Magazine Contents Analysis

The band index on the side of the magazine shows you what bands are included in this weeks issue of NME and what page you can find them on, so you can skip to the bands that you are interested in.

The splash image on the contents is 2 different bands playing music and as you can see on the left there are 2 people playing electric guitars and then on the right there are 2 people, one is playing a keyboard of some sort and on is playing a little trumpet, this shows how diverse the magazine may be in what music it offers to the reader and shows a big contrast between what music may be in there.

The main focus of the magazine contents is the subscription box at the bottom, as you can see “subscribe today for just £5.57 a month” is in bright yellow, which stands out from all the other colours on the magazine because it does not fit with the colour scheme of red white and black. This has been done on purpose so that the reader is drawn to that so they can try and get the customer to spend more money.

The masthead is again in the top left of the magazine, very particular of the NME style. It fits with the same layout and colour scheme as the cover. Also next to the masthead it says this week, which shows it is out weekly and it also shows that it may be an exciting music genre as there is new stuff happening in the world of that music every week.

On the right hand side of the magazine it has sections to split up the different aspects of the magazine, for instance if you only want reviews you know what page to go to or if you only want news you know where to go straight away without having to look through the stuff you don’t want to see just to find it.

The main cover line of the contents shows you a bit of what you can expect inside the magazine.

At the bottom it says there is “The UK’s No 1 gig guide” and it tell you where to find it in the magazine. It shows that the people that read this magazine probably have enough money to go to the gigs, this shows what class that the reader may be. (middle class

The masthead is in the top left corner of the contents page, which sticks with the conventions of Q magazine as it is in the top left and it is in red and white so it sticks with the colour scheme on the front of the magazine.

The splash image is of the artist that is featured on the front of the magazine and it has him overlapping a lot of thing in the contents page, such as double page spreads and almost the title. This shows that they may have the most important thing in the splash image. But I do not think they have made it clear enough about where to find that artist in the magazine as it says 72 in a big font next to him, but it took me a while to notice.

The colour scheme of the contents page is red, white and black. This fits with the magazine cover as that is all red, white and black too. Even down to what the people/person in the splash image are wearing. This shows that the magazine wants them to fit in with the colour scheme of the whole magazine.

Along the left its shows the main features of the magazine and it is spilt into sections to show where you can find them in the magazine, this helps the reader as it shows where to find the main people the may be looking for in the magazine.

In the top right of the contents page they have a reference back to the front cover this may be just to remind you of what you are reading or what the front cover looks like, or it may just be a space filler used to make the contents page look a bit more busy.

Page numbers and issue number are at the top and bottom of the page, the page number will be at the bottom of every page of the magazine so it is easy to see as you are flicking through to try and find the page that you want that has been referenced in the features on the left of the magazine.

The colour scheme of the contents page fits with colour scheme of the front cover with yellow, white and black. Which this has been repeated in all of the magazines I have analysed, this shows that my magazine should have a set colour scheme throughout the whole of my magazine.

Half of the magazine contents page is dominated by a splash image at the top which is slash, and it has a page number of where to find him in the magazine. In the splash image slash in giving the audience a direct address which may be to make the reader feel more involved, but not intimidated as he is smiling.

The contents page seems to have a column layout even in the splash image as on the left where it has the double page spreads it takes up 2 of the columns and the rest of the splash image takes up 3 of the columns.

This magazine unlike the others has an editors note in the contents page of the magazine, this may be to make you feel more comfortable and involved with the magazine as it is almost a note from the editor to the reader.

In this contents page, like all the others, it is split into sections on where to find what in the magazine and then gives a page reference.

Like NME there is a subscription box at the bottom to try and get the reader to subscribe to more magazines. This may be because they are not selling enough and feel that they need to sell more. They have done a big block of the box in red, which does not fit with the colour scheme of the magazine as much, this draws the readers eye to it as it is out of the ordinary. This has been done so that the reader has to look at the box, which then increases the magazines chances of getting more people to subscribe.