Time Plan

Originally the deadline for the planning and research was the 8th of January but because of college closure the deadline was extended to the 15th of January.
In this time I had to complete a number of blogs based on my research and the planning I have made which was based on my research into existing magazines.
I made sure I had completed all my research into existing magazines first so I could then concentrate on my planning and audience research. I had to think of my audience I was aiming to target before I could start compiling my mood board so I could include features which would appeal to them.
I then made my mood board and showed it and existing magazines to a sample of my audience to get their feedback and constructive critisism. With this audience research I could then go to on start drawing up my plans of my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I then did some more audience research for my planning to see what my target audience thought of my sketches and idea's.
I then completed my institution and publisher research so I could find out about what other magazines are published by and who could publish mine.

The deadline for the production of my magazine is 12th February and the deadline for the evaluation is the 5th of March.

Research and Planning : Distribution

The four main distributors in the magazine industry are Marketforce, Comag, Frontline and Seymour.

I researched into Frontline to find out what they do.

The company was formed in June 1986 by the magazine publisher Emap who are now Bauer Media. Frontline sells and distributes over 160 of their partners' magazines. including 54 of the top 200 best selling titles in the UK (csource ABC.) Their magazines sell nearly 8 million copies every week through over 55,00 shops ranging from the smallest corner shops to the bigger hypermarkets. This makes them the biggest magazines distributor in the UK. Frontline maximises the sale of the magzine in the most cost-effective way by connecting with their partners' knowledge of the readers with the retailers' understanding of their shoppers in order to boost their sales. Frontline employs over 120 people and has its offices in central Peterborough.

Their publishers are BBC, Haymarket, Bauer etc and they have the full responsibility for producing the magazine which includes the editorial and selling and advertising. Next is the distributors who are Frontline, Comag and Marketforce. Their key role is the arrange deliveries of the magazine to the wholesalers from the printers for further distribution. Then is the Wholesaler who are companies such as Smiths News, Menzies Distribution and 60 other wholesale houses. The wholesalers are responsible for supplying retail outlets with the newspapers and magazines. Next is the Retailer who are companies such as WHS, ASDA, Tesco and 55,00 other retailers. These ensure that the magazines are displayed for the consumer to buy.

Frontline distributes many magazines and they work with three major UK publishers, these are Haymarket, Bauer and the BBC.

The Bauer Publishing group was founded in Hamburg in 1875 and is now a worldwide publishing empire comprising of 238 magazines worldwide in 15 countries as well as TV and radio stations.

Bauer's first magazine was Bella mag in 1987, the company then launched Take A Break which has maintained its number 1 status and is currently selling over 1 million copies a week.

Then in 1990 they launched TVQuick and then in 1991 thats life! and then in 1995 TVChoice.

Bauer is now the largest consumer magazine publlishing company in the UK, playing a primary role in the Womans Weekles, Womans Interest,Womans Lifestyle, TV Listings, Puzzles, Mens Lifestyles, Music, Film and Specialist magazine markets.

Some of their music magazines are Kerrang and Q.

Kerrangs platforms are Kerrang! Magazine, Radio, TV -Sky 368, Virgin Media 342 and their website.

Their audience profile is individually minded, independant of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, loyalty and passion.,

Since Q's launch in 1986 its been the UK's best selling music monthly magazine and has delivered the worlds biggest stars every month. It draws reference from the world of sport, comedy, film and even politics.

Its platforms are Q magazine, Radio and Awards. Their audience profile is open minded experience seekers, and they don't define themselves by the music they listen tp. Music is an important passion but their love of music will never be the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy.

An independant distributor is Vice. The audience profile for Vice is very much radicals and people who persieve themselves to have a different image and different style of music. The brand identity is very unique and unlike other magazines. The pictures used are extremely arty and creative and quite funky and unusual. Your typical person wouldn't read this magazine as it wouldn't appeal to them as its quite a quirky magazine, touching on some unusual topics and containing strange and bizzare images.

This is the page that comes up when you click on the birmingham link. This shows you the stores where you can find Vice. These stores are Urban Outfitters, Size, Studio 4, Retro Bizzare and Tempest. These are all small outlets and independant shops. Vice has a totally different disrtubution stratergy to other mainstream compaines such as Frontline. They targett the smaller and independant shops so they can find and reach their target audience who you would find in these shops.

