XXL Vs Billboard

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• XXL Magazine is published by Harris Publications, a publisher based in New York, USA. They publish over 75 different titles of magazines: Automotive, Business, Celebrity & Lifestyle, Comics, Firearms & Weaponry, Music, Quilting, Sports & Health and Misc.

• Harris Publications only publish XXl Magazine in the US, although alternative companies export the magazine into other countries and distribute them to other firms which sell them.

• Only being published in the US may be a reason why the magazine may not have content to do with London or countries outside the UK, unlike a magazine such as NME which is from the UK but also published in the US therefore there may be some themes that shouts out USA, and not just UK.

PUBLISHER

• The age range of XXl Magazine is about 16 – 29 years old.

• The majority of readers are male and are within the US.

• Its main area of content is to do with Hip Hop.

• It has about 106 pages and has a price of £3.95.

• The pages of the magazine are matt coated and the front and back covers are glossy coated which may be the reason the price of the magazine is quite high, even though they have a lot of advertising which could enable them to keep selling price low.

• Has not got double page spreads, however it has articles running across 3-4 pages.

• XXL Magazine produces 6 issues a year.

The masthead is quite big and simple, the colours used to design the masthead is a very common colour, also used for the masthead of Q Magazine, its made up of 2 layers with a white on red order. The red could be symbolic as it could refer to danger.

Drake (the feature image) is slightly covering up the Masthead, which could connote how XXl is well known and that people would still recognize the magazine, even if its partly hidden or not showing.

The font of the masthead text is quite bold and in uppercase letters, this emphasizes the simplicity of the masthead.

MASTHEAD

• The featured image is an iconic image of a famous rapper Drake, this could underline how XXl’s main focus is the Hip Hop genre.

• Drake is looking away from the camera. The cover line “Watch The Throne” (which is in a goldish colour, defining the colour of a throne), may be directing where Drakes eyes are looking towards. This may be indexical as he may be telling the audience that he’s going to become number 1 as “taking the throne” is a phrase used in Hip Hop which conveys becoming the best/ number 1.

• Drake is known to be a “Ladies Man’ as his biggest fan base is females, this could signal that XXL is aiming for more female readers than males on this issue.

• However the colours of his clothing and the background, that being of white and black may be showing that they’re trying to attract both genders.

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Date & Website

• Published by Prometheus Global Media, based in New York City (similar to XXL’s Publishers who are also based in NYC.)§

• Published only in the US, however like XXl, other companies export the magazine from the US and import them to other distributers in other countries, worldwide.

• Billboards main focus within the magazine is linked with the USA. This means that most advertising, content and images are US related as their main audience is people in America.

• Publishers publish overall 4 magazines, (Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, Backstage)

• CEO – Richard D. Beckman (former publisher of magazine GQ and Vogue).

PUBLISHER

• Billboard magazine has about 64 pages and costs about £5.50.

• The front and back are thick glossy and the inside pages are also quite glossy but thinner paper than the others.

• Like XXl, the price of their magazine may be high to pay for cost of producing the pages.

• Billboard covers a majority of pop music.• Its main audience are Americans.• For example, the advert on the back cover

has New York City on it, this may not be relevant to people in the UK, therefore this highlight who their main focus is.

• The audiences are as

follows:• 68% College Graduates• 25% Post-Graduates• 49% Senior/Upper

Management Title• And a Total Readership

of 48k

• Billboard publish issues every week.• 60% of readers receive their copy at

home – this could be why its hard to find the magazine at the shops in UK

• The masthead for this issue is quite different to the usual one used for most other Billboard magazines. This connotes that the masthead is well known and people would still recognise it even if it’s a different font, size and colour.

• The masthead is made up of 2 layers, the text itself and a little effect (shadow/glow) to make it blend in with the background.

• The masthead blends in with the whole of the front cover, this could imply that this is a special issue and that its bringing a change to the whole magazine in one issue which catches peoples eyes and persuade them to open the magazine.

Contents Pages• The contents page is on the 3rd

page of the Billboard magazine, however in XXL the contents page is after about 9 pages of advertisements.

• This could imply that XXL mainly publish advertisements in their magazines, to promote themselves or other companies, as they have a majority of their pages full of adverts.

Double Page Spread

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Billboard

XXL - Articles

XXL magazines, overall hardly have double page spreads, even in this issue, there aren’t any double page spreads, but there are articles that cross 3 to 4 pages.There’s one image on each of the pages, however there is more text than there is of images overall, and also on the last page of the crossing article the writer is credited and also the company that have sponsored Drake for the clothing he is wearing in the magazine.

The language used is mainly aimed at people from ages of about 17 to 27, as it does contain some vocabulary that is mainly used by these social groups, and also the interview with Drake which is written out, contains vocabs which relate to these age groups.

The crossing article not only promotes the artist but also the clothing and brands that are being promoted by him wearing them.

Billboard - Double Page Spread

Billboard magazine has many double spread pages. Similar to XXL, some articles cross pages but as double pages, so they still would count as double spreads. The layouts of the page are very simple but eye catchy which is very important when attracting audiences.

Unlike XXL, Billboard have a lot of different information that links with the main article. Whereas in XXL, the articles are mostly about one thing but in much detail.

This magazine has a different kind of language used compared to XXL, the age group is a little higher, instead of 17 to 27 its about 18 to 30+, as it contains a lot of business information because Samsung have sponsored Jay Z for his new album, also there’s a lot of statistics that would relate to those who are into business or who may be older.

However there are some language used for younger social groups as Jay Z is an iconic rapper and has a varied fan base age range.