Double page spread

Contents page

Front cover

Final magazine

Drafts

Case Study: Publishing House

Case Study on a Publishing House: The Bauer Media Group

In this part of my coursework I will analysis a media publishing house, I have chosen to analyse The Bauer Media Group, and the Bauer Media Group is a publishing group based in Hamburg, Germany. This company operates in 15 different countries which include England, China and the USA. The company is privately owned by the Bauer Family. Bauer started with a magazine called Bella in 1987. They introduced an unseen real life editorial, Bella made an impact in the women's market. Attention was again obtained in the 90s with the launch of Take a Break magazine. This magazine sold over 1milliom copies a week. Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels. Bauer Media is a sister company of H Bauer UK, publisher of the UK's biggest TV listings. Bauer has a unique insight and understanding of its audience, they engage over 19 million consumers every week. The Bauer Media spreads over 80 brand names covering a healthy amount of interests including heat – the must have weekly celebrity title, Parker's, MATCH, CAR and Yours.

Bauer Media joined the Bauer Publishing Group in January 2008. The Bauer Publishing Group employs some 6,400 people and has a 2007 turnover of 1.79 billion Euros. Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies who specialise in magazine and radio. Bauer Media is a business that is built on many media brands like Kerrang and Q which have millions of personal relationships which engage their readers. Their strategy is to connect audiences with excellent content through broad multi-touch point brand platforms. Their wide portfolio of many brands gives them the advantages over other competitors.

The company’s radio business started in 1990 with the help of London dance station Kiss FM, followed by the acquisition of Radio City and later by TWC and the Metro Group. Then came the acquisition of Melody FM which was transformed into the market-leading Magic FM.

The company is very successful because they make huge amount of money and they also listen to their audience very well they take onboard what they say and try to publish radio shows and magazines with the feedback given and also they have over 19 million consumers a week this is a vast amount of consumers, I can see why they get 19 million consumers a month, they other a wide range of different magazines that have different purposes.

Music magazine questionnaire results

I have asked this question because I want to find out how many people actually read music magazine as this would help me make my magazine pages. From the results above I can see that people do read with only 10 out of 40 people who do not read.

Now this question I wanted to find out what type of music people are into. for this question I let people click multiple answer because most people like more then one type of music. Techno, RnB and Hip Hop came out on top and so I will base my magazine on one of these genres or maybe have my magazine contain news on two genres.

Here is a similar question to the one above but this one is asking what music they like to listen to. This will also help me out with the development of my music magazine. Techno, Dance and RnB came out on top. Techno and RnB came out top of both these question so I will take that into consideration and probably base my magazine on one of these genres.

This questions aim is to find out what my fellow peers like to see in a magazine ranging from either images, text or colour. From the results I can see people like to see the text, this is probably because many people buy a magazine to read but image came in second so I think images are still important but the text is the most important.

Here is the results to the question 'What kind of magazine/s do you like to read?'. The ones that came out on top are Music, Gossip and Celebrity because these came out on top I will add some of the up coming artists in the music industry as it gives fans something to look forward to and nearly every magazine contains gossip in it so I will consider adding that to my magazine.

What attracts people to a magazine is the text this question relates to the question before where I asked 'What do you prefer in a magazine'' Text has over half the results and this tells me that text is very important and in order for my magazine to be successful among my audience i will need to add creative text and text that is easy to read.

Most people spend around £0-£3 on magazines with a few who are willing to pay £4-£6. This tells me a lot, I would have to sell my magazine at a price between £0-£6 in order for it to become sell able as most teenagers want to spend their magazines on other stuff like clothes and going out.

This question asks how long people read in a week. I found out most people read between 0-1 hours a week this doesn't seem so good for my magazine in development but it will help me improve it, I will have to make my text easy to read and make it appealing to my target audience.

Here I have asked people if they buy magazines, and the results are that 20 people said yes, 5 people said no and 15 people said sometimes. from these results it tells me that people will be willing to buy my magazine and they will properly give it a read or even a look.

Music magazine questionnaire

MUSIC MAGAZINE QUESTIONAIRE

Name: Age: Male Female

Do you read magazines?

Yes No Sometimes

Do you buy magazines?

Yes No Sometimes

How long do you read for in a week?

0-1hour 2-3hours 4-5hours

How much do you spent on magazines in a week?

£0-£3 £4-£6 £7-£10

What attracts you to a magazine?

Images Colours Text

What kind of magazine/s do you like to read?

Music Gossip Children’s Celebrity

Fashion College News Car

What do you prefer in a magazine?

Images Text Colour

What kinds of music to you listen to?

