National Reading Survey

"The National Readership Survey was established in 1956 and today offers the best authoritative and respected audience research in use for print and digital advertising trading in the UK. The survey covers over 250 of Britain’s major news brands and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they achieve."

 

This table shows the ages of the readers for some of the most popular music magazines' that are sold in the UK.

 

(click to view)

How is this data useful to you in creating a music magazine?

These statistics in this table is beneficial for different genres of music magazines as it displays what category of people their magazines suit and are mostly bought by. It is also a method in which different magazines can compare their reader status to other magazines because of the bigger total of magazines bought. The use of the age groups shows which genre of music magazines most suit specific age groups.

What does it tell you that something like the advertising packs do?

They are custom-made to the right genre which lets people become more informed of what will be incorporated in the magazines that most suit them and what they are attracted to when it comes to both visual and content.

What more would you like to know?

I would like to find out if each customer frequently buys the same magazine or whether the majority of the purchases were essentially just one off buys and are not regular. I would also like to know if the person who bought the magazine went back and read it again afterwards instead of merely reading it once and never picking it up again.

School Magazine Cover Photo Shoot

The Four F's of Magazine Design

Format

 

They are the design choices that are repeated in every issue. These are used to define the magazines overall look and feel. Included are a logo, cover line, size of the magazine, department headers and other things that repeat in every issue.

 

Formal

 

It is the editorial content (eg: what is included in the magazine). This includes the type of articles, their length, departments in the back and front of the book (The same sections used in every issue of the magazine) all make the formula.

 

Frame

 

The frame is the standard size for outer pages, margins and also gutters. Majority of magazines use the same sort of margin width throughout the content of the magazine; others sometimes vary the width, using tall top margins for features to set apart the well, for instance. The rule for using margins establishes consistency from issue to issue.

 

Function:

 

 What the magazine itself is trying to achieve and the message it is trying to send.

 

 

CONSISTENCY- Same issue each time.

 

UNITY- United feel to every magazine issue.

The History of Vibe

Vibe is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones in 1992. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down production in Summer 2009, Vibe was purchased by the private equity investment fund InterMedia Partners and is now issued semi-monthly with double covers, with a larger availability online. The magazine's target audience is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture.

The magazine has featured such cover stars like, Tupac, Dr Dre, Prince, Eminem, JAY-Z and many other well known faces from the hip-hop and R&B genre. In 2014, the magazine moved online-only. After its move to the internet the magazine has seen its views sky-rocket due to its increased availability and convenience to its target audience. Vibe is highly regarded as one of the first original hip-hop magazines and is still very popular today. It has become more relevant over the years and as hip-hop has evolved, so has Vibe.