NATIONAL V

S REGIONAL

MAGAZINES

W H AT I S T

H E DI F

F E R E N C E ?

NATIONAL MAGAZINESNational magazines are generally self-explanatory. They are magazines that are circulated and distributed nationally. Some examples may be NME or Kerrang. The genres are pretty varied and can some magazines cover all genres, whereas most cover one or several. Their topics focus mainly on new and popular music within their genres, but interviews and gossip are also frequent within each issue. National magazines are usually owned by larger publishing companies, for example, Bauer Media or TimeIncUK, and therefore they are a mass media product with a (national) larger audience. By having this larger audience, they have a much larger income than regional magazines so have more money to spend. They can be weekly or monthly and are more expensive than regional magazines.

REGIONAL MAGAZINESUnlike national magazines, regional magazines only focused on a particular region, usually depending on where they are based. Their audiences are a lot smaller than national magazines and therefore they make a smaller income and have less to spend. Due to their, almost, local feel, they feature a lot of up and coming artists rather than constantly featuring popular artists. They are also, usually, independently published or owned by smaller publishing companies, meaning their budget is small. The majority of regional magazines are published monthly and are a lot less expensive than national magazines, with some even being free.

NATIONAL REGIONAL

IN CONCLUSION…National magazines are a lot more dense and full of popular music, with gossip, interviews and competition being featured. They reach a national audience and have a large budget within their large publishing company. In terms of appearance, their covers are almost crowded and are crammed with information, which could suggestively because of the wide competition they are up against in the music/magazine industry. Whereas, regional magazines employ a local feel and have a much smaller budget due to their smaller audience and their independent publishing/small publishing company. Their cover appears very minimalistic and does not feature many cover line, but is very visually attractive.