Evaluation of College Magazine Front Cover and Contents Page

Preliminary Task Evaluation

What went well?

Front Page:
The feedback shows that the colour scheme is really good and went well with the picture. The cover lines are also spread equally on the front page which captivates the reader. The text is also not hard to read at any parts of the front cover.

Contents Page:
The feedback tells me that the contents page's structure is good and the text is easy to read.



What went wrong?

Front Page:
The feedback points out that I should add a price tag and issue number as well as a headline or baseline or puffs to make the front cover more appealing to potential readers.

Contents Page:
The feedback shows that I should add more colours to the page and make those colours match with front cover to stay consistent. Also there is too much unoccupied space on the contents page that I should find use for. 

Masthead Draft

First Design:

Different Ideas of Masthead:

DJ and Mixmag Magazines' Subscriptions, Ezines and Social Medias

DJ Magazine has subscription for printed edition magazines for £27 per year and it also has a USA edition. They print 12 magazines a year and each magazine comes with a free CD. People who subscribe for the printed edition also get each magazine online, called PDF editions.
The online PDF editions cost £12 per year and is available in 10 different languages. It has the same content as the printed editions.

DJ Magazine has profiles on social media sites such as facebook, twitter and instagram. These social medias are used to generate more readers and content by posting news and events where they will be represented, it also helps to keep in touch with their readers so people do not get alienated and so continue to subscribe for the magazines.




Mixmag Magazine also offers subscription for three printed edition issues for £9 or £70 for 24 issues or £30 for 10 issues; subscribers also get access to an app on their iOS or Android devices and to the latest  24 digital  issues and DJ mix, but ezine offers are not available separately. However, online articles about albums are available on their website but these articles are available in the issues as well.

Mixmag also uses social media sites such as facebook, twitter and instagram. These social medias provide them with an easier and quicker way to inform readers or non-readers about events, concerts and general information about the magazine.

College Magazine Contents Page

College Magazine Front Cover

College Magazine Front Cover Draft

Audience and Institution Research of Mixmag Magazine

The 'Mixmag' brand has many media platforms such as magazine, app and TV. The majority of the readers are male and the average age of the readers is around 24 years.

The graph shows that over half of the readers are from the United Kingdom or the United States. It also tells us the ratio of male and female readers in each age group.

Audience and Institution Research of DJ Magazine

The 'DJ Mag' brand contains 10 different platforms of media that can be purchased. These platforms are shown below.

The following graphs show different aspects of the percentages of consumers.

As you can see most readers are males and the average reader group is 19-28. Also the majority of readers are socially active and are DJs them self. 

The last picture shows some of the achievements of the brand such as weekly readers, print circulations and downloads.

Magazine Front Cover Draft

College Magazine Analysis

Image:

• mid-long shot
• eye level
• colour scheme: blue, yellow, black and white

Page Layout:

• masthead
• barcode
• cover lines
• text boxes

Language:

• informal
• might mention places and people that are only familiar to students

The differences between a college and a music magazine front covers are that college magazines use brighter colours and the images show the ideal students of the college would want to have. College magazines also show positivity above all else because the college has to be shown in a positive way, however music magazines does not have to follow such 'rules' so they tend to use darker colours and pictures where the artists are rarely ever smiling or showing signs of positivity. College magazines are also more likely to use informal language because most of the readers are teenagersv who ae attending the college, whereas music magazines have a much wider range of audience so they have to be more formal.

Analysis of Mixmag Front cover, Contents page and D.P.S.

Image:

• colour scheme: white, purple and black; using only three colours is usually the best choice to make the front cover simple yet interesting
• mid-close up shot, most common shot type for front magazines
• eye level, makes the artist look equal

Page Layout:

• masthead, the logo of the magazine
• strapline, the slogan of the magazine
• skyline, commonly used, however in this case the skyline is the strapline of the magazine
• barcode
• pull-outs from each article, quotes from the articles as cover lines
• main cover line, usually the name of the artist on the front cover in this case Loco Dice
• cover lines, general information or quotes from the articles in the magazine

Language:

• other artists are also mentioned in the cover lines

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Page Layout:

• 4 pictures of artists and venues that are connected to the articles
• shows all the articles in two columns with page numbers
• page numbers in the columns are in chronological order
• the page numbers on the pictures are random

Language:

• artists and venues 
• titles of the articles to give a general idea of the article to the reader
• the columns have different subheadings such as: features, fashion and tunes so the reader can find the type of articles that he/she is interested in

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Image:

• long shot, not commonly used in DPSs because the picture(s) usually show the artist of whom the article is about
• high angle, to show the high amount of people gathered
• venue of a concert/festival possibly related to the article or the artist
• colour scheme: black, white and red
• uses small pictures of other artists to show that the article is also about other artists 

Page Layout:

• takes up nearly half of both pages, therefore it is in the middle which shows that it is the focus of the article
• call-out, quotes from the artist(s) in the article
• the text boxes are around the main image which is uncommon so it catches the attention of the reader 

Language:

• starts with drop cap, commonly used to indicate the start of a new topic/story
• written in 3rd person which is usually used in non-interview like articles
• descriptions of other artists beside the main artist