Q Magazine Analysis

Q Magazine Analysis

 

Q magazine is ‘the biggest UK music magazine’ which covers a range of music genres and is said to have the ‘ARBITER OF TASTE’. The circulation of this magazine is roughly 88,420 between July and December in 2010 according to the Audit Bureau Of Circulations Limited. Also in between July and December of 2010 it was recorded that the magazine had a readership of 473,000. However of this readership 75% of them are male, and 25% were female, collectively they have an average age of 29. Q magazine is distributed monthly, and 97% of there readers rate this magazine as a ‘quality’ magazine, showing that this magazine has reached their target audience and is successful as a media product. In my opinion, I would say that Q magazine’s target audience are quite varied, as the magazine features lots of different types of music, I also think that the target audience are people who perhaps have a high disposable income, and people who want quality and a more sophisticated read, my reason for believing this is because the readers of this magazine are generally older.

The publisher of this magazine is Bauer Media, who are major publishers and also produce magazines like; KERRANG, MOJO and they also have name that aren’t music magazines that they also publish such as; STEAM RAILWAY and MY HORSE. Bauer Media also publish TV, Radio and Web magazines, showing that Q is a very small part in this major Media Outlet.

Q magazine was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, its first issue was published in October 1986, however originally it was called ‘Cue’ (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play) however it was confused with a snooker magazine so it was changed to ‘Q’. The magazine has come a long way since then as the ‘Q’ brand has been extended and now has as Q Radio, with an audience of a staggering 246,000 listeners weekly! Not only that Q magazine also has Q TV, which as an average of 293,000 weekly watchers. Also, www.Qthemusic.com has been launched with 655,000 unique users, 1.8 million page impressions, 18,000 email subscribes and 19,220 followers on twitter. All of this proving that Q is no longer just a magazine, Q is now the brand face for their magazine, TV and internet success.

The mast head itself of Q magazine is a white Q on a red background, which is also placed in the top left hand corner of the magazine. The reason why the Q is in the top left hand corner, I think, is because then when the magazine is in the magazine rack in a supermarket, you can see the red and white Q brand at the top of the front cover. I believe that the background it red because red is the colour that the eye is most attracted to, and I think it standouts compared to most other colours. Also, by having a white Q the two colours, red and white contrast very much.