Media Studies : October 2012

Magazine news-stands have the magazines purposely positioned in a certain way to highlight its main stories the attract the audience They are positioned/designed in the style of ‘imaginary three pieces’ all the main points of the magazine are designed to be placed on the left third of the magazine which is the first thing the audience sees. The main image is positioned in the middle of the front cover. Stereotypically the image portrays its importance as it is positioned on top of the title as audiences are commonly interested in image and not the magazine name. The masthead is placed at the top in bold, shown to be the first visual branding of the title in the ‘imaginary three piece’ and is often done in a specially designed typeface to be very recognisable and unique towards the audience. The main cover line is on the left to present the main story of the magazine visible to audience view. On this news-stand the freebies are positioned on the left showing the audience they are getting more than what they bargained for, saving money in the process.

Distribution of magazines can be advertising/promoting ( direct distribution) – direct distribution is where the product is in consumer’s hand in stores where they can pay upfront which can be a positive output as people can look through the magazines before actually purchasing it, checking if what’s in the magazine fits the persons criteria of interest. However A disadvantage can be individuals just coming to look and read through the magazines knowing they aren't going to purchase it. This makes the company of the magazine and store lose money, which gives them no choice but to place a sign in sight of the customers to see (saying something like )This is not a library please don’t not read unless you are going to purchase it . Advertising/ promoting of distribution of magazines can be Apps on smart phones on purchasing magazines, postal subscription benefiting publishers which then guarantees sale. It’s an advantage to the audience as they wouldn't have to travel to the store they could just download it on the on the other hand downloading these apps can make your phone go slower.

One of the ways in which publishers choose to distribute their magazine is by handing out free magazines handouts selected venues/ big events and social gatherings where the target audience could potentially be. This then advertises the magazine promoting it to huge range of different people, whereas they will be likely to spread the word about this particular magazine as they are free more of a variety of individuals are more likely to stop and take simply because its free especially people who are in a rush one disadvantages of this form of distribution is there’s no form of profit made. People producing the magazine will have to find the money elsewhere other than money being made from the magazines

Another type of distribution is online distribution now the biggest method of distribution whether is free or paid for. Subscriptions are very simple as all you need to do is enter a few details about yourself and then you automatically receive the magazine and online this can be done via computer , tablets and most smart phones. E-zine’s are an electronic version of a magazine quite similar to an e-book

Postal subscription is a part of distribution as it’s posted to your front door. This is a popular was of

Distribution as it doesn’t require you to leave your house as it’s delivered to your doorstep. The publishers are guaranteed to have a sale from this type of distribution. As the audience is a cheaper way of subscribing and there’s a chance to receive free gifts

The feedback I received from members of my class was that my front cover and contents page were good but the front cover was much better as I spent more time o n it and it was shown through the quality of my work. One person said the colures on the front page of “LSC’s Little Extra”worked well together however the texts could be slightly larger as a member of the targeted audience wouldn’t have been able to see the text from far. Another student didn’t like the colour scheme as they said the colors red, black and white are used in every magazine and me using it isn’t making my magazine stand out. Tina Another student said LSC was really represented only on the contents page where one of the students has the LSC id around his neck. However she said the layout of my magazine worked well and that contributed to the attraction of my magazine. With the audience feedback I now know how to possibly make my magazine better, changing the font size and colour etc. When producing my main task I will consider trying and testing out different colour schemes, layout of the magazine and the representativeness.