PRESS PACK for filmfare magazine

Audience press pack on filmfare magazine( Even though filmfare magazine focuses on movies it also talks about music.It is the only magazine that talks about music along with movies)

FILMFARE :It’s a film magazine that has evolved as an entertainment medium, itself covering the entire gamut of show biz. Every month the colourful and informative guide features Indian movies, music, serials, soaps, Hollywood films and lots more. Filmfare also sponsors the annual Filmfare Awards for excellence in Indian cinema.

Target audience: Both genders but mainly Young audience.

 FILMFARE is a magazine, published every fifteen days in India. It is owned by Worldwide Media, a 50:50 joint venture between BBC Worldwide and The Times Group. It is primarily a film magazine. It is the oldest film magazine in India, just like the awards. Filmfare is known for being the number one entertainment magazine in India. It has also been widely owned by Indians outside of India as well. Filmfare organizes and sponsors the Filmfare Movie Awards for movies in Hindi, and the Filmfare Awards South for movies in the Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu languages. In 2005 Filmfare and Femina, along with several minor brands were split off into a subsidiary. 50% of this subsidiary has been sold to BBC Magazines. Filmfare has changed its look and sections from 2007 to the beginning of 2008. It has gone fortnightly as well. The editor of the magazine is Jitesh Pillai and some article writers include Anurada Choudary, Sanjeeta Angela Kumar, and Faheem.

READERSHIP: THE TIMES OF INDIA GROUP Filmfare: 14, 96,000 every year (2011).

Analysis for Filmfare magazine

• CONTENT: Structure and contents of magazine are well organized and with impeccable matter planning. Areas cover the broadest walks of film industry. The freshness of contents is always well maintained.                                                    FAIRNESS: This magazine is pretty good in terms of fairness. The magazine to a great extent lets us know the real issues associated with the film stars. The best part of the magazine is that it doesn’doesn't create & print baseless.                                                                                                                                    JOURNALISM: The power of journalism is way too strong with Filmfare and more so in today’s changed shape of media where advertising forms the major scheme of things for a media entity. Given that it is the part of the Times Group, it does attract best of the write-ups, interviews & star-attraction. No star can afford to keep away from this magazine. And it does have a pinch of salt in its reporting, which in fact is a necessary ingredient of an entertainment magazine. This magazine’s power & clout attracts best of the advertisement & advertorials to it, which in fact is required to run such a magazine profitably. No doubt with all the ingredients in right quantity this magazine has such a strong reach among the urban populace of India.
• 50. Apart from that the magazine is favourite amongst the people because of the following reasons: Widely circulated film magazine in India with more than 1 lakh subscribers excluding occasional buyers of this magazine. A film magazine for those fans who can’t get enough of stars on the silver screen and want to know about their personal life. Filmfare is probably the only one that maintains a fine balance between the gossip and actual information. Filmfare awards a very smart marketing tool which cannot be missed by anyone.

As filmfare magazine has wide range of audience varying from one target to another. One of the example given for filmfare audience is for example:

                                                                                                                  



As you can see that In UK Filmfare magazine doesn't have its audience pack , you can only find it from Indian, which is not possible for me, as it was hard for me to find out Bollywood music related magazines. I've researched about it in the web and I got some information about the audience pack, this audience profile shows the press pack the Filmfare magazine has. 

magazine newstand tasks

After analysing on how the different genres of magazine are displayed one thing I found about that magazines like movies,music,fashion are always located in the centre of the shelf, depending on the types of shop certain magazine like kerang, mojo,Q, vogue etc are all placed at the top or either in the middle. As you can see in these images that the magazines are stacked on top of each other. As usual the most popular magazine  such as MOJO is at the front, so the whole cover is possible to see it , but behind this is another popular magazine Q since the masthead stands out. On the other hand less popular magazines are placed at the back as in not in centre, and they are in either bottom or down at the end.Meaning only the masthead and teasers are visible. But in this way it determines whether the reader  would pick the most known magazines or the less knowns one. One thing I've noticed here is that in this shop WHSMITH they sometime place the popular ones in the front but it's not that visible to see it, only the masthead. This stretches  the reader in order to see what's the new issue as well as again this proves that popular magazine like Q will always be picked. Furthermore the placement of a music magazine mainly most of the time depends on the main image of its front cover, if it's a female model for instance lady gaga, katy perry,one direction etc then certainly its target audience will defiantly pick up the magazine even if it's not a something new issue because majority of singers are so popular that people would always want to read about them.If magazine has a powerful cover with an attractive model than the magazine will defiantly be sold. Depending on type of seasons stores like summer magazine like pop music will be placed on the top but if it's autumn then it will be placed on the middle. Marketable magazines that are  always being brought has to also offer benefit to the audience to keep the audience in the hang for the nest issue. For example when I took out one of the magazine like

