Research and analysis of magazine contents pages

This is the contents page of Billboard music magazine, from this it is clear that the magazine does in fact cater for a wider audience other thn just country music. From my analysis of  a 'Billboard' front cover, it had given the immediate impression that the magazine catered only for the country genre.

The magazine uses images images to illustrate what will be given to the reader inside of the magazine. They are positioned at the top of the contents page with page numbers included, they are clearly important to the features within the magazine as only four images are included. There is one large image which covers the width of the page and takes up approximately a third of the page. It is likely that this is representative of a main story within the magazine and the front cover of this issue probably featured the two people in this particular photograph.

From my original analysis of 'Billboard' magazine, it is much clearer that the magazine does in fact cater for a much wider audience than I had originally expected. The magazine seems modern and has a house theme of a white background, some blue headings of main stories and black writing. The blue of some of the writing does in fact link in with the blue in one of the letters in the title of the magazine.

Information is clearly structured with regular features at the bottom of the page and other articles included at the top.  In the let-third of the page there is a featured section of albums, singles and other music which was at the top of the music charts at the time the magazine went to press. The music chart is the only franchise promoted on the actual page.This further displays the magazines feel for music and is clearly a regular feature which may also help the magazine to attract and widen their audience. There does not seem to be any type of promotional features on the contents page although there is a small 'billboard' logo in the left corner.

This is the contents page for Clash magazine, a bi-monthly magazine intended for an audience of 18-26 year olds who enjoy live alternative music from a range of genres. To a sophiticated, mature but still young audience, this contents page is eye-catching and bold, bright colours and pictures attract them to the magazine and because there is such a variety of styles from rock, dance, hip-hop and many more, the target audience is huge.       

Lots of articles are featured on the double contents page spread with various inducements to attract the same levels of readership, such as the offer of free music downloads. This is a complete contrast to 'Billboard' magazine which offers no type of promotional feature to attract a larger audience. The audience is surely younger for the 'Clash' magazine and although aimed at people who live in the city, this is what they enjoy.

This magazine differs from Billboard's front cover because it offers free downloads to attract more readers and it is layed out in a much more reader-friendly way. This contents page, to me, seems much more appealing and this is what draws in a high readership to the magazine. There a lots of pictures to give a sense of the type of articles within the magazine and is very bright. There is a website in the bottom right of the page and the logo of the magazine in the bottom left corner of the page.

Research and analysis of magazine front covers

Billboard is a country music magazine which is easily recognisable with its bold heading to its target audience. It is clear that this music magazine has a set country genre with a large full-page image of a country singer, typically dressed to suit the theme of the magazie. It would be expected that articles in the magazine would follow what the audience can see from the front cover and there would be an article involving the singer on the front cover.

It could be percieved that the target audience for the magazine will be of the 30+ age group as it is not as bright and appealing as many younger people/teenageers would expect a magazine to be be bold and eye catching. Country music is typically an older persons music and doesn't usually appeal to a younger audience.

The cover image uses a whole page and this gives the impression that the article related to the person on the front cover will be onf relevance and importance. The way the person on the cover is dressed is typical of the way country singers are expected to dress, they fall into a stereotype. The the left of the image there is a main cover line, it is in bold and stands out to the reader. It is clearly an important article within the magazine. There are three other cover lines on the front cover of this issue of the magazine and they are much smaller than the cover line.

The magazine shows the country genre and even the title is able to give it a Country feel. The title also gives the impression that the magazine is aimed at an older audience in general as well as the overall design of the front cover. There is also no slogan to the magazine and this could suggest that it has a regular readership with the same people buying the magazine. Editors of the magazine do not need to attract a new audience who appreciate other styles of music, although they may try to widen their existing audience along with including different types of music on their other front covers in order to do this.

Colours used on the front cover of this magazine seem to be quite neutral and this gives the impression that the magazine aims to be more about the music of the artist rather than colour and appearance of the front cover. Colour is shown in a couple of cover lines and also letters in the title, however the rest of the text is simply white. Text used on the cover are not large except for that of the title and also the heading of the main cover line.

In contrast to 'Billboard' country magazine, the 'Rollingstone' magazine caters for an audience with an interest for rock but also looks at other aspects and types of music along those lines. From the front cover it is clear that articles inside will be eye catching and bold to catch the readers eye. Readers who may not usually buy the magazine may be drawn to buy particualr issues due to what they can see on the front cover.

This particular magazine is likely to have a much wider audience than that of 'Billboard' magazine becuase of the different types of music it represents and as a result it is able to cater for a wider audience, although 'Billboard' does cater for other audiences as well as the country genre. 'Rollingstone' magazine is well known across the world becuase of its popular music genre, however 'Billboard' magazine has much less coverage as it only appeals in theory to one audience and therefore its range can be very limited.

This front cover also has a full page image although in this case, it has a white background. The bold, red title so well known is able to be set behind the image and yet people would still recognise it on a shelf full of other magazines. There is clearly a house theme of white, black and red and even the main image complies with this.  Along the top of the cover are the names of various well known bands who are featured within the magazine and all of the text is bold, easy to read from a distance. There is a distinctive main coverline although all of the writing featured is in bold writing.

The overall design of the front cover gives a completely different sense of the readership of this magazine than that of 'billboard', it seems much more fast paced and aiming to keep its readership up by providing eye-catching stories that instantly draw people in. The overall impression given from the magazine is that they know people will want to read their latest stories given that the magazine is highly credible and has been for many years. Country magzines are much less popular and it is for this reason that many people, especially those of younger generations would be unable to recognise magazines, such as 'Billboard', as easily as they would 'Rollingstone' for example.