Preliminary Task - Planning & Research

1. OCR Media Studies – AS Level
Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media
Planning & Research
Name: Zakary Winsall
Candidate Number: 2144
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Set Brief - Print
Music Magazine – Production
Preliminary Task Progression and
Planning & Research

2. Section 1) –
Preliminary Task

3. Preliminary Task Progression– Evidence
Front Cover
Step-by-step
I started with a completely
transparent A4 sized canvas.
I then created a grey to white
gradient to give the background
some colour instead of it being
plain white.
To give my magazine a brand
identity, I used the colours of St
Andrews in a semi-circle shape
at the top of the page.

4. My next step after adding the
shapes at the top was to add the
Masthead in the font:
mfBeYourSelf. This was again in
the St Andrews’ blue colour with
a white 1px stroke around the
outside.
My next step was to add in the
strapline and the details of the
magazine.
The strapline is located in the
yellow and states “Published by
the Pupils, for the Pupils”.
Underneath to the left and right
in the blue is the magazine
details. On the left is the issue
number, date and the price. On
the right is the web address for
the magazine. I also added on
the St Andrews logo for a better
brand identity.
The first major change to the
front cover would be the
addition of the Main Image. I
took a picture of my sister and
edited out the background and
added her to the front cover.
Her hair is slightly overlapping
the masthead as a common
feature on magazines.

5. The next step was to add the
main headline in yellow with a
faint yellow glow. ‘Exclusive’ was
also added in blue with a 1px
black stroke to draw attention.
After adding the main headline I
went ahead and added by cover
stories with the St Andrews logo
on each line. These are done in a
white font with a 1px blue stroke
on it.
I also added the metropolitan
police logo to anchor one of the
cover stories.
In this step I added in the
barcode. I also copied the
masthead and made it smaller to
fit on the top of the barcode.
In a triangular shape above the
barcode I added social media
information with the anchoring
logos along with the St Andrews
logo on top of the triangle.
In the final step I added the puff promotion on the left of the main
image. This is the St Andrews blue circle with a yellow stroke. Inside the
circle there is the St Andrews logo with the Apple Logo which anchors the
prize of a £10 Apple Voucher. Finally there is the word ‘WIN!’ in yellow in
order to draw attention to the promotion.

6. Final Front Cover

7. Preliminary Task Progression– Evidence
Contents Page
Step-by-step
I started with a completely
transparent A4 sized canvas.
I then created a grey to white
gradient to give the background
some colour and so it matched
the front cover background.
Next I added in the brand
identity, the yellow and blue
semi-circles at the top with the
St Andrews logo in the centre.

8. My first main step was to set the
layout of where my main
features would go. I marked out
the boxes for the page title, the
general information, interviews,
the editorial and a bar at the
bottom for the magazine
information.
Once I was happy with the
locations of the boxes, I added
the titles to each box. This also
included adding the St Andrews
logo inside the ‘Contents’ box.
Next I spent a long time setting
out my stories that would be
featured inside the magazine. I
made it so the title of the page
was in the St Andrews blue and
the description of it was in a
small text and in black.

9. My next step was to write up my
editorial. I added in the drop capital
and then added by picture inside a
circle. I wrapped the editorial text
around both of these using the ‘Pen
Tool’. I finally added my signature
along with my details.
As I had a large blank spot in the
top right, it is common to also
seen the front cover repeated
on the contents page. So that is
exactly what I did. I copied it
onto the contents page and
added a 1px black stroke around
the outside to separate it from
the contents page.
My penultimate step was to fill
in the yellow bar at the bottom
of the page with the information
about the magazine. This
included the social media
information, the copy of the
masthead, web address and
finally the page number.
The final step to my magazine contents page was to add some
anchoring images around the page to fill up dead space and to
make it look more appealing. With the dead space in the centre, I
added another image of my sister, who was on the front cover,
along with the metropolitan police logo and a picture of our sixth
form café with relating page numbers.
I also added in smaller images such as the sport equipment, Apple
ident and Mr Brooks to anchor the other stories.

10. Final Contents Page

11. Section 2) – Log Book

12. Music Magazine – Genre research
Vibe has a circulation of 300,943, of which 202,439 was paid,
and 98,504 was non paid.
Production Process
Date of Publication – The first thing that is done it to set the date the magazine will be published to the general public. This will help with
setting a schedule for the development.
Managing the Schedule – You must have enough space in the schedule to fix any mistakes before the deadline.
Editorial and Budgetary Decision – It is the editorial decisions which involved the content that is covered in the next issue of the magazine.
Once they have made the decisions they look at how much money is available for them and how much should be spent in the production of
the magazine.
Content Acquisition – Probably the most important step because without content there would be no magazine. There is in-house staff
writers for the magazine and external writers that write about a specialist nature. There is also artwork and illustrations and pictures in the
magazine.
Sub-Editing – This focuses on the quality control, it involves checking the accuracy of the facts, making sure words are spelt correctly,
property grammar and punctuation are used, make sure that the articles follow the house style and work on the page layout.
Page Layout – This person will correctly lay the articles out to put it together as a magazine using powerful programs such as Desktop
Publishing (DTP) or InDesign or Pagemaker to do this. The advertisers are also placed into the content.
Proof Reading – The editorial department will print a hardcopy of the magazine in order to read through it and to find any mistakes. Any
mistake that is spotted is quickly corrected, the editorial keeps proof reading until all the team is satisfied there is no mistakes.
Printing – The entire magazine is send to the printer, Pre-Press’ are printed to check all the colours and layout is fine before printing
hundreds or thousands of copies.
Distribution – It is the final stage where the company packs the magazines and go to a warehouse to go to the general public.
Q magazine has a circulation of 52,781 from (ABC Jul – Dec
2013)
Source: http://hosbeg.com/the-magazine-production-process/