Rollingstone , it had free posters of famous noble musicians like Miley cyrus, free albums of some artists. If I was to buy the magazine then I would have brought it even if it wasn't my preferred  magazine but the free offers that are offered by the magazine would make me want to read about the magazine. Additionally, in these 2nd image you can see  that in the end that if you buy 2 magazine then there's a free CD. This is another technique where the reader gets more choice whether they should buy the popular ones or not.

Genres like classics, blues,electronic music,jazz,opera,reggae and country etc are placed in the middle of the shelf , along with the
 well knows magazines. Genres with Rock, hip pop,pop, R&B, alternative musics,Rock and so on are all displayed in the top or in the middle top depending on which magazine does good or bad sale, such as if a rock magazine did bad last terms they will place it in the top in order to make it more stand out for people to see it. Most of the same genres magazine aren't placed together , they are separated it all apart into different section.
When I was taking pictures of the magazines one thing that really catches my eye is that certain magazines has its own individual shelf like in for mojo magazine, its on the front but its more easy for the audience to take it out, because it's more into the front and easy to see what genre of magazine it is. It's almost like pulling you towards to come and look it since you can see "MOJO" and you feel like what's in there to read. Its draws your attention very effectively making you pick the magazine.

In terms of noticing about the front covers, mastheads or cover lines is that even though the front cover looks great, when you turn towards the contents page you don't feel like reading it because most of the time the contents page doesn't combines greatly with the front cover, it's like the front and the contents page tell you a different stories. FOR instance when I picked up the vibe magazines, what really made me what to read it further is because  of the contents page, it was properly a laid out giving me what the magazine is going to talk about. It was the stories that made me wanted to buy it but sadly the front cover wasn't that effective making me want to buy it. Thus even though the most popular magazine are placed on the top people might put it back because they don't see what's so new to read even if the front cover is amazing, it decreases the chance of picking it up again the magazine next time. Hence sometime when these decreases happen that magazine will be in the middle of the magazine either bottom or at the end.

Mastheads positions in the magazine changes depending on the story or the artist. If the artist is such as Robbie William then the masthead as you can see
will be placed behind the artist this is as he's the main focus of the magazine, as he covered the whole magazine. Robbie is liked by almost every different age audience : young people, older mea and women from 30s onwards . As a result if the artist is hugely famous and well known then it will be something new to read about since these artist have always new story. However next to Q magazine you can see rolling stone magazine: if you didn't who is this person you would never want to waste your money because if you are a pop genre buyer and you wanted to try a different magazine , you see this person you will automatically turn your eye into the less popular sections of magazines. As I said before if you put a handsome or attractive female star then their chance your magazine could be brought but at the same time it's what the story is about. People will pick it up but might put it back depending on what is the new story about them. Therefore a magazine has a lot of competition in making it successful. When I did my external research on what makes a successful magazine, your magazine must have a powerful story, a compelling image and  snappy stories that will make want to read more than the main cover story. It' mainly most of the time the front cove usually but at the same time the contents page. They must both match with it to keep the upbeat of the magazine because when I asked some people about whether the front cover or the contents page made them want to read or buy it: the feedback was similar with yes the front cover is more important yet still the content page should also combine it as if it should benefit the reader more.

This is the whole shelf , I couldn't take the whole other parts of it as the other sections were crowded. Another thing I've never realised is that 30+ people onwards read the other genres and from the morning to afternoon there would be more different genres magazine sold and brought. After school young people will start buying the pop or hip pop magazines. In the weekend there's more different target audiences. It still depends on time such as if its holiday time more people in the afternoon buy the popular ones.




In these images you can see that other genres of music are placed together you can only find them together not separated like the other well known magazines.

