Contents Page Analysis

  

This magazine uses lots of images as you can see from the above images of the magazine's contents pages. These images have been constructed by giving a reader a taster of what is inside the magazine. This is by showing lots of different images that are featured in the magazine's various articles, to try and wider their target audience and show them that there may be something inside their magazine for other genres and not just what the stereotypical readership of the magazine is. They both support and oppose my initial findings about the magazine's style and its intended audience for two reasons. The first reason that it supports my initial findings is because it mentions people such as John Lennon and Liam Gallagher whose musical genre are more suited this specific rock-related magazine. The reason that it also opposes my initial findings is that it also mentions artists like Cheryl Cole and 50 Cent, which are both not in the genre you would expect from this magazine as it is more associated with rock music. In the two above images of the magazine's contents pages, there are 10 images.

The main colour that is used in the contents page would definitely be red. This also supports the colour of the front cover (as can be seen at the very top of the analysis) as red is used frequently on there too, including the magazine's logo and the majority of the text. The main font that is used in the contents page would be serif. This does not support the style of the front cover unlike the use of colours, as the font that is used on the front cover is different from the contents page. As can be told by the images above, a house style is developing in this magazine as the structure of the magazines style can be seen through the front cover and the contents page as they are both very similar in terms of structure.

The information about what is inside the magazine is organised very neatly in order for it to be accessible to the audience. This is by, as can be seen from both of the images of the magazine's contents pages, having the information about what is featured in the magazine to the side of the page along with the page number so the reader is able to go straight to the article they would like to read and allowing the images to take precedence as they are much more significant as they are the first things that are seen and appeal to the audience. This is done purposely as the magazine appeals to a wide audience by having artists from a range of genres featured in the magazine so by having the information set out so it can be chosen which page to go to, including the artist from which the genre you're most interested in. The contents page is cut in to different sections. This is by having the first page of the contents including only the 'featured' articles which are brought to the readers attention first by having them on the first contents page, followed by the 'regular' articles which are shown on the second contents page.

Promotional features are things that are included in magazines in order to promote businesses as the reader sees the adverts for the business making them aware of the business and the product they may be selling, etc. allowing the reader to go out and buy this product. Magazines receive money for this promotion as they are taking up space in their magazine to allow customers to become aware of products, making the reader more inclined to buy it thanks to the magazine therefore the business is earning more money due to this promotion. The contents pages of this magazine, that I can notice, doesn’t feature any clear promotion of any kind (i.e. advert of a product). The only inkling of promotion that can be taken from this magazine's contents page would be the actual promotion of the artists featured in the magazine. By having the artists mentioned in this magazine, they are making readers aware of this artist and the music they have produced, etc. allowing readers that were unaware of this artist before aware of them now and maybe go and buy the artists single therefore promoting the artist (i.e. Cheryl Cole's single '3 Words').

The magazine's logo of 'Q' is featured on both contents pages. The dominance of the logos are rather small on both pages but due to the amount of logos featured on each page, it makes it very recognizable and associated with the magazine. On the first page, the logo is featured in the top left of the page in the same structure as it is on the front cover. It is featured in the bottom left of the page and extremely small, beside the page number. On the second contents page it is featured in the top right corner as part of the image of the magazine's front cover featuring Cheryl Cole, and again in the bottom right and extremely small similar to the page before beside the page number. The 'Q' brand has a number of franchises, including a radio station and a television show. The radio station is an online and DTV radio station and was created in 2008 with Coldplay there helping to launch it. The TV show was created in 2000 and is only available with companies such as Sky and Virgin. Both the radio station and the TV show are not mentioned or promoted in the contents page.

By Harry Luke Mulvany