13. “#1 of 25” ‘informs’ (Katz) the reader
that there will be more of the
collector’s magazines to come out at a
later date, again encouraging people to
buy them when they do.
Established Magazine for my Research
Tinie Tempah is the main
image in the centre of the
front cover and also infront of
everything else. This
illustrates that his is more
important than the rest on the
page.
Masthead, it is bright red
which stands out on the front
cover and contrasts
completely from the
background.
This “collector’s edition” is a
magazine that is specialist.
This may encourage more
people to buy it because it’s
one of a kind.
The main headline is about
how music has changes some
artists’ lives. With this amount
of artists gives a wide range of
people the reader can look at.
Tinie Tempah has also signed
a copy of the magazine which
allows for the other copies of
the magazine to be published
like this. Again a one of a kind
feature will encourage people
to buy it.
The placement of the barcode is in the
bottom left corner of the cover. This
way it is completely out of the way so it
does not disrupt the main image on the
cover.

14. Target Audience –
The target audience for Q magazine can be denoted as having a mass appeal to all classes and
genders. Q publishes their magazine each month and it costs around £3.50 per issue. According
to socio-economic needs, students are placed in the Class E section. £3.50 per month is very
affordable for a student who may earn very little. It is also very affordable for anyone else in
regular work. I believe that Q Magazine is not specifically targeted at any specific class or
ethnicity as every issue is different that would appeal to different people. Q Magazine may also
target ‘Survivors’ (Maslow) who wish to have security and a routine in their magazine. The
audience most likely reader Q magazine for ‘diversion’ or to ‘inform and educate’ (Katz)
What is the USP of this magazine?
From the research completed into this media product, I think the USP is the fact that this issue of
Q magazine is an exclusive, collectors addition magazine. The people who are avid readers of Q
magazine would be more tempted to buy the magazine as it’s one of a kind for the 25th
anniversary. The signature from Tinie Tempah may also be a huge selling point as again it is
exclusive and one of a kind, which is brilliant for the collectors.

15. Publisher research
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands/q
http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q
Q is a magazine that is published by Bauer Media. This a company that manages a
variety of other magazines besides just Q. They also focus on radio and TV stations
in different areas of the world.
Q’s content focuses mainly on new and old rock and roll artists and their target
readership is mainly those of the ages of 15- 25.
Because of Bauer Media, Q has a total of 48,353 copies of their magazine (Jan –
Jun ’14) and a total readership of 339,000 (Jan – Dec ‘13).
The reader profile to the right illustrates that
the average reader of Q magazine is male.

16. Conventions of a Music Magazine
The masthead is bright yellow
in colour which stands out
from the plain background.
This would also mean that it
stands out on the magazine
racks in a store.
The main headline, again in a
bright yellow makes it
especially clear to the reader
what the main story is going to
be about.
The main image is both of
Eminem and Dre and is slightly
different to your usual Hip-
Hop/Rap magazine cover. Both
artists are standing in white
lab coats instead of the typical
tank top and tattoos.
This cover of Vibe also has
cover lines with separate
artists that the edition also
includes. If Eminem and Dre
do not appeal to some
readers, they also have the
other artists listed here in the
cover lines.
The web address for Vibe
(Convergence) is placed at the
bottom left of the cover which
is completely out of the way of
the main image.
Dre is looking straight out
towards the customer which
could ‘intimidate’ them into
purchasing the magazine.

17. Target Audience –
The target audience for Vibe magazine can be denoted as having an appeal to a mainly male audience,
rather than a female audience, (Hartley). This mainly male audience would be followers of the hip-hop
or rap culture; most likely within their teen years. The cost of the magazine is around £5.00 quarterly
which is very affordable for the Class E, most likely students, (Socio-economic needs). I do not believe
that Vibe has been specifically designed to appeal to a certain race or age, but people may argue that
according to stereotypes it would appeal to black people more than white people, (Hartley). The
readers of Vibe magazine are most likely ‘survivors’ or ‘explorers’ (Maslow) and probably read it
because they want ‘diversion’ (Katz).
What is the USP of this magazine?
From the research completed into this media product, I think the USP is the bright letter for
the masthead and also the main headline. I believe this because it would stand out on the
magazine racks and someone would stop and look at the issue. Another selling point of this
issue of Vibe magazine would most likely be the lettering ’15th annual juice issue’ which
suggests that this specific issue has some interesting content which some readers would be
very interested in; thus convincing them to purchase a copy of the magazine.

18. Publisher research
Vibe Magazine was founded by producer Quincy Jones and is published by Spin Media, located in New
York. Their main content includes mainly R&B, Hip-Hop and Rap.
Vibe’s target readership would usually listen to R&B, Hip-Hop and Rap music and would be between the
ages of 18-34. (Hartley).
According to recent statistics Vibe has a currently circulation of around 300,943 copies, 202,439 were
paid for and 98,504 were non paid. The magazine is published quarterly into big stores and online.
Vibe used to publish both printed copies and online copies, there were small differences in the content
provided in each version. The online version has the potential to have more information than the
printed copy. The printed copy also focuses on individual artists instead of a whole group of artists,
which they do on the online copy. However as of 2014, Vibe magazine only publishes the online copy
and no longer prints hard copies that go into big supermarkets.
http://abcas3.auditedmedia.com/ecirc/magform.asp