How magazines make Money and the Structural Triangle

Most magazine publishers rely on primarily advertising revenue as a significant part of their profit. A small minority of the money made on magazines is due to the subscriptions. However without advertising all lifestyle and music magazines would not be able to survive. Advertisers often want to target their products at particular audiences.  Various magazine publishers will have specific niche markets this allows them to communicate advertisements to this target audience which means more sales and successful sales for advertisers which will make them want to advertise more. The magazine producer will attempt to seal their readership to the advertisers. 

The three factors which form the basis of the business model for model of media producers are advertisers, readership and circulation. 

Example:

The readership for Marie Claire is described by the magazine publisher (IPC) 

-       ABC1 professional women aged 25-34

When GIVENCHY decide to buy a full page ad I Marie Claire for £17,000 they do this as they believe that the magazine will be bought by 280’000 high class women below 40 with a good level of disposable income. 

The main sources of income for magazines are shown in the structural triangle:

The Structural Triangle:
For my research i looked at two interpretations of the Structural Triangle; one being Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the second being the Triangle of Oppression.Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:Maslow wanted to understand what motivates people, he believed that people possess a set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires. He stated people are motivated to achieve certain needs, when we fulfill each one we move on and seek the next one. When these needs are unmet the desire to fulfill them becomes stronger the longer they are unmet i.e the longer someone goes without food the hungrier they become. We must satisfy  the lower basic needs before moving on. Every person has the capability to move up the hierarchy however that progress is often paused by failures such as divorce, loss of a job. 

The Triangle of Oppression:The Triangle of Oppression enables us to examine our attitudes beliefs and behaviors within asocial context rather than as merely individuals. The Triangle ofOppression gives us a way to begin engaging ourselves in a social justice processes.The Triangle of Oppression enables us to think more critically about the powerful ideas aboutdifference that exist in society, and that are used to exploit those differences within the systemsof society.

One of the main reasons how magazines make money is due to understanding their target audience. By understanding their audiences wants and needs it allows them to successfully expand their readership. They are able to pinpoint their needs by providing demographics such as the audience’s geo-location and traffic sources. Secondly they use social media to their advantage, sites such as Facebook and Twitter are the best and biggest social media channels for audience development. For example, when they post an update on a new issue that’s out, their readers can share the issue to their chosen social media site. 

Thirdly they make the magazine available across multiple platforms. Such as smart phones and tablets to read and access their media online. Fourth they set up a magazine subscription for their readers, such as a free yearly subscription, it solidifies readership and attracts advertisers. Lastly they make a media kit- this provides information about the readers, a sample of the publication, how it's distributed and information about advertising. E.g. how much a quarter, half-page and full page ad costs. 

Rate Cards and Potential Advertisements.

Here is an example of a real rate card for NME magazine: 

This is the rate card for my magazine:

Potential companies that would want to advertise in my magazine: 

I think one company that would be interested in advertising would be Amazon as you can now stream music from them. Them advertising in my magazine would benefit them as my magazine is for younger people who this might appeal to. 

Secondly is the Isle of Wight festival, as the readers of my magazine are the type of people to go this festival. Them advertising in my magazine would encourage more people to go. It is a popular event and would attract interest from this. 

Thirdly, is Sony Music label. The type of people that read my magazine, might be interested in getting a record label deal and/or prodding music. Sony advertising would benefit them as it would help them to become more well known and find new artists. 

Once again, another festival that would benefit from advertisement in my magazine is the Reading and Leeds music festival. The two festivals i have mentioned, my target audience is based around the type of people who would go to these two popular festivals. These festivals also include artists similar to how i imagine mine to be. 

Lastly, is Beats, headphone company. I think this would include popular advertisement as the people who read my magazine are avid music listeners and are never seen without their headphones. Including Beats could increase their sales, as well as be intriguing to my readers. 

New Magazine Front Cover

After evaluating my first front cover draft, I decided I didn't like the picture as I felt it wasn't accurate of the target audience I wanted to appeal to. So I retook the picture and changed the name, from Fluorescent to Myth as it's short and snappy. Here is my first draft of my new magazine.

School Magazine Front Cover

Mock up of front Cover

Here I have made a mock up of the front cover of my music magazine. I have added aspects that I admire and aspects that are popular with other music magazines of this genre. 
I have included key conventions such as; Masthead, Strap Lines, cover model, Cover lines and main coverline, Tag Line, puff and a barcode, issue date and price. This mock up will be what i intend to follow to what will become the front cover. After looking at other Alternative Rock magazine covers such as NME and Kerrang. These magazines have inspired me as the target audience of these magazines have similar age range and i have noticed that they often have very busy but not particularly colourful front covers, i.e NME magazine. They tend to use main, staple colours such as black, red and white. I plan to use similar colours, but perhaps more colourful like electric blue and green. The cover model will be styled like Paramore or Royal blood (notorious bands of the genre) this will be used to allow the target audience to see what type of magazine this is as they will associate with the cover model(s). Furthermore my double page spread and contents page will follow this colour scheme. This has all been influenced by my imaginary entity and target audience as i have studied what they will most likely want in  a magazine and what will attract them to buy it e.g. famous band on the front cover and non-convention front cover colours. Such as grey, blue and black. The font will vary on size and style depending on the importance of each coverline and how much it needs to stand out. Although my magazine will be full i still want it to be tidy, in my mock up i only have one secondary image, however after looking at more magazines of my genre i have realised there is usually only one main image as too focus on that particular band. So i will most likely only have a main cover image. I have also taken inspiration from my imaginary entity so my front cover will be simplistic, without being boring. Influenced by the consideration of my DPS and Contents Page, i want all of them to match. whilst being significant to one another. I want them all to have a particular style, that one could see resonates within my created CP, DPS and my front cover. Furthermore font choices are important as i want mine to be easily recognisable for my genre of music. So big, bold fonts combined with my cover lines being in smaller fonts will hopefully achieve this. 

