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.