Radio Advertising

An ancillary task of my coursework is to create a radio advertisement for the magazine. In the planning of this, I will need to think about a few things such as how it should be set, and the theoretical price at which my magazine is willing to dish out for advertising.
 Price wise, I am able to look into local radio station advertising offers, such as with Sheffield live! 93.2.

This provides an overview to the prices that local companies would pay to have advertisements broadcast for their products, or in my case, the advertisement for the magazine. 

Exposed magazine contents and front cover analysisi

Localism agenda

"So this is what radicalism means. No more top down, bureaucrat driven public services. We are putting those services into your hands. Old targets and performance indicators that drove the doctors, nurses and police officers mad- they're gone. all that bureaucracy that meant nothing ever happened- we are stripping it away."

David Cameron

  The Localism Agenda supports the idea that a centralised government will be less effective when it comes to the wants and needs of the individual communities within the UK. This means that the governments decisions are dispersed to a representative council that has been elected by the people locally. this can give the community the chance to decide where money that has been given to them needs to go. Local councils know best where and how to make cuts and where there will be hardship. this supplies cheaper and more efficient services than if provided by the central government.
  In terms of the media industry, this means that money allocated towards the news and television should, theoretically, give them more distribution processes, a chance to appeal to a wider audience. these small magazine companies that had been funded by the government before hand, wont have as much funding in the future to continue their projects. This accounts to more redundancies within the community, and more unemployed people within each community, alongside unemployment in other areas.

magazine history

Toast Magazine

Toast is an independent magazine for Sheffield, listing what’s on and available for free at all great outlets

Toast magazine is a magazine aimed at 18- 40 year olds with the intention to advertise and intrigue citizens of Sheffield about the town and what is available around them. The magazine has a pledge that there is a maximum of 40% advertising contents, including gig listings and listings for shops/ bars within the city itself, such as the Leadmill (advertised in issue 30 on the first page). Within Sheffield, it is distributed by Cylex UK  to the center and other populated areas such as Broom hill, Abbeydale and Hunters bar.  it has been in circulation since 2009 and has made 30 issues since them.

 Content  

Toast magazine generally consists of local news, gossip, music features, big name interviews, media and entertainment reviews, property sales, fashion and, of course, an indispensable listing guide. 

the interviews are of the low key variety and are probably only known locally.

Typical Reader Profile

toast magazine is generally made for university students who are into the general indie and rock vibe. this can range from the normal, adult(or trying to be) citizens to the mods and rocker's of todays society within sheffield. as it is free, it is ideal for students on the go.

Now Then Magazine

NOW THEN.

Now Then magazine is a monthly magazine, circulating within the Sheffield area. it is aimed at college students, around 18-30 year olds, with the intention to attract the wider range of culture, with art from individual artists each month. the  magazine invites members of the public to star as 'guest writers', giving it a more centred view of sheffield's culture and nightlife. It is a non profit organisation that catches the interests of city dwelling individuals. it promotes individuality, in a cultural way, with a little ethnicity thrown into the mix- e.g Art work, Food, Poetry-which appeals to the university student, due to the open mindedness that they approach the world with.



What the editor, Sam Walby, had to say...
How Now Then began
We launched our first issue in April 2008. I was a lowly writer back then, so I wasn't really involved in the initial set up, but the idea was to create a community magazine that had a personality and could serve as a platform for local writers, artists, musicians and businesses trying to strike out on their own. It has very much been a DIY operation from the start, with us using our common sense and following our noses. None of us have formal qualifications in publishing/editing/writing/graphic design etc, so it has been a case of learning on the job.

How it has changed
As I said, it has been a work in progress since we launched, so we are always looking to improve the design, add new regular sections and so on. So since our first issue, we've come a long way in terms of regular content - Film section, Food section, Listings/What's On. Our remit from the start has always been to try and feature as wide a selection of independent art/writing/music as possible, so from each month to the next we try to include radically different artists/music interviews etc. The design has evolved according to our own preferences and taking into account comments from readers, in every day life and also through our yearly readership surveys.

Main distribution areas
This is the one I can't go into too much detail on I'm afraid, but we get out to almost 1,000 locations in the city centre, Nether Edge, Lowfields/London road, and places outside the city, like Dore, Totley and Chesterfield. Quite a wide distribution net all in all. And yes, we distribute it ourselves through the Opus Distribution part of the company. We print Now Then with Evolution Print.

