Thoughts on a successful publication

A magazine is a printed enterprise as its main aim, coming above all else, is to make money.

In order to get the potential buyer to buy their magazine, the publication needs to do three things:

1. Attract

2. Entertain

3. Inform/Educate

If the magazine doesn't attract you in the first place, which it does with the front cover, you wont buy it! The front cover is critical in this respect, and layout is the crucial makeup of the front cover, as it makes it pleasing to the eye and sells the publication to the potential buyer.

Your average customer will walk into a store like W.H.Smiths and skim through the pages of a magazine related to a genre they believe applies to their interests and hobbies. Step 1, Attracting the customer, has been completed. Step 2 is what urges the customer to consciously believe what lies within the piece of media they are holding will entertain them for the flight, their dinner break or the train ride home.

Entertainment drawn from your publication and given to the customer can come from a variety of different places as they skim through the pages. These bits of entertainment are the titles of articles, pictures and information laid out on the pages before them.

Informing, or educating the customer is a mental box they need ticked in their head in order to buy the magazine. The act of reading is seen as educational when compared with something like watching a soap opera so the customer feels far better about purchasing the magazine if they feel like they will have gained something from it.

In my next post I will discuss layout and its huge importance when designing a magazine.

Examples of Independent music magazines

I'm going to produce a front cover of my own Independent music magazine and make it look as professional as possible. In order to do this, I first need to look at current publications who do what I'm trying to do and analyze the codes and conventions within their work.

Here are some pictures of magazines that I will analyze:

Paste focuses primarily on their publication name, their main article inside, interviews and the smaller articles. Sometimes a magazine will compile a 'Best of' list so people will buy the publication to see if their favourite band is inside.

Blender puts more focus on the mainstream, as evidenced by the front cover. Jay-Z, a huge hip-hop star adorns the cover wearing extravagant clothing and jewelry. At the same time, their special is 'The 10o Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever', showing an unusual mix between the mainstream and the underground.

Magazine Ideas

I've chosen to make a magazine that covers the Alternative and Independent music. These publications are usually small in size and distribution, but some outliers have managed to draw increasing attention and popularity like Paste and Blender.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/

http://www.blender.com/index.aspx

These publications cover obscure bands from small independent labels. Bands that sign with these labels can keep control of their creativity and subject matter, I believe this makes the music more interesting and engaging than other genres which are often influenced by major music labels.