Magazine Planning (Prezi.)

 

Distribution Of Magazines.

Publishers: Publishers are the establishment which produce the magazine(s). In the United Kingdown, there are four main organisations; these four are: EMAP Bauer, Natmag, Conde Nast and IPC. The publishers main roles are to control the design/ layout of the magazine, the editorial content and manage relationships with the advertisers. It is important for the publishers to manage the relationships with the advertisers because they get a lot of revenue from the advertisers who pay an enormous amount of money, simply for an advertisement in a magazine.
 I researched EMAP Bauer and found it that is a content, subscription and networking business.

Distribution networks: Each publisher uses a network of distributors, who manage the flow of magazines from the printer to the final newsstand, where the magazine is sold.  Magazines are taken in lorries to regional distributors, who then move these on to the shop / newsstand . The focus where magazines are sold are in supermarkets and newsstands. 

Sale or return: Sale or Return is the system used by magazine and newspaper distributors with newsstands. Any magazines which are not sold, go back to the distributor and that doesn't affect the retailer because they don't have to pay for the lack of magazines sold. On the other hand, left over magazines cause a dent in the publisher and distributors revenue, because they lose money.

Freemiums- Direct Distribution: Freemiums are magazines/newspapers that are handed out for free, usually at newsstands; an example of a freemium is The Metro. The way in which freemiums make their money, is due to the amount of advertisements within the magazine which result in revenue as the advertisers pay a lot of money to the publishers for their product to be advertised in a magazine/newspaper - out of the amount of people who take freemiums, a majority of them are going to end up buying something from the adverts, which results in revenue for the advertisers.

Subscription- postal / electronic: Regular readers of magazines may want to subscribe to a magazine in order to constantly be up to date with the new magazines coming out- usually the price for subscribed readers is discounted and it's in favour of the reader as they save money and don't have to go out to buy a magazine. Electronic subscriptions work in a similar way, except that the magazine will get sent to the readers inbox, kindle etc.

 

 Apps: Many magazines have an app that you can scan a code into and you will be able to read the magazine on your smartphone or other technological device.

Magazine Newsstand Task/ Distribution Of Magazines (Planning)

For the magazine distribution task, I went to Tesco to take a picture of the magazines they had on display; unfortunately they did not have a wide selection of music magazines and this was the picture I managed to take of the general magazines.
Despite the fact that Tesco display their magazines in a fairly simple way as opposed to other shops which display it differently, what I can see from the picture is that the same magazines get stacked together in the same rows, for example: the middle row contains TV magazines lined up together.
 Unlike actual music shops, in a supermarket such as Tesco's, the magazine variety is wider, despite not having many music magazines- but the most likely reason for this is because in a supermarket, the target audience is mainly women and it is usually men who are interested in proper music magazines therefore due to the lack of demand for mainly music magazines, there has to be a wider variety of other magazines such as TV magazines and teenage magazines for girls. There is also a small amount of children's magazines, but overall- looking at Tesco's magazine stand, I can infer that the majority of magazines are targeted for women hence the reason why the most popular magazines are displayed at eye-level with the customers as opposed to the others. The assumed reason for the way the magazines are laid out, is that unlike music shops where music magazines would be laid out neatly, in a supermarket, people generally have a lot of things that they need to buy and wouldn't be concentrating on the layout of the magazines, another reason for the fact that the most popular magazines are at eye level and grabbing level so that it is quick and easy to get, rather than having to bend down for it or tiptoe. Generally, in the usual music shops, when magazines are displayed, they are laid out in a way that they overlap, but still show about two inches of the left hand side of the magazine, so that you don't miss anything when you look at it and it still manages to grab the readers attention. The prices vary and it is noticeable which magazines are aimed towards different genders and which type of music you are interested in. For example, a man interested in rock music is more likely to get a magazine with Paramore on it, as opposed to One Direction.

Another magazine distribution method is online posting and here is a link for an online magazine method of distributing for Glamour Magazine: http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/

College Magazine (Preliminary Task) Evaluation.

 For the preliminary task, I did a college magazine and I was fairly pleased with the following, because it was my first time doing anything like that and it went better than I expected: the photography- for my main picture and the picture I used for the contents page, I took a medium close shot of a college student and then manipulated the picture(s) on Photoshop and InDesign; for example, I wanted the model I used for my front cover, to be the main focus and did not want the masthead covering her, therefore I used the rubber tool on Photoshop to erase the bits of the masthead that were covering her, to give the allusion that the masthead was in fact behind her. For my contents page, I did not need to manipulate the picture as it was small and I wanted the writing to be the focus of the contents page, as opposed to the pictures, however I used Photoshop to create my front cover, whereas I used InDesign to create my contents page as I assumed it would be easier due to the fact I was not using a focus picture with writing and was merely adding pictures to my text. The layout of my front cover was meant to be bold and attract the reader's attention, I attempted to create this effect by using bright colours on my text and placing it around and on the model, however not around the models face because I wanted to create the effect that the model would be looking straight at the reader. The layout for my contents page was very simplistic and the bright background was the focus. The reason I chose the colour blue for my background is because it represents a peaceful, calming feeling and I want the reader to be relaxed when reading the magazine; the pictures are small because they are only meant to be a slight insight into the magazine, whereas the titles for the articles on the contents page were meant to be the most concentrated on. I tried to emphasize this by making the text black, as it is a strong, bold colour which would ensure that it grabs the most attention as opposed to anything else. On my front cover, the use of text was arranged so that it would be short but snappy- thus enticing the reader into wanting to know more. For example, a cover line on my front page was: "SHOCK EXAM SCANDAL?" I made the cover line red and all in capitals, the reason for the use of red is that it is a bright colour that will automatically catch people's attention and the use of the word "scandal" makes people curious as to what could possibly have happened.

