How Everything Has Helped Me Develop My Ideas

The masthead is the main title of the magazine, and is the name of the magazine too. It is commonly based at the top of the front page, this is so readers can identify the magazine. I will be following this convention as without this, my audience will not be able to easily identify my magazine. As my audience would not be able to easily identify my magazine, this could be a barrier for them to buy it and result into them choosing one of my competitors. However, following this convention, and having a big and attracting masthead will increase my audience as this will be eye catching for them while my magazine is in stores.

Cover Lines are usually down the side of the front cover of the magazine, and this tells the audience what the magazine features inside such as stories and interviews. I will be following this convention as the audience will know what will be inside of the magazine and what it will feature, which will encourage them to buy it. Also, having cover lines could promote exclusive content my competitors may not have in their magazines, which again, will encourage my audience to buy the magazine as well as creating a wider audience as my competitors audience will chose my magazine as we will have information and features they do not have. Without cover lines, this could be off putting for my audience as they will not know what is featured in the issue of my magazine, and they will not know if it is worth their money too.

The main image is the largest image on the front cover, and the masthead will either overlap the image or lay under it, the way the masthead is can determine how important the image is too. For example, if the main image overlaps the masthead, this could be representing the main image is very important and significant. I will be following the main image convention and be having various artists each issue. I think having a varying main image each issue, will result into a wider audience as the fans of the artist will by the issue.  If I only had one artist each issue, and they were constantly the same, this is limiting my audience and receiving a wider audience.

The barcode of the magazine is a machine readable code in the form of numbers and a pattern of parallel lines, I will be following this convention as without the barcode, you will not be able to buy the magazine.

The issue date is the particular week or month the issue is sold and will be sold throughout. I will be following this convention as this will help my audience identify which issue they would have read already. Using an issue date will be also an advantage of new readers which begin reading the magazine, a short time after it has already been released. If the magazine is a big hit, and has a lot of word of mouth promotion, the audience will become bigger and for those who begin reading it after some time, this will be easier.

Looking into the conventions of magazines have helped me develop my ideas as it has helped me decide what I want to include on the front of my magazine, and why it will be effective.

While a regional magazine is distributed around the city or a part of a large city, a national magazine is a large distribution network which can be found outside your own local area. I have decided that my magazine will be national magazine as it will have a wider audience spread around the world instead of one designated area. This will increase the sales, and with a wider audience, it will attract more people to buy the magazine. 

One of my main competitors that I will be up against in the market is 'billboard'. Billboard has a wide fan base and is a very popular magazine. Billboard magazine received a total audience of 115,000 people worldwide, reaching both genders. Looking at this, makes me want my magazine to reach as many people as possible, and deciding to make my magazine unisex creates a more possible wider audience which i'm trying to achieve. The magazine consists of various content which I want in my magazine too, as the same content will bore my readers. Using exclusive content, such as content 'billboard' uses, I think will also widen my audience. This will be due to my magazine having content other magazine may not have which could introduce more readers to my magazine, creating a bigger audience. 
I have also looking into various ways that our magazines will compete in the market, for example, one of these factors being price. I think a lower price will be more attracting to my audience, and I think a lower price will create a bigger audience as well. While creating my magazine, I want a big audience to target at and find every way possible to get more readers encouraged to read my magazine compared to my competitors.