Using my focus group - masthead

I asked my focus group what colour they would prefer for the masthead and most of them said the bright red colour because it is the most eyecatching. Therefore I will be using this colour on my magazine.

Planning - mock ups

 

 

 

 

Using my focus group - name

I came up with 4 possible options for the name of my magazine-
replay
echo
live
sound

I asked my focus group to help me decide and the results were:
replay - 5
echo - 9
live - 3
sound - 3
The most popular option was echo so that is the choice i went with.

Research - target audience and creating focus group

I researched some magazines to help me get an idea of what to include in my own magazine to fit the right target audiences.

NME
Firstly I looked into NME (which fits into the indie/ rock genre) and found that the magazine is aimed predominately at males (73% of the readership are male) age 17- 30, the average age being 25. The majority of the audience either has a full time job or is a student and they tend to have a passion towards music, films, fashion, and technology.

Q
I then researched Q and found the average age of their readers is 29 which is younger and more affluent than other monthly music magazines. There is also a higher percentage of males (75%) than females (25%). The magazine is popular in the UK according to this media pack, and it appeals to people that want a more sophisticated style rather than teen gossip articles.

Vibe
When researching into vibe I discovered that it recently started including a wider variety of well known artists from the hip hop genre so as to attract a wider range of people. I found the target audience is young people from late teens to early adulthood and the medium age is 30. I intend on having the target audience a bit younger, aimed at late teens and younger adults. It is purchased more by men but only by 5% so is the most balanced magazine i researched in terms of gender.          

Spin
Finally I researched spin (indie, rock, pop and heavy metal) and found the average reader is 29 with 61% of the audience being male.

Creating my focus group

For my magazine I am going to have a target audience of 16-29 because I am within this age range so I feel I know more about the interests of this age than I do about older generations, so it'll be easier to fulfill the cognitive needs of my intended audience. Also many people I know are between these ages so it will be easier to get opinions quickly. I plan on using some aspects of Q, NME and vibe for inspiration because I think all three magazines have interesting aspects that I would like to try, and combined they would help me attract the right target audience. I also intend to use male and female artists so as to attract to a wider audience within my age range.

I created a focus group on my Facebook page including 20 people within the age range of 16-29, 10 males and 10 females, so I can ask questions and get opinions on my ideas and make sure my magazine is attractive to the targeted audience. I decided to create a large focus group because I can get a wider range of responses.

Planning - codes and conventions

Preliminary task

Preliminary Task (Print)

 How well does your preliminary task fulfill the brief? 

The front cover has appropriately laid out text and a masthead, as stated in the brief.It is also clearly a school magazine from the photo of someone working and the school colour of green is in the font. I may not have been accurate with the medium close up, because the image isn't close enough. I also made a contents page.

What obstacles did you overcome to complete this task?

I struggled with choosing an appropriate image, as I wanted it to look as much like a school magazine as possible. I overcame this by deciding to take a photo of someone working as I think this makes it look like a school magazine.

How could you have improved the production values of your preliminary task?

There are a lot of things i know I could have dome to improve my preliminary task. The main thing being that I worked on publisher and I think I could do a much better job on Photoshop. The front cover looks very boring and unappealing to read.To improve this I could take photos in more interesting locations, such as outside and maybe use a different person for the front cover and the contents page. I could also improve the images buy getting better lighting and making sure the image was fully focused where I wanted it to be. I am most unimpressed with the contents page and I defiantly plan on making it more interesting for the main task. I do however like the font I used.

What tutorials did you use in order to complete your preliminary task?

I didn't use any tutorials to complete this task, however I plan on following some on how to use Photoshop to prepare me for the main task.

What important lessons have you learnt in preparation for completing your main task?

I have learnt to spend more time on the quality of the image and to lay out the front cover in a more appealing, professional way. I also learnt that in order to create a magazine that looks good I will need to use Photoshop instead of publisher.