Time Plan

I have thought about the times I want to finish different stages of my coursework and have shown these below:

22/01/10 = I will have found a model to take photos of by this point and will arrange to meet in a photography room for MCU shots at some point.

27/01/10 = At this stage I will be taking the pictures myself most probably using a college camera, booking a photography room to use for my MCU.

01/02/10 = By this time I will have taken all the photos I need to use and will have edited them to reduce blemishes, lighting and effects etc.

05/02/10 = My magazine front cover will be arranged and I will be starting on the Contents page and the double spread arrangements.

08/02/10 = By this date I am hoping to have completed my production so that I have the rest of the week to make amendments based on audience feedback.

12/02/10 = This is the deadline for the magazine production. I will have arranged all pages, gained feedback on them and uploaded them to my blog for analysis. Magazine will be finalised.

13/02/10 = Start work on evaluation with help from evaluation lessons in slots given each week. Will use set questions to help with evaluation.

21/02/10 = Use free time after college on Wednesday to work on Evaluation.

01/03/10 = Magazine Evaluation Draft. Will have created a draft of my Evaluation to be checked by Tristan in lesson.

05/03/10 = Magazine Evaluation Final Copy.

If I stick to this plan throughout the work I should have plenty of time to make sure all my work is to the standard I am looking for.

Initial Planning

In this post I have uploaded some plans I have sketched out and will be making decisions based on the feedback given from my previous post.

When I was thinking of my front cover and how I wanted it to look, I looked back at my research into existing magazines and wanted to create a very simplistic and sophisticated look that would attract all ages of audience to my magazine. I have tried to make this happen by keeping the information to a minimal amount and having a plain white background. The colours I have chosen for the fonts are dark red and black as I think having too many colours lowers the credibility and quality of the front cover. Dark red and black go well on a light background as they are easy to read and clear. These colours used with a thin, sans serif font will hopefully create the feel I am trying for. For the main sell I will hopefully be using a smart looking, quite young male, giving the connotation that he is involved in classical music and showing this genre is not only for the older generations in society. My one coverline/strapline will be involving a famous composer having an interview inside the magazine, this should attract readers.

For my contents page I planned the page numbers and contents down the left hand side of the page and have planned for a few images down the right, divided with smaller boxes of colour, probably sticking to the dark red and black theme I have on the front cover.
I asked a few people about this contents page and the general feedback was that it seems nice and simple with a layout that will be easy to understand.

For my double page spread I have arranged the text around a large image of an orchestra of group of musicians etc., hopefully this will show the reader that the text is primarily focused on the image and will give them something to looks at while creating a good layout that is aesthetically pleasing to the reader.
When I asked a potential reader about the layout of this double page spread he said that he thought it was a good look which will be easy to read when created. Breaking up the long blocks of speech will create a more casual approach to classical music.

Audience Research

I have uploaded my 'Mood Board' to the social networking site, 'Facebook', for feedback on what I have come up with, below is some of the feedback I have been given:

"I think you're right in that the teen audience for classical music do spend a lot of time on education, and i think that this audience also has a fondness for 'snappy' dressing (suits) maybe include an advert for suits?"

- Dan Biddle

"Mike i think you've nailed it, and captured the idea of class and classical music."

 - Jade Smith

"I think these all link really well together. I agree if you do this style of music you can easily have adverts for formal dresses for the gals, and suits for the boys, ready for when they do performances or what not. The champagne also works well because of "class" and could represent "reward" for their hard work? I think this magazine can work really well."

- Emily-Jane Griffin

From this feedback I can see that I have successfully used images to portray a youthful approach to classical music whilst still providing the class it has always been known for.

Audience Profile

The kind of person I will be aiming my magazine at is a Male or Female and from the age of about 16 onwards, and I am not going to cap the upper age limit as I think classical music is enjoyed throughout all ages. Looking at the younger ages reading the magazine, I will be aiming the magazine at Students as I don't think young adults who have left education to start work will have the time or right mindset to listen to this genre. They will typically be quite educated and not 'sports-buffs'. This isn't to say that you have to be well educated to listen to this music, just to say that stereotypes do not ascend from lies they are mere exaggerations. They will be Aspirers, post-materialists and probably an 'E' on the Jicnar scale but working towards level 'A' or 'B' as a student. I would expect them to shop at places such as 'Burton's', 'Next' and 'The Officer's Club' for casual wear. I wouldn't expect them to have extrovert hairstyles, most probably quite conservative styles with natural hair colour.



The older audience I will be aiming at will be full time workers or retired people, possibly with a lot of time on their hands. I would expect them to have quite a lot of money and to shop at Marks & Spencers or Waitrose to enjoy the finer things in life. Possibly spending holidays on cruises and skiing trips. I would expect them to be Succeeders, aspirers or achievers and to have the social values of a Traditionalist or post-materialist. On the Jicnar Scale they would come at 'A' or 'B' level. I think they would be Conservative voters in the general elections with large houses in the countryside.