Because my audience I aim to target are radicals and people who have a different taste and style in music to the main stream music I think that it would be best for me distribute my magazine through an independant distributor. I think that because my audience means that i wouldd be better distributing my magazine.

Also their main passion will have to be music so selling my magazine in dedicated music shops may be good. Also I could distribute my magazine at festivals all over the UK.

Further Audience Research

Once I had drawn up all my sketches and for my planning of my magazine I then showed them to some audience members for their constructive criticism.

First of all I showed and talked them through the design for my front cover. They said how they agreed that the magazines they were used to buying only used colours in the background and they had never seen a mainsell against another sort of background. But they did say how they don't see why it couldn't work and it may make my magazine stand out more. But they said that they were more interested in the content of the front cover and what was included so they said that if I was to go ahead with the different backdrop then make sure it doesn't draw the attention away from the text and other pictures.

They liked the name of my magazine and said it fitted and worked well with my chosen genre and that as a reader and a buyer they could tell easily what the magazine was going to be about.

They thought that my positioning of boxes, texts and pictures worked well but they did say how I had to be carefull not to inculde to much on the front cover as this was what the contents page was for so not all the main selling features and artists had to be on the front page.

One feature that did attract their eye, even in sketch form was the freebie and they thought this would go down well with the readers and was a good feature to include in my magazine.



When I showed them my contents page they thought it looked clear, easy to understand and also well organised. They liked the idea of spreading it over two pages and having certain sections for the different features in the magazine. They said that all the boxes (where pictures will be) fitted together and didn't look out of place and looked neat and tidy but also made the reader think that there was alot included in the magazine so it was value for money.

They were also attracted to the picture of the Banjo and said that advertising this article on the artists page as it stood out from the pictures of artists.

They thought that the splitting of articles into different sections worked well. These sections were Pure Guitar, New Music, Folk Instruments and Music and Musical Goings On.

Their reasons for liking these sections was because as a reader you pick the magazine up because something on the front cover has caught their eye, so now with these sections they can go straight to the section they think that article will be under instead of searching through the entire contents page.

Finally I showed them my idea for my double page spread. They said that the advertising on one whole page was a common feature that they noticed regulary in existing magazines and that they thought it was interesting to see the adverts and sometimes they appealed to them if the advert was something interesting.
They said that the lay out of the article on one of the featured artists was neat and looked good and where I placed the pictures didn't look out of place.
They also thought that the seperate box at the bottom added something interesting to the page and was quite a nice feature to include, seperate to the article.

Initial Planning

I have started to plan out how I intend for my acoustic magazine to look. I have done sketches based on my reseearch of how I want my front cover to look aswell as the contents page and a double page spread. My planning is all based on my research and my audience research. I have included features that I found worked well and were used in other acoustic magazines and what my target audience have said they liked from those existing magazines and my mood board.

I think that photography is a very important feature in magazines and the photographs are what catch the audiences eye and attention. When I did my audience research I had some feed back that the photo's weren't important in a magazine and it was more the content of the magazine that was important, so I have taken this into consideration in my planning. In my research into existing acoustic magazines photographs were very prominant and featured through out the magazine. These photographs were used mainly for advertising, another feature that was pointed out unnecssicary in a magazine, but I have noticed that all magazine use advertising as a way of bulking out their magazine so I have decided that advertising will be a feature in my magazine.

I am planning on using two different tpyes of advert for my magazine. One advert which will be on the front cover of the magazine listed as a feature inside is the advertisement of venues holding music sessions. The other advert I will include is the advertisement of instruments. Guitars were advertised alot in ACOUSTIC and I have looked closely into the photography used in these advertisements, so I have decided to include a guitar advert and use simular photography as used in existing magazines.

Nature was linked into all of the adverts for guitars as the bark of tree's works well as a back drop against the wooden bodies of the guitars. Objects used in these adverts, if used at all were very simplistic and orientated around the idea of country life and tended to be quite rustic and retro.

I have been photographing tree's around my area which I think would work well in my advert.

