Cover Line Ideas

In many of Dance Magazine's issues, there is a typical convention shown with the main cover line being of the number '25'. I am thinking of taking on this convention similarly in my magazine. 

Masthead Idea

I have now taken both previous ideas and changed the pictures styles around to see which kind of image colour and contrasts will look better on the different fonts.

Masthead Idea 2

Here is another example of a possible masthead for my magazine. This one differs due to both the font and picture used. The font varies in it's style, looking more 'editorial' than the other, The picture used is also not a silhouette, in this case; just black and white.
I have spoken to fellow peers about both ideas and many of them have said that they think both look good for my magazine style, however, their effectiveness will depend on the colours I use and the main image I take. 

Masthead Idea

For my masthead, I want to use a theatre/arts style font as well as using a silhouette of a dance shoes to replace the 'I' within my title 'On Pointe'. This is an example of what I hope for it to look like. After asking a potential target audience (including dancers themselves), they said that they liked the look of the font as it looks 'artsy' and similar to a theatrical theme. They also said that the silhouette of the shoe looks effective as well, but for people who are not dance orientated they may be confused as to what it is.

Advertisers Mood Board

Target Audience Mood Board

Font and Colour MoodBoard

Magazine Publishers

Bauer
A large magazine publisher in the UK is said to be one of the largest privately owned publishing group. It offers 300 magazines in 15 different countries including online, TV and radio stations. It joint Bauer Media Group in 2008, employing around 6,400 people to assist in the company. 
It is a multi-platform UK based group which consists of many companies collected around magazines and radio. It is widely recognised and rewarded as being the industry trend-setters.
Their business is built on influential media brands which engage the readers and listeners. 
Angling Times was the start in 1953 of the company, beginning their reign of success. In 1990, Kiss FM was planted which is now seen as a widely listened to and popular station. FHM magazine was bought in 1994, and is now one of the bestselling international magazine brands in this day. Closer was launched in 2002, and GRAZIA in 2005 which were Britain’s first weekly glossy, also very popular now. 
In reference to music magazines, Bauer bought out Kerrang! and Q magazines, two of the biggest music magazines in modern times.
Bauer include many different genres to their company such as women’s, women’s specialist, men’s lifestyle, entertainment & music and specialist. This proves why their target audience is so large. ‘Bauer Media's portfolio of influential media brands includes many of the best known magazines in the UK, which deliver excellent content to our audiences whenever, however and wherever they want.’
This company may be good for my magazine as it involves a wide range of specialist genres as mine would be. However, my magazine looks at a specific audience which may be too narrow to succeed in this company.
DanceMediaLLC
The other publisher in smaller perspective is DanceMedia LLC. This publisher only publishes 5 magazines including Dance Magazine, Pointe, Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit and Dance Retailer News. These magazines are devoted solely to the world of dance. Annual, directories and events are produced which have the particular target audience with these special interests. Dance magazine is read by more than 300,000 professional dancers, advanced students and their teachers.
It have been delivering inspiration and insight for more than 80 years. DanceMedia LLC is served by Macfadden Communications Group LLC. It is a multi-platform company that serves various markets with magazines, websites and trade shows. All Macfadden properties are leaders in their fields. The companies include: Pizza Today, Pizza Expo Conferences, Grocery Headquarters, Pet Business, Beverage World and DanceMedia LLC. This publisher is a lot smaller than others, and would not be beneficial for my magazine with the promotion side by making it popular fast. However, it’s company DanceMedia LLC would be very useful and acknowledged by their target audiences.

