Magazine Analysis - NME

 GENERAL

The company which produces NME magazine is called IPC Media (owned by Time Inc.)

The target audience for the magazine is men aged 17-30, and according to the publisher's website:

•  65% of the readers are male;
• 50% of them are aged 16-24;
•  23% are aged 23-34

The cost of the magazine is £2.40 and it is published weekly.

The circulation is 29,020 and the readership is 266,000.

• The costs for advertising in the magazine are as follows:
• Inside front cover: £8,030
• Inside back cover: £7,980
• Outside back cover: £8,085
• Double page spread: £12,456
• One whole page: £6,920
• Half page (horizontal or vertical): £5,350
• Quarter page: £2,755

The first issue of NME was published on the 7th of March 1952. NME actually started as a music newspaper, but gradually developed into a magazine format during the 1980's and changed from newsprint in 1998.

THE COVER

• NME is called this as it stands for 'New Musical Express' because it expresses the wide variety of music types and genre's included within the magazine and also keeps the audience updated on all different types of music compared to "KERRANG" which is based on one genre of music (rock & heavy metal) in which its magazine title connotes the sound of a guitar attracting only one type of audience where as NME is used to attract a numerous amount of different audiences of different musical taste. 

• The masthead is 'NME' also accompanied by "COOL LIST 2011" as the issue is a special edition. The first mast head's font is plain and simple, with black emboldened lettering on the top left hand side of the magazine cover. It is dominant to the page as it stands out and is one of the first things that you see on the cover. This is also accompanied by the seconds heading at the top right hand side of the page, in which the font is also plain and simple but in red. both these headings allow the audience to establish the magazine type and also the recognition that this magazine is a special edition. The second mast head "COOL LIST 2011" is an immediate indication to the audience on what the content of the magazine will consist of. This compares to KERRANG as the magazine almost has a set layout with the same masthead at the top and no recognition of any special editions. Also KERRANG'S masthead is of one size and one colour, keeping its old traditional standard form.
• The magazine cover has no main image as its consists of 12 different images in line with each other and of the same size although you could argue that the photo's in black and white which are used to represent how legendary the artists are, could be the main images of the front cover. There is not one specific picture which dominates the page as each gains equal attention from the audience although the use of the black and white effect on 4 of the images help the images to stand out. Each picture consists of different music acts some in which are smiling, some with inappropriate hand gestures and some with plain emotionless facial expressions.
•  The cover does not look similar to other magazines, reason being because the front cover has Unique selling points that other magazines such as Kerrang doesnt have which is its unique house style. The use of fonts and colours differ from other magazines as NME is quite plain compared to many other music magazines.