2. Creating a Proposal and Pitch (P1:U3, P2:U3, P2:U21, M1:U3)

Feature.

MAGAZINE PROPOSAL

Creating a Proposal:

Question and answers as it gives a different insight on the artists life. As well as this I can write review articles on new songs and albums as well as write the more common article about the artist. I can also give the readers information that they may be interested in (for example, where the artist may be performing next, or when they are planning to release their newest album).

For the first double page spread I have lined up a front runner artist in the genre, and have planned to do a question and answer style type article as after my research no magazine has written about him like this, which will hopefully create attraction and attention to the magazine.

The reason why I have chosen to inform the reader on these main section is because it will allow the reader to feel immersed in the magazine and it gives the opportunity for the reader to learn new things about their favourite and new artists. By giving off information about the artists such as where to see them live, it could mean that it allows them to interact with the artist more. If my magazine creates an influx of interest around a certain artist that has been written about in the magazine it suggests that the magazine is having an influence over the reader. This would suggest that the magazine is successful and is more likely to be bought again.

Fonts and Colour Scheme

The font “I Am Awake” will be used as the main font for the Mast Head of the magazine as well as the title for the main features of the magazine. I have selected this font as it is bold and in your face, this links well with the genre of music as Grime can be perceived as very in your face. As it is all capitals, it will stand out on the page as well.

The font “Maximum Impact” will be used for the cover lines on the front cover and the features within the magazine. I have used this font as I believe that it stands out as it is bold, solid and easy to read. 

Lastly, the font that I plan to write the articles in is Arial and Arial Black as I believe that the fonts follow the boldness and strict look of the fonts used for the masthead and the cover lines. 

Colour Scheme 

The colour scheme is black, gold and white. The gold represents the underlying genre of bling and jewellery and the black represents the hood, dark nature of the genre. The aim of the look of the magazine is to give the feel of a mature and high end magazine for cheaper prices than the competitors, I feel that this will lift the music genre and although there is a underlying tone of aggression, this mature look of the magazine along with its mature style will hopefully gain more attraction to a more p
eople within the target audience.

Why did I pick the title?

I chose the title Feature as it is something that is very heavily linked to music these days. When an artist releases a record and they have another artist on the song, that other artist is a feature on the track. Originally the magazine was going to be called Feat. as that is how it is written next to songs. But after many discussions there was too much confusion with Feat. As well as this, the magazine also features articles and insides on the top artists and upcoming grime artists. This is another word play as it links to the name of the magazine.

Target Audience 

Who do we aim to sell to?: 

We will focus our magazine for the ages of 17 to 22 as the Grime has a lot of explicit language and adult themes within their music. This would therefore be unethical if we attempted to appeal for too young a population. With a carefully taken survey, we established that by the age of 17 the music genre of grime is more appealing and therefore less harmful to these age group, shown by the graph.

 

For our secondary audience, 23 – 28, we can still appeal to this age as the children have a rub off effect if they listen to the genre themselves a lot.

Our tertiary target audience would be for anyone who likes grime, as there are always people who do not fit into our designated target audience but who still love the genre of music or just enjoy reading the magazine.

Type of people:

As the underlining theme in grime is coming from the streets and building themselves up to where they are today. This is very important for the type of people that will appeal for the magazine. This means that the magazine cannot be the most expensive as the majority of people the genre of music appeals to are not necessarily the best position in life. This is also why I feel like we should make the magazine look mature and high end so that it doesn’t give off the appearance that there is a bad reputation with the music genre.

 Mood-Board

Pricing and Competition

Competition: 

GRMDAILY is the main competition, which provides free information on the Grime music scene. However, it is not a magazine company, they are a Facebook and YouTube channel that show cases new talent and current talent.

There are also various other Magazines that feature a stint in their magazine, such as Fader, however, the gap is there because no magazine solely focuses on Grime and none are based in North London.

There are also various other music magazines, however, none that solely focus on the Grime music industry in the way that we would. This means that there is a clear gap in the market for us to exploit. This presents a great opportunity to be the front runners of the genres music and create a good amount of profit as we will create a great magazine with content that people will want to read.

Pricing:

 

For the individual sales of the magazine the price of the magazine will cost £2.50. The monthly subscription, which will entail 2 issues of the magazine, will cost £4 a month, which is a saving of £1. This will create more of an interest for this policy as the target audience will want to save money. The yearly subscription will offer a bigger saving as well, the cost for the year’s subscription will cost £40.

This is a competitive price compared to the other big known magazines in the market at the moment. For example, a big competitor, Q magazine costs £4.16 per issue, which is almost £2 more than Feature. The year’s subscription costs £54 which is £14 less than feature.

