Evaluation: Forms & Conventions

Evaluation F – forms and conventions from Ryan Tarran

Evaluation: Skills Development

Evaluation h – skills development from Ryan Tarran

Draft Products

These are two front cover pages that i eventually dismissed. As you can see from the image on the left i had not fully developed the bold masthead that i currently use and i had not yet discovered how to use levels to saturate my images and colours. As for the cover on the right, i liked it but in feedback i received i was told it made the magazine in general look more of a bike magazine than a music magazine which looking back now i completely agree with. This is the main reason why these two fronts covers were dismissed.

Here are another two different front covers that i considered using for my final magazine. The problem was that i really liked these images and at this point the front cover layout and colour scheme was done, i was just playing around with front cover image ideas. I thought that this model and image suited the magazine style as it represented class and fashion particularly well. However, it just didn't feel right and i applied the same image to the contents page and it worked very well so in the end i decided to use it for my contents page instead.

Here are two different variations of my contents page which i considered using. I really liked the bike contents page as it was simple, didn't attract too much attention as it focused primarily on the contents not the image. It also matched the colour scheme and in general worked very well within the page. However, once again it looked as if it was a motorbike magazine instead of a music magazine so i eventually dismissed this draft also. On the right is basis for my current finished contents page. The main difference between this one and my current contents page is that my current one has a second image on it that represents the feature article. This was because the main task required the use of up to 4 different images in the magazine. I personally felt the contents page looked better with just one image, as it looks much better and intertextualises with other magazines like Vibe. However, i wanted to fit the criteria and therefore had to add a 4th image.
overall i am very happy with the quality of my finished magazine products and i hope that the progress and selection process shown in the drafts reflects on the consideration and effort that went into the creation of the final 'Vermin' magazine products to fit the criteria and appeal to the target audience.

Evaluation: Target Audience Video

Unfortunately i could not interview a stereotypical member of my target audience, like a 17-25 year old male. However, i could interview a 17 year old girl who enjoys a variety of music and has the potential to become a member of the target audience. However, this helped me to realise from another point of view what my target audience liked and what could be improved.

Evaluation: Addressing an Audience

Evaluation j – addressing an audience from Ryan Tarran

Evaluation: Target Audience profile

Evaluation: Technologies

Evaluation K - technologies from Ryan Tarran

Evaluation: Representation

Evaluation: Institutions

When i first initially decided to make a rap orientated lifestyle magazine i intertextualised heavily with Vibe magazine. This is because i thought that the way they went about representing issues and artists was unconventional and i was gratified by it's colour scheme's and layout. Therefore i feel that after making a magazine so heavily influenced by 'Vibe' that it is only right that it would be it's main rival.
Like i said before, Vibe is a very unique magazine and therefore it takes up the majority of the margin in that particular demographic of target audience. This means that trying to go with Time Inc / Spin media, the publishers of Vibe would not want my business in terms of publishing. However, after looking at the brands that Bauer pushed forward i realised that there is a large gap in it's brand publications for a rap orientated magazine. This means that it could be very profitable for them to have a rap magazine due to their influences in superstores and shops and because it would create a rivalry between one of its publishing rivals.
Bauer is the 3rd largest publisher in the United Kingdom and has some of the highest selling magazine such as 'TV choice' and 'TV Guide' which millions of people in Britain buy every week from retail superstores. What this means is that Bauer has connections, it has the ability to place a magazine in almost any shop anywhere in the UK making the potential target audience huge and with it's only rival being 'Vibe' and the fact that Bauer doesn't have a rap orientated magazine at all i feel that it would be very successful under Bauer's publications.
Here is the comparison of my Feature Article for 'Vermin' and the Feature Article from 'Vibe' As you can see i have intertextualised the style to attract the demographical target audience.

The problem with using a large publishing company like Bauer means that the product will no longer become an independent magazine and under contractual agreement Bauer force you to take certain pieces out of the magazine, put in advertising that you might not agree with or tell you what to feature entirely. This could become a big problem due to the type of content the lifestyle of this magazine would represent and if they decided to censor or remove parts that i felt was important then this could cause problems. However, if i chose to go with a self-publishing company then there would be no limit on frequency or in-frequency and the magazine would be able to report and express what it wanted to rather than what Bauer knows will make them money.
However, due to Bauer being a large publishing company it will have a very large advertising pull and already have connections with brands to advertise in the magazine and places to sell and strategically place the magazine to attract more of the target audience.
Another unique selling point of using Bauer is that it has huge connections within the TV and digital industry. Bauer currently has a 50% stake in box TV with some of its most popular channels including Heat, Kiss, Kerrang and Magic!. They also have sister channels for Kiss and Kerrang meaning that they have radio stations as well. This type of convergence and variety is exactly what is needed to help get the magazine off the ground by branching out and reaching the target audience through the use of convergence. Convergence in media is the use of selling your product in another form of medium. For example, Putting a website link on your magazine allows users to look at your product on other forms of media and therefore increases traffic flow towards more of your products. This use of advertising and integration of convergence is very modern and has become a zeitgeist standard for magazines to use. Bauer is the king of convergences and using them as my magazine publisher would allow for expansion into other potential forms of media. The reason this is so important is because a large majority of magazine titles are rejected or get stopped publishing within the first year, either due to the lack of a target audience or because the content and material of the magazine itself is no longer selling. This is why it is important to use convergence and try to get my magazine on more than one platform, perhaps even digitally so that it can be used on tablets and with ever increasing use of hardware compared to physical media e.g. magazines, newspapers etc. Therefore i feel that Bauer would be perfect to give the magazine a chance at becoming something due to its connections into radio and TV, because these days lots of self-publishing magazine fold due to not being able to adapt or change.
Overall i feel that Bauer is a solid choice of publishing Institution as it would allow my magazine the best chance of expansion and reaching its target audience. I feel it is also a safe option compared to a self-publishing company as far too many fold and it is difficult to get your magazine out there without any already existing connections. It is predicted that usually 7/10 titles will fail within there first year meaning that there is no room for error and i need the right publisher for support.
Here is My vermin Contents page on the left. It conforms to lots of conventions of a contents page for a music magazine and is very intertextual to the Vibe contents page on the Right. Originally i did not have the image of my feature article in the contents page as i thought it looked cleaner and more gratifying to the style of the magazine. However i had to use the image as 4 Images were required to be taken and used in the magazine.

My Final Cover Page

My Final Contents Page

My Final Feature Article