Media Studies: Magazine Evaluation

Media Magazine Essay.

Dear team leader,

For my project, I was told by my employers, make and develop a new car magazine called Speed, I was given the status of director, so I ran the project, along with my colleague Humza Sharif. I chose to give the magazine the name speed because the name gives the audience an idea of what the game is about, i.e on the shelf if they see the name speed they would directly link it to automobiles, and if this is their interest they are more likely to buy it, in contrast if the magazine was called ‘supreme superstars’ people would think it was about wrestling, and not cars, and would be more likely to not buy to it due to confusion. The idea for the magazine was influenced by other car magazines like dub and top gear magazine, but we saw a gap in the market, what I mean is; we saw that our rival magazines didn’t have articles where they focused on the lifestyle of celebrities while mixing this with cars our readership would want to see, i.e. Cars that they would probably never be able to afford, but are fast and luxurious owned by celebrities, our magazine’s unique selling point is it offers to fulfill the satisfaction needed by curious people, who want to know about the lives of celebrities while they’re interested in fast and expensive cars. Looking at the already successful car magazines like Dub, auto-trader and Top gear magazine we were inspired by their comedic wit, while road testing cars, while still giving a developed insight into the cars itself. The price we decided for out magazine was £2.00 this is because at £2.00 it is affordable for our readership, who would likely be anything from working to upper middle class, furthermore because it is a weekly magazine the price is justified as looking at the average income of our readership, we believe £2.00 a week to be an affordable price, our target audience would be men, that are interested in cars, however we’re open to the possibility that women may well buy our magazine, the age of our target audience would be 16-50 our target audience’s age gap is so broad because we believe someone’s interest in cars does not really disintegrate with age.

When looking for people willing to buy advertising space in our magazine we had to make sure that these advertisements would suit the readership, we had two key adverts in our magazine, one was an advertisement for the new Mercedes SL-65, we believe that this advert was aimed a lot more at our upper middle class readership, who would be able to afford the car, Mercedes were happy to buy the space because they felt the same, that our magazine had the specific readership they were looking for that were more likely to bring in customers, rather if they were to advertise in a women’s lifestyle magazine. The second main advert is an advert for the new horror film Psychology; this unlike the Mercedes advert was compulsory, because we are in partnership with the film company and this meant that we had to advertise their film because of the contract we signed with them. As the editor of the magazine, I wished to write my letter in an informal and friendly way, I thought this would be a good idea because having a friendly editorial page will make the reader read on if they were to just browse in a shop, because the editorial page is one of the first pages the reader sees, furthermore a friendly editorial page will help build a relationship between the editor/magazine and the reader, which makes them more likely to buy the magazine.

I will now talk about the pages I actually created, I was put in charge of creating three pages, The software’s I used for this project were Microsoft paint, Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher, my main magazine was made on Publisher, with images and texts edited on Photoshop and Paint, I did this because I wanted to take full advantage of Publisher's set templates for magazines. But still be able to use the image editing capabilities of Paint and Photoshop, therefore the actual magazine layout was made on publisher but I edited the relevant images on Photoshop and paint, overall I found the various images editing processes quite easy, my only problems were for instance cutting out images and pasting them onto other backgrounds like I did with the Mercedes logo for the advert I created, however ironically it was in MS publisher in which I found the transparency tool which automatically clears the background in one click.

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Before I started creating my magazine I decided to look at the key codes and conventions of magazines and codes and conventions of the specific magazines I were to make, which were an advertisement for the new Mercedes S-650, an articles on the cars of the future and of course the editorial magazine, I did this by researching into other magazines of a similar genre, such as Dub Magazine and Top gear magazine, I will first talk about the advert I was asked to create by Mercedes, we were given an offer by Mercedes to buy advertising space in our page, the size of two pages, we accepted their offer because we believed their images as Europe’s most famous and leading car company, would bring fame and popularity to our magazine, resulting in an increase of sales, I believe they bought the space because they knew we are a good company, who would advertise their new car well, this is why I was asked to design their advert for Mercedes’ new luxury car the s-650.

In the advert I was asked to create I wanted to use the same font throughout the page, I chose the Mercedes trademark ‘corporate A’ font which I downloaded from , this is because I wanted the name to look like the font In the official Mercedes logo, furthermore a code and convention I used was the advertisement of the Mercedes start logo, I did this because I know that the logo can be recognized even without any text under it, for the advert I decided not to use too much text, this is because adverts are most affective when the audience doesn’t need to read much, as that would be pretty boring, and so I’ve relied more on the pictures used “A picture is worth a thousand words” I believe that there was no need to clutter the advert with text, because Mercedes are such a recognizable brand, however the text I did add was crucial, I added a short introduction to the car ‘Introducing the new Mercedes Benz S-650… Luxury defined’ this is because I wanted these powerful words still ringing in the viewers ear encouraging them to buy the car, which is the obvious aim of the advert. This text included the model number of the car so the consumer can enquire easily by either phoning Mercedes or using their website, I felt there was no need to add these details because of Mercedes and their well known brand. The only other text I added was ‘Coming soon’ on the bottom left of the advert, this is to tease the reader into enquiring more because they know they won’t be able to see this car on the street.