These are some pictures of tree trunks which would work well against guitars. I am planning on using one of these tree's in my guitar advert for my magazine.
In the existing magazines the whole of the tree is not included in the picture and the main focus is on the trunk of the tree, with the guitar resting on it. I think that these tree's have good potential for photography as they have not only got a good trunk but they also green leavage aswell which would work well.

Below is my initial plan and sketch of a tree I had in mind for photographing. This is a tree with a hollow trunk where I could place objects in surrounding the guitar. Also I planned the background which I wanted in the photo, which was an old wooden fence with fields in the background. All this fits in with the nature.


Here is the phot of the tree, although there is snow in this picture so the background is not overly clear and and nor is the ground. I may decide not to use the background and just focus in on the trunk of the tree, as shown in a photo further up the page.
Other back drops I have seen which may be usefull for advertising is an old wooden door with a natural brick wall frame.

I photographed this door as I thought it would work well as a back drop again as its quite an arty door and the colour of the door is very good and made with real wood which has a wooden texture which you can see in the pictures. Also the shape of the door with the arch and the frame would would brilliantly as a back ground for a guitar.

My advert will be on the second page of my double page spread and will take up an entire page, as this was a common feature which I found in existing magazines.

On the first page of my double spread will be an article on one of the main feature artists.

Here is a rough sketch of my double page spread.

On the first page I have roughly sketched out how I want the lay out to be. I will have the artists main picture (which will be used in the contents page) at the top left hand corner of the page. On the photo in white, bold writing there will be the artists name and in black underneath will be a brief write up and the interviewers name. The page will be split into two collumns. The background will be white and the text on the page will be black. The text will start underneath the main photo and carry up onto the second half of the page. In the middle of that section there will be a photo of her performing on stage, as done in existing magazines. The text will continue below it. At the bottom of the page will be a small box which will be a small fact file of her music and about the artist. In the box will be another small picture of the artists, with their instrument. This photograph will be finished in black and white, as this feature is used in existing magazines.

I already have an idea for the artists main photograph. The artist will be female and here is a quick sketch of how I would like the photo look, where it is taken, whats in the photo and what she is wearing, all important aspects of the photo which need to be taken into carefull consideration.

My sketch shows the female artist in a field with a tree in the for-ground on the right side of the photograph. Against the tree will be the artists guitar. I want to guitar to be there to link the guitar with nature as the style of music is acoustic. The female artist will be standing in the middle of the field with her back to the camera and her head turned to the right over her shoulder, looking at the camera, In the background will be a field.

She will be wearing non-fashionable clothes of a bohemian style. Although someone in my audience research said that the clother they were wearing was unimportant, image is music is important and with the style of folk/acoustic music comes the style of bohemian dress.

I also want her to have bare feet to show her looking natural and to link in with nature and the bareness of the music she creates.

I want there also to be a certain light in the photo, so I plan to take it either at sun set or sun rise, so as to give the photo an overall warmth.

Below is my sketch and plan of my contents page. I have decided to spread my contents page across two pages. I have done this as I found that from my research, I myself as a reader found it easier to identify what was in the magazine as more pictures can be used and the article written about more. Also it looks visually better and you can sell your magazine features more as you can include more in your contents so the reader is bound to find something they find worth buying the magazine for. Also in my audience research, when I showed ACOUSTIC which is an existing magazine, they liked the contents page as it was more clear and organised and more to read and the pictures helped out.

The first page on the contents page will be dedicated to the artists featured in the magazine. So at the top of the page there will be the two main featured artists. These two artists will have a large picture (which will be used as their main image in their article) and also their name and a breif write up of them and what is included in their article. The colours used for this text will be the colours I identified as the main colours in my magazine which are red, green, blue, brown and white. So seperate colours for the artists name and write up will be used from this selection depending on the final colour of the photographs.
The box below these will be a a larger and more well-known artist of the acoustic/folk scene who gives a short review of new up and coming bands and artists. Included a more familuar face in your magazine is important and is a feature which proved popular in my audience research, So by some one famous reviewing artists less famous will not only advertise the artist themselve's but also the smaller artists as the reader will be drawn to this page. A picture of the artist will also be included in this box. Idea's for the artist are people such as Newton Faulkner etc.