Overview of the Magazine Industry

As a whole, the magazine industry involves many variety and contrasts of different magazine genre’s, styles and contents. From my research, I have discovered that within the UK, the top selling magazine from 2014 was TV Choice. From Editor’s Choice within the UK and the US, the top music magazine is Rolling Stone. This magazine produces 26 issues per year, involving culture music genre trends as well as current news and events. As it has been published for more than 50 years, a wider range of audience generations are aware of it and will take have taken an interest in it. 
There are over 8000 magazine titles in the UK. These come under many different content genres and audiences such as: consumer-general and specialist interest, business-trade/professional, customer magazine organisations, staff magazines, newspaper supplements, part works and academic journals. 
Within these titles, there are 1.4 billion magazines sold each year, with £745 million on advertising.
Only 3 out of 10 titles survive for more than 4 years. An example of this has been found with the magazine I have researched in more detail, Dance Magazine. Their name was changed from ‘The American Dancer’ to ‘Dance Magazine’.
Magazine genres change alongside the trends within society, such as fashion changes, modern music and technology updates. Magazines are also developing by being able to produce digital forms for people to read online. This can hold a threat to paper magazines, loosing target audience of perhaps the older generation who can’t or choose not to access online magazines. 
Bauer is the UK’s most popular and successful magazine publisher and have a lot of ‘say’ when it comes to what is produced within the industry.
Magazines advertising also attract many different audiences, with companies getting involved to promote their products within magazines. Over-time the magazine industry has developed greatly, loosing and gaining readers for different readers.

Case Study

Introduction

Music magazines are of a vast variety today which includes different aspects of music, some focusing on specific genres and some just covering music only slightly. One magazine I will be focusing on is Dance Magazine, which includes elements of dance music such as contemporary throughout.

Dance magazine is not just presented on paper. It involves many different ways of promoting the magazine such as social media sites like twitter and Facebook. It can be seen on a website, on other magazines it sisters with and from advertisements.

The magazine's content

The magazine focuses on the performing arts genre including tips, fitness regimes and classes. It covers choreographies and the music behind it from many different choreographers, filled with tutorials, colleges, workshops, healthy eating, fashion looks and famous music artists within dance. From this, you can see the target audience aiming towards dancers, teachers and professionals or people who want to develop their skills.

The publisher and history of the magazine

Dance magazine was first published in 1927, based in New York City. It was named ‘The American Dancer’ at that time however.  The change may have been to appeal to a wider audience internationally rather than labelling it as ‘American’. It was published by ‘Macfadden Communications Group’ which is a publisher of many different magazines.

Dance magazine has multiple sister publications which include: Pointe, Dance Spirit, Dance Teacher, Dance 212 and DanceU10.

Typical Reader Profile

Dance magazine has a detailed and informative Media Kit on their website which readership statistics are involved, giving ideas of the audience who read the magazine. Nearly 90% of the readers are female, with almost half of the readers being dance students. The rest are either dance teachers or professional dancers. This shows the specific audience are consumers with specialist interests. Almost half of the readers have bought or ordered a product/service from reading an ad in the magazine. This shows there is a good amount of relevant advertisement suiting the reader’s interests.

DanceMedia, the overall publishing company for all the sister magazines have marketing packages for both printing and online at a reasonable price compared to other magazines.  For a full page, they charge $3,500, for a half page $2,500 and you can pay for full pages in all 5 of the different sister magazines at $15,000. This creates a huge readership as all of the other magazines are read by a similar audience.

Readers also partake in a wide variety of dance styles, making the topics in the magazine not just one style; catering for many preferences. The readers are also from beginner, intermediate, advanced, adult and professional levels, making it suitable for everyone.

Layout trademarks of the magazine

This magazine is laid out with a simple effect. The mast head is always placed at the top and is centred. The few main cover lines surround the main picture, and sometimes use the number ‘25’ within them. This can be seen as a part of their trademark usage. The main image on the front page is usually of a moving dancer with the selling line placed left underneath the masthead.  The image usually involves the dancer wearing pointe shoes, or on point which may also be seen as a trademark.

Does the magazine reflect the values of its audience?

The audience appear to be intellectual when it comes to performing arts as well as creative, which can be seen by the magazine making the layout simple, involving names and topics which dancers can relate to. The magazine covers give off an eye-catching main image by it being of a still shot of a moving image. This is not necessarily a typical magazine convention, which may seem eye-catching and stand out compared to other magazines. The magazine makes it clear that the audience may have specific interests but of all different styles and music genres. This is done by not including these on the front cover, keeping it open to all interests. The readers of this magazine will buy this because they are interested in the performing arts. The magazine successfully reflects their values by involving many topics and articles relating to their interests as well as making the magazine look classy and professional. This is done by the use of professional looking dancers used on the front covers and the layout being clear and neatly presented throughout.

Magazine Analyses