To compensate for the lack of texts, I used images that would do the talking for me, the main image is of the car the image's camera angle is front view, so the reader sees the main and most recognizable part of the car. This images is the largest image in the advert, it is the focal point and takes up more that 3/4 of the two pages, the picture has a high resolution so all the details are very clear, this images alone is very striking meaning the reader won't just flick past it, furthermore I used Adobe Photoshop to edit the images by rippling and mirroring the bottom of the car, to leave the effect the car is on water, this was quite easy as Photoshop has singular tools for each action, then on a separate black panel at the bottom of the advert, we have five images side by side the first picture is of the luxury leather s-650 interior, I added this picture to support the slogan 'Luxury Defined' and the reader should agree with this slogan once they see the cream leather seats, Sat Nav, DVD player and pine finished interior, all clearly visible from the picture. The second picture along the panel is the car nose from a side view, I chose this picture because I wanted to give the audience a view of the car from every possible angle, highlighting its best features, I thought the s-650's lights and nose shape was very good looking and therefore I chose this picture to let the audience see this. In addition, I think this is affective because the audience can imagine being the one driving the car, and the onlookers feeling what they're feeling while looking at the picture, this will make them want to buy the car more, and therefore enquire about the car. The 3rd picture in the panel is the S-650 driving, the angle is straight on, and the mountain background brings out the best of the car, furthermore the car is driving through some water, with pools of water on the side of either wheel, I chose this image because I felt it shows that while the Mercedes is a luxury car, it incorporates enough power to drive up mountains. The 4th image is of the car from a left rear view where the audience can see the bumper and back lights, this lets the reader appreciate the shape of the car, as they see the front and back of the car, the 5th images is a close up of the car lights, these are in fact custom AMG lights that will cost more, I decided to show these as this would encourage the audience to put this on as an add on when they buy the car, therefore increasing sales profits for Mercedes Benz. The last image on the panel is the Mercedes Benz logo, and name, I added this as a gentle reminder to the audiecne of the car make, in addition I've only placed 5 images on the panel as too many would clutter up the simplistic look I've gone for, and furthermore I placed text at the top to avoid cluttering up the main image, however I did add 'Coming soon' to the bottom left of the main picture because if I had put this text on the top it would clash with the 'Luxury defined' slogan.

The second page in the magazine I made was the article on ‘Design concepts of the future’ this was actually a feature article listed on the contents page, so therefore had to look really good as it would be the one read the most. I first decided to again study the key codes and conventions of magazines, but this time I focused more on actual articles, when I started designing the actual article page, I first placed a masthead or heading right at the top of the page, because this would be the name of the article, I named the article ‘Streets ahead’ I thought this was a rather clever play on words, incorporating the popular car phrase, but manipulating it within the criteria of the article so it actually made sense, this masthead implies that the cars are ‘streets ahead’ not only in terms of speed but design wise too. I also added a subheading, just in case people didn’t understand what the article was about from reading the masthead, the subheading said: “Design concepts of the future”

Regarding the actual content of the actual article, I wanted to make sure it was a friendly and encaging as possible so I included some jokes like “This is a car I really wouldn’t mind living in, lets hope they actually make this one, so I can sell my house and start packing.” But overall I wanted to describe the designs of the cars the best I could. For example there is a particular section of the article focusing on the idea for the eco car the Toyota Rin, I made sure I focused on the fact that this is an environmentally friendly car, stressing the point that it runs on a special type of bio fuel. I laid out the page so the images are especially eye catching and are the main point of the page, I decided to take the template used by my colleague Humza Sharif to make his contents page, and incorporate it into this page, the idea is the text is all on the left while the images are all on the right. The images vary in sizes and are grouped together in a descending row, but each image is defined by a border. The images are labelled so I didn’t have to keep referring to where the car is on the page, for instance the Toyota is labelled (iiii) so when I mentioned the Toyota I simply put (iiii) next to the name so the reader knows which car.

I also placed the speed magazine logo on the top left of the page like Humza did, this lets people know which magazine they’re reading, this is useful if the reader happens to be reading a singular discarded page, if they wanted to read more they could easily enquire at their local news agents, I also added the special custom page number that looks like a car logo on the bottom left which Humza did too.

