IPC Media research

The target audience of a magazine is of essential importance, and something that needs to be thought about and decided upon in the early stages of making a magazine. To help me decide upon the target audience of my own magazine, I have done research into IPC media, a publishing company which produces over 60 iconic magazine brands, reaching two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men, while its websites collectively reach over 14 million users every month. It is divided into five divisions; IPC Advertising, its online magazine portfolio, Marketforce, the UK's leading newstrade sales and distributing company which successfully markets 23% of the total magazine category, IPC Inspire, the men's division, IPC Connect, the mass market women's division, and IPC Southbank, the upmarket women's division. The company focuses on three core target audiences:

• IPC Inspire, the men's division, which comprises of leisure brands such as Country Life, Horse and Hound and Rugby World, as well as lifestyle brands such as NME and Mousebreaker. It has an overall portfolio of 38 brands which cover a huge spectrum of interests.
  

• IPC Connect, the mass market women's division, which comprises of iconic women's weekly magazines such as Look, Chat and Now, as well as TV entertainment brands such as What's On TV and TVTimes. Its magazines are read by 53% of women.

• IPC Southbank, the upmarket women's division, which focuses on the two key markets of women's fashion and lifestyle, and women's home interest. It comprises of luxury fashion brands such as Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands such as Women&Home and Essentials, and home interest brands such as Housetohome and Ideal Home. It is home to some of the most iconic brands in publishing.
  

Market research - interview with Mark Flowers from the BBC's "Human Planet"

A while ago I wrote to Mark Flowers, who directs, produces and films for BBC documenteries such as Human Planet. As I myself am interested in that industry, and also hope to improve my photography skills, I asked him several questions regarding this. The following are relevant to my photoshoot and will help me to prepare:

1. What is the secret to the 'perfect' photograph?
I guess I look for an image which tells a story, it makes the viewer question what is going on, what is happening, it arrests you; I think this should come first and then beauty and composition later, but that is because I am more interested in storytelling than pretty pictures. A good photo/moving image in my mind should do both, personally I prioritise the former.

2. What preperations are needed before going to 'shoot?'
1) Having a clear brief - knowing what you are going to film/photgraph, thinking through the story/image you hope to capture
2) Knowing how predictable the subject/event will be
3) Preferably a recce has been done, so we have knowledge of what to expect, we have met the human characters involved, and done common sense analysis of animal behaviour etc - I do what I call is an investment payoff rating - I make an assessment of how likely we are to be successful and invest accordingly in terms of time, money and equipment
4) Thorough risk assessment is done and written up, this is cirulated to everyone involved
5) If at all tricky we use the BBC editotrial guidelines and internal departments like Editorial Policy or the High Risk team to help us prepare
6) Sometimes specialist training is needed
7) We analayse which equipment is most appropriate
8) We try to hire in the best and most appropriate talent suited for the particular job
9) I write a bullet point "plan" for the shoot, I then often draw a storyboard, I show this to my bosses/clients before we shoot
10) I often host briefing meetings so that everyone involved knows clearly what we hoping to achieve, we discuss how to tackle the problems
11) I cross my fingers and hope it will all go to plan.

Although I won't be photographing anything with a high risk assessment, it is still something to bear in mind for future photoshoots. The advice he gave me about recce shots and thorough planning was extremely useful, so I will make sure to plan thoroughly beforehand.

Useful Youtube videos for using Photoshop

As I will be extensively using Photoshop throughout my coursework, I have watched several useful videos on Youtube to give me a better guide for using it.

Five top features of Photoshop CS5:



PatchMatch tool:



Spot healing and filling tool:

Preliminary task

My preliminary task is the front cover and contents page of a school magazine. I have called it "The Student Voice" as this suggests that the magazine is something truly designed for and written for students, and connotes youth; at the top of the cover is a megaphone, which is positioned to look as though it's hanging down from the title and ties in with the name "Voice." I have stuck to a colour scheme of black, white, red and green to coordinate with the "models'" clothes and the white background, and I have tried to incorporate humour and originality into my headlines and contents page in order to encourage people to buy the magazine. The main focus of the front cover is the photo of the two people who are looking directly at the camera (to create a false "relationship" with the audience to catch their attention, and therefore encourage them to buy it). The photo abides by the rule of thirds as it is positioned to the left of the cover; this allows people to focus on it better as it meets the natural eye line. The cover is not crammed full of headlines, but has three evenly spaced headlines so that it still manages not to look like an empty page. There is also a box across the bottom of the page which sticks to the colour scheme and features some of the main headlines. In the contents page, the word "Contents" is written in a fun, loopy font suggesting that the contents of the magazine will also be quite fun and not to be taken too seriously. There are also several edited photos in bright colours surrounding the contents, which are related to the articles written in the contents page.
There are several things I would do to improve my preliminary task; firstly, I would include more images and quotes in the contents page, and make the subheading "All inside this issue!" smaller, so that the page wasn't cluttered, but looked less empty than it does at the moment. I would also feather and refine the edges of the images I have layered onto the background a bit further, as, at the moment, they are a bit messy and don't look very professional; it is obvious that they have been placed on the background, as the transition between the background and the edges of the images isn't smooth and blended in.

