Magazine Covers

A magazine editors main concern is the cover, which they spend 50% of their time on because the cover attracts consumers and tells us some of the articles featured in the magazine. It is the "face" of the magazine and is a brand image, when someone walks into a shop, they can recognise the magazine's cover easily. The editor of Kerrang! makes sure the cover appeals to whole of its readership by consistently featuring different sub-genres of rock, and this makes sure everyone has something they'd like to read. The main sells are give aways, freebies such as stickers, posters, calenders, featuring well known artists and you can even turn the magazine into a collectors item; for example: collect all five issues with a member of My Chemical Romance on each cover. A cover-mounted CD boosts sales up to 40,000, most being casual readers and the editor must ensure that the magazine features more things; but cheaper to produce such as stickers etc. to keep these new readers. Mixmag offers a CD with every issue and this evidently raises the costs of production and therefore, raises the price of the magazine. This doesn't affect the sales because the CD may be the reason some readers buy the magazine so if they stopped producing the CDs, they may lose a lot of customers. Disadvantages of this are it is quite time consuming and people will expect free CD's with every issue. Two most important areas on a cover are the logo and the "sweetspot"; this is because the logo is for the consumers to recognise and confirms the brand image. The sweetspot attracts the audience because that is where the reader's eyes are drawn to first and they can scan through what will be featured and will want to buy the magazine. Two important things a magazine must try to do is be different everytime because readers will get bored of repetition and also, they must still have the same theme because it is part of the brand image and they should try to keep some things recognisable.

Magazine Publishers Research

Bauer

Company website: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

TV Channels: The Box, Smash Hits, 4Music.

Radio Stations: Magic and Kiss 100.

Other websites: http://www.heatworld.com/

Originally a small printing house, The Bauer Publishing Group has grown into a worldwide publishing company, now producing over 282 magazines. Some mainstream titles include Heat, FHM, Closer, Kerrang!, Q.

They also provide for a niche market, and have a wide variety to choose from such as

Your Horse, Model Rail, Golf World, and Practical Photography.

The company seems to have a musical brand image because the most popular magazines they publish are mainstream music magazines, although they do publish other types of magazines, both aimed at a wide general audience .

IPC Media

Company website: http://www.ipcmedia.com/

Other websites: http://www.housetohome.co.uk/, http://www.countrylife.co.uk/, http://www.nme.com/,

IPC Media is one of the United Kingdom's leading consumer magazine and digital publishers, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. The company is split into five divisions, producing a range of 80 magazines, both niche and mainstream as well as other forms of media. 26 million UK adults read an IPC magazine, which is over 44%. The company works with magazines on TV listings, music and film, lifestyles, health, men's interests etc. Some examples are NME, Country House, The Field, Classic Boat. Many of the magazines published by IPC are focussing on the countryside, health and lifestle, which evidently means they aim at a middle aged and older audience who are interested in a "healthy living".

BBC Magazines

Company website: http://www.bbc.co.uk

TV Channels: BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, CBBC, Cbeebies, BBC News

Radio Stations: Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 5 etc.

Other websites: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

BBC is a well established company, they produce many niche magazines, most of which are based on their shows, focusing on home, garden and education, aimed at adults preschool and preteens. Some adult titles include Countryfile, Wildlife Magazine, Radio Times. Some preschool/preteen magazines they produce are Doctor Who Adventures, Charlie and Lola, Teletubbies, Top of the Pops and Top Gear. There are many magazines that have a variety of different audiences, covering a wide range of topics. The BBC covers many other medias, and magazines is not their main concern.

Development Hell

Company website: http://www.developmenthell.co.uk/

Other websites: http://www.mixmag.net/, http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/

Development Hell is a small independent publishing company, which produces two monthly niche music magazines aimed at an older generation, The Word and Mixmag. The company aims at people that are interested in older music, and at club and dance music. The company is presented as being a small company providing it's readership with good quality magazines because they do not have that much to concentrate on.

Task 1 - Representation of Jennifer Lopez.

Analysis of Magazine Covers.

