Magazine Research: Contents Pages

Contents Page One

This contents page has a very distinctive colour scheme of red, white and black. This colour scheme is also used on the magazines front cover. At the top of the page there is a banner that has the magazines logo/name on it. It is also clearly labelled contents and has the issue number clearly displayed this all makes the magazine look professional and therefore more appealing to the audience. There is a large image that takes up most of the room on the page.This immediately gets the audiences attention, there is also a large page number in the bottom left hand corner of the image which stands out from the image itself. The image is of a band that is well known and if the audience is flicking through the magazine and sees the image they may be further tempted into buying the magazine.

This contents page obviously spreads onto two pages because of the lack of articles listed. On the left hand side of the page there us a column that is neatly layed out and has a clear heading. This makes it more efficient for the audience to find the article that they want. This column is the featured article column so all the articles that are featured on the front cover etc are going to be here. This makes it even easier for the audience to find the article that they want to read and is very appealing to them. Typically on this contents page there is the page number and the article sitting on a red line with a quick snippet/taster of the article underneath. This professional look is very attractive to the audience which will increase the chances of the audience buying the magazine.

Contents Page Two

This contents page has a column running down the left had side of the page. This column is a band index so that if the audience is looking for information on a particular band then they can find it easily. There is also a masthead at the top of the contents page which has the magazines name/logo there and the words "this week" in white text. There is a black background to this bar/masthead at the top of the contents page so that the text will stand out more, this makes the contents page look more professional which makes it more attractive to the audience. There is also another column along the right hand side of the page that has some of the articles within, all put into different category's to make the page look neatly layed out and more attractive to the audience. For each section of the column is a heading that is in white text and has a black highlighted background. This helps to make the page look more professional. Underneath the headings are the articles, page numbers etc. The page numbers are in red text to make them stand out more. There is then text that gives a brief snippet of the article which also makes the contents page look more professional and therefore makes the audience much more likely to buy it. Also on the far left had side there are arrows pointing to articles that state that they were advertised on the front cover of the magazine. This allows the reader to easily find the article that they may have seen on the front cover and that they are interested in. This accessibility to advertised articles appeals to the audience. There is also an image in the middle of the page that is spilt into two to make it look more professional. Beneath this image is a mini article that gets the readers attention after the large image does. There is than a black box with yellow and white text that advertises subscriptions for the magazine.This makes the magazine look more professional to the audience and therefore more appealing. This contents page is also spread across two pages.