page, often partially covered by the main image, as the image is the demanding focal point, the main part in the sequence (followed by the deck/subhead). They all have many clear cover lines to show what's included in the magazine following a reasonable palette of usually red, white and black. Most "Kerrang!" OFCs have an image montage, alongside many clear cover lines to show the bands included inside the magazine. The main image is usually a mid shot of the artist(s).

"Kerrang!" represents its audience as loud, confident and passionate people. It puts everything into its design to suggest a wide variety of styles within the rock genre. It reflects a young audience with lots of life and vivacity.

Main Feature:

The main part of this article that interests me, is the last page. This is mainly because it uses more unconventional styles, including live photos as the main features. I intend to design my magazine to be a little unconventional but not to the point of being totally new. I want to incorporate several design styles to create my own version, putting together several familiar styles to the public, but combining them in a way that suits me, and my vision for my magazine.

Contents: