Research and Planning: Distribution

Between major and independent publishing and distributing companies, there are many differences in their audiences and distribution strategies.
Frontline, and through this Bauer Media, has produced many popular magazine titles, including Heat, Bella, Q and Kerrang; in being a major company, they have gathered enough of both a reputation and money to be able to successfully fund so many. Vice, a smaller independent publishing company is focused singly on the production of the magazine Vice, though also branches into film, dvds (e.g. "Heavy Metal in Baghdad"), books and art.
Most of the Bauer Media magazines are distributed through a large process, travelling between wholesalers and finally the shops themselves – places such as Tesco and Asda, competitive mainstream markets, where they are exposed to the largest possible audience on an almost constant basis and are priced based on such a wide audience. The multi-platform market is also exploited by the company, saturating it in all forms – radio, tv, magazine and also in live events (e.g. awards) Vice, however, distributes in a seemingly small-scale manner, but in fact does so on a worldwide scale, reaching far across Europe and the US. However, it is free for the reader and seems to get its money from advertising, being stocked in alternative and indie shops such as Urban Outfitters and Retro Bizarre. It also posts much of its contents online to leave itself open to as many people as possible.
The audiences differ greatly between those of Bauer and Vice – Bauer is exposed to a very mainstream audience and therefore can be marketed almost anywhere. However, it is able to attract a range of demographics depending on the presentation of the magazine, Q, for example, gaining an A-C1 audience with its high quality, more generalised magazine. Vice, though independent, also is able to target a large audience, anything from A – C2. It is sold worldwide, but through a more individual, niche market which is actually seemingly equally successful.
My own magazine will be for a similar niche market to that of Vice, the audience being aspirers from between A-C2. Because of its musical genre and the individuality of the bands and the concept of the magazine, it probably wouldn’t appeal to the mainstream, and its purpose means that I would charge little or make it free to buy, for it is for promotion and recognition of new and unsigned bands. To gain audiences for these bands, my magazine would have to be sold in a similar location to the target audience, and thus distribute it similarly to Vice, to shops frequented by such people. I would also need to expand into the multi-platform, perhaps giving it a website to host videos and stream music of the bands for an interested audience to sample.

Detailed Research into Forms and Conventions

Of the genres of music magazine, I've settled on rock/indie, which most interests me. Once decided on this, I focused on three magazines from this genre: Kerrang!, NME and Q, not necessarily directly similar, but each drawing on techniques (for instance colour schemes, more informative articles) I would like to consider in my own magazine, being hopefully a product of inspiration from these three magazines.

Even within a genre, the targeted audience are varied, as is seen in the selection of magazines, Kerrang and NME in a lower market than Q (Kerrang and NME much lower down Jicnars Scale, aimed probably from C1 - D than Q, which seems to be appealing to C1 to possibly even an A audience), apparent in both the price, and the textual quality and quantity, as well as the sort of paper printed on, NME and Kerrang being a simple paper throughout, whilst Q is attributed a "glossy" cover.

This audience target also explains the relevance of their titles. Whilst Q subtley references to musical "cueing" of a record in preparation to play, understood only by those who would take music more seriously, NME is simply an abbreviated version of the "New Music Express", shortened to become snappy and more memorable. Kerrang, however, is onomatopoeic, representing the sound of a power-chord, and quite obviously appealing to those who are very centred on the audio-responsive whilst not being technical, people who appreciate music through listening and playing rather than necessarily understanding its process. It is interesting that the title in itself is also a screamer, reinforcing the striking title.

In visual representation, there is a quite obvious similarity between all three magazines, all generally following a black, white and red theme, Kerrang, though, using the red more sparingly. It is evident that the use of three such contrasting colours is a noticable and attractive effect but the scheme isn't exhausted; generally sub-themes are brought in for individual articles or themed covers to strengthen the revelance between cover artists and their captions. The text and smaller photos are generally placed at angles on Kerrang, and hardly anything is aligned, lending an effect of liberation and non-conformity which isn't as strongly notable in the other two magazines, and in all three magazines, the font itself is bold and upper case, often accompanied by screamers, lending an urgency to read to the audience.

Generally the content of all these magazines are limited to three things: musical/gig review and critique, articles on the progress of a band and their lives, or interviews with band members. There isn't that much direct audience targeting, as the focus is mainly on the music itself and relies on this to draw the reader more than clever audience targeting, but there is some use of the personal pronouns "you" and "your". Particularly in NME and Kerrang, the language used is more simplistic and text is generally in smaller chunks, so as to not alienate any of their audience. Q, however, seems much more textual and often delves further into the music industry than the others. In being more informative, it is also more formal in its language, appealing to an older audience.

