My Proposal

After doing my research I have decided to create a Pop magazine. I have deconstructed several magazines current and past and found the main conventions of the majority of the magazine. 


Who you are aiming your magazine at specifically? Your specific target audience:

Girls aged between 11-15

What will your magazine be about?

A teenage girl, pop music magazine; with subsidary topics such as fashion, celebrities and gossip.

What are your ideas for coverlines?

• Music Matters
• Fizzy Pop
• Hits
• POP!

What title have I decided on?

After doing a questionnaire on my target audience to see what their favorite name was I have decided to use 'POP!' as my magazine name. I will design the label at a later date.

What fonts do you want to use?

Simple, readable fonts such as

What are your ideas for taglines?


For my tagline I am thinking of doing something short and snappy, and quite cheesy. 
These are my ideas for taglines: 


For all things that POP! 

When in the year will it be published? How frequently?

My magazine will be published either Monthly or Bi-weekly. I was thinking of publishing weekly when the Top40 music charts are changed however i thought this would be too frequent.

What kind of image to you expect to put on the front cover and how will you go about getting this image?

A female or male model, that looks like an artist. Slim, young, dressed up. Taking images of my friends in different settings and styles until I get the right one.

What are the dimensions of the cover?


I think I am going to make a pocket sized magazine (A5) 210 x 148mm/ 8.3 x 5.8 inches. This makes it a compact smaller magazine - making it different to the rest of the magazines also easier to take places. 


What images/colour would you use on the contents page?

Bright, girly colours such as pink, orange, yellow and purple. Images of other 'artists' to link with articles.

Initial Ideas

We Love Pop magazine

An equivalent of TOTPs to current time is the TV show X Factor.

X Factor first aired on September 2004 as a talent TV show which offered singers of ages 16 and above the chance to win a record contract. It is known to start pop careers for artists such as Leona Lewis, One Direction and Cher Lloyd, all well known artists in the pop music industry. They also brought out a magazaine called 'X Factor'. Pop music is one of the most successful music genres in the 90's and 00's therefore all media companies are trying to keep readers reading their magazines by bringing out new magazines which are relatable to the target audience.

We Love Pop magazine-

We Love Pop magazine is a recently formed magazine, similar to Top of the Pops genre and target audience it contains everything you need to know about the Popular music genre.

We Love Pop magazine was founded in July 2011. It is so current that some information has been hard to find.

The editior of We Love Pop Malcolm McKenzie said

"The magazine will target a core audience of 13-15 year olds with in-depth interviews with pop stars, behind-the-scenes exclusives, photos and a "high-end cover gift" designed to appeal to a savvy teen audience."

"With pop domination of the charts, and a host of TV shows like Glee and X Factor feeding the buzz, we believe the time is right to bring the pop world to life for a new generation of teens."  

This shows that We Love Pop's target audience is 13-15 year old girls, who love pop bands, artists and television shows. We Love Pop usually has topics about boy bands, gossip and celebrities which attracts their audience. As it is so current nothing has really changed since the first edition of the magazine. The magazine is release monthly by © Egmont UK a company in which is known for publishing childrens magazines and books.

This is their current website.

They use a symbol to represent 'Love' to keep to the current, up to date feel as this is very much a recent thing. Shortening words or phrases down to symbols and ............


They talk about recent topics to do with Pop music artists and current events who's dating who, who's bringing out a new album, their thoughts on a celebrity couple to to keep with the genre. A hybrid of music and magazine celebrity chat/gossip.


The informal language used and literally catching phrases such as 'Cute Couple', 'Er', 'Nuthin'' and 'awwwwww' also keeps with the magazines genre and target audience as they are aiming at young teenage girls, they are relating to the audience.


The use of Facebook and Twitter which most music loving teenage girls will be on, once again links to the target audience and is a recently formed aspect. Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites are some of the most convinent ways to discover information.

                                                                           July 2011

September 2011:

                                                                      October 2011:

November 2011: Multiple editions

                           December 2011

Here are the first edition and other editions of the magazine. As the magazine is new it hasn't changed in anyway what so ever. The november issue feature a limited edition cover model, with each band member of One Direction covering the magazine, therefore the readers could chose which edition they wanted depending on their favourite band member.  

