Fintan Cadden
AS Media
Magazine Analysis: Q
Front Cover
Production
Q magazine is published and produced by The Bauer Media Group, but was originally produced by EMAP. Q is also published on a monthly basis.
Price
Q magazine costs £4.50 each month
Circulation
The circulation of Q magazine is 44,050
Target Market
Q is aimed at a large audience, so is a mass market product, it is aimed towards both males and females, although statistics show more men purchase it, The age range of reader is from 15 years old to 44 years old. All the audience will be avid music fans, but from a variety of music genres as the magazine is based off a mixture.
Monthly revenue from magazine sales
Each month there will be £16,518.75 monthly revenue from sales of Q magazine (approximately).
Title
The title 'Q' was originally intended to be cue, as in the term cueing a record, ready to play, but was changed after they believed it might be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason for the change was that the single letter 'Q' would be more prominent and stand out in newstands, add give it brand identity.
Masthead/Title Logo
The title also acts as the logo as it is the most distinguishable feature on the magazine, due to its bright background and the bold font used. The logo is placed in the corner of the magazine, and has the slogan 'The worlds greatest music magazine' at the top. The Masthead is bold, clean and simple, so it stands out amongst other magazines, and being recognisable, allowing brand identity due to this.
Strapline
The top strapline advertises a life story on a music artist 'Johnny Marr' with a quote from the interview which could lure some readers. The bottom strapline has names of artists along the magazine, suggesting to the reader that they will be featured somehwere in the magazine, meaning the fans of these bands and artists will read on to find out what is written about them
Main Image
The main image is a picture of the band 'green day', there is three of them and the shot is a medium shot. Their direction of gaze is directly at the camera, and staring it down with an intimidating stare. The photo shows them in dark clothing which represents them as intimidating , and this is associated with 'green day' as their part of the rock genre. This is relatable to the readers, as they attach themselves to that genre and how they act and live.
Other images
On the cover there is another image of a music artist 'Johnny Marr' and the photo is shot as a close up and is positioned next to an article about his life in the music industry. There is also an image which advertises the 'new, improved' reviews in the magazine. This can act as a lure as people will want to see how highly rated the new albums are and if it is worth picking them up. This also can draw more readers in who aren't directly interested in 'green day'.
Coverlines
The main coverline promotes a 'green day' story on 'how to survive rock'n'roll, in this story it also features another rock-band 'Metallica'. This story will lure rock fans and aspiring artists from thus genre who want to ,ear what it is like to be in a rock band in the music industry. This coverline is the largest on the screen , which makes it the first thing we read off the page, so is made to sound interesting. There is also a smaller coverline that is about an interview inside with the band 'The 1975' and briefly describes what the interview will include.
Language features
The headline article is in a serif font. .The typeface is clean and easy to read as it i mostly in block capitals, making it easy to read for the audience. The words used are simplistic and not wrote in full length paragraphs in order to keep the attention of the reader. The coverlines are broken down to be much smaller and are in bullet point type of form in a san-serif font.
Comparisons to other magazines
Q is a very different magazine to others as it is a hybrid, meaning many different genres of music are featured in the magazine. Q is more formal than other magazine, for example KERRANG! is bold and loud whilst Q is more sophisticated and formal.
Inside magazine analysis
Amount of pages
In Q magazine there is 130 pages overall, but 18 of those pages are adverts.
Type of products advertised
Many of the adverts in Q magazine revolve around mens grooming, this includes fragrance, shaving and shampoo, this would relate to the readership of the magazine and that its majority readers are men. All the rest of the adverts are for upcoming gigs and albums which the artists have paid to display in Q magazine, due to it reaching a large audience.
Article topics in the magazine
The main article, and the one featured as the headline is about 'how to survive rock'n'roll, this mean a large portion of the magazine is based on the rock genre, and ha;f the double page spread of contents has this shown. Much of the magazine is also taken up by the Q review, in fact 22 pages are in total. Most of the other pages are filled with a variety of different interviews from different genres ranging from grime to rock.
Double page spreads
Throughout the magazine there is overall 20 double page spreads, the majority of these are interviews from artists and stories about their life. Although the majority are from artists, some of the double page spreads are about albums and some even on adverts at the start of the magazine.
Advertorials
In Q magazine, there are no visible advertorials included.
Magazines unified House style
Throughout the magazine the use of red and white is clear, this comes from the mastheads iconic design and colour shceme. Also all the main colours situated on the main page, blue and white are also shown through the magazine allowing there to be a clear and recognisable house style
How does the house style speak to the audience
The audience is people aged 15-44 and a majority of them being men, this would suggest that Q would aim to have a more sophisticated and simple, clean look rather than a bold vivid house style. I feel Q magazine does this well with its clean logo and sleek colours througout, not to mention the simple and easy fonts and design features, which really draws in its target audience.
Clean and simple designs for the target audience
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