MirrorThe Alternative Lifestyle Magazine

By Emma Nesham

“My Brief

You have been commissioned by The Northern Echo to produce a new magazine

orNewspaper product. Your product could be in

any style or genre but it must be selfFinanced through sales or advertising. You

must also produce your magazine for a Specified audience segment within the 16 to

25 age group.

“

Limitations of my Client

Having The Northern Echo as a client will limit me in a number of ways. Therefore, I will have to consider the following points when creating my magazine:

Secondary Audience- Will affect my content as they are likely to be older friends or family members of my audience. Therefore, I will want my want them to see my content as appropriate for my younger target audience.

Local Audience-I will aim to include local articles to suit my audience within the area targeted by the Northern Echo.

Advertising-I will use local advertisers just as The Northern Echo do.

High standards-The Northern Echo has high standards-both editorially and morally. For the editorial aspect I will ensure I empoly high quality staff so that my magazine is well constructed. My magazine will have high morals as it will aim to serve and protect the local community.

How will I meet this brief?In order to meet this brief I will:

Ensure that my magazine appeals to young people within the 16-25 age group from socioeconomic groups ABC1-the target audiences of The Northern Echo

Ensure my publication is of a high quality by employing high quality staff

Make my magazine beneficial to my audience in some way as this is something which is of importance to The Northern Echo which acts to serve the community with high moral values

Create a magazine supplement which is both new and exciting but also suitable for distribution alongside The Northern Echo

Deciding on my GenreWomen's lifestyle was the obvious choice when considering what genre I would choose to follow.

However…after conducting some initial research I found that the genre didn’t appeal to me at all

Motoring?

Music?

Fitness?

Craft?Travel?

Sport?

Womens?

Food?

Chat?

Instead I have decided to create a magazine aimed at young wanting to be independent. My magazine wont lecture women on how to be perfect and will focus more on being comfortable in their own skin.

Articles within my magazine will encourage women to get involved with new hobbies and inform them of new subjects.

Why Alternative Lifestyle?Alternative lifestyle gives me the freedom to create a magazine which is just a bit different.

Creating a magazine which is new and exciting really appeals to me and seems to be lacking in this area

I have good knowledge of alternative subjects and have planned my stories to suit this genre

There is definitely a gap in the market for an alternative lifestyle newspaper supplement

There are too many women’s lifestyle magazines on the market and women looking for something different struggle to find something that interest them

Genre ResearchIt’s about slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of friends and family.

“ “

Simple title related to the subject of the magazine

Casual pose-doesn’t take herself seriously-very different to women's lifestyle magazines

Alternative article subjects-none focused on fashion and beauty.

Warm colours and doesn’t follow three colour rule-makes it bright and eye catching

Overall encourages women to be happy with how they are and not constantly advising them on how to change aspects of their life.

Snowboarding, Surfing, Style and Offbeat Travel – Cooler is an alternative lifestyle haven, featuring the best videos, news, interviews and features. Playful pose, young model make

the cover feel young

Articles inside are focused around being active and successful women

Mentions style but from an alternative angle of more street style like skating clothing

Uncluttered front cover-makes the magazine look alternative and makes the reader want to look inside to find out more-cover only gives hints as to what magazine is about.

Genre Research (Continued)

Audience ProfileMy target audience will be made up of:

A mix of trendies, aspirants and new alt’s.

Women from socioeconomic groups A. B and C1.

Aged 18-24, around university age so my articles will centre around subjects appealing to university students.

Students from higher class groups so although they will be on a budget they will have greater disposable income than those from lower socioeconomic groups.

Targeting my Audience

Lively tone to engage readers. Likely to have a shorter attention span than older target audiences.1.

Include articles which appeal to my target audience-keep them young and relevant to women of around university age.2.

Create strong imagery to ensure that pages catch the viewers eye and reduce flickability. Make images interesting and convey a strong message using models of a similar age.

3.