Music magazine marketing research

I have made a survey in order for people to give me feedback about what they want in a magazine, which I have also posted on Facebook. I will make another more in depth survey concerning the contents of the magazine once I have received feedback from this one, which is more general research towards what type of music magazine I am going to be making, and what it will be called.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Analysis of Q magazine

Q is a monthly music magazine, first published in the UK in 1986. It was primarily aimed at older music buyers, who were buying CD's at a time when they were still a new technology; again, as with LOOK magazine, the gap in the market had been assessed and researched. It is published by Bauer Media Group and is edited by Paul Rees.

The cover of Q magazine is quite striking simply because of the bold red, black and white colour scheme and the large central image, in which the subject is, as in LOOK magazine, looking directly at the camera to create a kind of false "relationship" with the reader. The magazine's title (which is also the logo and masthead) is quite eye-catching, yet at the same time simple, being merely a single white letter "Q" against a red background which allows it to stand out. Furthermore, the title is easy to remember and recognise. The magazine's slogan "Discover Great Music," informs the reader as to what the magazine is about, and is written under the title so that people who see the magazine can immediately become aware of this. The thing that takes up the most space on the cover is the central image, which is surrounded by headlines and captions as well as the main headline which is written in a big, bold font underneath the image. However, despite the fact that the cover is packed full of writing, it does not appear cluttered, as each bit of text is evenly spaced out, enclosing the image, and in a font and colour which still allows it to stand out. The central image is heavily airbrushed and there is a "reflection" in the man, Liam Gallagher's, sunglasses which has very obviously been edited in; despite this obvious editing, it has been employed to good effect, making the image look striking and stand out. It does not follow the rule of thirds as it is a portrait image, which still allows attention to be drawn to it, especially as Liam has a very serious and intense expression on his face.

Magazine research - analysis of LOOK

In order to help give me inspiration in making my own magazine, I'm doing a bit of research into other magazines, such as LOOK. LOOK is a weekly British fashion magazine aimed at young women aged from around early teens to late twenties. It focuses mainly on fashion at affordable prices as well as including articles on real life stories and celebrities, particularly in concern to their outfits and fashion statements. It is priced at £1.60 and is the first weekly high-street fashion magazine for women, meaning that its launchers must have thoroughly researched the gap in the market, and the desire for constant updates on fashion in today's consumer society; consequently, this led to its launch in 2007 being the most successful magazine launch for 17 years. It is published by Tammi Iley and is edited by Ali Hall.
The front cover is very eye-catching, in bright, coordinating colours. It can automatically be identified as a woman's magazine, due to the pink and white colour scheme traditionally associated with women, in particular young women. These colours might also be contrasting each other; the "innocence" of the white, which comes across as more serious and business-like, in comparison to the fiery pink, its binary opposite, which is complemented with words such as "red hot" and "sexy" and is perhaps a suggestion that this magazine addresses the more vivacious side of women; this could be an indication that the magazine is an 'escape' from school, college, work, and the everyday stresses of life. This is amplified further in the headline "Man Drama," which is written in capitals so that it stands out; this is a classic example of a form of gossip that magazines publish in order to make the readers feel less pressured by the worries and stresses of their own lives, as the lives of celebrities are made to appear far worse by the use of exaggerations and strong words such as "drama" and "dangerous."
The main focus of the cover is the photo of Lady Gaga, who is looking directly at the camera; this creates a kind of false 'relationship' with the reader, helping to advertise itself. The photo abides by the rule of thirds, drawing the eye to it more as it is falls under the natural eye line.
The cover is not packed full of headlines, but there are boxes along the bottom and left-hand side featuring some of the contents of the magazine, alluring a person to buy the magazine so as to read the rest of it. The features in the boxes are entirely fashion related, but are complemented with the sub-headings "high street trends the celebs love!" (which reinforces the stereotype of women being obsessed with celebrities and includes the colloquial abbreviation "celebs" in order to appear less formal, and perhaps more in touch with celebrities in this use of an informal term) and "sexy" (which supports the common view that women are obsessed with looking good). However, there is another box in the top right-hand corner featuring another celebrity related headline, to insure that people are aware that it is a balanced fashion and celebrity related magazine.