Nicky
Coales
Magazine Analysis - MOJO
INSIDE
Inside: Inside there are 131 pages, 15 of which are ads (23 if you count advertorials). Products advertised included MOJO Magazine Subscriptions, Albums, a double page of general ads (from clothing to cleaning products) and the advertorials were gig and event dates. It was difficult to tell if the gig dates were adverts, as technically you are advertising the gigs whether you sell the tickets or not; however, there was no ticket price information on those ads which makes it difficult to define.
The articles cover topics like interviews with music personalities, album reviews, music book reviews and coverage of gigs. There are 19 double page spreads (Examples below), most of which are articles but there are also some pictures for the features. The direct mode of address is not condescending, it speaks to the reader as if they have a wide music knowledge.
The house style is simple, there is a lot of text due to it being a more in-depth magazine getting longer interviews with artists. They have some quotes in bold to grab the attention of people flicking through, as it may catch their interest rather than a page full of words. This style matches the target audience deduced from the cover, which is hard-core music lovers. Seeing as there are deep articles, you would believe this is for someone who is genuinely interested, rather than something you flick through over half an hour; you could pick up MOJO about 3 or 4 times for an hour each time, and you would still find something interesting to read.
The language used in the main cover line, "Listen Up! Paul gets personal!" is effective to the reader as it is a command; and it evokes interest in the reader as if the artist featured on the cover, in this case Paul McCartney, The word "personal" could suggest that the content regarding this artist in this magazine would be covering information that would be both new and interesting; as the idea of the artist revealing personal anecdote that had not been brought up before would be included. This idea is also supported by the words "The NEW Interview", as this interview won't just ask him the same old questions like a lot of interviews out the; but actually find out new information and avoid falling into the same conformities interviews of this type in the past have fallen into.
GENERAL
General: My magazine is the November 2013 Edition of MOJO, which is produced by the company Bauer. It costs £4.60 per issue and is published monthly. Its circulation is as follows: the total copies sold in 2015 was 70,445, the year to year change percentage was -0.4%. The percentage of customers who actively purchase the magazine was 98.9%. From the cover and the content of the magazine, it seems that MOJO is designed for dedicated music enthusiasts; it could be said that this is a niche market.
COVER
Cover: The title “MOJO” is related to energy and having a sense of confidence over you, this connotes those who read the magazine will be able to be musically confidence about their taste and their plethora of knowledge.
The logo (Below, left) is the word “Mojo” in large, bold text; it is quite simple as it is only just the word. This is a lot more conservative than say “Kerrang!” (Below, right), this would present the content of this magazine to be more in-depth for those who have a passion for music information. This would suggest it has an established audience, which proposes MOJO has a more reserved selling technique unlike Kerrang which relies on an almost overload of colour and information to catch the attention of the possible reader. The subtitle is “The Music Magazine” (seen below) which again supports the conservative and simple house style that Mojo is trying to convey.
The strapline shows the names and faces of famous people which people would recognize. It always advertises a free CD, which presents more incentive to purchase the magazine.
The main image shows a mid-long shot Paul McCartney looking and pointing straight at the camera, or in the case of a magazine, the reader. His face is neutral and his clothes and rather plain, this brings focus to what he has to say. The image is also black and white, which could be due to Paul McCartney being one of the vintage faces of music. Paul appears in front of the Logo, showing his importance. Other images contain famous singers like Lou Reed which would bring attention who recognise them.
The cover lines: “Virgin Records turns 40…”, “136 Reviews – The month’s best music filtered”, ‘Earl Sweatshirt – “I don’t like people… I love Joy Division.” – These lures contain a wide range of recognizable names, which gets the attention of a wider audience due to the hybrid of genres presented.
The colour scheme of this issue is black and white, with some red bits of text; this makes the red stand out as the picture is also de-saturated. The black and white text suggests that the information presented will be easily digestible. The font sizes vary depending on the importance of each article; different parts of each lures are larger in order to catch the eye.
The cover uses exclamation marks in order to emphasize that particular word or editorials. Names of famous people are used to get the attention in hopes people will recognize them. Quotes and short lure are also used to grab attention. It would be clear to the reader that it has a wide variety (Queen to Earl Sweatshirt). The cover is made of a more substantial material than other magazines, supporting its quality.
The cover looks similar to other magazines in terms of basic layout, but it looks cleaner and more ordered than others; this enforces the discrete way of selling the magazine. It comes with a CD, which sets it apart from other magazines and explains the price increase.