Use alternative fonts that link to my article in some way to make pages look interesting and bold. Colour is important in doing this too.

4.

5. Use language which appeals to my audience. It doesn’t have to be simple as I have chosen a well educated target audience but vocabulary shouldn't’t be so complex that it puts readers off.

Things to consider

I must ensure I do not break any of these codes set by the PCC so that my magazine does not face legal issues. To do this I will:

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC)Regulates the rules that journalists must follow to protect the welfare of those involved. This includes things such as: Harassment, accuracy and discrimination.

Ensure I have permission to use any material which I have not produced myself in my magazine.

I will record interviews to ensure that accuracy is kept high and this level of accuracy will be followed throughout my product.

I will ensure I have the permission of all individuals involved to include content which is linked to them in any way.

I will not publish any inaccurate information as this could cause legal issues.

I will protect the welfare of anyone involved and have high morals just as The Northern Echo does.

Aims of my Magazine

I feel that it is important for my magazine to have a number of key aims as I am creating an alternative product and it needs to have a solid base on which to create a brand upon. Below are the 6 key points I aim to meet:

Imagery will be a strong element in my product as this is something I am really interested in.

Inform my audience of new hobbies and places to visit

While also including local issues/real life stories.

It will promote self confidence along with independence.

It will fill a gap in the market for a alternative young women's magazine provided as a newspaper supplement.

It will follow alternative layouts and use interesting stylistics.

Mock Ups1.

Mock Ups2.

Mock Up Feedback-The Positives

Mock up 1 Mock up 2

Blue looks better as it isn’t too girly

I like the blue lace on mock up 1 but not the grey on the 3rd page

The space has been filled more in mock up 1

Mock up 1’s image is better but if you

had more time you could include the images from mock up 2 in some way

The decorative font used looks really good and handwritten

Its interesting and I didn’t know you could earn money from blogging and from people clicking on your ads

The first page of mock up 2 is really well laid out, maybe put the sub headings from it into mock up 1

The headings of mock up 2 make the article better laid out and easier to read

The imagery idea is really good but could be included in mock up 1 in some way as the page is a bit bare

The two fonts look really good together

Mock up 1 Mock up 2

Mock Up Feedback-The Negatives

I like the blue lace on mock up 1 but not the grey on the 3rd page

Really good image on mock up 1 but needs to be edited better

Don’t like the font on the breakout boxes but like the title font of it

The logo collage on mock up 1 doesn’t really go with the first 2 pages as the rest is all neat while the collage is too messy

Mock up 2 is a bit bare on the second page, not enough going on around the images’

The colour scheme of the images in mock up 2 don’t fit with the pink colour scheme as she is wearing blue

Only use 2 colours in your breakout box text

The pink of the breakout box on mock up 2 is too hard to read on, the grey is hard to read

The Name-Mirror

Why?Short and catchy

Memorable

Simple

Follows idea of only using a single word like other magazines e.g Glamour, Company, Living etc.

ConnotationsI wanted to follow a similar theme to The Northern Echo in

that my name would link to this title in some way. I decided on the name ‘Mirror’ as it links to the word ‘Echo’

in that it suggests that something is being reflected or repeated in some way.

The CoverColour scheme:

Imagery:

Girl in a street in York Striding confidently towards the

camera Model will be member of my target

audience Black and white image-Bags she will

be carrying will link to colour of masthead

Cell lines:

Blogging article and house fire will be most prominent and biggest in page

Young farming article in a box to make it stand out

Base line cell will feature an article interesting to cash-strapped students

ContentsColour scheme:

Imagery:

Strong feature of contents page as each circle will be an image from each article

Alternative layout will set theme of magazine as the whole magazine will use alternative layouts not usually found in womens magazines

Keeping images in circles will keep the page looking clean and modern

Content:

Contents title along top Underneath will be welcome letter to

keep magazine friendly and explain magazine slightly

Images underneath in circles with short description and page number for each one

Bottom of page will be a simple credits section featuring everyone involved with the magazine-keeps it professional

