Three Magazines Analysis

8/9/2019 Three Magazines Analysis

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Three magazines:

Analyze

o Front cover.o

Contents page.o Double page spread.

Analysis 1

The first magazine I am analysing is called NME and the music it covers is light

rock to light metal which covers a very wide range of people who listens to

music and one of the main reasons it one of the highest selling music

magazines. Although lately its circulation has plummeted from 64,033 in 2007

to 48,459 making it drop 24.3%. The first issue of NME was published in 7

March 1952.

The route of the eye goes across through the masthead saying NME and

through coverline Kings Of Leon. Then it goes down across Peter Dohertys

face and across the stuff on his neck then through the coverstory talking about

the 25 greatest alternate love songs. Then finally the route of the eye goes

across the bottom towards the terminal area has a coverline on the Klaxons


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new tour and the price of it and the ISBN number. They have done it this way

so that it can show the main focus of the magazine, in this case it is Peter

Doherty.

The hotspots on the magazine are mainly based around peter Dohertys bodyand face as it would apparently attract female buyers. The top two are based

around his face showing the expression on his face which shows that he is

taking what is happening very seriously and the bottom two hotspots are

around his chest area with all of the tattoos and jewellery showing that he has

become quite vain lately and he has his nipple out showing he is being

rebellious against nature and that he wants to be seen as a sex object.

The cover is laid out in a fashion which works around Peter Dohertys face andbody so that you can see the entire photo of him and also the photo of Peter

Doherty has been taking in a way that his body and face was on the route of

the eye. Most of the coverlines and coverstories are based around the

masthead and the route of the eye and the hotspots.

The font they use in the magazine use both serif and san serif and by using

both of the types of font they contrast each other making them stand out from

each other, a good example of this would be the coverstory talking about the25 greatest alternative love songs. For the masthead of the magazine the

font is really big letters and very bold to stand out among the rest of the words

on the cover showing what magazine it is and catches your eye well.

The colours they have used in the magazine are very good as they have used

red against black making the font in the contrasting therefore standing out a

lot. Also they have used yellow on the top of the magazine to allow it to stand

out a lot, the main choice of colours are red and black which do contrast eachother and they have used yellow in small doses which does stand out among

the red and black house style.

The images they have used on the cover of the magazine uses images really

well as the main feature of the magazine is Peter Doherty who is a very large

image making it stand out and show that he is the main focus of the magazine.

They have also placed images on the route of the eye and in the terminal area


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making those easy to be seen as NME know that your eye is going to go across

that particular area of the cover of the magazine.

Contents

The contents of NME are very unique as most magazines have very plain and

boring contents whereas NME use lots of pictures and a few colours in their

contents.

The route of the eye goes across the top of the page through the Bruce

Springsteen and up to The Prodigy it then goes down across the page going

through The Prodigy again and then goes through The Virgins. The route of

the eye then finally goes across the bottom of the page through The Virgins

still then terminates in the terminal area which has Soft Toy Emergency

within it. They have made very good use of the principle of thirds and the

hotspots as they have put the parts of the contents which didnt lie on the

route of the eye; they made it so that they lie on the hotspots as the top left

hotspot was based around the London Blackmarket and the bottom right

hotspot was based around the Attic Lights. They have laid the contents out

like this so that they could attract your eye to as much of the articles on the

page as possible.

They have laid the contents out well as they have placed plenty of pictures on

the page, but placed them well enough that almost all of the pictures do lie

along the route of the eye and if they dont lie along the route of the eye then

they are either on or very near the hotspots of the principles thirds. They have

also laid out the contents so that you can see that is all based around The

Prodigy and The virgins this is to show that these two bands are going to be the

main focus of this magazine.

They have used sans serif fonts for the contents titles and sub titles as they

stand out better than serif fonts as they are bolder and more block like, but

they have used serif font for the text as it is a nicer font to read rather than a

sans serif font.

They have used good use of colours on the contents as the contents titles and

subtitles are contrasting colours red and black which does help them stand

off the page and catch your eye to look at them, also it seems that they have


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given the main parts of the page a turquoise back to show that this is the main

part of this issue, for example the Prodigy has a blue background.