Music Magazine - Research

Music magazine research and comparison-


Rolling Stone - 


Rolling Stone was founded on November 9th 1967 by the American publishing company Wenner Media LLC. The company is based in New York City US, and is published bi-weekly. The magazine is mainly targeted at older male music lovers who listen to rock/alternative music it is also described to follow with the 1960s/70s 'hippie counterculture' . However in recent years the company have given the magazine a more current feel to appeal to younger target audiences - mass more frequent magazine readers. The magazine was known for its controversial editor with strong political coverage however it has developed becoming a music magazine with some political features. 


Rolling Stone is an American magazine however is sold in many other countries, it features many well known artists which appeal to the target audience but also well known as British or American music icons; readers don't need to be apart of British or American culture to know who is on the cover. Previous magazine cover artists include (in order over the years) John Lennon(1967, reoccurring), Tina Turner(1967, Reoccurring), The Beatles (1967, reoccurring), Jim Morrison,Janet Jackson(1983),Spice Girls (1997), Jay-Z (2007), Lady Gaga (2009), Glee cast (musical comedy TV show)(2010), Adele (2011).

This shows how the magazine has developed over the years to appeal to the mass audience. With a variety of music genres and artists it shows how Rolling Stone began as a specific rock based, political infused music magazine appealing to niche however is now a popular music based magazine appealing to the mass. Also photo quality and editing is a lot better as technologies have developed and are now a lot more advanced. In the early years of the magazine the layout was very similar of that from a newspaper with similar dimensions - a more square rather than a rectangular shape, however it has slowly adjusted and developed into your 'typical' magazine layout. 


Rolling Stone magazine is also sold internationally in a wide variety of countries, this broadens their audience. Countries include:

• Argentina, Uruguay, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey.

Rolling Stone magazine is very successful; selling an average of 228,500 copies per month internationally (around 1.4 million in 2010 copies were sold) 


Around 56% of the buyers are men and 44% are women and 56% of the magazine buyers are in their 20’s.


Their USP is their variety of artists used as the cover model, and the 'exclusive' interviews with them talking about their personal life. 


Top Of The Pops-
Top of the Pops magazine was founded in February 1995, it is published and owned by BBC Magazines. The company is based in London and is published monthy. The magazine is aimed at young teenage girls and when it began was described as 'the missing link between NME and Smash Hits'. It was published as a supplementary to the TV Show Top of the Pops (1964-2006). It began as a music based magazine however has slowly developed into a teenage girls magazine that claims to contain 'Every issue is packed with amazing star gossip, plus hot fashion and beauty advice, sexy lads, and side-splitting cringes. Take a personality quiz to find out more about yourself, check your horoscope, sing along to our songwords, or simply pop an exclusive poster on your bedroom wall.' this shows how the magazine is infused with music however is now a teenage celebrity and gossip  magazine. 

The magazine is only distributed and sold nationally in the UK, and features mainly British teenage TV show celebrities, presenters and artists/bands. Previous cover models include:
Spice Girls (reoccurring), S Club 7 (reoccurring), All Saints (1997), Boyzone (1999) Hear'Say (2002) Liberty X (2002, 2003), Westlife (2004), McFly(2004), Girls Aloud (reoccurring) Leona Lewis (2008), The Wanted (2010) , One Direction (2011) 

This shows how the magazine hasn't changed significantly from the first edition. The logo and writing has developed, also the quality of the image. This shows how technology has progressed since 1995.


Top if the Pops magazine sales figures have significantly decreased from the peak of its popularity in the late 90s.  TOTPs circulation figures today are around 98,000 sales per month in comparison to the 90s when the magazine was at the peak of music magazine sales, selling more copies per month than any other British music magazine. This could have been because in the 90s BBC were at the top of almost every aspect of the British media industry. Since then new technologies and channels have been invented which appeal to more teenage audiences. Meaning the popularity of the magazine has decreased. 

Preliminary Task: How my magazine cover changed/ My developments

Every time I worked on my magazine I would add and change it, these images show the stages and process my magazine cover has gone through and how I have developed it.

 This is how  my magazine started - my flatplans, these were the guidelines I would use to build my magazine around. They gave me a brief idea of how I wanted my magazine to end up and look like once I had completed it.

