Magazine Research
Image Source: www.qthemusic.com
Introduction
Q is the “UK’s biggest music magazine” and is published by Bauer media. Q magazine was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth and first published in 1986; they were widely discredited as they felt Q was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology. Setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing.
Q magazine is a very popular music magazine with an average circulation of about 100,000 per month in the UK.
The content of Q
Every issue of Q has a different message on the spine. Readers then try to work out what the message has to do with the contents of the magazine. This practice — known as the "spine line" — has since become commonplace among British lifestyle magazines.
Q magazine does not have a specific genre of music that it represents; inside the magazine they have interviews etc with all sorts of artists and bands. The magazine has regular articles and features in their issues like all magazines. The magazine includes interviews with the most popular artists at the time; this also depends on what is coming out in the month that the issue is released.
The issue has regular articles that will have differences to them each month, mainly which band or artist is being involved or reviewed. The regulars were changed in November 2008 to give the magazine a new look. They created more interesting regulars in which they would be doing quick interviews with artists and music news etc.
The magazine consists of many adverts throughout the magazine with an advert or double paged advert every 5 pages; this is dependant on where the advertiser has chosen to place their advert in the magazine. Early in the magazine the editor gives his account of what is in the issue and what he thinks of various articles.
The Publishing Institution of Q
The publisher of Q magazine is Bauer media, the company claim to engage 19 million readers in the UK each week.
Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Publishing Group; Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Bauer Publishing Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.
Bauer Media joined the Bauer Publishing Group in January 2008 following acquisition of Emap plc’s consumer and specialist magazines, radio, TV, online and digital businesses. Collectively, the Bauer Publishing Group employs some 6,400 people and has a 2007 turnover of 1.79 billion Euros.
Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions – Magazines and Radio - widely recognized and rewarded as being industry innovators.
Source: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Insight
The typical reader profile
The Bauer media website defines the Q magazine audience profile as ‘Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy’.
Through reading the magazine myself I would say that is correct but it is too brief, I would say that the readers come from a B1 C1 group as the price is towards the expensive end of the scale for a magazine so would put off the students etc.
Introduction
Q is the “UK’s biggest music magazine” and is published by Bauer media. Q magazine was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth and first published in 1986; they were widely discredited as they felt Q was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology. Setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing.
Q magazine is a very popular music magazine with an average circulation of about 100,000 per month in the UK.
The content of Q
Every issue of Q has a different message on the spine. Readers then try to work out what the message has to do with the contents of the magazine. This practice — known as the "spine line" — has since become commonplace among British lifestyle magazines.
Q magazine does not have a specific genre of music that it represents; inside the magazine they have interviews etc with all sorts of artists and bands. The magazine has regular articles and features in their issues like all magazines. The magazine includes interviews with the most popular artists at the time; this also depends on what is coming out in the month that the issue is released.
The issue has regular articles that will have differences to them each month, mainly which band or artist is being involved or reviewed. The regulars were changed in November 2008 to give the magazine a new look. They created more interesting regulars in which they would be doing quick interviews with artists and music news etc.
The magazine consists of many adverts throughout the magazine with an advert or double paged advert every 5 pages; this is dependant on where the advertiser has chosen to place their advert in the magazine. Early in the magazine the editor gives his account of what is in the issue and what he thinks of various articles.
The Publishing Institution of Q
The publisher of Q magazine is Bauer media, the company claim to engage 19 million readers in the UK each week.
Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Publishing Group; Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Bauer Publishing Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.
Bauer Media joined the Bauer Publishing Group in January 2008 following acquisition of Emap plc’s consumer and specialist magazines, radio, TV, online and digital businesses. Collectively, the Bauer Publishing Group employs some 6,400 people and has a 2007 turnover of 1.79 billion Euros.
Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions – Magazines and Radio - widely recognized and rewarded as being industry innovators.
Source: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Insight
The typical reader profile
The Bauer media website defines the Q magazine audience profile as ‘Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy’.
Through reading the magazine myself I would say that is correct but it is too brief, I would say that the readers come from a B1 C1 group as the price is towards the expensive end of the scale for a magazine so would put off the students etc.
The magazine tends to be advertising commercial artists new releases more than products so it is hard to distinguish which gender the magazine is targeted at.
Source: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q/
Layout trademarks of Q – Including forms and conventions
Like all magazines Q starts with its contents pages followed by the editors’ page. Throughout the magazine each page with articles has the recognized red banner with title or vice versa, though the features don’t follow this pattern, they will have different layouts to the whole magazine.
