Contents Analysis of Rolling Stones MagazineBy Mark Rowland

On the contents page straight away its obvious that they are wanting you to read about the main picture on the right hand side. The picture attracts the readers eyes and encourages them to read the article. Along with the picture there is a small paragraph about it and the article its for. The use of the paragraph creates an even more enticing attraction to the article as it talks about the celebrity Johnny Cannon. Apart from the title at the top of the page “RS968” the title for the paragraph is the biggest sized font on the page. Not only is it the biggest but the easiest to read due to its big size and font type.Even for the paragraph itself the text is much bigger than the text linked to the features on the left hand side of the page. With so much of the page taken up by this the page number for this article is by far the most noticeable. Due to this, the whole right hand side of the page is taken up by this one mini article. With the whole side taken up it means that the reader will be attracted to see what the article is about as it seems so important. Not only will this mean the reader will be enticed to read the article but means they will also have to flick through the pages to get to it, therefore being enticed by other pages in the magazine too.

On the left hand side is all the important articles in the magazine. As well as the articles special to this one months issue they also have the page numbers for the most popular monthly articles such as “reviews” and “charts”. The idea of having the articles in every issue on the contents page is because it will keep the loyal subscribers reading the magazine. Having articles that are in every issue means readers will be more inclined to subscribe to the magazine because of the guarantee articles they enjoy will be in the magazine.The size of text changes on the article names to the small description. This change in size shows the importance of the article name compared to the description. With bigger article names it gives the idea that they are the most important articles. The point of the description is to say in a few words what will be in the article and to gave very little away from what is written. Having small text for the description therefore entices the reader to read the article instead . The page numbers next to the article names are the same size as the article names. Unlike the text next to it, the colour is a red/ pink colour. The use of different colour means that the readers will be able to straight away to see what page its on as it stands out from the rest of the page.

As soon as you look at the contents page, the first thing you notice are the pictures. With all the page numbers and article names on the left hand side, having a picture to go with that one page makes it a lot more appealing to anyone. With both pictures they aren't still photos, everyone in the photos is moving. This makes the article seem more interesting, as if something quite interesting has been written and talked abut. The picture in the top left corner of Beyonce singing is one of the main articles in that months issue. In that column it takes up nearly half of the length. With the size of the picture and how much room its taking up, it means that readers will be drawn straight away to the article. With the use of the picture and the small description at the bottom of the picture it means that readers will have some idea of what to expect and with Beyonce being such a huge name readers will be even more inclined to go to the page where the article is.