On this cover of In Style Magazine, Jennifer's image covers the title implying her importance, suggesting even more so than the magazine itself. She is standing to the left, with her hand on her hip and this emphasises her curves. It presents her in a much softer way than if she was standing with her front facing us. Her hair is scraped back harshly, showing dominance as this is a hairdo associated with business women, drawing the audience's attention to her costume because this is a Fashion magazine, rather than a big hairstyle that might distract the reader. Her dress suggests power and high status, and the detail of her dress shows her glamourous lifestyle. The monochromatic colours of her dress makes the red text and her lipstick stand out.

Although her pose conveys power, she is smiling slightly and this suggests a more friendly side to her, which readers can get to know by reading the article in the magazine. All the articles and anchorage text is about fashion, and readers will know this immediately after glancing at the front cover because "FASHION" is one of the words that you read first as it's almost in the center. The article that the main image is about however, is in the corner of the page, and the colour themes are only red and monchromatic, as too many random colours can make a magazine look rather unprofessional.

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On this cover of Cosmopolitan, the image of Jennifer Lopez covers part of the title making it difficult to even read the title.

The image focuses on Jennifer and her "fiesty" attitude, with the colours red, orange, emphasising that, as they are natural colours of an open flame. She is wearing a low cut dress and in this image, her power is evidently sexuality. Her sultry look adds to this and her hair is slightly fanned back so you can see her face and flowing everywhere, which could suggest her "wild side". She is standing with her whole body front facing towards us and this possible presents her confidence in independence as this a women's magazine. Her right hand is slightly lifting up her dress, revealing more skin on her thigh and this emphasises her confidence further more.

The colour pallet consists of red and orange with the text, background and dress all conforming to this theme. These colours have been specifically selected to portray the image of 'Latino Heat' and the style of her dress may be representing her culture, as the design and colours of the pattern are similar to the Spanish flag.

The main headlines deal with mainly deal with sex, while the image is quite "sexy", making women want to be sexy like her and attract men.

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On this cover of FHM Magazine, Jennifer Lopez's image is on top of the title again but not as much as the other magazines because you can still read it. This suggests that the creators of the magazine take a lot of pride in the name of the magazine and instead of Jennifer being more important, they are of equal status on this cover.

In this image, she is wearing a very small bikini appealing to the male audience as it leaves "little to the imagination". She is seen as a sex symbol as the world "GODDESS" is very large and referring to her. The audience of this magazine is evidently different to the readers of the previous magazines, as she is not clothed fully implying that men are interested in seeing her body naked. Her arm is on her waist, emphasising and highlighting her curves and presenting "attitude" in comparison to her vulnerable position, as she is kneeling down and this is putting her in a more less powerful position than if she was standing up. Her facial expression is pouty and seductive, confident that men will love this picture of her.

Not far from the top, is the headling "SEX MAD" for a different article but because it's next to her head, the reader may see this and assume it's got to do with her. The image may seem degrading because now she is a sex icon, it makes her seem like an object that men are aspiring to have.

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On this cover of People Magazine, we can see that Jennifer Lopez is wearing cream coloured clothing and her hair is tied back casually. The colour theme used is very relaxed; homely and comfortable, showing her softer motherly side, in comparison to the other magazines, giving an impression on her character change over the years. Her clothes also evidently show a more older and more refined, and the reader will notice this straight away by just looking at it. The colour of her dress is a silky nude brown, drawing the viewers focus on her newborn babies and showing her maturity. The sofa in the background makes it seem even more homely, as if the audience is sitting with her having a conversation, this has a better effect than if the background was all white like normal photoshoots.

Her big smile is very natural and this gives us a very friendly impression, giving a direct mode of address which makes the audience feel that they are engaging with her more personally. This is emphasised further by the babies she is holding, giving us a "motherly" invite. Her head slightly tilted towards the babies, showing genuine love and care for her newborns, suggesting that she enjoys being a mother.

The Magazine cover uses low contrast lighting and the color pallet used is very warm. Some of the text is lilac and this compliments the warm nude shades. The focus is selective and looks at most important subject; Jennifer Lopez and her babies. Her head is placed in front of the title which focusses on her and and implies her importance.