I have designed theses flat plans to help me throughout the course of making my magazine cover, i made a few ideas to help me decide on where and how to layout cover lines, my image, masthead and extra puffs and plugs if i choose to use any.
Hopefully when i come to make my cover it will be a lot easier and quicker on choosing the final layout of my cover as i will have a few of rough ideas to help me decide.

IPC Case study

IPC Media

IPC (International punlishing cooperation) is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. With more than 60 iconic media brands, IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events.  As the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher they engage with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. Their award winning portfolio of websites reaches over 25 million users globally every month. The IPC publish magazines to target a wider range audience and not focus on just one genre. Magazines suited more towards middle aged women have been published. Such as, Woman's Weekly, Women & Home ect. As well as those, there have been Home and Garden magazines published for the people (any gender) that take a keen interest towards the topic. Amateur Gardening, Ideal Home, Homes and Gardens, these are a few titles. A wider range genre of magazine aimed at no body in particular, is the ones representing the hobbies and interests. These magazines cover all sorts to entertain all different types of people and their particular interests. From photography to shooting. Also, there are other magazines types including, Sport magazines, music magazines and many more.

IPC Info

- IPC Media is committed to working in partnership with its consumers, advertisers, business partners and employees to deliver exceptional value, service, innovation and creativity.

- The Field launched in 1853 and within a year became the largest newspaper in Europe, with 24 pages.

- Competitions played a key role in sales promotions for all early IPC titles

-The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963 following the merger of the UK's three leading magazine publishers - George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications - who came together with the Mirror Group to form the International Publishing Corporation (IPC).

-Successful launches included Aeroplane Monthly, sporting gun and Super-bike.


Recent News
-In January 2010, IPC Media restructured around three key audience groups: men, mass-market women and up-market women.

-In June 2011, IPC Connect launches a major new brand –feel good games - targeting mass-market mums with the very best games and rewarding them with real gifts.

IPC CONNECT

IPC Connect is IPC Media's mass market women's division with a range of brands that provide powerful reach. Connect's magazines are read by 9.4 million mass market women, which equates to 49% of all mass market women, while its digital brands reach over 5.3 million unique users and deliver 35 million page impressions every month. Connect's audience is highly valuable and responsive, responsible for the vast majority of UK purchasing decisions.

IPC INSPIRE

IPC INSPIRE

IPC Inspire is IPC's men's division. Its portfolio of 38 brands covers a huge spectrum of interests and includes famous names from Country Life and The Field to Nuts and NME.

South-bank has a magazine for every interest in a woman's life, from the fashion conscious to the homeowner to the woman looking for lifestyle inspiration. Its titles offer unrivalled content and reach a readership base of over ten million.

IPC SOUTHBANK

IPC SOUTHBANK

IPC Southbank is the upmarket women's division, focusing on the three key markets of Fashion, Women's Lifestyle and Home Interest.  South bank is home to some of the most iconic magazine brands in publishing including Marie Claire, woman&home, Look and Ideal Home.

South-bank has a magazine for every interest in a woman's life, from the fashion conscious to the homeowner to the woman looking for lifestyle inspiration. Its titles offer unrivalled content and reach a readership base of over ten million.

IPC Questions

1. what types of magazine and target audiences has IPC been associated with over the years?    
IPC mainly target an audience of women, publishing many magazine titles about a woman's life style and the pride of their home. However, they have also covered magazines aimed at men, and their keen interests. 

2.Why might IPC be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine?  
Because they have published a music magazine in the past; 'New Musical Express'. This might suggest that they have a good idea on the content in which they should include with in the magazine to suit their target audience and keep them entertained and interested. As well as that, the IPC could be appropriate to publish a music magazine as they  don't concentrate on just one topic, and one audience.  

3.What sorts of genres of music/types of magazines might be likely to publish?
I think that all sorts of music genres would publish as a magazine, as different people have an interest in every different music type. Ranging from rock 'n' roll, to classical. I think that publishing magazines about different music genres will also encourage people to read more if they do not already, as they might see it as a fun/relaxing thing to do and not an effort, as they enjoy the topic. 