Article DetailsColour scheme

Imagery:

2 polaroid images to the right hand side of the page

1 main image likely to feature a female model on a tractor

Other images will feature scenes of what Young Farmers do

Content:

Gives information about Young Farmers clubs

Say why girls should get involved with Young Farming

Very positive article encouraging girls to try a new hobby

Article DetailsColour scheme:

Imagery:

Very similar to my mock up imageryPg 2 will feature image filling whole page of a girl thinking about make upI will take shots of the girl and the make up separately and insert the thought bubbles in photoshopThe 3rd page will be 2 images of my model. In one she will be holding a make up object while in the other she will be holding a bag of money

Content

Article will be same one used in my mock up with a few additionsIt will outline how and why to get involved with beauty bloggingEmphasis will be on how to make money as this will interest students and my female target audienceMy most feminine article but is an alternative take on beauty

Article DetailsColour scheme:

Imagery:

5 bold images showing the different places I include in my article and well known landmarksPutting them in circles will keep the page looking clean and the layout will link to that of the contents page

Content:

I will visit York and speak to student friends who live in the city to find out the best hidden cafes and best places to go outThe article will be all about encouraging readers to visit a new local city and not just stick to the well known tourist attractionsThis piece will keep my magazine local to my target audience and I think this will really appeal to them as well as finding out the best places for students to visit in the city.

Colours and FontsMasthead font

Headline Font

Article font

Front cover

Contents

Down on the Farm

Dare to Blog

House Fire

York City Guide

My Strategy

Publication will be seen by very wide audience so is more likely to reach

my target audience.

Attractive to advertisers as publication will reach large audience-

can charge more for advertising.

A free publication will appeal to my student based target audience.

Print a lot more copies than if I was following sales strategy-provide a

copy for every copy of The Northern Echo

Advantages

Some copies may not be read as wont appeal to entire audience of

the newspaper-wasted money.

I will have to rely of advertising sales alone-no income from sales.

Disdvantages

I will be following a supplement strategy meaning that my magazine will be provided free with The Northern Echo. My publication will reach all members of the newspapers target audience as I will print around 45000 copies to provide with each copy of The Northern Echo.

Printing Costs

Personnel CostsPersonnel Hourly Rate Hours Needed Total Cost

Journalists £15 15 £225

Photographer £20 10 £200

Models £100 a day 7 £100

Subeditors £25 15 £375

Resreachers £12 8 £96

Make up Artist £15 1 £15

Image Editor 0 (Inc. with Photographer)

10 0

Graphic Designer £17 4 £68

Total Expenditure: £1079

Equipment Costs

Equipment Hourly Rate Hours Needed Total Cost

Studio Space £60 4 £60

Flash Lighting £0 (Inc. in studio hire)

0 £0

Camera 1 day (8hrs)=£20 10 £40

Travel £15 1 £15

Props £0 2 £0

Total Expenditure: £115

Total Expenditure

Personnel-£1079

Equipment-£115

Printing-£5720.60 Total: £6914.60

Advertising Rates

Advert type Rate Number of Slots

Back Cover £1000 1

Inside Front Cover £900 1

Half Inside Back £600 2

Full Inside Back £900 1

DPS £1500 0

Full Page £840 1

Half Page £560 3

Quarter Page £200 2

Rates roughly based on Living magazine advertising rates

Total Income: £6020

Advertising Income1 Back Cover

1 Inside Cover

2 Half inside back

0 inside back

0 DPS

1 Full Page

3 Half Page

2 Quarter Page

£1000

£900

£1200

£400

£1680

£840

£0£0

These advertising sales are based on the bible I created to help me determine

where my advertising slots would go and how many of each type I would include.

Conclusion

Total Expenditure:

£6914.60

Total Income: £6020

This leaves me with a loss of £894.60. However, I would reduce this in further

issues by reducing the quality of my paper so that my printing costs are lower as this

is my biggest cost.

Thank YouAny Questions?