1. Starter

2. Learning Outcomes
Driving Question: What is the music press?
By the end of this lesson we will:
• We will know what the music press is
• We will understand the relationship between the music press
and the music industry
• We will be able to complete a case study of Kerrang! Magazine
focusing on ownership and audience

3. The Music Magazine Industry
G322 - Section B: Audiences and Institutions
2. Discuss the issues raised by an institution’s need to
target specific audiences within a media industry that
you have studied
We will study the magazine industry with specific reference to
music magazines, as it directly relates to the medium of our
Foundation Portfolio.

4. The Music Magazine Industry –
Essential Questions
1. What is the music press?
2. What are the aims and objectives of the music press? What is
its purpose?
3. What is the relationship of the music press to the music
industry?
4. Why are music publications attractive to advertisers?
5. Who produces music magazines?
6. What are the formats used by the music press?

5. What do we need to know?
Kerrang! Case Study
• The need to target a ‘specific audience’ is a key issue for the
‘magazine industry’
• Magazines are heavily ‘subsidized by advertising’ and the key to
attracting a sustainable ‘portfolio of advertisers’ is the creation of a
product that is desirable to their ‘target market’
• As a consequence, within the magazine industry as a whole, there are many
magazines aimed at similar audiences because that ‘demographic’ is lucrative for
advertisers. For example, there are lots of titles aimed at teenage girls (Bliss, More,
Cosmogirl etc) but not so many aimed at single mums! The reason for this is that
teenage girls have much higher ‘disposable income’
• Though titles within a certain ‘sector of the market’ may be very similar, each will
have a unique ‘selling point’ designed to appeal to a specific ‘target audience’.
Kerrang!, for example, competes with Metal Hammer and Terrorizer. However, one
of its ‘unique selling points’ as a ‘passion title’ is its ‘brand credibility’: the magazine
has been around since the early 1980s and is intimately connected with the evolution
of the ‘Metal genre’
• That said, the magazine industry operates in ‘volatile market’ and while the title
Kerrang! has remained consistent, the magazine has changed ‘ownership’ three
times in 28 years

6. The Music Magazine Industry –
Kerrang! Case Study
Produce a detailed analysis of Kerrang! to
include its print magazine and a discussion of
how it exploits cross media convergence.
Focus on the following headings:
• Ownership
• Target Audience
• Synergy and Convergence
• Technologies (production and distribution)
• Web
• Analysis of 3 Kerrang! Music Magazines - annotate Front Covers,
Contents Pages and example Double Page Spreads

8. Review…
Look at your learning
outcomes, where are you?
Be able to justify your
reasons
We will know how to how to use Photoshop to
manipulate images
We will understand how to arrange text and
image together
We will be able to create our own school
magazine contents page using Photoshop

9. grantlmedia.blogspot.com
By the end of today (or fully completed for
homework) you need:
• A blog page with 4 linked pages
• Your PowerPoint deconstructing 4 school
magazine covers and their contents pages
• Your questionnaire uploaded to your blog and
your feedback analysed using excel
• A ‘mock up’ cover using found images
• A flat plan of your cover and contents page to
be uploaded to your ‘Preliminary Task’ page
• A linguistic analysis of your cover and sell lines
• Comments upon your design/ideas by your
form (tutor time today)
• Your completed cover and contents page
should be saved as jpegs and uploaded to
your ‘Preliminary Task’ blog page along with
comments about how your feel that you have
done etc.
• Complete Prezi evaluation embedded on your
‘Evaluation’ page
• Peer Assessment on blog page (cover and
contents page)