Techno RnB Rock

Hip Hop Trance Dance

What kind of music genre do you like to read about?

Techno RnB Rock

Hip Hop Trance Dance

Textual Analysis of a double page spread

Double page spread textual analysis

I am going to do a textual analysis on this double page spread from the magazine Kerrang. The reason I have chosen this double page spread is because I intend to make my double page spread similar to this one and also I am thinking of making my magazine based on the rock genre.

The main cover line ‘’ WE’RE BEING THE BEST MCR WE CAN BE!’’ stands out on both pages, it is bold which makes it stand out from the rest of the text on the pages, also this attracts the reader because it shows the bands determination and commitment towards music. The ‘World exclusive’ at the top left side of the first page makes this page unique it’s a world exclusive. Kerrang have been invited to the MCR recording studio which it mentions in one of the cover lines on the right side of the double page spread. This makes die hard fans of MCR want to read on and find out more about there visit etc.

The text of the right with the white background gives the reader and heads up on the new tracks MCR have produced. This section allows the reader to read what the upcoming tracks will sound like, the track is described in text.

The left side is dominated by two individual one of them I believe is the lead singer of My Chemical Romance, he and the other band member are wearing clothing that may come across as trendy to people who are interested in their music (tight jeans and denim jacket) also their hairstyles may also be considered fashionable and ‘rocky’.

The images on the right side connotes that the band is very hard working as one of the images show the lead singer practising vocally on the microphone, also it seems that he is signing his heart out. The other image shows the group having a discussion and this could denote that they are discussion a new song maybe or they might be planning for a tour which could support the main cover line ‘WE’RE BEING THE BEST MCR WE CAN BE’. All the images on both pages compliment each other because they are all in black and white which makes the pages consistent. The colour theme of the double page spread is black, white and red all these colours go well together resulting in a more interesting page for the reader.

Textual Analysis of a Front cover

Music Magazine Textual Analysis

Mojo is a popular music magazine published by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. I am going to do a textual analysis of a front cover from the magazine ‘MOJO’. The front cover of this ‘‘MOJO’’ magazine tells us that this magazine is published by a British company because the colours used are red, blue and white which are the colours in the English flag. Also these colours denote that this magazine is aimed at the British public. The group on the front cover are The Kinks who are an English rock band formed in the 60s. The Kinks are recognised as one of the most influential acts of that era, this could make people of the older generation become more attracted to the magazine.
The Mojo magazine frequently uses a top 100 list ranging from top 100 British songs to most miserable songs of all time. As you can see from the front cover there is a top 50 greatest British tracks ever, this could make die hard fans of the British culture buy the magazine and as this magazine seems to target the British audience it would be reasonable to put the top 50 list there.

Denotation: There a several denotations I could see on the front cover one of them for example is that the title of the magazine is slightly hidden behind the image of the group this denotes that the magazine is targeting the older generations because teenagers of this generation are highly unlikely to recognise or ever heard of the Kinks. The cover line ‘’WE NEARLY DIED’’ tells us that they nearly died but the image of the group in the background tells us otherwise because they seem to be jolly and heathy.

The main cover line that relates to the photograph says ‘The Kinks’ which tells me that the main focus of this magazine is that particular band, the word is in bold red which stands out and attracts me to the magazine. Also ‘MOJO’ is behind the picture of the band which could denote that the band is more important then the magazine itself. The other cover lines surrounding the word ‘THE KINKS’ tells me that the magazine has an interesting story about the Kinks as it says ‘LAUGH’, ‘WE NEARLY DIED!’, ‘THE RISE’, ‘THE FALL’ etc. The different cover lines tell me that the magazine is not solely focused on the Kinks, because the other cover lines tell me about other artists that are featured in this magazine for example Kanye West and Bob Marley. Another cover line the ‘’STRUMMER CONNED US’’ may catch the attention of some people because if I read something like that on front cover I would want to know more. The top 50 list might also interest music fans because some of them like to be updated with the latest music and keep up to date but as this top 50 list is about the greatest British tracks ever this may appeal to the British audience or people in music from the United Kingdom.

This magazine does well in trying to target their specific audience because of the colour theme they use and the consistency of the font used this makes the reader attracted to the magazine because it does not bombard them with too much at a given time. Also Mojo do a very good job in giving the magazine a British feel because most of the things on it are things to do with the British culture like the band for instance and the top 50 list of the greatest British songs.

Introduction

From here onwards I will start my main media task which is to create a music magazine which will contain a front cover, contents page and a double page spread. I will do audience research before I make the magazine to get a feel of what kind of music people are into. Also I will do textual analysis of a front cover and double page spread of a music magazines and this will influence me into making my magazine.