 Next I created my next attempt, I put in a photo as a temporary image and built my magazine around this image using my flatplans. I adjusted some placing of articles and puffs and decided which colours and fonts I would be using, I then changed these on my next attempt.

 After taking my photos I swapped images and adjusted the font size, colour and type. I changed the font colours choosing from a reduced palette to contrast with the background. I then rearranged some of the articles to fit around the image.

 Next I added my tagline and rearranged my articles again.

This is how my final magazine attempt came out, I am happy I added the tagline and the 'FREE' sign, it gives another reason for people to pick it up and read. I think it looks a lot better from my first and second attempt and I am pleased with it.

Preliminary Brief: My final magazine cover

This is my final magazine cover, it turned out almost how I planned it however I was thinking of having a barcode but figured this was pointless there fore I didn't put one on. I used co-ordinating colours of a reduced palette- using the South Downs College colours, I think this ties the magazine together. I used some literal phrases such as 'amazing a-levels'! I was planning on fitting it around a Christmas/Winter theme, however I figured that as I would be using the South Downs colours this would not match. 

If I could create my magazine cover again I would add a few more articles and would have done a close up/medium shot. However I am happy with how my magazine turned out. I would also have showed the school grounds or something to do with the college if I could create my magazine cover again. 

Preliminary Task: Next attempt

Next I decided to add a tagline, I think this fits nicely and the colours work too. I think its catchy and contrasts with the background. If my college magazine were ever to be produced I would make the magazine free, however I'm still going to put a barcode and 'free' price on it. This will be my last and final step on developing my magazine cover. 

Preliminary Task: Magazine cover, my next attempt

After taking my images I chose which ones I preferred then let my target audience decide. Next I put this image as my background and developed my magazine cover. I used a reduced palette of just South Downs College colours.

Here is  my next attempt, as my article lines font I used Stone Sans ITC in capital letters, I also varied the colour of the font so it would stand out against the background. I chose to take my photos in a natural setting showing the season.

Preliminary Task: My photos

As the next part I took many photos some on the college grounds and some in a natural environment, I'm now deciding what photo I would like to use as my cover I chose my cover photo from these:

Eventually I chose image 3, these are just a few images I chose from and I came to my decision by asking my target audience which one they preferred and which one I thought best fitted the photo I needed.

Preliminary Task: My first magazine attempt

This is my first attempt of my magazine cover, I used a temporary image until I take my own photos. This shows all the colours, fonts, sizes and articles I experimented with. I did plan on using Bauhaus 93 as the font, however this is a lot less readable there fore I used a much simpler text for the rest of my page. I tried using the colour dropper to co-ordinate colours and using a reduced palette. I felt that some of my articles fade into the background slightly and don't stand out enough - articles such as 'You may think they're months away but we've got 10 top tips to passing your A-Levels' I also thing my articles also need to be more literally catching such as 'amazing a-levels'. I also slightly edited my mast head by rotating the 'SDC' part round, I think this fills my page better and makes it sightly more interesting to look at. On my next attempt I hope to use the capital lettering instead of the articles being in lowercase. I also plan to find co-ordinating colours to go with my photo. However I like the lay out of my magazine and hope to keep that the same. 

Preliminary Task: Creation of masthead

These are the 3 masthead designs I came up with I decided that I would use Bauhaus 63 font, 55pt as the size, using the South Downs college colours. After showing the target audience which one they thought was the best for my college magazine I have decided to use the first one. I think it is the most eye-catching and boldest one. As this is my and the target audience's favourite it is more likely to appeal to the target audience. 

Preliminary Task: Brief - My Proposal

Who you are aiming your magazine at specifically? Your specific target audience:

The target audience for my magazine is teenagers 14-19 years old, as these are the mass of the college students. The magazine will also be aimed at males and females with an article for everyone to appeal to the reader.

What will your magazine be about?

College life in geneal with subsections for sport, arts, theatre, humanities etc. with updates from school sports teams, upcoming events and trips and photos from current events that have happened over the month.

What are your ideas for coverlines?

Eye-catching, striking coverlines in which will appeal to the target audience. Using catchy literate phrases that all students can relate to.

What title have I decided on?

I chose from several titles for my magazines these include:

After asking my target audience for their view I have decided to use SDC Highlights, I think this is catchy, it was the most popular and it also tells you exactly what you'll find when you open the magazine; simple yet effective.

