The Generic Conventions of Magazines: Feature Articles

The feature article is usually the reason why the reader has bought the magazine – the star should dominate. Celebrities

and stars as your feature are one of the ways that magazines guarantee sales.

The cover price of a magazine does not pay for the magazine to be published. The majority of the money that makes

the magazine possible comes from advertising revenue. Therefore your magazine has to appeal to its audience and sell

well (have large circulation figures) to make profit.

Usually feature articles are double page

spreads – but they also can be a single page

like this one (usually accompanied by some

pages of photographs.)

The

title/masthead

usually appears

on every page

Headlines and

subheadings to

explain the story

and catch the

audiences’ interest

(usually witty, puns

based on the

star/artist or their

new album/tour

etc…)

Remember stars

and artists do not

appear in

magazines unless

they have

something to sell

(album/tour/DVD) -

so remember to

push this through

your article and

refer to it at the

end!

Again the images should

dominate - 1 large image

and other smaller ones

(usually different -

location /settings to

studio cover shot to

make the article

interesting.)

Don’t be afraid of

white space / negative

space- there is usually a

lot of this in feature

articles - use it to frame

your writing and images

Anchorage –

text to explain

the images is

common

Depending on your audience - your writing should be clear and easy to follow - directed straight at the reader

(mode of address.) Usually informal in most magazines and sometimes using slang words (that may be

appropriate to your genre of music) and swear words etc... (Read some articles before writing your own!)

Text Grabs

(quotes from the

article made

bigger that

break up the

columns) are

typical, again to

make the reader

read the article -

they are usually

controversial,

funny or rude!

The house style of the magazine is

continued throughout the pages -

here the same fonts and red,

white and black colours.