Analysis of a music magazine

Q magazine

 

The magazine which I have decided to look into with more detail is Q magazine which is a music magazine. It was first published in October 1986. It has a sister magazine called ‘mojo’. Originally it was meant to be called ‘cue’ as they wanted to link it with cueing for a record but decided on ‘Q’ so they wouldn’t be mistaken for a snooker magazine. The founders of Q are Mark Ellen and David Hepworth who believed that there wasn’t a magazine out there for the older generation who were still buying CD’s. Their aim was to publish ‘Q’ monthly and making sure that the photography and printing was at a much higher standard than other magazines. In 2008 ‘Q’ revamped its image which they began to focus on smaller text and even larger focus on the subjects not linked to music.  The main genre for Q is rock and roll.

The magazine covers content of new releases, reissues, music compilations, (film, live concerts, radio and television) reviews. But mainly most of the magazine will feature interviews from popular music artists. They have promotional gifts which are sometimes given away which are CD’s and Books. They make their magazine unique by each issue published of ‘Q’ will have a different message on the spine which will give readers a clue of what the content may feature inside the magazine. The magazine has a close connections with Glastonbury festival which they produce a free magazine daily on their site and a review magazine at the end of the festival.

‘Q’ launched its first radio station in June 2008, but you could only have access to it on digital Television. They also had their own music channel which was called Q TV. Its circulation figures are 52,781 from July to December 2013. Most of ‘Q’ magazine readers are male being 66.2%, 83.8% of readers are between the age of 15-44. The cover price for ‘Q’ magazine is £4.00 but if you subscribe you can 6 issues for only £15. ‘Q’ magazine has 116 K followers on twitter, 104,416 likes on their Facebook profile and 5,117 followers on Instagram.

The target audience for ‘Q’ magazine is mostly based at the older generation between 30 and 40 years old. They are more interested in the music and that is the reason they purchase the magazine.