The two boxes below are small artists in the music scene, who have an article to advertise themselves. Again a picture will be included.

The box to the right hand side will be a list of the artists interviewed and reviewed in the magazine.

The final picture and box on this page is for an article about the Banjo. I have put this article on this page soo that it stands out against the pictures of the artists and so the readers eye is drawn to it. This article will be about the new popularity of the Banjo on the folk scene. This is also a way of me increasing the audience as people who like the Banjo may want to read magazine. Including the Banjo also means I am steering away from having a purely acoustic guitar magazine.

In every box on this page will be the page number, which will be wrtten in red text.

The second page of the contents page is going to be split up into different sections. This is a feature I noticed in a few music magazines and means that it makes finding a certain section alot easier.

The first section is the section for pure acoustic guitar. This section will include TAB as this was also another feature that proved very popular in my audience rsearch. But one feature that was not included was a CD of the songs which the TAB was provided for. This was a feature that people in my audience research said they would find helpfull and would like to see included, so I am going to. There will be a small picture of the TAB provided and a small write up of the song and artists next to it on the left hand side in a seperate box. Aswell as the TAB and CD I am also going to have pages for guitar techniques as this too proved popular. Also listed in this section will be the page for guitar sales and reviews on what guitars are hot this month. The fact there is a free CD will be advertised in red text, so ass to attract the readers eye. The background of this page will be white and the text will be black with certain eye catching words highlighted in red and bold text, so as to stand out. The page numbers will be positioned down the left hand side of the collumn, in red text.

The next section will be for new music and will have a list of artists names and their CD's. It will also have the venues and dates of where new artists worth going to see are going to be gigging.

The page numbers will also be down the left hand side of the collumn in red text.

The last section section on the contents page is going to be about Musical Goings On and will include a page numbers for the lists of venues holding music sessions and write ups of some of the best music sessions around in the country. There will be a picture in the middle of this section where I plan to have a photograph of a music session in one of my local pubs.

This is a photo of the pub where I will be taking the picture of the music session.

These are pictures taken from the pub the Fleece Inn. I am planning on getting together a group of local musicians around this table and old wooden seat and it is here that I will photopraph them and use one of the pictures in my contents page.

I feel that this is a good pub to photograph as it is an old black and white, traditional pub and will work well with the article about traditional folk/acoustic sessions. As it is an old building and goes back along way, so the setting is very good.

Finally here is a sketch of my planning for my front cover

I can't decide whether to have plain colour background or whether to photograph my main sell against a background such as the wooden door and frame (photograph further up page.) I haven't seen many magazines with a non-block colour background so I don't know whether it would work effectively but this is not to say I couldn't do it.

My masthead is going to be Unplugged. I have chosen this as my name as it is basically what my chosen genre of music is, which is acoustic/folk which is played 'unplugged.'

Folk and traditional folk music often uses a style of text which is very celtic like.

Here are some examples of celtic texts

This is the first celtic font, it is a very celtic style as it has the patterns around the initials. I think that this font would be too celtic for my magazine as its not a pure folk magazine.

This is the second celtic font, this font is less celtic but still has the celtic and traditional look.

But this is more the font I think that I want to be aiming for using. It looks slightly celtic but not over the top, so it would fit in with an acoustic/folk magazine.

The masthead will be positioned at the top of the page going across the centre. The main sell may overlap it slightly in the middle as I have noticed that this is a common feature in magazines. The main sell will be the main feature artist in the magazine. Using the main feature as the main sell is the best way to attract the readers and the audience and all magazine's do it. I'm going to be using a acoustic/folk artist and not just a pure acoustic act, I am doing this so as to target both acoustic and folk musicians and get that cross over of the two genre's of music which I want. The main sell will dennote the artist holding their guitar as this connotes acoustic music. At the artists feet will be another instrument such as the violin, I am including this instument on the front cover to get that cross over between acoustic and folk music and so that it doesn't look like a pure guitar magazine.