The pictures they have used show that the bigger the picture the more

important it is so that the Prodigy and The Virgin are really big pictures, butpicture like Bruce Springsteen are small pictures showing that there is less

importance toward him. Also they have placed most of the pictures so that

they do lie along the route of the eye and if they cannot lay them along that

then they are placed near the principle of thirds hotspots.

Double Page Spread

On the double page spread you can see that the first page is based on the

guitarist of the band and that the second is more based around the rest of the

band.

The route of the eye across the two pages goes across the top through the

main title of the article The Irony Giants across the photo of The Devil then

across through another picture of the secondary guitarist and the drummer

then onto a picture of a man holding an acoustic guitar singing it then goesdown across going through the captions of the pictures as the caption of the

one with the acoustic singing is History Class and the one of the secondary

guitarist and drummer is Flying High then from the bottom left corner to the

terminal area it goes across through a little photo of lots people using the

bands equipment. The use of route of the eye shows all the members and

what instruments they play in the band.

They have laid out the double pages so that all the photos lie along the routeof the eye and because the main picture of the guitarist isnt all on the route of

the eye they have laid that out so that the photo is on the principle of thirds

hotspots, also as the drummer in a different photo isnt on the route of the eye

he is also on hotspot so that he does get noticed. They have laid it out so that

the guitarist on the first page is blatantly the main interest on that double page

spread.

Just like the contents they have used sans serif fonts for the titles as they arebold and stand off the page better than serif fonts, also they have used serif


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fonts for the articles they have wrote a lot about as they are nicer to read and

look better.

They seemed to have used a pink colour scheme as in the main photo of the

guitarist he is wearing pink top and as he is the main focus of this article theyhave used pink colour scheme, they have also used the pink so that it does

contrast the black coloured fonts making them stand out a bit more.

The pictures they used they have set them out so the bigger the picture the

more important it is so it shows that again the guitarist is easily the main focus

also they used photo to show everyone, also in the main photo the guitarist

has a serious look on his face showing that they are taking what is happening

seriously.


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Analysis 2

The second magazine I chose to analyse was Kerrang music magazine.

Kerrang magazine is NMEs biggest rival music magazine in terms of ratings as

last year Kerrang magazine were selling to the public 76,937 a week where as

now they are selling 52,272 a week. So their sales rates have dropped by 32.1%

in one year. Kerrang usual genre tends to be rock, hard rock and metal based.

The first ever issue of Kerrang magazine was published on the 6th

august 1981.

The route of the eye on the front cover goes across the top of the page

through the masthead Kerrang and across the top of the lead singers head of

Biffy Clyro then it goes diagonally down which goes across the faces of two of

the bands members showing that the magazine is going to be based around

this band, it also goes across the coverline Biffy Clyro Rocks next superstars

then goes to the bottom left corner talking about bring me the horizon

coverline Bring Me The Horizon UK tour report it the ten finishes by going

across the bottom of the page going across the coverlines talking about bands

which on the comeback and finishing in the terminal area where the ISBNnumber is shown and the price of the magazine and the Kerrang website. They


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have done the route of the eye like this so that you can see what the main

focuses of this magazine are also where to go if you want to find out more.

The hotspots of the cover are based around the band members of Biffy Clyros

faces and the advertisements such as Biffys new album and the 30 Seconds ToMars posters. The hotspots around the members faces again resemble that

this particular issue is going to be based around this band and their latest

work.

They have laid the cover out cleverly as they have used the route of the eye

well making it go across the masthead and most of the advertisements, but if

something does not lie along the route of the eye then they have placed them

so that they lay near the hotspots of the magazines, unlike quite a few big timemagazine covers they havent laid their main picture and taken it in a way that

it lies along the route of the eye rather that they took it so that it does hang

around the hotspots of the principle of thirds.

For the front cover they have mostly used sans serif fonts as they seem a lot

more bold and eye catching therefore a better choice for the front cover they

have used sans serif for all the important parts of the issue and for the less

important parts they have placed them in serif fonts as they are nicer on theeyes.

As this is a rock/metal magazine they have used plenty of red, black and white

as they best resemble what colours the type of people in which enjoy this

music stereotypically wear and tend to like more.