The layout of text is standard and an expected convention with a standard text and large opening paragraph.
The interviews will always have a photograph of the subject, whether it is a posed shot or action shot of the artist live.
Does Q represent the values of its audience?
I believe that Q represents its reader’s views very well in the case that the magazine focuses on the music and rating it to the generation it is targeting. While catching the personal interest of the younger generation, Q is still looking at the older generation by looking at old renowned bands such as The Beatles.
Q looks at a lot of the commercial artists to have the wider market but still looks at the independent artists, though reading through an issue I would draw that they prefer the commercial music.
Empire
Image source: http://www.empireonline.com/magazine/
Introduction
Empire refers to itself as “The World’s Finest Film Magazine” and is part of the Bauer media group. The magazine was founded by Emap and first published in July 1989 and has ever since on a monthly basis. Empire prides itself by being the finest movie magazine in the world, with first ratings of films and behind the scenes access to many films and film production companies to give its readers the best reading experience they can.
Introduction
Empire refers to itself as “The World’s Finest Film Magazine” and is part of the Bauer media group. The magazine was founded by Emap and first published in July 1989 and has ever since on a monthly basis. Empire prides itself by being the finest movie magazine in the world, with first ratings of films and behind the scenes access to many films and film production companies to give its readers the best reading experience they can.
Empire has an average circulation of 194,016 per month; this is based on how many magazines they sell and how many will then read each issue.
The content of Empire
Empire magazines content varies each month due to the change in film releases that particular month. Though there are a few regulars that turn up each week, for example the letters, news and cross word. These may be regulars but the magazine itself follows the same pattern each month in how they rate and review a magazine.
Each week they evaluate an upcoming promising film that they expect to do well in the box office and give it a thorough review as to what should be expected from the film. They may focus on upcoming films but much of their interviews are also with actors and directors. Most of the interviews are with the directors rather than the actors; this is so that the readers get the full image of the film that the director is trying to portray.
A lot of attention was paid to empire when they released a special edition issue in collaboration with Steven Spielberg, this really got people pumped for the magazine due to the nature of the issue which then acclaimed them more of the market.
In common with most British film magazines, Empire is populist in both approach and coverage unlike less irreverent and more 'serious' magazines such as Sight and Sound. It reviews both mainstream films and art films, but feature articles concentrate on the former.
As well as film news, previews and reviews, Empire has some unique regular features. Each issue (with the exception of issues 108 - 113) features a Classic Scene, a transcript from a notable film scene. The first such classic scene to be featured was the "I could have been a contender" scene from On the Waterfront.
The regular Top 10 feature lists Empire's choice of the top ten examples of something film-related. For example 10 Best Chase Scenes or 10 Best Movie Gags in The Simpsons. Readers are encouraged to write in if they disagree with the choices made.
The At Home section covers DVD news and releases; Empire's editors consider this section to be of sufficient quality to term it a magazine in itself, which is also relevant to the growth and importance of the DVD market, where sales can often outstrip that of box-office.
Pint of Milk presents celebrities' answers to silly or unusual questions, including the question "How much is a pint of milk?" This is intended as a guide to the Chosen Celebrity's contact with reality, and as such can be more informative than a direct interview, often reporting some surprising responses.
Each magazine includes a "Spine Quote", in which a relatively challenging quote is printed on the spine of the magazine. There are usually some obvious and obscure links from the quote to the main features of that month's edition. Readers are invited to identify the film source and the links to win a prize.
Kim Newman's DVD Dungeon is a regular feature in the At Home section, in which critic Kim Newman reviews the most obscure releases, mostly low budget horror movies.
The Publishing Institution of Empire
The publisher of Empire magazine is Bauer media, the company claim to engage 19 million readers in the UK each week.
Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Publishing Group; Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Bauer Publishing Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.
Bauer Media joined the Bauer Publishing Group in January 2008 following acquisition of Emap plc’s consumer and specialist magazines, radio, TV, online and digital businesses. Collectively, the Bauer Publishing Group employs some 6,400 people and has a 2007 turnover of 1.79 billion Euros.
Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions – Magazines and Radio - widely recognized and rewarded as being industry innovators.
The typical reader profile
76% Male, Affluent ABC1 movie fans and cinema hounds. I found this reader profile at http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Empire/
Layout trademarks of Q – Including forms and conventions
Empire magazine has a standard layout like all magazines by starting with the contents page followed by the editors’ comments and then letters from readers.
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