FontThe font is the contents page, much like the cover is very simple and a commonly found font. This could otherwise be interpreted as a very classical font, this theme of being classical would then appeal to the audience, maybe either because it’s a font type they would be familiar with, or because it’s an all-time classic and the audience respect that. There is very little font variety on this page; only 2 fonts are being used and the 2nd font is only being used on the month and year. This differs from other genre magazines who would continue utilizing a range of fonts and colour to draw their audience in; this could suggest that the target audience here may find such conventions repulsive and deter them from reading on. Yet again the title of the page is not capitalised as other genres would do, this helps create the house style of the magazine now though, where the title is the only non-capitalized large-sized text.

LayoutThe layout of the magazine differs greatly from typical conventions. Firstly the contents page is featured on a double page instead of the regular single page. Despite this the only additional content appears to be more on the cover disc, the rest of the space when into creating a more spacious layout which when accompanied with the white background makes for a very light and spacious appearance. The double-page utilizes its two pages to link the cover to the inside of the magazine more fluidly. It does this by giving more detail on the covers aspects such as the cover CD or Cover story on the left page before carrying onto the real contents page to the right side page. The target audience likely prefers this because they will have an intense interest on the cover CD based on how hard classical music can be to find and collect. Also stereotypically enjoyers of classical music like to know about how/why it was written, by whom and at what time and so a small section with a page indication to these details would be a very strong hook to draw in the target audience, this is what the magazine has utilized by placing it on their contents page.

ImagesThe images featured on the contents page are of varying sizes and each shot used is with reference to the related article. For example, the main image on the left is of Andre Previn to help illustrate who he is if readers may not recognize the name; this image however would by typical conventions be described as having unnecessary scaling and cropping. The subject of the shot is in the centre however he is very small in comparison to the size of the shot; the rest of the orchestra can also be seen in the background. The reason this genre of magazine may have done this is because of the subject of the shot, a conductor is the commander of his orchestra, without his orchestra there will be no music and so to the audience it would be illogical for a conductor not to be seen with his orchestra. By doing so this has created a familiar image for the audience which will make the mood of the magazine more comforting.One debatable issue with the min image is how it stretches onto the right page even though this framing contains no relevant image, the page may look much neater if the image were cropped to fit in the A4 page. This however may be a continuation of the house style the image also sets. The editors may have placed the image scaling off the page because this is what they did for the left page where the image runs off the end of the page, doing this on one page and not the other may appear unbalanced.

The magazine also smartly uses images to depict the mentioned CD’s, this is likely because the CDs have complex names that readers may not remember and a visual aid would be much more stimulating for the reader.

AdvertisementsThere is a tag on the top right page that advertises a subscription to the magazine. This advert is not uncommon among magazine conventions however by using a banner-like graphic the promotion seems much more like a bonus feature. The red colour is also very contrasting of the previous blue headlines making it more prominent and successfully draws in the audiences gaze.

No Editor’s Note on Contents PageRefuting typical magazine conventions, there is no editorial note on the contents page. It is however depicted as the next page in the contents list. The reason for this may either be because the magazine wants to focus more on directory with this page or that the editors’ note may be so long that it cannot fit on the page. Regardless, the absence of the editors’ note on the contents page makes the page feel very formal which may be an appealing factor to the audience.

Sub-headingsThe subheadings on the contents are split into 2 useful divisions, “Features” and “Every Month”. This helps readers, both regular and new, of the magazine focus on the exclusive features that the issue of the magazine has to offer. The sub-headings themselves require a small amount of musical knowledge to understand, sub-headings such as “Building a library” are a references to a music collectors collection not the literal library. 4 of the sub-headings in this contents page are famous classical composers/performers/orchestra names and this relies on prior musical knowledge in order for these sub-headings to be appealing, this further tells us that the target audience of this magazine are musically educated and aware of their consumption habits and preferences.

Colour SchemeThe colour scheme of the magazine has changed and contrasts the colour used in the front cover with white now being the prominent colour over black. This was likely to make readability easier and to create a more spacious tone that is much more positive than an overwhelming black; it would also be cheaper to print this amount of white than black for the manufacturers. The colour scheme covers a wide palette and it’s used to create a small key for the contents page. The blue banners indicate reviews and the grey banners indicate articles and features. This very simple two-colour key makes the advertisement banner in the top right stand out even more as the dull colours draw more attention to the brighter ones such as the advertisements.