As the college magazine was only a preliminary task, there is plenty of things that I would need to improve on for when I am doing the real thing. These improvements are:

-The main picture for the front cover- in the college magazine the model is standing in front of a boring, plain, white background and in simple college appropriate clothes. For the real thing, the model would be standing in front of an interesting background and wearing a more glamorous attire, to fit in with the theme of the magazine. Also, the picture for the college magazine is dim and the real magazine would need a brighter picture to stand out.

-The masthead- 'LSC' is not an enticing masthead and when I do the real magazine, I would need a masthead that will stand out and attract the readers attention.

-The use of colour- the colours for my front cover, despite being bold which is the aim I was going for, clash and to improve I would need to limit the use of colours so that it is not distracting and taking the attention away from the model and the actual cover lines.

- The contents page- It is currently boring and plain which makes it unexciting to look at. For improvement I would add better pictures and make sure they are all original, also I would make the text on the contents page look more fun to read as opposed to what it looks like now which is merely all squashed together and unappealing to look at. A final improvement for the contents page is the use of background colours, although the blue was there to represent a calming feeling when reading the magazine, the blue is too bold and would need to be a more subtle shade if I were to use it in the real thing.

 

 

Case Study (Double Page Spread.)

 

 

The double page spread of a magazine is usually bold and enticing, for example the interesting quote from the article is large and in multi-colours- this makes the reader want to read on and find out what the article is about.

The use of colour is effective because the grey symbolises the seriousness, whereas the red and white contrast with it, but not enough to make it clash.

The picture takes up a whole page and the model is looking directly at you, drawing the reader into reading the magazine.

The layout of the text is multi-coloured to avoid the reader getting bored which can easily happen when there is a lot of text.

The effect of having a quote in bold above the article, makes the reader want to find out what context the quote was used in and to so, they would have to read the entire article.

Overall, a double page spread has to stand out and look enticing to the reader otherwise they will not want to read further into it.

Case Study (Contents Page.)

 

 

 

The contents title is bold and is the biggest writing on the page; the use of the word ‘great’ makes the reader think if they don’t read on they will be missing an opportunity.

The main picture of the contents page is of Lana Del Rey, the fact that she’s bleeding intrigues the readers into reading on to find out why she’s bleeding.

The use of ‘sneak peek’ pictures into the magazine are effective because it gives an insight on what else the magazine contains without actually giving any valuable article information away.

The article titles are small and to the side because that way, instead of the reader reading only what they are interested in by looking at the contents and finding the page number, the small writing makes the reader rather flick through the magazine to find interesting articles instead. By doing this the reader is more likely to see different advertisements for different songs and end up buying them.

  

Case Study (Front Cover Analysis.)

The front cover of the music magazine is effective because of  the different aspects; for example: the mast head- it is the biggest text on the front cover and the big bold writing stands out the catch the readers attention, thus making them want to read the magazine.

The main picture is a medium shot and is effective because the model in the picture is looking straight ahead, giving the impression that the model is looking at the reader. The use of the model's eye contact draws the reader into picking up the magazine.

The background colour scheme stands out and the red represents seriousness. The use of only red and black is effective because they are two bold colours that although, attract attention, don't distract the reader.

The use of the subheading, is that it gives the reader an idea of what’s going to be in the magazine and is usually a short catchy phrase which entices the reader into buying the magazine to find out what else is going to be inside.

The cover lines are effective as they show insight on the different articles within the magazine and the use of questions as a cover line intrigue the reader into wanting to answer the question and the only way they can do that is by buying the magazine.

The model/artist in the magazine, is Eminem and the reason for this is because he is a rapper and the magazine is about rap artists. It wouldn't be an effective main picture if it had, for example, Taylor Swift on it, because it wouldn't attract the target audience who is presumably into hip hop music.
 

     

Preliminary Task (Contents Page.)

This is the contents page for the preliminary task.

Preliminary Task (Front Cover.)

This is the front cover of the preliminary task.

Main Picture For Front Cover Of Music Magazine.

I chose this picture for my front cover.

Pictures For College Magazine

For the preliminary task I had to take a picture of a student, which would then go on my mock up front cover magazine and contents page. These are the pictures I took.