Conventions Of A Magazine

The image isn't just for comedy, seriously..

what i'm trying to demonstrate with this image is what is typical of a magazine, from what i can see after cutting up many magazines..

this being more bias to glossy and gossip magazines rather than magazines in general.

• the Magazine name is always at the top of the magazine, this is so when on the shelf it is visible above the barriers that hold the magazine upright. The gossip/trashy magazines are generally 'one word' and one syllable, short, snappy and easy to remember (Shout, Heat, Now). While specialist magazines generally describe exactly what content the consumer is getting: Horse Riding Weekly, Apple Mac World, Fishing UK.
• Words such as "exclusive" crop up frequently in gossip magazines, as celebrities tell their stories (supposedly making them more believable), and more often than not.. celebrity wedding exclusives appear on Glossy magazine covers. 'at home with..' and similar phrases make stories more believable, as these magazines are known for playing on rumour and unfortunate photographs of celebrities.

• A favourable or recognisable (and ATTRACTIVE) face is likely to appear on the cover, this way the consumer is drawn in, as they may be a fan of the person appearing or may favour one magazine over another after seeing who appears, it's unlikely to be a conscious/deliberate decision but it's a decision that the consumer WOULD make.
• a headline or attention grabbing quote from a celebrity or somebody well-known, further attracting the consumer to favour one magazine over another, playing on the consumer's curiosity.
• "man who ate his.." a startling or strange story to further play on the consumer's curiosity, a story that is out for the ordinary and could be told my a member of the public or a celebrity ("my marriage downfall, blah blah blah..").
• Competitions, offering the reader something in exchange for buying the magazine, this could include vouchers for a popular shop or online store, the opportunity to win cars/holidays, or even a small product coming with the magazine (magazines such as Company frequently give away small cosmetics with their magazines).
• THIS SEASON.. fashion and gossip magazines in particular play on seasons and trends, the summer encouraging 'bikini body' articles in every issue, and winter issues full of 'the most flattering and on trend coats'.

Since i'm creating my own magazine and corporate identify, it is vital that i analyse what is typical of a magazine, i'm going to do this via both existing magazines and through the typical magazine draft i have created. it's important to pick out the key features that always or most commonly appear on a magazine front cover.

• what's typical of a magazine?
• how do magazines vary throughout "genres"?
• what genres are there?
• what does each individual magazine have to offer to the customer?
• how is the consumer's attention caught?
• what's unique and what's very typical? can magazines combine these?

i feel it's important that my magazine be both typical and unique to the market, it's unique already as an idea, a magazine that is both available online and on paper, buying on paper to allow access to online features. But also picking up on the important characteristics that make a magazine appealing.
it'll be easy access and modern, which will help attract the consumer when introduced onto shelves.

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UNFORTUNATELY, this video should be eight and a half minutes long but Youtube didn't feel like co-operating, so the video has been sped up to try and meet the audio, point is.. the content is still there, hopefully there are some valid points in there despite my hand gestures not fitting what i'm mumbling.

So just watching through the video, i mumbled a lot and so decided to summarise as much as i could, what is being said.

Magazines Research:

• substantial list of genres, many many available, many for specific hobbies.
• periodicals, magazines are generally released at set times, every week/month/day and this affects the size of the magazine often.
• the content available in each genre of magazine, there is a pattern.
• can be purchased or subscribed to.

Arrangement of magazine shelving in shops.

• children's magazines are generally on the lower shelf as they are at the perfect height, in the child's eye-line and so they are more likely to spot them and therefore pick them up.
• newspapers are always together, for people who regularly travel to the shop to pick up a paper.
• gossip/trashy magazine (fashion, wedding, some specialised but still rather mainstream such as Baby&Me, female magazines) aimed at the 'female audience who may approach the shelf to browse', are in the middle and suit the average height. Straight in front of you for easy browsing, easily reached.
• Specialised magazines that people would go and purposely look for are positioned higher up, people who only appear to browse would not think to look up while those who buy the specialised genres would purposefully seek them.
• Clever arrangement, plays on psychology of people, their intentions when going to the magazine shelf, are they looking for a specific magazine or merely browsing? Therefore put the popular magazines at the forefront for the browsers and those magazines that don't need to be shown (as they will be sought and unlikely to be chosen by a browser) out of the way.

Magazine appearance and characteristics

• familiar and comforting faces appear on the covers
• the prices will be low and competitive, some will actually name others "30p cheaper than.."
• Collaboration between magazines, buy 'ok', 'heat' and 'now' for £3! So the consumer believes they are saving money, and rather than competing, the magazines therefore all get a profit from the consumer.
• sizes of the magazines, generally the cheaper magazines are thinner and funded by advertising, monthly and more more expensive magazines are generally thicker and have more content but, to compensate, have even more adverts.
• the adverts chosen for each magazine are specific to the magazine content. While a glossy or a fashion-based magazine would have adverts for deodorant, feminine cars, feminine hygiene, make up and perfume.. A male magazine would advertise aftershave, watches, energy drinks and male-orientated cars.

Applying this to my product.

• who can appear on my cover? must be someone ordinary but.. not (?) referring to youtube stars could be important.
• arrangement of the cover difficult to alter, as shelf arrangement means main parts of the image such as title and cover-focus must remain in the same place.
• the name of the magazine, word play on youtube would show the consumer instantly what the magazine content is, something rememberable.
• who's the protagonist, antagonist for my advert?

(interruption from family) chose not to re-film for sake of 10 seconds, oh..

ta-da!

watched video up and thought I'd add on the dialogue that was cut, if it's helpful.. not so sure :')

i was saying about how in the Glossy/fashion magazines, the first twenty or so pages would be adverts and this would continue throughout the magazine, what i was trying to explain was how the adverts are generally chosen to fit the audience of the magazine.

The missing content is pretty much summarised above (see bullet points).

i then produced what i consider to be the typical template for a magazine, this generally applies across the genres, not just the glossy/gossip magazines. The only exceptions, i would say are Magazines where the subject/content is not 'human' ( .. dont' laugh at that ) but for example Horse riding (other hobby-based genres) and Home/Lifestyle magazines have exactly that on the cover rather than a famous face/faces.