4.Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate? 
Because Bauer publish many more music magazine titles, covering content about different radio stations. Therefore, they are use to expressing music in a way that will interest their key audiences attention and satisfy their interests to the biggest extent possible. Where as IPC have only ever published one music titled magazine, ' New Musical Express', suggesting that music is not one of their strongest topics, not as strong as other magazines they produce especially the woman's lifestyle/Homes&Gardens etc. 

IPC CONNECT

Teenage magazine essay

To what extend should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

There are many questions and arguments flown around about the market of magazines aimed at teenage girls such as, Bliss, Cosmo Girl, More, Blush, Kiss ect. People have different views on what the magazines have to offer, what they contain and the context with in them. The governments consumer 'watchdog' has claimed that teenage magazines, such as the above, are to blame for early sexualisation of their young readers and they are failing to uphold guidelines on their content.

Bliss is one of the many teenage magazines. Outrageously, their website has previously invited girls to send in photographs of themselves to be marked on "looks and pull-ability" in a contest called "How Sexy Am I?" while Sugar(another magazine company) has an annual modelling competition for girls asking: "Want fame, freebies and fit lads?" Grabs and Adds like those are used to grab the readers attention and make them believe they have more to offer than other magazines, tricking them into buying that particular magazine brand rather than another. I think that this is one of the main reasons why the content in which is shown within the magazines, is getting worse and worse. Because the publishers and editors of the magazines want theirs to be the best, so they determine more and more outrageous puffs and plugs, cover lines, images and pull quotes to make sure their magazine is the best seller. 

The Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel (TMAP), the industry's self-regulatory body whose members include publishers and editors, is supposed to ensure that the sexual content of teenage magazines is presented in a responsible and appropriate manner. However, most people debate against this, and say they don't think that the TMAP are sticking to the guidelines and that the content shown within these particular magazines is increasingly getting far worse.

Sue Palmer, an educational consultant and the author of Toxic Childhood, said: "The reality is that children as young as 10 read these magazines, and what they are being exposed to is often horrific and entirely inappropriate, especially for their age. 

"The very blatantly sexual ethos expressed in them is becoming normalised among young girls. Then we wonder why we have such high teenage pregnancy rates and a booming ladette culture. Everyone can see, magazines are blatantly flouting the guidelines, which need to be tightened up and have a real force of law behind them.

Dr Fleur Fisher, the chairman of TMAP, said: "The magazines should be cross-checking their features with our guidelines, and if they are not, then that is where we come in. "Any complaints we receive from readers are carefully checked against our guidelines, and we respond accordingly. Many of the features within these magazines are written in response to queries they receive from their readers."

Being a young girl myself at the age of 16, in the past I have read teenage magazines. Therefore, I believe, as well as the sexual references and content on that particular topic there are other matters that are raised and displayed within the magazines such as weight loss and dieting. To me, this is one of the biggest issues with teenage magazines, I think the majority of young girls in the age group start strict diets and go crazy about weight, just because the magazines have exploited images of things such as famous people gaining or loosing weight. And making nasty comments. Its ridiculous. Because of how society is today, people look up to the "perfect person" however, nobody's perfect. Its reality. People look up to having the perfect lifestyle and appearance but this is just a set up and staged image created and influenced massively by the media. It can lead to people feeling like a failure and even depressed if they don't succeed this and don't feel good about themselves. This can make people go downhill and loose all self esteem and confidence. Magazines should not have this power! Magazines always expose images to show weight gain/loss. They include puffs and plugs, usually on the front cover, to advertise how to loose weight fast, or get the "perfect summer body". The magazine "Heat" has included cover lines such as "starving to be sexy" and "health at risk for their quest of perfection" but the idea of 'perfection' is only created because of the media, and socialisation nowadays. The magazine "Sugar" included a cover line, ' get sexy, confident and  sorted' insinuating and brainwashing the reader to believe they aren't already. And perhaps the idea they aren't good enough at all, unless they do what the magazine says. Magazines should not have the power and right to do this , especially to the younger generation. This is cruel.

