The Conventions, The Producer and Target Audience

There are various conventions that I plan to keep in my magazine, based on the research that I’ve carried out.

On the front cover, I plan to have only have one image. This is because I don’t want the front cover to look crowded. Also, on my double page spread, I plan to only have one main dominant image. However, I do think I will include very small sub-images and fit them around the page. Thus making the interview more insightful into my artists ‘life’. For my contents page, I plan to add lots of sub-images around the page, this giving the reader more knowledge into what the magazine includes.

For my titles, I plan for the text to be big and eye catching. I will use a font that is easy to read, therefore neat, but not boring. In particular, for my masthead, I aim to use a font that is eye-catching. For me to achieve this I will make the text big, bold and a solid colour. On the contents page, I want to frame ‘contents’ at the top of the page, again in a big, bold font however not as big as the text on the front cover. On my DPS, I will have my artists name in bold font with ‘exclusive’ in a slightly smaller font. Around the DPS, I will include ‘pull quotes’ taken from my interview and edit them around the page – this also attracting readers.

The textual elements that I aim to include, such as my specific choice of lexis, will be targeted to my target audience (16-25). Therefore, I will have a wide vocabulary and will write correctly as I aim to stay away from using ‘too much’ slang words.

I do not think I will change any of my conventions when it comes to producing my magazine.

Based on the institutional research that I carried out, I think that my magazine would fall under the ‘Natmags’ or ‘IPC Media’ category. This is to do with the fact that it is a music magazine, with gossip elements. I think it fits in these categories, because it produces similar products such as ‘Cosmopolitan’ and ‘Reveal’ from Natmags. Also ‘LOOK’ and ‘Now’ in IPC Media. On top of this, both categories own music magazines – IPC Media has ‘NME’ and Natmags has ‘Sugar Scape’. Similarly, the two categories have near enough the same target audience.

My target audience is females aged 16 – 25 years of age. They will be interested in music, specifically music in the charts. Along with this, they will have an interest in the artist’s personal life and wants to find out ‘gossip’ about which the star is currently ‘dating’. With my magazine targeted to older teens to young adults, they will also have an interest in fashion. Therefore, in my interview, it will cover fashion aspects. I could maybe do this by asking questions of the artist like: "do you like being given free clothes?"

My magazine would be sold specifically in newsagents and in supermarkets such as Asda. These outlets would be interested in selling my product because they sell various other magazines in their stores too. On top of this, my magazine would also fit into their range, but still stand out from my competitors.