The popular magazine as I said before offer more benefit to its reader but  also the less popular ones like in a piano magazine there's a poster of how to learn the particular keys in the piano. But Majority of magazine don't offer because they only want to create the attention for the main cover with its main masthead  or artist. The magazine placings keep changing as which are doing well or less well. And shops like Whsmith or others try to also give a treat if they buy that particular magazine or more than one. In christmas or famous occiasons the down shelf magazine are placed in the bottom and better stories/new issues are shown in all the magazine as it's that particular time where people will buy the magazine more like summer holiday or in christmas.

The magazine distribution methods: 

1) Publishers: They are the institutions that make the magazine. there are many publishers but the 4 most are EMAP BAUER, NATMAG,CONDE NEST AND IPC. The publisher control the way in which the magazine will come out, its editorial content and the managing relationships with advertisements, who bring in about 40 to 100% of the revenue. Circulation figures help publishers to plan how many issues to produce and distribute.

Distribution networks

Each publisher uses a network of distributors, who manage the flow of magazines from the printer to the final newsstand, where the magazine is sold.  Magazines are taken in lorries to regional distributors, who then move these on to the shop / newsstand.  The main shops where magazines are sold are supermarkets or newsagents.

Sale or Return

Sale or Return is the system used by magazine and newspaper distributors with newsstands.  Any copies not sold, are returned to the distributor, with no cost to the retailer. This is a benefit to the retailer as there is no risk or wastage involved, but it is a very wasteful and environmentally damaging system for the publisher / distributor.

Freemiums- direct distribution

An increasingly popular method of distribution today is giving out free issues, or producing freemium magazines. These are typically given out at stations or other busy public locations. These magazines make all their revenue from advertising, so next time you read a freemium magazine, keep an eye out for the number of adverts.

Subscription- postal / electronic

Regular readers of magazines, particularly niche publications, may wish to subscribe to a number of issues, and have the magazine regularly posted to them, usually at a heavily discounted price.  This is easier for the audience, and ensures a regular core readership for the magazine.  Electronic distribution works in a similar way, except the magazine will be delivered to the customer’s inbox, Kindle Fire or iPad / tablet.

Ezines

Ezines are different from magazine websites, in that they are electronic versions of a magazine, with similar features such as pages that can be turned, adverts, page numbers. For music magazines, RWD is a good example. These ezines are usually free, and they will have electronic features such as video clips and hyperlinks that redirect the reader to another source.

Apps

Many mags now have smartphone or iPad apps with some or all of the content available in the hard copy of the magazine. These may be linked via a smart QR code on the front cover of a magazine.

Electronic brand extension

Most magazines now extend their brand with an online presence, for example on social networks Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.  They may also extend into gigs, and other events.

In this image all the some different genres of music are displayed and placed together. But they have more space and clearer to see but it's in the down section reducing the chance in terms of buying it.All the popular magazine have their own distribution like trends on twitter,fb or instragrams nowadays. Apps definatly as well as some music magazine like classic magazine have their own music station. So as a result even if people don't buy it from shops etc, there are still other ways in which the magazine make their own money or at least engage people into reading about their magazine. But one thing is true that if you have a better artist with a  better story that magazine will be brought more often  than the others.

Audience feedback on my college magazine

Audience feedback on my college magazine

In terms of publishing a magazine, my magazine is seen as in general good. For my front cover, I found it easier to use Photoshop because it’s easy to learn and use it quickly; it enabled me to edit properly the main image of the artist in my front cover. But I would have preferred to use Photoshop for my contents page as well. I had many positive viewpoints for my front cover, for example one of my positive feedbacks was that “I really like the overall outcome for your front cover college magazine! The background suits well with the text fonts and styles that you have included on it. Also, you have made the masthead of your front cover appealing to its audiences as you have engaged them.” Another one is “Your front cover looks interesting because of the background you had used and I like how you linked your background colours with the masthead as it makes the masthead stand out clearly because of the black outline. Also the fonts are different sizes shows which is one are more important and that would immediately grabs the audience’s attention which is really good. The main image is well placed as it stands out from the rest of the text. Overall it is an excellent front cover.” And the others were “The background and masthead make it look very creative and appealing. When I scrolled past it, my eye catched it and I could help myself from scrolling back to see what it was.”