What fonts do you want to use?
For my title font once again I decided on possible fonts that I could use all to give a different feel or effect and let my target audience choose their favourite one. I think this technique is the best, even though it is my magazine I think their opinion is the most important one.

I decided i would use Bauhaus 93 once again, I came to this decision by doing some research and asking some of my target audience which font they prefered this one was the most popular font to use.

For the rest of my font on the cover of the magazine I chose from a variety however I think I am going to use something simple and readable such as Verdana.

For colours of fonts on my magazine I am going to use the colours from the SDC logo - Green, blue and white with some black font.

What are your ideas for taglines?
At a later date I will chose from these taglines:

Your college life, read it how it is.
Your college, your magazine
Updates from your college, for you

 After thinking about my taglines I have decided not to have one, I think they are a bit cheesy and will put my target audience off.

When in the year will it be published? How frequently?
I have decided to publish my magazine monthly, it will show upcoming events for the next month, and events, photos and articles from the previous month. I also think that I will add decoration, and the magazine will slightly change everytime a new season/ term begins to fit with time of year. E.g. the Christmas/december edition will contain Christmas themes and images. There will be special editions for the new year, new academic year and results.

What kind of image to you expect to put on the front cover and how will you go about getting this image?
For the cover of my magazine I will show students in college or together at an event or just simply smiling and looking happy to reflect the feel of the college. I will get this image by taking photos of my friends in college.

What are the dimensions of the cover?
I have decided to make my magazine 'handbag/pocket size' slightly bigger that A5 (CONFIRM ACTUAL SIZES WHEN KNOWN)

What images/colour would you use on the contents page?
Bright, eye-catching colours to attract attention. Colours that also represent and are known by South Downs students from the logo.

Preliminary Task: Brief - Flat Plans

My flatplans show my idea's of how I think my magazine should and will hopefully end up laid out like. When putting my magazine cover and contents page together I hope to follow this plan. These plans will make my final pages a lot more true to a real life magazine cover as I have studied and researched what I am doing and how I will go about it. These flatplans show my knowledge on how a magazine is laid out using the correct media terms.

Magazine cover: 

My magazine will be 'pocket/handbag size' these dimensions are 148x210mm. I think this will make it more appealing as the magazine will be in a compact size which i think will appeal to the audience.

This is my flatplan for my contents page, I hope to make my contents page look just like this flatplan. I'm also aiming for my magazine contents to have eye-catching colours and articles to ensure the reader turns to a page out of interest.

My flatplans are a good guideline as to what i want my magazine to be laid out like. I will build my whole magazine cover and contents page around these flatplans. 

Task 4: IPC Case Study, Research

IPC Media are a media brand in which produces over 85 iconic media brands with in the UK, with our print brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men - almost 27 million UK adults - while our online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month.

This is my in depth research about the british publishing company IPC Media:

I researched about the history of the magazine, associations amongst the media company, what sort of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish, their current portfolio of titles and the structure of the company and current news about them.

I found out that IPC is a diverse printings and digital portfolio making company in which offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women.

Magazine history:

IPC media company was founded in 1963 and is owned by Time Inc. (in which is a conglomerate toTime Warner technically making IPC an american owned company) however the company originates and remains in London,UK. This means with

IPC Media publishes a variety of magazines to appeal to the 3 different target audiences they aim at:

Their men's portfolio (IPC Inspire) comprises a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME.

The mass market women's division (IPC Connect) comprises famous women's weeklies including Look, Now, Chat and Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week and, online, the goodtoknow network.

And finally their upmarket women's division (IPC Southbank) comprises luxury fashion brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including woman&home and essentials they also publish home interest brands including Ideal Home, Livingetc and houseandhome.

Other than childrens/young teen magazines these audiences are the most popular/ mass audiences in the magazine publishing industries. This shows that IPC media try to appeal to the mass audience to get as many readers and sales as possible. Fitting in with the 'something for everyone' criteria.

Preliminary Task: Brief - Initial Ideas

• Produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photo of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid out text and a mast head.
• Produce a mock up of the layout of the contents page 

My Initial Ideas:

Task 3: Essay- To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representation they offer?

