I have looked into similar products to help develop my ideas and give me some insight on how a magazine should be designed and what it should include for my genre and region.
First of all, I looked at the difference between national and regional magazines. I came to the conclusion that there are many more lifestyle magazines that are for the nation, rather than based in the North East. I discovered that there was none in the genre that I want to focus my magazine on, therefore decided to take inspiration from national magazines but use content about my chosen region. Many national magazines were also a lot more professional and designed in a suitable way to attract my target audience, therefore I need to take this into consideration when beginning to design my front cover, contents and double page spread. Furthermore, national magazines tend to include a lot of information so everyone is interested and has something to read, however my magazine will be area specific, therefore probably a lot more interesting for my readers. Comparing national and regional magazines has really helped me develop my ideas for my own products.
I also researched into national and regional institutions, to decide who the best publishing company would be for my magazine. I found out that many national institutions have large followings, sometimes having up to 3 million readers per month, they also publish many different genres, and types of media, such as films, posters etc. Finding regional institutions for the North East proved rather hard, as there was not many. The ones I did find mainly focused on publishing a couple of magazines, and normally in the same genre. Deciding which institution was also another task, as I realised that national (and international) companies would not have the time to focus on a small regional magazine when publishers like Conde Nast have clientele such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, which are some of the largest fashion magazines in the World. Again, I realised that the institutions in the North East, would not publish my magazine the way I wanted, as they only focused on sporting or cultural magazines. I thought it would be best to create my own institution as LAC Media. I think this would provide me with the best chance of publishing my magazine so it is highly popular in the North East.
Looking into conventions on similar products, again helped me develop my ideas. I first analysed a magazine front cover, contents and double page spread, and found that I must include all conventions as best as possible, to really create a realistic and professional magazine. Therefore, it is important to include things such as barcodes, prices and issue numbers on the front cover; page numbers and mastheads on the contents and double page spreads. I also looked at conventions of a website, and realised how important it is to include a simple web address, and multimedia to attract the audience. Finally, I researched conventions of a billboard, and this really helped me decide ideas for my own billboard and what I should include, as I have never really looked or analysed billboards before. I learned that it is key to keep it simple and effective with one main image and a prominent logo. I will keep this all in mind when designing my products.
In addition, I researched what competition I would have. I found that national magazines such as Vogue and Cosmopolitan, would be my main non region competitors as they include similar content and design. Although I don't have much regional competition, as there is no lifestyle/ fashion magazines that are aimed towards females. The only one likely to be similar is THE CRACK. This is because it may use some content I will be wanting to include.
Overall, looking at similar products and analysing the conventions of the products I will be designing, has definitely helped me understand what I need to do to stand out, and be a professional, regional magazine.
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