As well as this, if the user would prefer the online version, opposed to the paperback version, this subscription will cost £3.50 a month. The website will be updated more regularly which could create more interest with this format as well.

Distribution:

Where do we plan to sell?

We plan to sell at corner shops, with a limited amount of printed out verisons. We will aslo plan to sell in supermarkets. We also plan to promote the sales of our online subscription first (by making it cheaper than the hardcopy version). The Online editions will contain the same content, however, they will be updated more frequently and will include the little things as well as the big news between the two weeks.
We plan to sell at corner shops as the target audience we are targeting are very prominant on that area where Grime is most listened to. This would therefore make it a great place to sell as the magazine is easily accessible for the target audience. Super markets are a great place to sell as there is generally a lot of activity in them, which will create a higher chance of the magazine being picked up and bought. We plan to promote the online subscription most as it will mean we will be able to save on costs of printing and it is even more accessible for the wider audience.

With Grime coming through the scene on Facebook videos and YouTube videos (such as Stormzy) the online identity of Grime is already very prolific. This will mean that there will be a great chance of the website being a successful addition to the hardcopy addition.

Sketched layout:

This is my orginal sketch for my front cover of the magazines first issue. It clearly shows the title of the magazine "Feature". It states the fonts and positions, however, the colour scheme isn't on the front cover. Where it is coloured in purple that would be a shiny gold that would be rendered on photoshop. Once the photos are taken the main image would sit in the middle and take up the whole page.

 

SWOT analysis

Strengths:

• There is no other magazine in North London like this
• Growing genre of music
• Wide range target audience 
• Easy to attract people

Weaknesses:

• Brand new magazine - unaware if it will be successful

Opportunities:

• Can assert magazine into North London
• Sell in multiple places - corner shops, supermarkets...
• Easy to expand if successful

Threats:

• Already other big music magazines
• Not everyone views the genre of music highly

Resources and Personnel

Resources:

• Camera
• Tri-pod
• Car
• Lighting

Personnel:

• Model/Artist 
• Photographer
• Artistic director
• Chief editor 

Ethical

We will promote our online subscription so that we aim to not need to print and use paper so much to help protect the environment, this is important because of how accessible the internet is today we should try and do everything to protect our enviroment. 
We will do this by making the online subscription cheaper than the hard copy version so that it becomes more appealing.  As well as this it makes sure that we stay with the modern times, that we are destroying more trees than planting, and it would be a waste for this. We will offer had copy versions to subscribers only, this means that we will not waste printed versions.

I also have to make sure that I pass the accessibility test so that I am able to have everyone read the magazine, online or hard copy. This means that I am not excluding anyone from reading the magazine and it means I do not have the legal issues.
I can make sure that this does not create a problem by making sure that the tone of the masthead and other colours do not bleed into the back round colour so that it passes the colour blind test.

Legal issues

One legal issue that I would have to deal with is making sure that I have permission to use the artists on my front covers and in my magazine. If I do not get permission the magaizne could be sued and it would create a bad name over the magazine and could cause it to fail. I will get round this by making sure that I have all the model release form before the shoot takes place, this will also mean that I can edit the photos with out having to worry about problems.
As well as this, the magazine articles will be written by employees with a zero tolerance for plagiarism in the content that they produce. This will abloish any chances of braking the copyright law. The wirtters will also make sure that everything they write about will be 100% factual and will not an not make any statements that I can not back and that are not true as it is also unethical to portray the artist in a way that they are not.
I will ensure this does not happen by making sure that other people work is not copied and is 100% factual based off the information we have to us and that is found out in the interviews we conduct before we write the aritcles.

Marketing methods

I will market my product through social media, as it is free and in todays world almost everyone has social media accessible to them, which means that it has a very wide reach which is useful for a brand new magazine. It will also be easier to market for my target audience. As well as this I will get my first article artist to use their branding to promote the magazine through their social media.

As well I will send some free copies to reviewers to promote and show off the magazine. If I send the magazine to big enough companies, then it would allow for free promotions which would help the magazine receive a bigger reach.

I have decided to use digital marketing  because of how big its reach is, this would hopefully mean that it would reach a lot more people and they would be interested in purchasing the magazine. By promoting through digital media it is cost affective for a new magazine brand as it is relatively cheap to promote through social media. It also shows that the company is up to date with modern society as almost everyone is on social media these days.
I would also use the free promotions of reviews as it will also have a reach as people use the reviews to make their decisions if they bother with magazines or not. As well as this they have to inform us on what they publish before they do, so this could also be a good chance to make any adjustments needed before we release to the general public.