There are several social ramifications from magazines aimed at the teenage girl audience can affect their readers:

• Promoting plastic surgery or changing yourself by using make-up etc.
• Showing the relationships celebrities encounter and teenage boys. 
• Showing almost 'perfect' celebrities and promoting 'the look'.
• Pressuring parents into affording new fashions and trends, to help their children fit it.
• Issues that can come from teens reading these magazines - anorexia, bulimia. 

All of these can all affect a teenager’s view on society.

Plastic surgery is one major ramification that comes from teens reading these magazines. Many teenagers are easily influenced and feel although they must change themselves or make something about them better if they see others are doing it in magazines. Many young adults can be introduced to plastic surgery from a young age by just seeing it on the TV however they can feel that magazines are encouraging them to change to help them fit in, or feel pretty. Many teenagers also don’t realise that the cover girls on the magazine are just photo shopped, and that they don’t actually always look like how they do, it is unrealistic for anyone without being photo shopped or had permanent procedures to look perfect. Young teens shouldn’t be thinking that they are unhappy with their body and want to have surgical procedures but some magazines have changed the way they think.

Many teenage magazine magazines have article headings on the cover of their magazine with advice on boys and some on celebrity boys. The way they represent boys and relationships can be naive and sometimes a bit too advanced. Some magazines choose to show articles like this:

This can develop a state of mind to the young teenager in which they believe that having a boyfriend etc is all about what he looks like, and as long as he’s good looking and has the physical attraction it doesn’t matter about anything else. Also articles like this:

 on the cover can encourage teens to become more sexualised and encourages inappropriate behaviour. When the magazine is aimed at young teens aged between 11-15 these articles may be suitable for some readers but not all readers- it can influence the way they see themselves and how they fit it. Some teens may feel pressured to get a boyfriend, and flirt like it says in the magazine.

Many magazine covers also choose to include the celebrities that all look and are pretty much the same; they will all have the same job – either a well known singer or an actress often well known to the target audience e.g. Disney Channel stars, pop groups and female solo artists. They often have the same features, pretty, white, good figure, smiling and good clothes. If they have imperfections during the editing stage of the images for the magazine cover these will be fixed using Photoshop and other various techniques.  All these qualities can make the reader feel pressured into looking a certain way, if every time the next edition of the magazine comes out and the cover girl has exactly the same features as before the reader will begin to believe that’s the way to look, not always understanding that the cover girl is probably older, and things have been edited to ensure she looks almost perfect. This can also influence the child too feel although they must change to fit in; getting thinner, wearing makeup, using skin creams, more prettier clothes all of which is promoted on the cover.

Another social ramification that can come from these magazines can be pressure- pressure for parents to buy their children the more expensive clothes from the magazines, pressure on the teens to look good, and fit in and be what they see in the magazines. Often the teens with wealthier families can afford to buy the clothes in the magazines which are often more expensive than other clothes as they are from certain shops like New Look, River Island and Topshop. And the teens who can’t afford these clothes are often singled out, and sometimes bullied for not being up to date and ‘trendy’. This can create a status/class division which shouldn’t happen, especially not at such young ages. Also the fact that the trends are always current in the magazines and are constantly changing can make it hard for the parent to keep up, and for the child always to have the most recent products in the magazine.

Finally articles such as this:

Can introduce teens to weight loss and dieting which can sometimes get out of control, I personally think that this is the most influential topic, teens can be left feeling fat and in some cases suffering with body dysmorphia cutting down on what they eat, watching what they eat – in which can be good, but only to a certain extend. It’s good for children to be taught what’s healthy and how to look after their body, however teenage magazines promote it in every magazine with fad diets. The magazine’s are always showing women of the same body type and rarely introduce diversity and variety. This can have a social ramification of how the teens see themselves and others; it also introduces them to anorexia, bulimia and obesity. They always emphasis the ‘good’ and ‘best’bodies to have but never show that some people can be different.

Finally to conclude I think that most teenage girl magazines of today are very biased, they need to show the other side of everything. I think they are very focused around physical attraction and the way we look and they need to show diversity in people. One thing i would like the be removed are all the articles about ‘getting into shape’ and for them to be replaced with ‘eating healthily’ instead of being taught how to get thin teens need to be taught how to be healthy and how to go about it. I would also like to see fewer stereotypes on magazines – a wider variety of cover girls to show teenage girls that different is good.