Research Task Two : Independent Music Magazines

The term 'independent magazine' refers to the way in which the magazine is funded and published. A magazine will be labelled as independent when they do not require large funding from a big organisation to help them run the magazine, also they shall publish the magazine on their own without help from a large organisation. One key example is 'The Wire' a influential music magazine within the industry which was founded in 1982 primarily for the hot new features and jazz music. From the founding in 1982 to the sale in December 200 it was owned by Namara, a small media group in London, until the sale when a workers buy-out saw all 6 staff members take control of the magazine. However, in recent times 'The Wire' have made a change in focus of what they report. Instead of topics about Jazz and new music, they focus on underground music, experimental and new music. In addition, whilst the Wire are an independent magazine group, they still lead the market as the best music magazine around. This means that the attention brought within the industry keeps rising and rising back to its former glory due to 'the wire' gaining media and global attention. The way in which they set out to attract audiences is through flash covers and up and coming underground artists seeking recognition. This creates an amazing environment for the artists and audience as they discover a whole new world of music whilst the artists get the involvement within the music industry they work so hard for. 

However, RnR magazines are more on the subtle side when it comes to flashy front covers and underground music artists. They take an approach on the music industry as giving out recognition to artists within the Rock, blues and country music rather than jazz and underground unknown artists. The RnR magazine overall place high end music artists on their front covers to entice audiences to purchase to have an insight within their new music, tours and lives. This gives the audience a sense of inclusion within the magazine as a free copy of a CD is placed on the front cover to all purchasing members so they can enjoy the new music released by their favourite artists. Furthermore, the typical conventions of a magazine are displayed correctly showing that they do not oppose these views and follow the guidelines well to attract all different kinds of audiences. This means, with an array of audiences viewing their product, RnR as well as The wire are step by step building the magazine industry back to its former glory, 

Task One: How has the Uk consumer magazine industry evolve?

Overall, the decline in circulation, production and distribution from the early 2000's to the present day. One factors of the decrease in Magazine production etc. is the social media. The introduction of platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and X show how the impact of news and trends being released on social media negatively effect the magazine industry. In addition, the use of social media and the production of quicker and better quality releases mean that people are more enticed to go through the use of social media rather than a hard print copy of a magazine. Magazines over the past 4 years have had a long term decline with the revenue declining by almost 35% and the circulation dropping by one third from 1.6 billion to just shy of 550 million. This overall shows that the disturbance within the magazine industry has caused a long term negative effect which will keep progressing within years to come. Another way in which the industry was effected from 2020 onwards is the global pandemic of Covid 19, this caused a serious disturbance within the industry as people could not go out to purchase the content and decided to resort to the internet and social media for resources. This further meant that the money spent on magazines dropped from 1.4 billion to 669 million in one year, the pandemic effected the industry so much that it has never restored its former glory. 

In addition, the decline in magazine sales has significantly impacted the industry as it has forced publications to adapt to the change or close down entirely. The revenue made from the advertisements within the magazine has also diminished as the now digital magazines online with pay wall barriers and subscriptions dominate the print industry. Also, the reduced amount of circulation over the past 5 years has seen a significant drop in advertisement rates which strains the finance needed to run the magazine. This has meant that many magazines has shifted their focus into the digital side of displaying content as the risk for paper display is too high. Not only have the introduction of social media and Covid 19 negatively effected the business side of the industry but also has effected the social side meaning many staff members have been pay cut or dropped in general due to lack of labour rates to pay them. 

Set Brief

 INSTRUCTIONS

I have given a set brief for your NEA

My NEA must not reproduce an existing media product.

I will work individually on my NEA but others may act in or appear in the production and/or may operate lighting, sound, recording or other equipment under my direction.

My NEA must only use original footage, images and/or text within my production. I will not use any found images in my NEA production

SET BRIEF : Magazines and online

Requirements of the brief

You work for an independent media production company. You have been given the task of producing the front cover and contents page of the first two editions of a new music magazine that is being launched by an independent publisher and two pages for the working website for the magazine.

The web pages must promote the new magazine to its target audience and enable fans to interact with the content.

Summary of brief requirements:

• Statement of Intent (approx. 500 words)

• Music magazine covers and contents pages: Two pages for each of the first two editions.

• Magazine distribution method: Content must be suitable for retail distribution.

• Number of web pages: One homepage and one linked page.

• Cross media production target audience: A primarily 16–25 year old middle market audience that likes to be entertained.

There must be a clear sense of branding across the two elements of the cross-media production.