It is evident from the style of the photos that Q is the most commercial of the magazines - the photos taken, particularly for the cover, are simplistic but seemingly very carefully shot and posed studio pictures, with makeup carefully done and the artists dressed to a theme, not always looking at the camera in their pose, and likely to be Photoshopped. This conforms to the stereotype of a "glossy" magazine and shows psychographically that its audience is much closer to being mainsteamers than the other magazines. Kerrang and NME, however are much more casual, and although many of the pictures are obviously posed in studios, there is a more natural theme and a more individualist nature; the whole band is shown relaxed and looking at the camera, targeting the reader. Also, there are many actual live pictures from gigs and shows, often including the audience themselves, involving them in the magazine.

The presentation of the pages is very carefully considered. The contents pages of all three follow a systematic template, generally composed of: a column listing the articles (aligned either left or right), split into categories of regular features and specials, all of which having a heading and subheading and a dominating and large photo of a major feature, accompanied by a subheading. Whilst Q simply leaves this as it is, Kerrang and NME have extra features which supplement the template: NME provides an artist index column, helping a fan navigate to their favourite band. Kerrang always leaves a note from the editor, reinforcing an apparent magazine-reader communication and familiarity. The double page spreads, too, follow a basic template, generally being dominated by a large picture, keeping to a particular colour scheme. Quite often, the magazine still enforces its title by giving each article a top bar including the title of the magazine and the category of the article. Whilst Q is the most textual of the three, seeking to inform and educate the reader, Kerrang is most visual, adding to the largest picture by overlaying smaller ones and creating montages. What is interesting about this is how Kerrang can devote a double page spread to such small textual pieces (such as the article pictured). Q, being quite the opposite of this, seems generally to devote double page spreads to major articles, and photos are not used to the detriment of the article's size, as the purpose of this magazine is to inform to a much greater extent than magazines like Kerrang and NME, and needs not necessarily rely upon photos to add interest to the articles.

It's interesting that Kerrang and Q, seemingly at different ends of the scale, are in fact published by the same group - Bauer Consumer Media. However, they have their similarities in their favouring of more individual bands and thus reaching similar audiences. NME is owned my Time Inc., a massive company linked to many media outlets, and is more likely to favour bands closer to the mainstream.

In doing this research, it has become apparent that there are many necessary things to consider and include in my own magazine, such as colour and font themes, templates for contents pages etc. It has allowed me to see what is successful in each magazine and what is not, as well as noting a particular gap in the market: whilst all these magazines promote bands, they promote those bands who are already making their way up the music industry, signed to a label. I plan to create a music magazine with the purpose of promoting unsigned artists of the rock/indie genre.

Main Task: Initial Research into Forms and Conventions (and Key Dates)

Wanting to understand the range of musical genres I am able to choose from with the beginning of the final magazine project, I have chosen three very different music magazines to study: Kerrang!, Classic FM and The Wire.

In looking at their titles, it is only Classic FM that has a direct reference to its music genre, in this case classical music, being named after the radio station it is based on. The Wire has a less apparent link, whilst Kerrang, it appears, has a simple, onomatopoeic title to represent the sound of a power chord on a guitar, very obviously linked to the rock genre.

Of all three, Classic FM seems most upmarket, including CDs as freebies, and containing articles of serious critique on musicians, whilst being relatively informal in appearance, and also advertises CDs of many musicians at much higher prices than that of mainstream pop music. Kerrang! targets a completely different, younger audience, generally advertising and reviewing bands and gigs. It is much more visual and has a clear style. Its price is much less, suiting the income of the audience. The Wire, of the three, is most obscure, focusing more broadly on "modern" music. It is simplistic in style, lacking in article ads on the cover, and seemingly middle market.

Key Project Dates:

07/12/09 - Main Task Introduction and research into similar products and audience

14/12/09 - Research on audience and institution, research and planning commences (drafts etc.)

21/12/09, 28/12/09 Christmas

04/01/10 - Research and Planning deadline, start production work (photos, layout etc.)

11/01/10 - Production

15/01/10 - Production deadline

18/01/10, 1/02/10 - Post Production

8/02/10 - Post Production deadline

15/02/10, 22/01/10 - Evaluation

1/03/10 - Evaluation, coursework prep. for marking, files and blog onto DVD

5/03/10 - Final deadline