In my front cover I only had few coverlines because of the colour of the background and the artist image size. I should have used different background, which would have made my cover brighter and easier to read. In my contents page I had a bit of issue with resizing the images and with the fonts but later I first did a practice of using the fonts and images in a white background, and then I re-did it in my contents page. With the photography I managed to take loads of pics in 2 minutes and I quickly edited it in the computer, so I had no problem with the photography. For my front cover masthead I used the paint software to create it because I didn't wanted to make formal heading as with my background selection, I wanted to make it out stand from the other college magazine, more unique with creative way. on the other hand for my contents page I used the formal fonts from the InDesign, but I layered it bit differently for example with the contents page heading it’s not in a straight line together, the letters are bit separated. For my contents page I used bright colours like yellow, blue and red etc. Since my background is brighter and colourful, and to make sure it matches with it I used all the bright colours. Plus I applied all the colours that are used on the Leyton sixth form college logo in the website.  With Indesign the layouts kept getting separated after every time you add something new, which was a headache for me, so I had to be extra careful when doing new layers. Although in Photoshop I had no problems because I watched in YouTube how to use it and as  I did before ; I did a draft page practice  where I learned how to edit pictures , the layers, effects etc. The reason I didn't do it for Indesign is because thought I knew yet I have forgotten how to use the other tools. But in future I will keep that in mind that I should watch how to use Indesign creatively.

To make my magazine more exclusive and be conspicuous than other college magazine my main puff was “smoking at 16” and I only had few teasers since I want my audience only to focus on the main headline but mistakenly I forgot to put the price for it and I couldn't noticed it because of the background strong colour. I could have put more images in my front cover but I thought it’s better to have one image dominating the whole magazine but I suppose the image in my front cover didn't captured the attention of the audience , its mainly the background that got people’s interest.  As you can see my contents page there are too many teasers (cover stories) except, I sued different colours for both of the teasers: one is about the features and the other one is for student with their work etc. Although I should have separated both of the cover stories and the college tips ; for example putting the feature into the top first and then the other one in the other side. The images also look quite small but if I had more space I would have put more images as images attract more than words.  The layout looks okay from my audience feedback, meaning for me it would catch my audience attention. In addition, the feedbacks for my contents page were good:

“The use of colour you have used in your colour links with the colour you had used in the word 'which I really like. Also I like the way you had used different sort of fonts in your content page to make it stand out from the green background which makes it easier for the readers to see it. Another reason of what went well is the use of different pattern making the page more attractive as there are different patterns focusing in different places. One thing I would recommend you to improve in your content page is the way you had layered out the pictures.
Overall I would say it is a good content page.

Your contents page is extremely unique. The colour scheme is very eye-catching and makes the magazine more interesting as many content pages can be plain and boring. The text is easy to read and the images tie the page together. It's a generally good page: D

Wow, this is an amazing contents page!!! 
I really like the way you have written 'Contents' in the biggest font. It makes it outstanding and it obvious what the title of the page is.
You have chosen different pictures which all tell something different about the college, which is very lovely. It is obvious that your magazine is a college magazine, because of the pictures and the headlines.”

So hence with my front cover and contents page, I have received quite fine comments but as I said before I was trying to make my magazine more artistic but if I used Photoshop for the others I would have done much better with  it from my perspective. Nevertheless the things I could have improved for my front cover was: given the masthead a basic colour, like white or black. It mixes a bit with the background. Before writing up my font I was thinking of doing simple font but then I wanted to challenge myself into more complex way. I wanted to try something different rather than having the typical formal way. And for my contents page were: Use of too much colour and distraction may make your page un-organized and less controlled. The pictures should be parallel to each other and not placed messy on the page. To avoid making people confused about what is going on the page, you should have picked a couple of colours that fit each other, instead of using too many different colours. You could have fit the colours to the pictures, like red, black and blue (for example). Otherwise my audience said that my contents page best thing about is that it’s inviting you into it and certainly it matched with the code and convention of a typical magazine.

My improvement area is on mainly the choice of my background and the using more pictures in contents page to make it more exciting and engaging for the audience.  Making sure that if I'm not sure on anything then I should ask for help, plus making sure that fonts should be clearer to see and understand.

The three key points for development when producing the main task is that making sure that I should have plan my work  for example make a draft work. Use formal fonts and try to keep in mind about my audience choice when I’m doing my contents page.

Contents page

College magazine front cover