Research Task 3 : How Does 'The Wire' Magazine's Front Cover Appeal To Audiences?

Both magazine covers keep the masthead stationary, at the top of the page. This means that in a store where there are many other magazines to compete with, it can be instantly recognisable to its consistent audience. Moreover, the choice of a sans-serif font and its font size are kept the same which again maintains a similar appearance no matter the edition to make it recognisable. Moreover, it helps the magazine to stand out to perspective audience members as it seems very bold. The Wire also regularly references the artists which they are featuring which creates a sense of familiarity for those who already have knowledge of artists and gives those who are being introduced to the artist an idea of their character and personality as well as their music which is essential when the magazine features a variety of underground artists.

However, the magazine uses a mixture of images and drawings depending on each edition which are tailored to the artist they are featuring. Most editions appear to lean heavily into the aesthetic of the artist and almost craft the product around the person or group to make it feel individual and special to them. This again helps readers who may wish to look into the artists have an understanding of their identity which they may then choose to look further into and research their music. 

Research Task Two : Independent Music Magazines

 Independent magazines, as the name would suggest, are without large funding and aid from a major organisation and are rather a small organisation who publishes magazines. These small organisations are usually led by journalists with a genuine passion and devotion for their art and craft. The independence these publications have allows for a level of freedom and creativity which may be stifled by the large media conglomerates which dominate the industry such as Bauer and Future. This field of opportunity leads to a range of niche and specialist topics to emerge within the independent magazine industry and in terms of the music magazine industry this can be seen in the specialisation of genre or artist. These magazines provide another viewpoint and perspective to the world and some almost act as a rebellion towards the conglomerates who control the industry.


One feature of Independent magazines which shapes the way in which they are produced is the lack of funding which places profit and revenue as a critical factor in their production in order to stay profitable. This is essential to the very distribution and circulation of these magazines as they are usually quite highly priced and therefore a lucrative craft to purchase. Furthermore, Independent magazines maintain their presence in the industry is by harnessing multiple forms of media such as online media, social media and radio as well as their publication. This allows them to be closer to the forefront of the media and present themselves to a much greater audience in order to gain a greater mass of consumers who will generate them revenue. As has been seen across the entire magazine industry, Independent magazines utilise subscriptions in order to generate revenue with loyal customers receiving greater rewards and extras for their money.

The Wire

'The Wire' is a London based music magazine which covers a range of global alternative, underground and experimental musics. They pride themselves on challenging the 'mundane and mediocre'. 'The Wire' "celebrates and interrogates the most visionary and inspiring, subversive and radical, marginalised and undervalued musicians on the planet, past and present." according to the publication itself. The magazine is run by a full time team of 6 as of December 2000 when it was purchased in a worker's buy out. They also have a large group of international freelance writers and photographers.

As expected for an independent magazine, 'The Wire' subverts the usual expectations of mainstream music magazines choosing to focus on seeking out the most engaging music in all genres past and present. Moreover, they have a monthly issued priced at £6.50 which is costly yet they have a high level of availability being at all newsagents and records store in UK, large US retailers and other countries e.g Canada and Australia. They also have a subscription service with a 6 month, 1 year, 2 year and digital 1 year options. The 1 year option contains 12 editions for a price of £65 delivered directly to the recipient every month 3-5 days after the magazine is published. This also allows for full access to the digital archives of all editions.

The idea of cross-media convergence which being an independent magazine requires is emphasised by 'The Wire's use of playlists/Cds compiled for subscribers ( 'Below the Radar' and 'The Wire Tapper') as well as their weekly radio show on Resonance FM. This shows a utilisation of other media forms in order to promote their publication which is necessary for them to gain the revenue to remain profitable

RnR

'RnR' is a bi-monthly music magazine previously Rock'N'Reel and R2 which covers a broad range of music from mainstream to roots, rock, folk, singer-songwriter, blues, world, country and beyond. They rely on a "small and enthusiastic, hard-working team striving to alert you to some of the great sounds that may otherwise slip through the cracks and escape your attention" according to the publication themselves. 'RnR' reviews CDs sent to them by artists and per issue review 300 releases although they don't guarantee a review upon being sent a CD.

Similarly to 'The Wire' the magazine is priced at £6.50 and can be purchased from many newsagents, record stores and bookshops in the UK with distributors across the world giving their magazine a presence in many areas of the world. They also use a subscription server with a £35 subscription, which can also be gifted for the same price, and allows a consumer all 6 copies of the magazine.

Research Task One : How has the UK consumer magazine industry evolved?

 The consumer magazine industry suffers from similar issues to the news industry due to the shift to online content and the period of 2020-2022 being heavily impacted by covid-19. These problems severely affect the revenue made by magazine businesses and therefore force adaption or pose a threat of bankruptcy which plagues the print industry in general but especially the magazine industry.

A focal factor which has forged change within the magazine industry is the emergence of online media that becomes a more profitable and engaging market that successful titles harness and take advantage of in order to maintain interest and profits. Successful brands focus on 'affiliate marketing' which works by selling other companies' product for them through advertisements on their websites. This type of advertising is common place within online media and the most affluent magazines such as 'Future' improve and optimise this process in order to gain the most amount of revenue possible.

Moreover, the emergence of social media platforms such as Instagram are to blame for a loss of revenue within the magazine industry. These platforms essentially act as magazines and newspapers and due to their vast userbase they have a greater traffic than effectively all magazine sites so outperform establish titles.

The print magazine industry has suffered a much greater fall in revenue than the online industry with print advertising revenue falling even further and a massive drop in sales making the appeal of print magazines even lesser than they were previously. In 2020, £669 million was spent on magazines less than half of the £1.4 6illion in 2000. Also, there is a sharply accelerated fall in the advertising revenue down 33% from 2019 to 2020.

Circulation of magazines has also been affected by this fall in revenue with ABC figures showing a fall of 700 titles in 2000 to 241 by 2021. The category hit the most by this are men's magazines while Music magazines have fallen in circulation by 92% between 2002-2021. These mean that the physical sales of magazines have decreased due to a lack of physical copies being sold to the public as the cost required for production is greater than the revenue.

Furthermore, subscription culture in the UK has not developed as it has in the USA with it making up under 20% of revenue compared to 27% of revenue within the USA in 2021. Subscription is based in the news and current affairs categories and the boost in revenue from this isn't felt in the music magazine industry.

Set Brief

 INSTRUCTIONS

I have be given a set brief for your NEA

My NEA must not reproduce an existing media product.

I must work individually on my NEA but others may act in or appear in the production and/or may operate lighting, sound, recording or other equipment under my direction.

My NEA must only use original footage, images and/or text within your production. I must not use any found images in your NEA production

SET BRIEF : Magazines and online

Requirements of the brief

You work for an independent media production company. You have been given the task of producing the front cover and contents page of the first two editions of a new music magazine that is being launched by an independent publisher and two pages for the working website for the magazine.

The web pages must promote the new magazine to its target audience and enable fans to interact with the content.

Summary of brief requirements:

• Statement of Intent (approx. 500 words)

• Music magazine covers and contents pages: Two pages for each of the first two editions.

• Magazine distribution method: Content must be suitable for retail distribution.

• Number of web pages: One homepage and one linked page.

• Cross media production target audience: A primarily 16–25 year old middle market audience that likes to be entertained.

There must be a clear sense of branding across the two elements of the cross-media production.