Planning Photoshoot

The concept:I am going to need three different sets of photographs for my magazine. A set for the front cover, one for the contents page and the other for the double page spread.
For my front cover I want to style my friends as people such as Royal Blood or Paramore as they are two profound names in the rock/alternative world. They will also be recognizable and consequently a selling point of my magazine. Royal Blood are two men aged 20-30 so will be attractive to my target audience as they are relatable. They frequently wear black and look moody, so i will take these points as features that I might consider to remember when choosing people to model and then styling them. As it is my central image I will need a mid-shot as they are most commonly used, and most effective on the front of a magazine. I am going to need to give my models some direction in what I want them to do and I will decide this on the day.

My secondary image is going to be taken in a different set. I plan on having a picture of a huge crowd for a gig or concert. As I think this will be inviting and also a selling point as there will be a chance to win tickets to a concert in the magazine. I plan on taking these photos next week as I am going to a concert with my friend and therefore can take some shots of the crowd.
For my contents page, I have been thinking of some ideas and looking at existing products to get some inspiration of pictures which I can put here.  I have a couple of ideas, which are, for my first photo in my contents magazine I think I am going to have one of the shots I got from the concert, as this will be featured with a headline, which will be a selling point to the magazine. As it will show other people having fun at one of these gigs. Also in my contents page I want to have a picture of some people listening to music together, to advertise what the magazine is about, this will be people who listen to this genre of music, and who look like they do to make the target audience of the magazine obvious. For my last picture on my contents page I am going to have another exclusive picture of the band, which will be linked to a cover line also. 
My double page spread will have 1 image, and because it is going to be writing about a cover line the image needs to be anchored to that story. So I will have to choose these images when I decide on the story.
The Aims:My aims for my photo shoot are that I want them to link and be of anchorage to the magazine. They need to be inviting so that people then want to read about the story after seeing the image. Also they need to be exciting and genuine, whilst looking professional. They should also be relevant and entice people in, should they be seeing a photo of their "favourite band"
The locations:Set 1 – Band Photo I plan on taking this set in front of either a brick wall or in some sort of forest setting, so to make the band look mysterious and the "in the middle of nowhere" effect.   
Set 2- Concert crowdI plan on taking these photos at a concert I am going to next week. This will be a crowded location, and be taken outside with natural lighting.

The props: My second set will not have any props as they are going to be genuine photos from a concert. 
The equipment and preparation:I am going to be using my camera for all sets to ensure I get good quality photos, however in the concert i may use my phone camera so that they are slightly worse quality to make them look like genuine concert photos as i doubt many people take their big, professional cameras to gigs. 

Class Notes

Media Studies; Outline

Media- Reading, discussing and evaluating media texts.

Key Concepts;

-          Media representation.

-          Genre.

-          Media language.

-          Media institutions.

-          Media values and ideology.

-          Narrative.

-          Media audiences.

Symbolic code;

-          Lighting and colour.

-          Positioning.

-          Setting and locations.

-         Facial expression, body language.

Written;

-          Slogan.

-          Typeface/front.

-          Headlines.

-          Captions.

-          Style.

-          Choice of words.

-         Emphasis of words.

Technical;

-          Camera angles.

-          Framing (ELS, LS, MLS, MS, CU, ECU, POU)

-          Cropping.

-         Juxtaposition- 2 separate signs that together make contrasting meaning.

Semiotics- study of signs.

-          Symbolic, written and technical.

-          How meaning is made and understood.

Signifier- Sign, word, colour or image.

Signified- Concept/meaning/associations that the sign refers to.

Denotative- What we actually see.

Connotative level- What you associate with this image.

Intended target audience and a lifestyle profile of my imaginary entity.

Intended target audience and a lifestyle profile of my imaginary entity.

Intended Target Audience: Female/Male
into alternative and/or rock music
educated- students
festival goer
buys CD's/ goes to old cd stores

20's-30's

Fashionable 
I have chosen to make my music magazine a rock/alternative music magazine. I have chosen this because I think that rock is the easiest one for me to do as there are many rock magazines that i can take inspiration from as this is also the type of music that i enjoy. Rock and Alternative is also very popular and current so in choosing this genre i will be able to entice a wider target audience. My target Audience is also particularly broad but also a niche as it will be for people who enjoy this type of music and thrive to know of the best upcoming alternative bands. 

Lifestyle profile of my imaginary entity: 
They might look like somebody who we would all love to be friends with.  A  subculture of men and women who would typically be in their 20's and 30's, they would value independent thinking, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter. The type of person that perhaps might reject the culturally-ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers, and are often be seen scouring the local charity shop for "vintage" necessities. The type of person who can make anything look cool, even if they were wearing a tartan cardigan and a tea-cosy on their head. Picture this the well known "hipster" sorting through racks of old vinyl whilst the sound of Joy Division blasts through the overhead speakers of a well known cd shop, or perhaps the type of person who can be seen sipping a chai green latte whilst reading the latest sci-fi novel outside of an independently named café. The type of person to watch all three 3 and  half hours Lord of the Rings films in one sitting. This is the type of person to read my magazine, whilst riding the tube on the way to an underground gig of a band with a name no one has heard of, and the sound of indie rock bouncing out their headphones. That's who will read Myth Magazine.