Therefore, i would like to see dieting adds and images removed from magazines, as it really is brainwashing young girls and determining how they think as well as socialise. Also, the topic of sex should not be so explicit. The depth of detail within the magazines is hideous. As a mother,would you like your 14 year old girl to be exposed to as much as they are? The mass majority couldn't disagree more with the content shown. Some say its almost seen as pornographic, which is absolutely shocking for that age band. As well as that, images of nearly naked boys/men should not be included, it just makes young girls believe its a norm to see these things and natural for them to start thinking in a sexual frame of mind. Which is wrong in so many ways. 

In addition, fun quiz's and games inside of magazines are good, it suits the age group well. Dramatic story's or celebrity based gossip should not be shown and explained in so much detail. Maybe magazines should start to include more fun learning games. Also a hidden way of teaching the viewers norms and values, what's good and what's bad. However some may say that defeats the point of a magazine, 'the gossip' is the whole idea. But no one could disagree more than  the editors and publishers, because they would argue that they will loose business and if they include things such as those, the younger generation will loose interest rapidly. I think this is ridiculous, we live in such a mucked up society... and media IS to blame.

   

One of the most important factors that make up a magazine front cover is the Masthead(the title). The title is usually printed in a large, bold font to grab the attention of an audience. The title of this particular magazine cover is "heat", the name of the magazine. This is nearly always occurs for every magazine. I think the editors of this particular magazine have given the name heat to target a specific audience of younger female viewers. It implies that the magazine contains "hot gossip". The masthead is usually accompanied by more then one cover line. The cover line is to inform the audience immediately of the contents which the magazine contains. Each cover line can be a different font, size and colour. This is often the situation as each individual cover line is representing a different story or piece of gossip told within the magazine. The images on the front of the magazine are probably the next biggest factor to grab their target audiences attention. For this magazine in particular, the image of the topless man at the top left of the page, would stand out to young girls mostly, this would be what the editors want. The other image in the bottom right, is clearly the main story of the magazine and there most probably is at least a 2 page spread on it. Also, they've used pulls and plugs such as "wedding bells for KIM"and "I CANT WAIT". This is a good technique as it has a peek preview of the occasion but doesn't give a whole explanation. They use this to entice the reader. The smaller images are displayed on the front cover to give an idea of what else the magazine contains, the smaller images don't cover as much text and in depth detail as the main story's do however, they they include them to not only fill out the magazine pages but to try and get the reader excited to find out about gossip. The bright colours on the magazine are associated with the masthead, so in this case the masthead is "heat" which associates with fire and hot things, hot things and heat are nearly always represented wit the colour red. (This could be known as a signifier and the signified) Sometimes the editors decide to display a competition, something to win or a free add. This persuades people to buy this particular magazine rather than another as they may think the contents of two magazines are the same however this one includes something free, (e.g.. a piece of makeup) therefore they would choose that magazine over the other. Magazines such as heat/gossip/blush/kiss all target the same audience and to do this they use brighter colours and vocabulary that will appeal to younger viewers. However magazines such as Vogue/ideal home/garden designs all use more sophisticated words and use a layout which is a lot more professional. The magazine always includes an issue number, date, barcode and price somewhere on the front cover usually in a smaller size print. The price of this magazine is a lot cheaper probably averaging at about £2.00 where as the more mature magazines with a target audience of the older generation probably average at about £4.00. This is shown on the front cover as it's a lot more tacky looking and doesn't have such a neat structure.

Terms used in media-

Texts- any media product (magazine, film ect.)

Niche- very specific 

Code and Conventions- a set of rules that build an expectation of what will appear in the text.

Connotations- associated meaning behind something.

Masthead- title.

Semiotics- the reading and understanding of signs( eg. a smiley face- happiness)

Puffs and Plugs- to entice the audience to buy the magazine.

Cover lines- A list of topics within the magazine.

A sign is made up of a signifier and the signified.
The signifier is an object- denotation and the signified is the idea/concept- connotation.

The front cover of a magazine is made up of many different elements such as...
-colour scheme
-image
-main story
-pull quote
-barcode
-issue number/date
-font colour and size
-left third(when its stacked, its the thing that draws the attention of the audience and stands out)
-cover lines

I have created this blog to use during the course of my media project.
 I hope by having this blog it will allow me to keep track of all my work and update the blog with images, videos and posts.
I created it hoping that it will be easier to file my work instead of having a lot of loose pieces of paper to keep, overall i should be more organized and confident throughout my project.