Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Jack Dixon

mixmagThe target audience of this magazine is males aged 18-25 that are interested in dance music and clubbing. The magazine is aimed at over 18s as a lot of the content is about club nights that you have to be 18 to attend. In 2011 there were 20,000 issues being sold monthly, this would have risen by now as the demand for this music is growing and there is a copy available for download on smart phones and laptops.

Masthead & Selling LineThe masthead on the mixmag magazine is the same on every issue although the color of the font changes to suit the theme on the front cover. The selling line “the worlds biggest dance music and clubbing magazine” informs the reader exactly what the magazine will include. As the selling line says “world” instead of targeting a certain location the target audience is greater. The lettering on the magazine uses bland colors that suit the image and color of background. The simple text appeals to the male audience as men are less likely to buy a magazine with fancy font with serifs etc. The caption “KILLER PILLS the story every clubber must read- now” would appeal to the demographic audience as drugs are often related to clubbing and dance music.

Main ImageThe main image on this cover shows 6 DJ/producers that are signed to the Dirty bird record label. All of the DJ’s shown are wearing some sort of sporting outfit which makes the image more interesting as these aren’t the clothes that they would be expected to wear. These outfits suggest that the group may be doing something more interesting than normal; making the audience want to buy the magazine and find out. This group is shown because at the time that this issue was released the label was starting a tour of Europe together.

Cover Lines & Main SellsThe cover line on this magazine “DIRTYBIRD PLAYERS” informs the reader of the main article inside, underneath this there is more information on what will be written “Claude Von Stroke and the team hit the road” the font is the same as the rest of the cover but the main cover line is much bigger and bolder. It is also placed over the image to make it stand out even more. The caption “win a DJ set in Ibiza” could be considered a main sell as this would attract an even wider target audience as a lot of people would like to go to Ibiza. This main sell does not stand out though as it uses the same font and colors as the rest of the cover. The language used on the cover is very informal and typical of the type of language that the target audience would use themselves. All of the text on this cover is related to dance music and clubbing, there is nothing to suggest that anything else will be seen/read in the magazine.

Rolling StoneThis magazine mainly focuses on politics and popular culture. The name of the magazine would suggest that the magazine would also be related to rock music. The target audience of rock music has a greater age range than dance music and clubbing; from 15-60. the politics and popular culture portion of the magazine would attract even more people which is why the magazine is so poular. This magazine sold almost 1.5 million copies per issue in 2012.

ComparisonsThe appearance of this magazine has much more to look at than the mixmag cover. The masthead is in a brighter color and the font used is not as plain although, the rest of the text on this cover is simple like the mixmag magazine. The main difference is that image used on this magazine is of an actor which is not related to music and the background that the image is set on is also unrelated. Some of the cover lines are related to music whereas others are culture related. The main sell of this magazine is definitely the woman in the image as this is where all the attention is focused.

Ideas for your own magazineThe main attraction on my magazine will be the image which will relate to the main cover line, the cover line will be above the main image. The smaller cover lines on my magazine will be scattered around the main image in highlighted boxes. For the text on my magazine I plan to use plain colors such as grey, white and black but for the masthead and main cover lines I will use bright colors that are similar to the colors in the image. I will be using a simple font throughout the magazine similar to the mixmag font. The language in the magazine will be informal and there will be lots of music related terms.