Feature Story Ideas

Name Ideas

The name of a magazine is very important as it will feature on the front of every magazine issue. The name of the magazine can often associate with what the magazine is about. Because of this I will make sure the name of my magazine fits with my chosen genre.

Possible Names-
-Rappers Weekly
-The Rap
-MC
-The Mic
-Drop the Mic
-Beats in the Streets
-Straight Outta
-Golden
-MWA
-Magazine Innit
-Rapified  
-Rap Ratz
-L.A.X

These are the possible names I have chosen for my magazine. I have made sure that each of the names fits with the rap genre. Some of the names are obvious at showing that my magazine is a rap magazine.

Favourite Names-
-Rapified 
-Magazine Innit
-Straight Outta
-Drop the Mic 
-MWA
-L.A.X

These are my favourite out of the possible names. This is because these names would easily be linked to the rap genre and will be memorable as they are quite unique.

The name I have chosen for my magazine is MWA. However I may change the name at a later date. I have chosen the name MWA because it would be easily associated with the rap genre because it sounds similar to the well known rap group NWA. This name is also quite short meaning I could make sure the name is seen easily but also means that my main artist can take up more room. 
After thought about my name I have decided to change the name of my magazine to L.A.X. This is because I prefer this name and think it relates to rap more since it is the beginning of a rap song.This name will stand out against magazines as it is short which will attract people to look at it more than if it was a longer name since it is more eye catching.

Colour Scheme

Mise-en-scene: Props

Mise-en-scene: Location Ideas

Featured Artist

Costume Designs

This is my first female outfit for my magazines front cover. I have chosen this outfit because it includes certain parts that represent rap ideology and stereotypes they follow. I have chosen Adidas shoes and hat with a gold chain because rappers and people who listen to rap music tend to wear these things. I have also chosen dark and bold makeup because rap artists are quite bold with how they look.

This is my second female outfit for my magazines front cover. I have chosen this outfit because everything work together. From looking at female rap videos I noticed that a lot of then wore high waisted shorts and bracelets. Choosing these components to put together creates an appealing look that fits with the rap genre.

This is my first male outfit for my magazine front cover. From looking at past rap videos especially Eminem, I noticed the artists wore vest tops with chains. Also they wore joggers probably so they could move around easier. This look is very conventional of the rap genre meaning it would be good for my artist to wear.

This is my second male outfit for my magazine front cover. I put together two outfits that are very similar but are different colours. Both of these outfits reflect modern rappers looks which are smart casual. These outfits would be good to use because they follow conventions and would make my magazine look conventional.

My Demographics

Social Demographics

My Reader Profile

Reader Profile Research

A reader profile relates to pieces of information that an institution gather together e.g. age, gender and disposable income. This helps to determine articles that are in the magazine and how much it will cost to purchase.

Why is it important to have a reader profile?

It is important to have a reader profile because it allows the company to understand the needs of their readers and what they enjoy to look at and read in the magazine. This allows a company to also understand how readers feel about specific aspects of their magazine and whether anything could be better. It also informs the company of the kind of influence they have on their readers in their day to day lives. Along with letting the institution know what issues have sold the most and how much it costs to produce the magazine, which is important to know as if it costs more to produce the magazine then issues are being sold then the institution can change that.

What does it tell you about your audience?

Doing a reader profile on the audience is very telling to an institution. This is because it tells the institution things like the age, gender, disposable income, interests and artists they are in to. These are all very important for a magazine company to know because it builds the foundation of the magazines that they produce.  

How does it allow you to make choices in terms of content and advertising?

It helps to make these kind of decisions because doing the reader profile tells the company what their readers are interested in and what they can afford. This helps in terms of content because then content that the majority of their audience will be featured continuously in the magazine. In terms of advertising the company will know what their audience can afford and the type of things they buy in terms of music, based on this information they will place adverts that the audience will respond to and purchase things featured on the adverts.

How do they allow you to decide on a price point?

The reader profile helps with this because when the magazine company knows who their audience is and what social class they are in they can determine how much to charge for their magazine. For example, if the social class is low then the magazine won’t be too expensive to purchase where as if the social class is higher up then more can be charged. This also all depends on what genre of music the magazine features.

How looking at existing reader profiles will help you when creating your product?

Doing this will help me with my reader profile because I will have done research into current magazines on the market; who their audience is? What their social class is? And What interests them? Amongst other important information. This will all help me because when I look at reader profiles from magazines that are in the genre I am interested in doing I can use the information to conduct my own reader profile which will help when creating the pages in the magazine.

How will it help people who work for your institution?

 Doing the reader will help the people who work my institution because it means that everyone in the institution is aware of what the target audience enjoys and will read which will enable them in their different sections of the institution to come up with the best articles, plugs and artists to feature in the magazine so that the best possible outcome is achieved.

How will it help you decide how you want to distribute your product?

This will help to decide on the distribution of the product because social class and disposable income for the average reader also whether more copies are bought in store or online. This means that if the product is actually distributed in stores how much it will cost and whether or not you can purchase it online as that saves the institution money on printing and it is cheaper to purchase on the internet for readers.

Genre Research

Conventions of a Double Page Spread

Conventions of a Contents Page

Conventions of a Front Cover

Conventions

Front Page Conventions
Main Image
Secondary image 
Snippets
Bar code
Mast head
Footer
Skyline
Feature stories
Plug
Subheading

Contents Page Conventions
A letter from the editor
Title 
Main story
Layout in columns
Feature stories
Secondary images
Subheadings
Previous edition picture
Social media outlets
Page numbers

Double Page Spread Conventions
Main image
Title
Stand first
Drop cap
Main article
Pull quote
Mast head
Page number

Main Brief

To design a front, contents page and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, a minimum of four images must be used.

Finished product

Evaluation

Creating/designing product

Photographs for front cover