Initial Ideas w/Mood Board

After looking through a few front covers from my chosen genre of Classical Music I have come up with a few ideas and features I want to advertise on the front of my magazine. These include:

• Well known performer as the Main sell with interview/article concerning them.
  
• Reviews of latest performances.
• List and reviews of up-and-coming artists/performers.
  
• Pictures and comments from recent performances. 
• Offers to buy the newest music at better offers on pre-order etc.

I want to show a side of classical music that goes against the stereotype of tuxedo wearing, champagne drinking listeners, and works with the more contemporary view that this style of music should be available to the masses not just the few elite groups in society.

Summary of Research into Existing Magazines

From my research into different magazines in the market today I have been able to work out an idea of how I want mine to look when I create it. I like the connotation of sophistication through a simple colour scheme, I don't think this detracts anything from the look of the front cover but adds a certain underlying intelligence somehow. I always feel that the cheap magazines with hundreds of neon colours on the front, coated in coverlines and puffs are only aimed at people with either very little time to choose something to read, people who will maybe not quite know what they want to read and choose the most brightly lit, attention grabbing one, or simply people who cannot afford a decent reading magazine so pick the one which claims to have the most to read.

I will try and create a classical music magazine that is not only aimed at the older generations but will try to incorporate the new classical movement, using bands such as 'Il Divo', as a doorway into much more classical orchestral pieces for the younger ages in our communities. I will try not to dampen the integrity and class of the genre by exposing younger age groups.

Institution/Publisher Research

Publishing is a process of producing a conglomeration of information and making it available to the public in a certain way, e.g. a magazine. Publishers can sometimes be the creaters of the media they are producing/publishing or otherwise are being commissioned to create the magazines/books by another company who do not have the resources needed to do it themselves.

Publishing companies are usually responsible for the despatch and distribution of the material they have created as well. The developments within the Internet and digital information world have made publishing firms area of expertise broaden sharply. Now it is not a case of just making a magazine and shipping it out to different parts of the world, the magazines and books created are now often made available to the masses through a simple click of the mouse online. This has created a bigger profit margin from a much bigger audience exposure area.


There are many stages of development that have been growing ever since the world wide web has come into fruitition, these include:

• Development
• Acquisition
• Copy Editing
• Graphic Design
• Production
• Printing
• Marketing and Distribution

Media Ownership is concentrated. This means that even though there may be hundreds of mainstream publishers and distribution companies currently working, these compaines are all owned by about 4-5 parent companies who create an element of rivalry between these smaller publishers to boost their own profits and fame. To put this into a simple example we could think about the top 10 selling magazines in England today, it is almost guaranteed that these top selling magazines will be owned by only about 3 parent companies. So as you may buy a lesser known magazine rather than a mass advertised one to try and act individually and to 'rebel' against a capitalist society, you are still ultimately giving money to the top companies as these are the only comanies that can afford to get their magazines on to most shops shelves and available to the masses. For example, 'IPC Media' currently own and run the publishing of about 80 magazines nationwide. These range from ultra-mainstream products such as 'Look', to the lesser known, rather niche audienced products such as, 'Wallpaper*' magazine. 

NME (New Musical Express) create a magazine and credit this magazine to be the 'longest published and most respected music weekly in the world'. The magazine is published by IPC Media and is available in almost every magazine selling shop you can find. NME try to convey the idea that they are in love with the music they write about and have made the magazine purely as a vehicle for their own musical interests and to spread the word of new music to the masses. This idea can be questioned when put together with their association with multi-million pound companies and publishers. Globalised, immensely rich and powerful companies have only got to have a 'big company' reputation by knowing how to make money. When a music magazine claiming to be in it for the music are associated with these big companies, the morals and ideas will be brought to question. The integrity of the company can be challenged as it seems like the completely musically focused company image they are trying to feed us, is only really in place to hide the morals of money-grabbing power-hungry company running the market.

This is not only relevant to 'NME' magazine, this can be said about almost any market in any country. It can also be traced back to forms of Gramsci's ideology concerning challenging ideas. Magazines that are made to rebel against the money making society of today, are often quickly bought out by one of the big companies to turn this new ideology into profit for themselves. Thus quickly eliminating the 'rebel company' and almost tricking the audience into buying their products.

The implications of this system could end up being very damaging to the music industry, as well as many different industries. The companies that own all the media concerning music industry will be able to advertise and expose their own bands to a mass audience, creating almost endless profit margins for them and creating a generation pseudo-individualistic bands because the smaller bands who have not already been bought out by major companies, who actually have individual music styles and almost always better morals, simply cannot earn enough revenue to continue producing music because the only music people can listen to on demand are bands that have been created to sound, look, talk and act in a specific way by their label. This passes onto music magazines and closes out all competition. 

So by giving the public a choice of 5 different magazines created by 1 parent company, they are effectively creating a society unknowingly ruled by Adorno's theory of de-politicised, formulaic and ultimately boring bands and artists.