Front Cover

The magazine Q has been running since 1986, originally it started out targeting 30-40 year old
males as their primary audience. However, one of the magazines primary goals was always to be a
modern-alternative/indie/pop featured magazine which would appeal to a wider demographic. It
now appeals to this wider audience as newer editions feature artists such a Cheryl Cole and Kate
Bush, which also targets a young as well as female demographic as opposed to their typical oldermale audience. The name Q came stemmed from the idea of cueing the start of a song or
performance, in order to avoid being confused with the term cue in snooker, the magazine was
made bold and simple with one letter, which was also done in order to help it stand out against
other music magazines. The music magazine primarily focuses on indie/pop/rock and major new
artists who have developed. I felt that this would be appropriate to choose in order to analyse
because I would like to create a magazine that is pop/indie based, with a modern vibe and a bold
statement name.
The masthead of the magazine cover is the simple bold lettering of the letter Q with a contrasting
white against a red background. This appeals to the wider target audience because the colours are
red which symbolises being loud and unique as the white stands out from the red background, this is
something which would appeal to a younger and female audience as it targets Maslows Need for
belonging. The denotation of the magazine cover is that it features It implies a sense of uniqueness
and therefore the wider demographic can identify (uses and Gratifications) with the magazine itself.
The fact that the artist is in-front of the masthead shows that the magazine has a self-confidence in
the fact that people will automatically know what the magazine is, this targets Maslows need for
prominence as this makes the magazine appear more significant. Likewise, this also provides a sense
of significance for the artist as they are in-font of the masthead and therefore they must be import
and hence the target demographic should buy this magazine to find out about them.
The main image links with the main headline as it states that they are haunted by their past, this is
reflected in the fact that the lead singer is placed in the foreground of the magazine and the rest of
the band are almost over his shoulder. Also, all of the band members are using direct mode of
address which allures the reader as it implies a sense of eye-contact with the target demographic.
This makes the magazine in affect more aesthetically appealing as it links together in a clean and
professional way. The other various taglines are signified by a simple + sign, this is effective
because it uses bait and hook in order to allure the reader as it baits them with the fact that it
implies there is additional content and hooks them with the use of famous/well-known names as the
taglines for the other articles. There is a puff at the top of the page which allures the audience
because it uses the word Exclusive which implies it is something that has something extra which
other music magazines of a similar genre do not supply. The use of the number 31 to introduce
the secondary tagline makes the magazine far more aesthetically appealing because it follows the
blocking of what format in terms of what falls in the your first eye-line and therefore it is an efficient
way of grabbing the attention of the audience. Q uses a pull-out quote from the lead singer of the
Foo Fighters, this is effective because it implies an element of curiosity amongst the target
audience which helps entice them to buy the product.
The pug of the magazine is in the far bottom right hand corner, almost implying that the price is
insignificant in comparison to what you are receiving in the magazine and therefore the magazine
should be brought regardless of the price.

Contents Page
The contents page of Q magazine uses a header which humours the reader as it is cleverly uses the
term Q contents, which implies introducing the contents of the magazine. The month and year is
stated directly above the header in a lighter colour and less harsh lettering. Each article features a
graphic which states the number of the page and a thumbnail of the artist the article is referring to.
This makes the contents page far more aesthetically appealing, it also looks far more high-quality as
only a high quality magazine could afford to produce such a high production magazine. It is set out in
a two columns which helps to break up the contents page, this helps to appeal to the wider target
audience as younger audiences would not typically like large block text.
Neither the magazines front cover nor the contents page feature any kind of adverts as this could
deter the audience from the interesting and key features which will appeal to the target
demographic. Again, this also emphasises the idea that this magazine is high-production because a
low-quality magazine would have to use adverts in order to provide funding for its productions.
There is a feature Q the review section which features a fairly large image beneath the main image
of Noel Gallagher who is essentially a secondary feature article. This again helps to separate the
block text and provides a sense of high-quality to the magazine as it uses a variation of colour in
different ways and only a high-production magazine would be able to do this. This targets Uses and
Gratifications theory because it targets the need for identify, it provides a sense of identification
with something which is high-quality and worthy of prominence. The footer also features a small
flash which states the word plus! which draws attention in terms of another significant extra
feature, this appeals to the wider target demographic as it features alternative stories which perhaps
would not be of interest to the primary target audience.

Double Page Spread

The double-page spread features the Foo Fighters as promoted on the front cover of the
magazine. There is the use of an intriguing pull-out quote, with key words highlighted so that at a
glance it makes the quote seem controversial and shocking, in order to entice the demographic.
There is a drop capital with a black background, contrasting the white lettering which draws the
attention of the readers eye to the key starting points of the article; it also contributes to making
the magazine looking high-production and high-value. The layout of the double page spread is in
columns which helps to break up the large feature article and also contributes to producing a more
aesthetically appealing feature. The indents in the paragraphs help to emphasise the fact that this an
interview and this makes it clear to the reader what they are about to read. The layout also follows
the same house-style because this applies consistency and professionalism.
The use of images in a unique way, such as using a slightly off-set image rather than a directly cleancut straight image helps to reflect the image of the band which appears to be slightly edgy, this is
then emphasises by Dave Grohl drinking in another image. This would appeal to the target
demographic as this is clearly something that they would be interested in as the target demographic
of Q magazine is a varied audience, including young people, who would be allured by their lack of
a clean image. The main image features an on-stage shot of the Foo Fighters, this is
particularly effective because this image shows the band to be passionate and wild, which would
appeal to the wider demographic. The black and white image of the fans is effective because it is
symbolising the fact that this band has been loved for a long period of time and also helps to create
a variation in the layout of a typical feature article.
There is a fair amount of text which appears to be in great detail, although part of the demographic
is older it can be interpreted that the break-up of text with more various images is designed to
target a younger audience with less text. The fact that Q magazines typical demographic has
adapted over time and the female audience is now being targeted as well as a younger audience is
projected in the fact that it is slightly more bold. Although typically the Foo Fighters would appeal
to a primarily male audience, the female audience has still been targeted in general by the magazine
as a whole through their other previous issues, although this issue does more specifically appeal to
males and unconventional females. In terms of applying this to my magazine, I feel that Q
magazine is appropriate to analyse as generally this magazine has a wider audience and has a
general indie-pop/rock vibe, which is what I will aim to create.