The main photo of the magazine is obviously going to be the biggest one which

is what they have done and the picture of the band is them looking quite

serious showing that they do want to be taken quite seriously now the other

photos in which are not as big are placed along the route of the eye so that

your eye does go across that picture so if there is a picture which takes your

eye it is placed in the right place. But there are a few pictures which are not

placed on route of the eye, but are near the hotspots which does compensate.

ContentsThe contents of this particular magazine has been laid out in a very clevermanor as it doesnt seem to follow the route of the eye at all or even the


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principle of thirds but it does really well as the route of the eye goes across the

top of the page and through the title Contents and across the singer of Bring

Me The Horizons head, it the continues down across the page crossing the

page number for Bring Me The Horizon article then continues covering most of

the rest of the pages for different articles, then finishes off by going across the

bottom of the page going across a few more page numbers and terminates in

the terminal area advertising that you can get Kerrang delivered to your door

for 6 a month. They use route of the eye so it shows the main features of this

issue.

The hotspots of the contents mainly cover up any unnoticed parts left by the

route of the eye as all the page numbers you missed on route of the eye are

placed around the hotspots cleverly.

They have laid out the contents of this magazine to show that the most

important parts of this magazine will be placed in the top half of this magazine

and that the less important parts of the magazine will be placed the bottom

half of the contents.

The font they have used in the contents seem to be all in sans serif fonts as

usually when reading a magazine the contents pages tends to be missed out asnothing important is on the contents page so that if the placed the font in a

sans serif font then it would catch the readers eye and perhaps prevent them

from missing that page.

In the contents they have changed the colour scheme a bit as instead of black,

white and red they have used black, white and yellow, but they have only used

the yellow on top of the black as it seems to stand off of black extremely well

to catch the readers eye that little bit more.

As they have blatantly pointed out who the main focus of the magazine is

about in this issue they havent felt any need to continue telling you where to

find them in the magazine so they have left them out and made the second

most important part of this magazine that main focus on the contents page by

making Bring Me The Horizon take up half the page with on picture of the lead

singer again drawing the readers eye, they have also placed two more small

photos on top of the large photo showing that the two photos are a little bitless important but next in line of importance on the contents page.


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Double-page Spread

The double page spread I chose is about a band called Every time I Die

Route of the eye across the double page spread goes across the top going

through the bands name Every time I die then through what I think is the

name of their new album Blood Work then through a passage talking about

how they arent making as much money as most famous bands then it goes

down across the page going across the photo of the band looking depressed

then finally across the bottom of the page through the saying Were still nine

people in a f***king van! then terminates in a box talking about I pod

instants. So the route of the eye gives the impression that this is a sob story

about this band that just cant seem to make it. Their use of route of the eyeshows what the band are about and what they are aiming for.

The hotspots on this double page spread are just based around the bands

miserable faces again emphasising the fact that they are not happy about their

current popularity.

Most of the left page and about half of the right page is basically the photo of

the band looking depressed which makes you realise that this band really

arent happy and this magazine want you to realise that as almost all of the

double page spread is the band looking really depressed. Theyve placed the

text so that all the writing is based around them not much text goes across

their bodies or interferes with the expression they are trying to show.

Again in this magazine all the stuff that they really want you to read is in big

bold sans serif font to really catch your eye whereas where they have actually

written an article they have used a serif font as again it is a easier font to read

and nicer.

The colour they have used in this part of the magazine is red, black and white

not really any of them colours used together resembles any happiness which

seems to be the big message they are trying to get across.

Kerrang have only used one photo in this double page spread which stretches

across both pages which shows that this photo is the thing they do want you to

focus on these two pages also the photo also does lie along the route of theeye as most of the members are on it but the one member who isnt is around


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the hotspot, but the guy based around the hotspot seems to be giving off his

own sense of isolation from everything adding to the drama of the article.


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Analysis 3

The final magazine I have chosen to analyse is Metal Hammer.

Metal hammer are not as big of a name as Kerrang or NME, mainly becausethey are a monthly magazine whereas the other two are weekly magazines.

