Research on Contemporary Magazine Front Covers

Below is some anaylsis of what is on each front cover. I have researched magazines from different genres - not just the music industry.

Research on Contemporary Magazines

NME magazine Front Cover

NME is a popular contemporary UK music magazine, above is the front cover I have analyzed, in order to make appropriate decisions when I come to design the front cover of my music magazine. The front page seems to be very simple, and there is not a great deal of images or story headliners that would grab the potential audience’s attention.
However, I understand that NME are “re branding” their image and this front cover is the first of their “new look”. Interestingly NME have designed 10 separate front covers for the same week, as a special for their new image.
On this exposed front page, there is a single image of a celebrity male singer – Jack White who is seated in the centre of the page. His name is in a large font, with a quote in smaller font below. The colours of the text are black, although is broken up by altering text sizes, and boldness. The title of the magazine is in a large bold, yellow font at the top left of the page, with some of the main image overlapping the text. The price and date are in small print at the top left of the page, this maybe because the price shouldn’t be important, and neither is the date – as newsagents will only shelf the latest copy of the magazine at one time. The background cover of the page is white mixed with grey, it gives of a trouble-free vibe which I find refreshing compared to the majority of celebrity magazines which are very busy and colorful, often stories about celebrity misfortunes.


Kerrang magazine Front Cover

Kerrang is a UK contemporary music magazine, specifying in the Rock genre. The name of the magazine “Kerrang” is onomatopoeia for the sound rock music makes - this I like.
The main image is lead singer of rock band Paramore, Hayley. She is framed by the other headliner stories and images on the magazine which all revolve around her image.
At the very top of the page is bold bulletin showing there are VIP tickets to be won via Kerrang. There is no information on this, and will make potential audiences pick up the magazine to read it, and find out more.
At the top of the page is the magazine name “Kerrang”, which has been edited to make it look torn and hacked.
Down the left side of the page are 3 images that show what is inside the magazine, such as album reviews and interviews with rock stars.
There are several stories on the front page, which contrasts with the 1 story NME has on its front page. All font is either black, white or yellow. Again however, the text on the bottom of the page looks roughed up, or scratched. Like the other magazine front covers, there is the bar code, date and price on the page – situated in the bottom right corner, in relatively small font.
At the very bottom of the page is another quick bulletin with a “Plus!” which leads on to 6 or 7 different names mentioned which indicates interviews or reviews.

Inside Soap Magazine Front Cover

The front cover is instantly very bright and busy, and includes an array of different colours and font sizes. The name of the magazine font size and colour are instantly recognizable, as this is a permanent feature of the magazine every week.
The main story is about pregnancy in Eastenders, and includes images of the potential mothers with a question (“Who’s Pregnant”) in a large font and garish colour.
The layout follows a similar pattern weekly also, as there is a main headline story in the centre of the page, with 3 other stories at the bottom of the page – quite effectively laid out. This is because one story in bordered by a circle, and the other two are bordered by a horizontal line. I find this very effective and interesting, as it is another way of decorating the page, without using excess colour and font styles and sizes.
As with the contemporary music magazines “Kerrang” and “NME” Inside Soap includes the date, barcode and price in smaller font on the page. Similarly to Kerrang, at the bottom of the Inside Soap page is a bulletin with an “EXCLUSIVE!” which leads to a story about soap’s biggest star.

Heat Magazine Front Cover

Heat is a celebrity magazine, targeted at a different audience than that of music magazines NME and Kerrang. I have chosen to research into this magazine as the audience is different, I have found that there is no music magazine which is music based which writes about mainstream pop and RnB music, NME and Kerrang - the leading magazines include mainly about rock and indie music.
Heat magazine like all the magazines I have looked at includes a recognizable name font and colour. The colours are similar to the inside soap magazine, being yellow, pink, black, white and red. Also is a variety of text fonts and sizes, with some text on a slant. All this font enhancement creates a busy and exciting look, which entices customers to buy the magazine. Also, the celebrity magazine industry is very competitive, and therefore each magazine must stand out of the shelf.
Alike all the magazines there is a main story on the front page – in the middle and has the largest font attached.
Interestingly, above the main story are 2 sub stories which are in boxes, which is different to how inside soap presented the sub stories in circles and diagonal shapes.

Closer Magazine

Closer magazine is typically targeted at women. That may explain the colour scheme and that all the stories featured on the front page are about women. I have chosen to look at Closer magazine because I think that there isn’t a music magazine featured at this audience as the music magazines that I have come across are generally aimed at the teenage rock culture. I have found by analyzing the front page that there are some similarities to other women’s weekly magazine “Heat”. Such as the magazine sum up, “Celebs + Real Life + Fashion + TV”, heats magazine definition on the front page is “This week’s hottest celebrity news”. Other items on the front page such as the date, barcode and price are generally necessary items and are featured on all of the magazines I have looked at. The main story is the focus of the page, with other stories surrounding it, this is also a common feature on all of the magazine I have looked at. Similarly most of the magazines include a quote from an interview from either the main story or one of the additional stories. This seems to be a marketing ploy, so once the reader has read the quote – they are then enticed into buying the magazine to read the full story. Unlike the other magazines Closer includes a “bubble” at the bottom of the page, including a story. I thought this a funny place to put the bubble as I thought it would probably look best in a corner. However, I think it is in the middle because there are two cover stories, so the bubble in the middle would balance the page. However, Kerrang magazine have included a film real to contain a story in the bottom left of the page, I think that this is interesting when looking at the page because it is more than just a box with a title then a picture.

From this research

I have looked at several magazine front covers, from different genres and have found some similarities and differences between them.
All the magazines I studied included a bar code, date and price; this is something that I will have to include on my front cover to make it look legitimate. I also found that the title of the magazine on all the covers is situated in the top left corner of the page, and is consistently the same. This makes the magazine easily identifiable.
However, there are clear differences between the music magazines NME and Kerrang, and Inside Soap and Heat. The latter two are specifically aimed at a different audience, being predominantly women and most likely housewives -whereas NME and Kerrang are for the younger more “retro” audience. The differences are identifiable as colours are much simpler in the music magazines. The music magazines include one main image, whereas the soap and celebrity magazines contain many more, especially inside soap, where 5 large images dominate the front page. This is something I have been influenced to include in my music magazine, lots of images and lots of colour on the front page of my music magazine. I think that as I have chosen to create a magazine about mainstream Pop music, the magazine will be closely linked to the soap and celebrity magazines, rather than the alternative music magazines, simply because of the similarities of the audience I intend my music magazine to reach out to.


As I have not only looked at music magazines, but also women’s weekly’s and a soap magazine I can make much more justified decisions when I come to create the front page to my music magazine. This is because I can consider a variety of audiences and different techniques each magazine has used to entice their audience. The biggest difference I have found between the music magazines and the women’s weekly magazines is the colour scheme. All but this and the magazines are relatively similar, including a main story, quotes and captions, pictures and an exclusive bulletin at the bottom of the page. From this research I can gather that the audiences are different which results in the difference of colour, and the type of stories included. I have found that mainstream pop is not really reported heavily in either magazines, mainstream singers such as Cheryl Cole is not giving interviews about new albums, but about personal lives in Closer and heat magazines. Similarly in the music magazines, the target audience are not concerned about mainstream pop and therefore stories about this is not reported, it’s all rock and metal. Therefore I have decided that my music magazine will target a more mainstream audience including issues about music by mainstream artists.eH