The final page I designed was of course the ‘word from the editor’ this page is very important as it’s the one of the first pages the buyer sees, overall I think the page look very good, again incorporating the same design template used on by Humza in his contents page, (i.e all the text is on the left and the images on the right) and me in my article, the page only uses two main colours (White/Silver and blue) like the pages before it, I wanted to keep the overall feel of the magazine friendly and my letter to the people was just this, informal and friendly, I felt this would help start off the relationship between me and the reader, that would develop more when the read my article, this would in turn encourage them to buy the magazine every week. Regarding the actual page, this page firstly lists everyone involved in the making of the magazine, from the editor to the publisher, its second aim is to introduce the reader to the magazine, this is especially important as this is the first issue, I mention the design concepts of the future article because as I mentioned before this would help develop the friendly relationship between the magazine and the reader. I feel the designing if this page went pretty well, it is clear and concise, but it still delivers to the reader what it says it will do. One key part of the page that I thought turned out well, was the picture referring to the cars of the future, I took a picture that I used in the article, and edited it in Photoshop to make it look liked it had been sketched out, emphasizing that these cars are designs. Using website like DaFont.com helped me a lot, as I was able to freely look for fonts that would perfectly suit my pages, and not have to settle for the set fonts in Microsoft publisher. As I’ve mentioned before, the page also encases and advert for the up and coming movie Psychology, I decided that since we’re in partnership with the film makers, and they didn’t actually buy any advertising space, I thought it was best to advertise the film at the bottom of this page, however I feel it really stands out as I made the text red, which really stands out against the blue and white of the page. On the right of the page there are numerous supercars, while these cars aren’t in the contents page, I felt that they would do well in showing what we as a magazine are about, we only really talk about supercars and cars that people want but may not actually be able to get. To consummate, I am happy with this page, and I fell it does everything I wanted it to, because it was the last page I did, nothing went wrong while designing it, as any errors that could have happened, happened while I was designing the two other pages, and hence I was able to avoid these.

As I have mentioned before, we as a magazine take full advantage of the uses and gratifications theory, by this I mean our article only consist of what our readership wants to read, not what they need to read. For example in this magazine we only write about cars people want to see, like the article on design concepts of the future, this article fulfils the reader’s needs because as our target audience mainly consists of men, we know that men like technology and are likely to be interested in the technological advances that the cars of the future would have, people have certain needs and I believe our magazine fulfils these needs perfectly, one of our main selling points is the fact we’re able to get interviews with the most famous people on the planet, like the Game. People are often interested in the lives of celebrities, why? Because Celebrities have money, fame and everything you could ever want, its human nature to want what you don’t have, and I feel that one of the main things that Celebrities have that our readership doesn’t is ridiculously expensive and flash cars, this is why we had decided to put the Game on the front cover. Using my own experience, this theory is true, I often find myself reading celebrity gossip magazines such as Heat, because I just have to see the pics of celebrity X’s wedding, or I just have to find out who Celebrity’s new girlfriend is* however in saying this not all celebrity gossip would interest me, meaning I select what I want from gossip magazines for example I may not care for an article on the best and worst Celebrity fashion, and I will therefore not read it. This is why we emphasized the celebrities in out magazine, so much so that they take up as much of our magazine as cars do. The article on the game which is currently in production my colleague Humza Sharif looks to mix our readership’s interest of cars, with the idea of common interest in celebrities, for example looking at a draft of this page, we ask the game in an Interview not only about his cars, but about his personal life too.

I will now explain Speed magazine’s marketing campaign before concluding, after looking at other adverts we decided that we should advertise mostly where Magazine are read, so we decided that a busy place like train stations would be a good idea, this is because people often like to read on trains, the people on the trains match our readership, working class to upper middle class males, there are many magazine shops, and stands in train stations, hundreds of thousands use trains everyday, furthermore we thought that some people who use the trains could be people that don’t drive cars, remembering the idea of people wanting what they don’t have encouraged us to advertise in train stations and on trains. The advertisement that would be in train stations would be a large posters located in the tunnels going towards the trains, where they’re most visible, we also wish to advertise on a billboard, we decided to use a billboard located in a high street, surrounded by newsagents and shops where people can buy the magazine, but also this is a place where our readership is most likely to be. In addition to this, we felt that the most productive way of marketing our magazine was through the internet, because of the amount of users, we have used services such as google ads, a service which links adverts to the searchers word, for example if someone was to type ‘Cars’ in google, an advert for our magazine would appear on the page, linking that person to out website which includes details on how to buy the magazine. We are also planning to use the word of mouth technique of advertising, using posters and billboards, we plan to hide cryptic messages giving the audience clues to when the magazine will be released, what’s in the next issue etc, by hiring people to go onto sites like car forums to hype up the magazine, and hype up these clues, this will result in more people becoming interested in the magazine. More over, we also plan to advertise on all our locations, the chance to win free prizes, we have thought out these prizes to be relevant to our readership for example we plan to give away 1 years free petrol, we feel this is a good prize to advertise as our readership are likely to have cars, and with the current financial climate they won’t have too much money to spend, also not to mention the rising cost of fuel anyway. And as a special prize we plan to advertise in train stations only, is a free all day train ticket for the first 100 reader, this will encourage people to buy the magazine, and is relevant to the location.

To conclude, I am very happy with this project I’ve completed with Humza Sharif, I feel I have learnt a lot while designing my pages, for example how to use the lasso tool in photoshop, and how to use different textures, and in Publisher I’ve learnt how to use the transparency tool, and how to crop, and re-colour images. This project has changed the way I buy and read magazines as I now understand how companies make me spend money, therefore I am less impartial to spending so much money on magazines, and I will always make sure I browse the magazine first, and not judge by the cover, as there could be more articles that I may reject rather than more articles that I accept.

Ameer Patel.

*This isn’t actually true miss! XD