Magazine Analysis Front Cover 2

Key Brand Values - Teenage audience, Sophistication, QUALITY

Publisher - Bauer (1986 - present)

Masthead - Q

Tagline - Q the music

Price - £3.99

House Style- sophistication, red and blacks, blue and white

Q was launched October 1986 by Bauer Media Group. It is a monthly magazine with a circulation of 130,179 as of June 2007. It was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth who felt that the older generation of music buyers were being ignored by the music press of the time. Much of the magazine is devoted to interviews with popular music stars which is made evident by the sell lines 'Sexy beast Lily Allen & her wicked ways', 'The Stone Roses, their own story in their own words' and '"I'm a tiger!" Oasis'. At first glance this magazine suggests its target audience is a more sophisticated audience as opposed to simply a teenage audience. This is suggested by the colours used, that being blue, red, black and grey. The grey and black are used connote classiness. The red of the Q logo and the blue graphics used contrast with this idea and in turn adds a sense of a youthful vibe surrounding the magazine.

The main image here is of Lily Allen, a popular artist. Her pose suggest an air of mystery and playfulness surrounding her personality. This element along with the two cats featured as the main image indicates that as a magazine, Q aims to portray a wilder more unique approach to the music industry. It suggests that they aim to avoid the mainstream music and promote alternative, new music. The masthead, Q is positioned in such a way that our attention is immediately drawn too it. The white Q on a red background are two contrasting colours which focus' the readers attention on this element before exploring the front cover further. The sell lines are carefully positioned around the central image of Lily Allen and the cats which allows the eye to travel over these, enabling a reader to indulge the contents before buying it. This element also makes the magazine appeal to the targeted audience as it isn't overly busy which tends to be an element of teenage targeted magazines, it is instead rather simplistic. This simplicity instead gives the magazine the sophistication that will appeal to an older audience.

The banner headline for this particular issue is 'Sexy Beast Lily Allen & her wicked ways'. The text type varies throughout the headline which connotes the magazines ideologies about individuality and uniqueness. The puff 'The 25 greatest rock movies' is designed to appeal to the older generation of music lovers as many music artists such as Jon Bon Jovi and Sting featured in films of their own. The reason this element appeals to the older audience is because those musicians who have starred in films will have been the new artists when they where younger. It shows that Q has a wide target audience and aims include elements that will appeal to all audiences. The features at the bottom of the page again show that the magazines ideologies are to reveal personal details about bands that would remain unknown with other magazines as well as promote new bands. As with most other magazines, the barcode, price, issue number and website all appear in an enclosed area at the lower right hand corner of the magazine. This is a generic conventon of most magazines.