Above the mast head will be a small box going all the way across the page, this will advertise other smaller features included in the magazine, in the form of Coverlines with a Strapline underneath. An idea for one of these is simply 'BANJO' - 'The new Guitar?' The box at the top is going to be white with red, bold text for the Coverlines and black, smaller text for the strap lines. The use of red is so the top of the magazine stands out to the readers eye, so they are more likely to pick it up.

On the left hand side of the magazine will be the Coverlines and Straplines for those Cover lines.

Here are the rough idea's of the coverlines and pictures and Straplines I am planning on using.

The first Coverline near the top of the page will be the artists seen in the mainsell name. The Coverline will dennote a white, bold and large text as this is the main selling feature of the magazine. The Strapline will also be in white text, but not bold and in a smaller text.

Underneath will be the Strapline to go with it, which will be about whats included in his article or maybe an interesting quote from that article.

Directly underneath will be a Coverline about music sessions. There will be a picture of the venue I wrote about further up the page and a Strapline to go with this. This Coverline will dennote a pale green, bold text in a smaller font than the previous Coverline. This Strapline will use a white, non-bold and smaller text.

And then the final Coverline on this side will be one about guitar techniques and will dennote a bold and large red text so as to stand out to the readers eye. It is important that this feature is eye catching as this was one of the features that appealed to the people in my audience research. The Strapline to go with this will be in white text.

At the bottom right hand corner of the page will be a white box with black bold writing advertising the freebie included in this magazine which will be a free CD to go with the TAB included in the magazine. I have decided to include a freebie as I found out in my audience research that they would find a CD useful and this feature may sell my magazine more.

On the other side of the front cover at the top will be the Coverline for the well known acoustic artist who has reviewed new and up and comming artists of the folk/acoustic scene. This will dennote a white, large and bold text and the Strapline a smaller, non-bold white text.

Then underneath will be the Coverline for the other featured artists and will use the same text as the the previous Cover and Strapline. There will also be a picture to go with this artist which will go below the Cover and Strapline.

Then in a green, bold and medium sized text will be a Coverline for Crafter Guitars and the Strapline will be about how fanatastic there make of guitar are. The Strapline will be written in white non-bold text

Then finally in small but bold, red text will be the word 'plus' and underneath in white non-bold text three names of other artists included in this magazine

At the bottom right hand corner of the page will be the barcode, price, issue number and date.

The price of my magazine will be £3.75 as this is a price which doesn't sound too expensive but at the same time sounds like its a price you'd pay for a quality magazine.

Audience Profile

The type of person who would read my magazine is a Radical, who persieves themself to be different from the trend. A Radical would read my magazine, as acoustic music targets a niche audience and not a global one. Achievers could also read my magazine as I could offer instrumental techniques which they would like and find interesting as they are always looking for the next challenge.

But aswell as Radicals and Achievers, Materialists and Post-Modernists could also read my magazine. This is because Materialists want to have something now and this could apply to musicians who want to develop their music playing or musical interests. Post-Modernists may read my magazine because they want to be and to have, and again just as with Materialists they may want to develop their musical knowledge.

Hedonists could also read my magazine if they enjoy music and want to go to lots of gigs and listen to and read about the music they enjoy.

On the jicnars scale I don't think any one from E would read my magazine mainly because I don't think they would be interested in this music taste and I doubt they would play an intrument.

With my magazine I aim to target both the male and female sexes. This is because there are both male and female artists in the acoustic scene and I feel that by targeting both I can increase my audience and this would be a useful thing to do as there is already a small market for acoustic magazines.

Acoustic music is played and listened to people of all ages. There are artists playing this style of music ranging from the young ages of 16 to the older ages of late 50's and onwards.

Because of this I will have to create features in my magazine which will appeal to both sexes and different age groups.

Here are two pictures of a couple who I think would buy and read my magazine. They both look quite arty, musical and quirky and would class themselves as radicals. The type of music they play is a mixture of acoustic and folk. They are both also musicians and play numerous acoustic instruments, such as fiddle and guitars.

They don't have a huge income as his job is a music therapist and spends lots of his time playing and listening to music and she is a session musician. They also try to make money by gigging in various venues, such as pubs and folk clubs.

They spend their money on new instruments and going to see various artists. They drive an estate car so they can fit their instruments in the back of it.

