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.