This is shown by their circulation of 49,143. The cover of Metal Hammer seem

to be very vague in terms of variety as it all seem to be focused on one band in

particular in this case Ramstein

The route of the eye goes across the top of the page going through the

masthead Metal Hammer while at the same time going through the

coverline 3 free gifts it then goes down across the page through the mainpicture of Ramsteins logo then finally goes across bottom of the page through

the name Ramstein and the pull quote Were back and we want to f**k this

shows the main focus of this issue as is only thing on the cover, also that there

is a good competition.

The hotspots are just based around the Ramstein logo and thats it

emphasising what this issue of Metal Hammer is going to be based on.


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The cover of this magazine is laid out so that all of the writing and coverlines

etc are all spaced around the main picture of the cover; this shows that the

logo is very important on this issue and that what it represents in this case

Ramstein is also very important in this issue.

They have only used sans serif fonts on the cover of this magazine as they are

not the biggest selling music magazine there is they have used sans serif font

to make they cover stand out as much as possible to give it the best chance of

standing out more than its rivals.

As it is called Metal Hammer they have given it a dark metal background with

the Ramstein logo scolded into it with a light burning metal colour therefore

relating it to the products name, also by using the light colour in the darkbackground it also helps it to stand out with the use of colours.

The photos are quite simple as they have only used one photo, but as they

have only used one photo it makes you concentrate more on that photo and

make you think that it must be important as it has the whole front cover to

itself.

Contents

Like the other magazines the contents of this magazine has been well thought

out as the route of the eye goes along the top of the page through the title

contents and through some pictures then down across the page going through

more photos of different bands and what pages they are on then finally it then

goes across the bottom of the page where there are a few more photos

showing a bit of what men like. They do this so it shows as much of theinformation in the article as it can also to attract mens eyes.

Again the hotspots of the contents cover up what the route of the eye has not

covered including some important pictures to this issue this shows that there is

not a single thing this issue doesnt want you to miss out on.

They lay out of the contents page is shown as all of the writing is shown down

the left hand side and most of the photos are on the right hand side mostly

along where the route of the eye is, as this magazine must know that most


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readers do just tend to look at photos and carry on so they put the photos on

the route of the eye.

Again like Kerrang they have use sans serif font for the contents as they must

also know that most readers do not tend to look at the contents of a magazineso they put their writing in sans serif to make them stand off the page more.

Metal Hammer also use red, black and white as a colour scheme in their

magazines as they do tend to be the most metal like colours, also that when

red and black are used together they do standoff of the page [pages really well.

The photos they have used in this tend to lie along the route of the eye quite

well and also are some photos which certain sexes will like for example in the

terminal area of the contents it is a photo of good looking lady with a very low

cut top, exactly what a man wants to see.

Double-page Spread

The double-page spread I chose for my magazine was about Megadeth.

The route of the eye goes across the top of the page going across the top ofthe singers head and through the title Unleash Hell! then into The Burning

Question it then goes down across the two pages going through the main

photo and a smaller photo about the same man as the one in the main photo,

it then goes across the bottom of the page going through the banner

advertising the metal hammer website. It then terminates in the article about

rumours etc. they use this to show who this double page spread is based on

mostly, also where to go to find out more information.

The hotspots of this double-page spread are based around the main photo of

the lead singer and the article talking about his new band and their new album

putting more emphasis on their lead singer being really good and also that

they are playing at a highly renown festival.

The pages are laid out so that the first page is all about the lead singer and

emphasising that he is amazing at what he does and that the second pages

tells you why and then will mention the rest of his band and their contributionto what has happened.


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They have split the font use about 50/50 between serif and sans serif as they

have used sans serif for things such as titles sub-titles banners etc, but where

they have actually written the articles they have used a serif font as it is easier

on the eyes and easier to read, also by using sans serif they can emphasis the

important parts of the two pages.

They have mainly stuck with black, white and yellow with this double page

spread as seems to fit what has been said and can stand off of the page really

well, especially when yellow is used on top of the black as it does really

standoff of the page really well and seems to do so better than white off of

black as it is different.

The photos they have used on these two pages. On the first page they haveused two photos of the same person to emphasis what these two pages are

going to be about also by the main photo taking up a whole page itself really

emphasises that this man is the main focus. On the second page they have

used about 2 or 3 little pictures to throw little things out at you n think oh

wow, but not meant to do any more than that.

Adam Gill

Three Magazines Analysis

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