Their favourite music is music from unknown artists. They don't know any pop, rock or r'n'b artists but know of the larger acoustic artists such as newton faulkner.

They enjoy going to music sessions held in pubs and drinking and socialising with other musicians. That is where they feel they hear some of the best music around.

They have a myspace page where they ahev their own music loaded and this is also where they find undiscovered talent in the acoustic scene.

They listen to radio shows such as 'Acoustic Cafe,' 'Acoustic Pie' and listen to the 'BBC Young Folk Awards.' These are all radio shows that play acousitc artists songs.

Over all the tyoe of person who I think would buy and read my magazine is a person who has a musically orientated life or just has a big passion for music and likes playing and listening to acoustic music and is interested in smaller acts and new and up and coming musicians.

Audience Research

Here are the video's of my audience research.
I asked a sample of my audience what they liked and dis-liked about the magazine 'ACOUSTIC' and any features they thought worked well and what they look for in a magazine. I also asked them to comment on my mood board and say what idea's they liked and dis-liked and from seeing the existing magazine what features they think would work well and others they would like to see included.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm9kM2eFzI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykd-JiJH544

Summary of Research into Existing Magazines

I have been researching into existing magazines of my chosen style of genre, which is acoustic. Because of the small market in acoustic magazines I was only able to find one magazine appropriate for annalysing. This magazine was 'ACOUSTIC' and is the UK's only magazine dedicated to acoustic guitars and music.

I found that in all magazine's there is a style and image that runs through out the magazine, which fits with the type of magazine. This is done so as to attract the right kind of audience and draw in readers. If a magazine was attracting radicals then they would use people in the magazine who had an alternative style of dress and not some one who wore fashionable clothing.

Just like if you were creating a classical music magazine then you wouldn't photograph the musicians wearing a tracksuit or jeans. Instead you would dress them in smart and almost formal clothing.

This is a picture out of the magazine 'ACOUSTIC.' The image works well in this magazine because it dennotes a young artist playing in what appears to be a small venue. This couldn't be used in a magazine such as 'New Musical Express' because 'Flo Rowland' the artist in the picture isn't a global selling artist and pictures such as this are not included in such as well known and popular magazine as 'NME.' So including the right stlye of images in a magazine is very important. This includes how you photograph objects, dress people and where you photograph them and any effects you use.

Chosing the right colour scheme in the magazine is important aswell. In a classical magazine you would use mainly white colours, which would conote pureness and innocence, which fits well with the style of music. A serif font may also be used to conote class. In a rock magazine you would find dark atmospheric colours and fonts such as this :

I found that when annalysing the magazine 'ACOUSTIC' the font used was quite simple and plain as were the colours used not only in the text but through out the magazine. They veered away from the use of bright colours and instead stuck to more natural looking colours such as brown, red, green and blue. The colours worked well with the photographs which were mainly focused around nature, so it seemed quite fitting to use colours found in nature. Like green for grass, blue for fields and brown for tree's, which went well with the guitar bodies which were photographed against tree trunks.

I also noticed that there were lots of advertisements included in the magazine. A mimimun of one per page. Because the magazine aims to attract musicians of an acoustic style who play guitar, incorporating the sales and advertisement of guitars worked well.

I feel that this research was important as I have now looked closely into different genres of music magazines and studied even closer what an acoustic magazine's main features are. Now with my research that I have carried out I can go on to use some of these idea's in my own magazine I will be creating. Without this research I would not of been able to create a magazine suitable for my chosen genre, acoustic.

Because of the gap in the market I plan to challenge the conventions by not just limitting the audience to a guitar based one, as the magazine 'ACOUSTIC' did which I based most of my research on. But instead I plan to open up the audience by including a wider range of acoustic instruments such as cello and violin and possibly stretch to a more folky style of music, which still fits into the acoustic category. I aim to still attract radicals, as most folk musicians tend to have a bohemian style of dress and using the colours which fit with nature would still work well. I think that you could gain more of an audience for acoustic magazines if you broadend the audience you were aiming to targett. Also the folk scene is growing and is becoming something quite interesting and exciting and more younger people are getting increasingly more interested in folk. So I think that it could work well.