Magazine History PowerPoint

If this doesnt work, I may cry.
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If this doesnt work, just click the link and it should open in slideshare

Relivant Audience Theories

v  Audience theories

·         Uses and gratifications

·         Reception theory

·         Obstinate audience theory

           -   Active audience theory

Uses and gratification theory

This theory assumes that members of the audience are not passive, but talk an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their lives, e.g. physically buying the magazine or reading an article on the internet.

The audience is soley responsible for the media that they consume, to meet their needs.

In relation to regional magazines and newspapers, audiences choose themselves whether they involve themselves in regional based media, taking an active part of what’s going on within their community. This can result in positive and negative feedback, depending on each individual and their views on the community around them.

Reception theory

 It is likely that the less shared heritage a reader has with the artist, the less s/he will be able to recognize the intended meaning and it follows that if two readers have vastly different cultural and personal experiences , their reading of a text will vary greatly.

 The reception theory extends the uses and gratifications theory by suggesting that texts can also be chosen depending on the more unchooseable aspects of the viewer (gender, Class, Age, Ethnicity, Sexuality) and to support reasons, the background of the viewer can be a contributor to what they consume.

Obstinate Audience Theory

 'There are three decoding options to obstinate audiences and they are as follows; operating inside dominate code, applying negotiable code and substituting an oppositional code'

Giffen, 2009

  This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media it takes in. it suggests that, as individuals, the audience plays a large part in the way that they influence their message to suit their own beliefs. this means that the audience is able to distort, filter or fail to recognize events that the media present, due to what they mean against their own beliefs.

  -Active Audience Theory

'Different audiences can understand a media message, but can have different responses to it. some people believe and accept the message, others reject it, using knowledge from their own experience or can use processes of logic or other rationals to criticize what is being said'

  Miller and Philo, 2001

Audience research- how audiences are targeted

v  How audiences are targeted

Audiences are often targeted via an example release of the product. Kerrang! Magazine was first published as a supplement to the music newspaper Sounds in the 1980’s, and was soon released due to the peak in purchases within the time frame that it was supplied.

  Some methods may be carried out to target the kind of audience that a company is after, such as focus groups, professional surveys and direct mail questionnaires. These can give the general baseline to where the company will want to take the product, audience wise.

The type of product you are looking for may be determined through these methods, but, as in the case of Kerrang! Magazine, a target audience may be readily available to the company. If this isn't so, and your company is in the stage of designing a product, you may have to look at a few things before hand, via primary research.

Starting questions may include:-

• ·         The gender of your audience- male/female/both?
• ·         Age of audience
• ·         Where do they live? Is this a limiting factor to your plan?
• ·        What do they do for a living?
• ·        How much money do they make? (this can contribute to the price of your product)
• ·        What other aspects of their life matter to your project?

Starting questions will give you the general basis of what your looking for, and in the case of a regional magazine, will help you create an audience specific magazine that will interest them and make them want to purchase your magazine.

Other questions you may have to encounter will be part of the secondary research, such as official statistics of other companies, how many individuals are within the area you want to apply to, and, on extending this, how many of these people are likely to actually buy your magazine? This, again through Kerrang! Had already been set due to the sales that Sounds brought in.

  Other things that company’s would need to think about are outside the general, thinking more specifically towards the individuals.

• ·         Who would influence them to buy your magazine?
• ·         Why would they buy it?
• ·         Why should they choose yours and not your competitions?
• ·         How would your customers prefer to buy

These questions would delve you into the world of marketing that would expand the degree of your consumers.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article.71816

Rowan- 1:525802958- Technology (My Chosen Brief)

Note- Many a day has passed recently that has plagued me with the anticipation (not particularly good anticipation) of creating my Advanced Portfolio blog spot. But here i am, preparing to advance on my grades. Technology has defeated me many a time to reach this feet, but i triumphed,(again, not particularly a good thing) and i am now prepared to take on my next challenge...
 ...Coursework                                                                            

My Brief

Print- The First four pages from an original regional magazine (if done as a group task, each member of the group to produce an individual edition of the magazine, following the same house style), together with two of the two of the following three options

• A radio advertisement for the magazine;
• two hyper-linked pages from the magazine's website;
• a billboard advertisement for the magazine

I have chosen this brief because i feel that i will be able to excel in the demands, and that i feel somewhat familiar with the software and equipment needed to complete these tasks, as it is similar to what i used in my Foundation Portfolio

Aim and challenges- this year, the stakes are higher, and so to create three pieces of media text this year, i will have to become more familiar with the technology included in the process, especially with the radio advertisement.