Natalie Warren is completing a preliminary task, log book, and evaluation for her OCR Media Studies AS Level course. She has chosen to create a music magazine focused on production. In her log book, she documents her process for designing the front cover and contents page, including inserting relevant images and text. She also researches the established rock magazine Kerrang! to inform her own magazine design, identifying its target audience, USP of celebrity covers, and publisher information.
1. OCR Media Studies – AS Level
Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media
Preliminary Task, Log Book and Evaluation
Name: Natalie Warren
Candidate Number: 6763
Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic College
Center Number: 64770
Set Brief - Print
Music Magazine – Production
Preliminary Task Progression, Log Book and
Evaluation
2. Preliminary Task Progression– Evidence
Front Cover
Step-by-step
Before starting production, I took
a picture of the school to use as a
suitable background for my
magazine. I then inserted the
school logo at the top left of my
page to make it small yet
noticeable and afterwards
designed my masthead to have
the same colour scheme as the
logo. Lastly, I placed the barcode
in as well as the school motto
across the bottom of the page to
let my audience know what the
school aims to achieve.
Next, similarly to my masthead, I
designed my main headline to
match the colour scheme of the
school logo. I also added social
networking links to encourage
convergence with my audience
and the date, issue and price of
the magazine. Furthermore, I
included puff to attract an
audience and bordered the text
to make it eye-catching.
Then I inserted a variety of
cover stories relevant to the
context of my magazine,
based on what’s coming up
in the next few months. I
also mentioned the
involvement of helpful tips
and websites for exam
revision in my magazine as I
know this would appeal a lot
to students.
3. Finally, I inserted and edited my main images
using the Quick Selection tool. These images of
students holding their achieved grades, which
are very successful, attracts other students into
buying my magazine as they believe that
reading this magazine will help them to achieve
similar grades.
4. Preliminary Task Progression– Evidence
Contents Page
Step-by-step
Firstly, to create continuity
from my front cover, I copied
over my masthead and
included the school logo in
the same place, as well as
putting it next to the school
website to attract the
audience’s attention to it. I
also inserted a page number.
Next, I designed my editorial
to be in the top left hand
corner of the page to make
it noticeable so the audience
could read the welcoming
message. I also included an
email address and social
networking links to build a
‘personal relationship’ (Katz)
with my audience.
Afterwards I designed a
section for the subscription
offer along with a brief
description stating the cheap
price and a link to find it
online as a way to encourage
readers to get more involved
with my magazine.
5. I then created a section for
my main cover stories which I
believed my audience would
be the most interested in
which is why a lot of them
feature in the early pages of
my magazine.
Lastly, I created a specific
section just for sixth formers
because this way I have
something to offer the whole
school from year 7s to year
13s, therefore increasing the
range of my target audience.
7. Kerrang! Magazine – Genre research
http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/kerrang
Kerrang! is a UK-based weekly magazine devoted
to rock music and published by Bauer Media
Group. The editor of the magazine is James
McMahon. The total magazines in circulation are
33,024 and it’s readership reaches to 293,000
people. As evident, Kerrang! is most popular with
teenagers and young adults as they make up 56.1%
of the magazine’s total readership and it also has a
fairly equal gender ratio with slightly more males
reading the magazine more than females.
Examples of other
well-known rock
magazines
8. What is the USP of this magazine?
From the research completed into this media product, I believe the magazine’s USP
to be its skillfully chosen ‘star appeal’ (Richard Dyer) celebrities as the main images
on their front cover. Every week they have a different famous rock band/artist as a
type of promotion to entice their target audience into buying their rock magazine
rather than their competitors. This is cleverly done as the main image on a
magazine’s front cover is the convention audiences are going to see first. The eye-
catching appeal of a variety of rock celebrities every week is likely going to make the
audience want to subscribe to Kerrang! to see what they are going to release next.
Target Audience
The target audience for Kerrang! magazine can be denoted as 15-24 year old males
and females (Hartley) which is evident from my genre research. Also, according to
Katz, the audience could be identified as ‘inform and educate’ consumers as they
wish to learn more about their favourite rock bands and celebrities as well as things
like what songs are at the top of the charts, anything new being released etc.
Kerrang!’s primary target audience can also be recognised as ‘social climbers’ and
‘explorers’ (Maslow) due to fans being inspired by their favourite artists to become
more like them and immerse themselves into the wide spectrum of the rock world.
9. Established Magazine for my Research
Masthead
Puff/Promotion
Barcode
Main Headline
Cover stories
‘Star appeal’
(Richard Dyer)
Issue and price
Convergence – Links to
social networks should be
included so that the
audience can find more
information about the
magazine online and also
boost sales by making
people more aware of its
popularity.
Strapline – By using a
strapline such as ‘Best
magazine in the UK’ it
emphasises to the
audience that this is a
unique magazine and
different to any other
ordinary magazine which
encourages them to buy it.
10. Publisher research
The publisher of my magazine of inspiration Kerrang!, which is primarily
focused on the music genre of rock, is Bauer Media Group. The target
readership in terms of socio-economic needs would be people in groups D
and E. This is because as the audience is predominately aged between 15-24
years old, they are most likely going to be students, casual workers,
unemployed etc. who all fit into that age group.
As one of the most popular music magazines in the UK, Kerrang! has a rather
large circulation of 33,024 magazines currently between January and June
2014 and a readership of 293,000 between July and December 2013.
