Contents Page Magazine Analysis

By Keshaa Thakrar

The heading and subheadings follow the colour scheme of black white and red, very bold colours that insinuate the sense of rebellion in the magazine – attracting young adults to the magazine. Moreover, as the magazines primary target audience is male, NME chooses the bold and broad font for the title to represent power which therefore reflects masculinity. This means that the magazine follows the codes and conventions of the magazine.

There are a few images in the contents page which all have the same theme of dark and reddish tones – this looks good with the branding of the magazine and the front cover. These images are live photographs taken at gigs and there is text to support which means that it is main selling point of the magazine as we can tell with the pictures and bold and supporting text

The layout creates the main focal point of the magazine to be of BBC proms, thus making people who have watched the show or have attended the event more likely to want to read this issue of NME to get a further insight. It is good idea for NME to follow recent events to collect a wider audience and interest readers.Also the ‘band index’ on the left hand side of the contents page would appeal to readers as it is quite varied therefore appealing to a wide range of music lovers.Having the contents details and page numbers on the right hand side is also useful as it is clearly visible to readers with the subtitles in bold; standing out from the background. This includes small arrows indicating that certain pages were advertised on the front cover, this would help those who picked up the magazine because they were interested in what they saw on the front cover. Moreover the use of a red arrow in the bottom right corner draws readers attention to it meaning that it is a key feature of this magazine issue, stating the title and page number would cause those who are interested to check out the article.

The main image of a late teenager looks as if she is reaching out, this adds to the outgoing ‘in your face’ theme of ‘kerrang!’ as the image is of a girl in her late teens this appeals to the target audience of males and female teenagers in the social bracket ABC1,2. this image links to another image on the contents page of a man with his arms out in a thumbs up sign in the bottom left hand side which is a welcome message to readers of this issue.

The colour scheme of black yellow and white are very bold and bright, making certain features of the contents page stand out more than others, especially the colour yellow, this means that it was a good idea to display features in yellow – they have done this with sub titles.

The contents bar on the right hand side makes it clear to the reader where to find the page that they are looking for, the page titles are in bold and further information about the feature is displayed underneath in standard font – this makes the page titles stand out so the reader will enjoy the magazine experience more as they wont have to spend a long time trying to find the page that they wish to look at. This follows the codes and conventions of magazines as it states the numbers of the pages and where to find them, without actually stating that they are the ‘page’ this makes the magazine more informal and edgy – therefore conforming to their primary target audience of teenagers.

For the layout of this contents page, there is not much text and has many images, this will be more appealing to customers as it is a magazine the type of people who would usually read this magazine might not like to read a lot of text and would prefer more media related features in the magazine. The text is kept brief and short which is useful so that readers don't have to spend a long time going through the contents page. Having the contents bar on the right side next to the main image is useful as it draws attention to the main image whilst the contents bar still stands out amongst the white background.

The main image dominates most of the contents page, drawing readers attention to the singer Adele, as Adele has star power and is well known, people who take a liking to her and her music are more likely to pick up this magazine in a shop as they are interested. Moreover Adele's slight gaze into the camera in this photo creates a classy and sophisticated look which goes alongside Q magazines ethos and standards. The use of the magazine putting the page number on top of the image will easily direct readers to the main feature of this issue, which improves customer enjoyability.

The ‘every month’ sector in the bottom left hand column displays what features Q magazine has in every months addition, this would cause readers to continue to buy the magazine in the future as they know what will be appearing in each issue and will be interested to keep reading the magazine. Moreover the large red banner draws attraction to the ‘every month’ sector, therefore self promoting the magazine to its readers.

The simple but yet effective title of ‘contents’ stands out next to the white and red ‘Q’ – this further emphasises the professional and elegant branding of Q magazine. The red white and black theme follows the house style of the magazine and therefore follows the codes and conventions of magazines.Also, Q magazine have put the date clearly in the top right hand side in a white font which highly contrasts from the black background making it stand out to readers – moreover Q magazine have self promoted themselves by putting their website addresses underneath the date – possibly causing more awareness from their primary target audience and getting them more involved in more to do with Q magazine, this means that if readers are more involved in Q magazine then they are more likely to have a higher interest in the magazine and keep reading and staying up to date with it, causing the magazine to gain profit.

The ‘review’ section in the bottom right corner shortly summarises them ain articles in the magazine, giving readers a larger insight into what they can expect overall out of the magazine, as this gives more detail it may interest readers more in different aspects of the magazine. Moreover the tagline “Q review” rhymes and sticks in the readers mind, this is a great branding feature of the magazine as it can be a key point of each issue and readers can expect to see it in every Q magazine.