Publication Plan

TITLE: DELUXE

POSITIONING STATEMENT: Music That Matters

FREQUENCY OF PUBLICATION: Weekly

PRICE: £2.00

DISTRIBUTION: Newsagents, Supermarkets, Music Stores, Music Venues.

RATIONALE: The main focus of my magazine is to give music fans news and information about the latest bands. It will offer interesting reviews, interviews and articles that will appeal to the target audience of the magazine.

STYLE: Informal style of writing will be used that will directly address the readers of the magazine. The magazine is for all music fans so it will use simple vocabulary


Regular Content
Editorial
Fans Letters Section
Gig Reviews
Crossword section
Main feature article about cover image
New bands section
Top 10 tracks of the week
Album Reviews
Gig listings
My Influences – various artists talk about the music that matters to them
Quick fire – Q&A section with a different musician each week

Feature Articles
The Good Old Days – The Libertines on the verge of a reunion?
Wild beasts on tour
Friendly Fires’ US Invasion
Nick Cave on Bunny Munro
Hey Scenesters – The cribs talk about new album and recruiting ex-smith Johnny Marr
Interview with unsigned new band
Guitar Heroes – A to Z of worlds greatest guitarists
Stone Roses 20th anniversary interview
Seasick Steve- Rags to Riches
The Killers – Track by Track of new album
Not So Difficult Second Albums – The Horrors, the Maccabees, Jack Penate.
Bah Humbug – Christmas with the Arctic Monkeys
In the studio with Cold War Kids
Tribute to 30 years of the cure
Top 100 Indie Anthems
Rising Stars – Marina and the Diamonds
Elbow shoot to stardom – interview with the band
Worlds most famous music conspiracy’s
Competition to win tickets to reading festival
Are we human? – Into the mind of Brandon Flowers

House Style

Coverlines: Rockwell Extra Bold and Arial

Headlines: Elephant

Standfirst: Rockwell 14pt.

Captions: Rockwell 8pt

Features first paragraph: Drop capital Elephant 5 lines deep

News first paragraph: First Word in bold capitals

Body text: Times New Roman 11pt

Colour scheme: Blue, Red, Green

Main Task: Research

Music Magazine Conventions

Cover

• Small pictures usually feature artists performing


• Serious expressions


• List of bands


• Features musical instruments/equipment


• Very small number of colours


• Photography is creative
  

Contents

• Follow most normal conventions


• Photography is creative
  

Double Page Spread

• Brief introduction about the article - Standfirst


• Usually one page is an image and one is writing/ Picture = half of article


• Large first letter at the start of first paragraph - Drop capital


• Writing in columns


• Title for the article - Headline


• Writing on pictures/Quotes


• Artists name is made clear in standfirst - Different colour


• Usually a smaller image in the article


• Writer of the article and photographer featured - Byline


• Images often bleed across from one page to the other


• Strapline or border used
  
• Bold text in first paragraph


• More than one image - Smaller images are used to break up the text and make it more inviting


• Standfirst always by headline and before start of article - introduces the article. Works with headline to tell the reader what the article is about. Larger font than article.


• Headlines- creative, eye catching.


• Limited use of colour


• Creative Photography


• Informal Style of Writing - Personality of artist comes through in article
  

Magazine Research

Title: Uncut

Price: £4.50

Frequency of publication: Monthly

Issue Size: 154 pages

Regular content: Reviews (Albums,Singles and Gigs), Editorial, Feedback (Readers letter section), First Cut (Monthly news section), Crossword

Feature articles: Cover story about main image, Articles about coverlines that appear on the cover.

Title: NME

Price: £2.20

Frequency of publication: Weekly

Issue size: 76 pages

Regular content: Reviews (Albums,Singles and Gigs), New band section, Editorial, Weekly news section, Crosswords

Feature content: Cover story about main image, Articles about coverlines that appear on the magazine cover.

Title: Mojo

Price: £4.10

Frequency of publication: Monthly

Issue size: 150

Regular content: Monthly news section, Reviews (Albums,singles and gigs), Editorial, Crosswords

Feature content: Article about main image, Articles about coverlines that appear on cover.

Evaluation

Evaluation

I have designed and produced a front cover and contents page for an original school magazine. I researched the common codes and conventions of magazines to help me to create my own magazine. My magazine follows codes and conventions successfully to produce a professional looking cover and contents page.


The main image i used for the cover of my magazine was a medium close up of a pupil from within the school. I used this photograph because it is the common shot used for when a single person is featured on a magazine cover. This helps my magazine to follow the regular conventions of magazines. The arrangement of the coverlines and title of the magazine also follow magazine conventions. The title is placed in the top left corner of the front cover and is brightly coloured. This would help the magazine to stand out in a store. The coverlines are placed around the main image on the front cover, framing the image. This is a regular feature of magazine covers. The colour scheme is consistent using mainly red and white. The colour scheme is also consistent throughout the contents page. In my contents page i used images that i had taken that relate to the content of the magazine. The title of the magazine is also featured in my contents page as well as the magazines website address. Also i added an editorial in my contents page which is a common feature of magazines

To create my magazines front cover i used Adobe Photoshop. I used this programme to edit my main cover image and fit it to the size of the page. I also used Photoshop to insert my title and coverlines. I used a normal font from Photoshop and edited it using the Bevel and Emboss tool.
To create my contents page i used QuarkXPress Passport. I used this programme to help organise my text into columns and to place my images in the correct places.

Production

I used this image as my main cover picture



















I used these images for my contents page:

This is my completed magazine cover

This is my completed contents page.

Planning

This is a sketch of my magazines front cover.


This is a sketch of my magazines contents page

Research

These are the codes and conventions of a magazine cover.
Cover
Title always in top left – usually only one word
Always one main image – Usually medium close up
Barcode always bottom right
Main coverline always over picture
They all have writing above the title
Unique Font
Quotes
Consistent colour scheme
No smiling- conveys attitude
Direct address – always looking at reader
Main coverline anchors the meaning of the main image, it is the largest on the page
Coverlines
· Main coverline is two lines
· Feature as few words as possible
· Information about the contents
· Intrigue the audience
· Frame main image
Typography
· Consistent / only a few fonts are used
Puff-something extra
Buzzwords- EXCLUSIVE
Strip at bottom or top of cover – list of names / topics
Contents
1 image larger than others
Editorial – image of editor
Subscription advert
Consistent colour scheme
Page numbers on pictures anchor image to written contents
Laid out in columns (2 or 3)
White background
Title of magazine
Issue date / number
Word contents
Features and regular contents