Conventions of company magazine covers

Company magazine is published monthly in the UK. It is a fashion, celebrity and life style based magazine. It was first published in 1988 and still going strong today. It is seen to be the UK's version of   Americas Seventeen Magazine.
Here is 5 examples of Company magazine covers,each of these covers are aimed teenage girls. I have studied each one of these cover closely and identified what seem to be the conventions of this genre of magazine. Also things that seem to be common between each of them.

In this issue of September issue of Company the have gone for a very girlie theme. Using lots of pink, which is the main colour associated with girls. They have aimed it for the summer time. We know this because firstly the main model on the cover is dressed in shorts and a cropped top. Also there are many references to summer such as its says Ibiza. Ibiza then has connotations with sun, beaches and holiday makers.   

For this February addition of Company they have used the contrast of light and dark colours. Such as the title of the magazine is in a light yellow this also think to the head band wore by the model on the cover. Whereas the background of the magazine is grey and the majority of the cover lines are in black.On the bottom left hand side of the magazine there os a Puff saying 'shoes'. This is going with the stereotypical view that all females are interested in shoes and fashion.    

In this July issue they have gone for the main colour scheme as blue and red. The colour blue links well to the publishing month as july is summer and in summer there is lots of blue around. For example blue sky and blue seas. On the left third of the magazine they have got a circle of women all dressed in summer clothes, the way they have laid this out links to the sun which is in a circle shape as well. There is also a puff giving offers which brings more attention to the magazine. 

With this October issue of Company they have gone for a very bright vibrant theme. The use of flowers around the edge brighten up the cover also giving it a girlie side, also by having it going down the left third will give it more attention when its son the shelf. There are also more plugs showing more offers for well known high street stores.  The model used for the main image is dress in a large fur coat with high gold heels, this show a more classy side. Also the colours of the clothes are neutral so they don't clash with the colours scheme.

This is another September issue of Company. They have gone for a very bright colour scheme using white and baby blue as the main colours. They have used the same cover line saying 'Ibiza' just like in one of the previous covers. Down the left third of the cover they have used a celebrity name, this gives the reader an insight to the information inside the magazine.

In each of these magazine covers they have many conventions to display this genre. In the majority of these cover there is a celebrity started on the front, this immediately brings in large amount of interest toward the magazine. The same font is used throughout all of Companys magazines, giving it that iconic look.All the models on the font are all female straight away appealing more towards the girls rather than the boys. Also the colours used commonly through each cover are quite bright and colourful and floral patterned, all colours associated with being quite feminine.

Skills Audit

Terminology

Key terms for media studies:

• Sign- The signifier and  signified together are what makes up a sign. 
• Semiotic-The reading and understandings of signs. 
• Signifier-The object we make connections from, the denotation. 
• signified- The things we connect with the image/object, the connotations. 
• Denotation-Is a litteral definition of something. 
• Connotation-What we make links to when we see certain images, e.g. a heart we think of love.
• Cultural Psyche-  Its what you signified and it makes up our identity. 
• Genre- The class or catagary a text is put into e.g. horror, comedy, romance. 
• Masthead- The title of a newspaper or magazine at the head of the front or editorial. 
• Cover line- A short sentence that highlights the magazines contents. 
• Tag Line-A catchphrase or slogan, esp. as used in advertising , or the punchline of a joke.
• Plug- Information about the contents of a magazine or newspaper given on the front cover.
• Puff-Words or phrases on the cover of a magazine to boost its status. 
• Barcode-Strip of bars printed on covers. Used to track sales by retailers
• Alliteration-The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
• Left Third-  Graphics that take up the left third of the screen.

IPC Case Study

'IPC Media is the UK's leading consumer magazine and digital publisher'

IPC have more than 60 iconic brands, they create content for many platforms, it is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom.Connecting with 26m UK adults they are the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher. Doesn't surprise us why they are an award winning company.

IPC are very committed to working in partnership with its consumers, advertisers, business partners and employees They do all this to produce exceptional value. 


                                                                FASHION & BEAUTY

SPORT & LEISURE                                                                                                    TEEN

YOUNG MEN & MUSIC                                                                       women's WEEKLIES

All the publications IPC Media produce

TV ENTERTAINMENT                                                         COUNTRY PURSUITS & 

                                                                                                    EQUESTRIAN

History

The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963. This was from three of the UK's leading magazine publishers coming together, George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications. They got together with the Mirror Group to form the International Publishing Corporation (IPC).  5 years later IPC Magazines was created.

