A magazines layout will reflect how it wants to be seen by readers.
Top of the Pops - the layout has a balance of being informal but it is still formal enough to look tidy, with this balance it looks upmarket, stylish and expensive. This effect has been created by the symmetrical layout of the text; it's lined up horizontally which makes the page look organised with a sense of order therefore creating a sense that it is expensive.
- There is quite a bit of white space left which stops the magazine from looking crammed however it does look slightly bare and boring.
- The information is laid out clearly in columns under headings e.g. 'all about you' and 'wins and offers' so that the information is easy to locate. This makes it easier for the reader to quickly glance at the contents page to see if there is anything in particular that takes their fancy instead of going through the whole magazine in order to find a particular article. This also comes in handy because if there is a particular section that the reader has no interest in then it saves them reading through the whole list of articles on that section as they can just ignore it and move onto the next category.
- The information written is fairly short and snappy, this is relevant to a contents page because it should not be long winded, it should just tell you which page which article is on. The fact that the text is minimal will attract and be appealing to the target audience as teens generally don't always enjoy reading essay looking pages and would rather bullet points.
- The language used is quite colloquial 'Oops! Radio 1's Greg James giggles at your cringes' the use of the word 'oops' is an informal register, the word 'cringe' is a word commonly used by teenagers (the target audience) and the word 'your' gives direct address making the reader feel that the magazine is talking to them directly.
- There is an image featured of an annotated page of the cover which labels the cover lines to which page they are on. This is extremely useful for the readers who were drawn to a particular cover line and will want to read that first.
- In total there are 8 images used and all of them are near enough square (not slanted).
- There is a page number however it is covered by my thumb in this image.
- The more appealing features of the magazine have the numbers written with a background to them making them more bold so that they are more noticeable.
- There are design elements such as where is reads 'contents' the box that its in has a zig zag line, 'inside your mag' is written in a speech bubble and the 'we <3 boys' section and the back grounded page numbers are also design elements that give it a 'pop' feel.
We <3 Pop - a similarity between this magazine and 'Top of the Pops' is that it includes the editor's letter on the same page.
- Design elements consist of the 'inside this month' and 'we love this' having letters coloured in (this is what 'Billboard' magazine does with their title). There is 'we <3 pop' written in a speech bubble (TOTP also uses a speech bubble). Other elements that TOTP also uses is the transparent shapes that background important page numbers, there is also the use of the star shaped circles.
- The whole page in general lacks white space which generally means that it is crazy and chaotic making it look cheap. However it doesn't look too crammed except where the page numbers are labelled it looks messy.
- The layout used doesn't stick to a particular style, as there is one column used for the editor's letter but there are two columns where the main base of the content is written.
- The content isn't organised into sections making it harder to find an exact article that may have been spotted on the cover, this could be time consuming.
- The language used is arguably more explicit than 'Top of the Pops' 'we looked like condoms' 'I'd pose naked' this language could be inappropriate for the readers of TOTP as they target a younger audience.
- There is a page number and the website of the magazine written at the bottom.
- There are 15 images of celebrities that feature in the magazine used on this page with all but one being slanted.
As well as looking at contents pages from the genre of music I am doing, as there are very few English pop magazines available I decided to research into other genres so I could see if I was getting the right idea and not making my contents page look 'too rock'.
This contents page is from DJ Magazine which is a dance magazine, I can tell this
by the 5 images used as some look like that
they have been taken in clubs. For this
reason, I would assume that the target
audience consists of people who are able
to get into clubs 18+). Also to show the dance
genre further there is a catchy line at the
top of the page 'living & breathing dance
music' which shows that the target audience
is for die hard fans of dance music. The actual
word 'contents' is placed at the top of the page
but it is very discrete as it is in a simple font, I
am surprised that it isn't in bold because now
it goes unnoticed. The contents is arranged into
two columns of which are clearly labelled with
headings. The three main features are put in their own column which is situated in its own box. There is no use of a page number being used.
Q Magazine contents page across goes across two pages, however this one is a double page spread. It contains a mixture of images and text.The content is split up into sections: up front, features, Q review and every month. The 'every month' section insinuates that readers regularly read this magazine so they know what to expect in this section. There are neat columns which are even divided into boxes and lines to show that they are part of a different section.
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