Analysing contents pages

By Lizzy Gawley Green

I have looked at the contents page from Kerrang! magazine to help me with my own contents page.

Here are some key points:

Layout of the page:• The page is divided up into two halves. The top half is an image of ‘My Chemical

Romance’, this is the main article in the magazine and a developing theme as it has been used for a weeks. It has the largest image showing this page is obviously the most important on the contents page.

• The second half is made up of text, it has all of the pages featured inside, plus a sentence to make you want to read more under each title. The text is small and crammed into the small space but as long as the main article is clear and easy to read it does not matter as much.

• There are other small images on the page, these show you what is featured on the page. For example a double page spread on ‘Enslaved’. It is too small to read yet they put it in to attract your attention and make you want to turn to this page to read it.

Layout of text:• The content is organised in four columns, this makes it easier to read and helps

them fit more into the space. The texts is not quite square, this gives the messy look which suits the target audience.

• There is also a column for the editor to write to the reader. As this is small, it can be overlooked but they have added a picture of the editor, this attracts your attention. It also makes you feel like you know the person writing it. Usually this is found in gossip magazines but as this magazine is aimed at a younger audience it is good.

• The layout draws your attentions straight to the main article, this is the large picture at the top. Also the smaller articles with pictures. Your eyes always look at the images then the text after so to get certain features noticed they have placed it with a photo.

Layout of headings and captions:• The headings are in the same font, yellow, black and white, this is the house style

of the magazine. They are big and bold, at the top of each half of the page, this helps split it into two parts. The smaller headings are still in the same font so still attract your attention. As the headings are all the same size and fonts, you know to look at them first rather than being confused where to look. The heading, ‘content’ is placed in the darker section of the image, this means your eyes are not taken away from the image.

• The captions are placed next to the image, but slightly to the side, overlapping the images. This creates the messy effect again. They are set out as arrows to point you to the correct picture. They have the page number in red so you immediately know where to turn to.

Language and words:• The headings are in capital letters, this makes them stand out and you look at

them first of all. The headings and mini subheadings are to guide you as where to look so the words are very important. They sum up what is in that section in one word. The headings are in the house style which is this black and yellow bold font. You get to know this through out the magazine, it looks better when each page is consistent.

• The language is informal, this suits the target audience of the magazine as it is aimed at teenagers . They wants you to feel like you know the artists so it has language such as friendly banter. Also the use of ‘!’ is common, it is used in most sentences, emphasizing it and also keeping with the Kerrang! theme.

• Having the small “cover story” sign next to some of the page numbers is helpful if you want to find something that you saw on the front cover. The whole point of the contents page is to make it easier for the reader to find articles they are interested in, therefore this sign helps them even more.

I then looked at Mojo magazine, here are some of the key points I got:

Layout:• The contents page is over 2 pages. First page is the features that are new

and different and then the next page is the regular features and competitions.

• The layout is not very clutter, it is spaced out. This makes it easier to read all the information.

• It is laid out in a square way, the photos are stacked on top of each other therefore they are all clear.

• The text is just in one column down the side. This is because there is not much text on each page.

Images:• The background is a full sized photo. This is a posed shot and is direct. This

photo is in back and white which suits the older target audience and creates a sombre, mysterious mood.

• Images on the other page are a mixture. Some of them are direct and posed but others are indirect which have obviously been taken at a live gig. All these different images shows the magazine has a variety of features inside.

• There are pictures of CDs, these show that inside there would be a review about these albums.

• There are also photos at the bottom of the authors that have written articles inside the magazine. Having these images shows that this magazine thinks that the journalists are just as important as the article itself.

Language/words:• To help them find the page they want, there is a heading called, cover story. This

makes it much easier to find a feature that you had seen on the font cover.• The headings are clear, they split up the content into sections to make it much

easier to find what you are looking for.• The language is formal but straight forward. It just uses the artists name instead of

catchy titles and quotes. This suits the target audience as they know what standard the magazine is and don’t need fancy titles to attract them, they just want to know who is actually in the articles.

• The content page is important to this magazine as it is expensive, the reader would look at the contents page to see what's inside before they buy it, therefore it is important that this magazine’s contents page is well laid out with good images.