Here are a few pieces of information that happened across the years:

While IPC Media,then IPC Magazines, was formed in 1968, the company's history goes back as far as 1799

The 1800s

• In 1853 launched of the largest newspapers in Europe,The Field
• Eight more IPC Magazines that are still thriving today were launched in the late 1800s - Country Life, Horse&hound, Shooting Times, Yachting World, Amateur Gardening, Cycling Weekly, Amateur Photographer and The Railway Magazine.   

                                                   

The 1900s

• In the early 1900s saw the arrival of three new titles that in many years later became part of IPC Media-Yachting Monthly, Cage Birds and Motor Boat.
• In the 1920s the new monthly Ideal Home was launched by Odhams
• 1969 gave us a  new football weekly - Shoot
•  In 1998 IPC Magazines is sold to Cinven for £860m , one of the largest management buyouts in UK history.
• After the first World War Homes&Gardens became one of the first magazines to be published.

The 2000s

• New name- IPC Magazines is renamed IPC Media in 2000
• The biggest Magazine deal-Time Warner acquires IPC Media for a cool £1.15bn in October 2001
• More brands where made
•  IPC Media develops new digital media brands

The 2010

• Men, Mass-market women and up-market women where the three key audience groups that IPC Media restructured around in January .
• Two new monthly magazines where launched- Style at Home and Goodtoknow Recipes

Structure of the company

IPC Media is constructed into three divisions, IPC Connect, IPC Inspire and IPC Southbank. Also going along side the divisions they have IPC Advertising. This is where clients and agencies can purchase advertising space. 

IPC Connect 

This is the mass market women's division, there magazines are read by 9.4 million.The different brands that it offers all provide a powerful reach.It's split into 6 different genres celebrity and fashion, Lifestyle, Traditional, Real life, Tv and Entertainment and Casual Gaming .

IPC Inspire

This section has 38 different brands coving a wide variety of interests, this is the IPC men's division. The areas which the range in are Country, Shooting, Equestrian, Marine, Sport, Men's Lifestyle, Music, Cycling, Decanter and Technology.  Its most known lines are Country life and The Field as well as Nuts and NME.

IPC South bank

This is the up markets women's division, there are three key areas they focus on. Fashion, Women's Lifestyle and Home Interest. There work includes well known magazines such as Marie Claire.

• What types of magazines and target audiences has IPC been associated with over the years ?

IPC Media aims its audience for Men,mass market women and upmarket women  covering wide range of different magazine genres. The different genres include fashion, Television, Sports and Music. For the interest of the men they have magazines such as World Soccer, Country Life and Nuts. For the Mass Market Women they have Now, Look and Women's Weekly. On the other hand for Upmarket Women they have a  range of magazines from Homes & Gardens to Marie Claire.  

• Why might IPC be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine?

IPC  would be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine because they have there own range of magazines they know whats important to include, what sells and how to make it stand out from the rest. They would also know how to aim it appropriately for a target audience and know what to include to make it successful.

• What sorts of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish? 

IPC already publish a few of there own music magazines so they might go for a different style of genre other than Popular, Modern and Rock. However it does mean that they know that area well and what things sell and what don't. Depends if they want to stick to the same target audience or branch out to something new such as classical or R&B to cover a wider range.

• Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?

Bauer might be more appropriate as they are more of a music based publishers. They publish big and well know magazines such as Kerrang. Which are also cheaper than a lot of IPC magazines, this immediately opens up a wider range of buyers as more people will be able to afford the magazine.

Magazine - Essay

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?  

Magazines don't just present reality, they represent it. They construct our views from what we are reading and how we interpret it. But do we take in the realism of what we are being represented? and that we are just taking in the views of the producers?

Representations can have fundamental effect on personal behavior, this is all through the messages that the magazine construct.

In many magazines they have a very bold ways of presenting the genre of magazine. Because magazines are read internationally what ever they publish will be see and people will be inflected by what they are exposed to, it has a very big influence on many people especially the younger generations.

In britain we read thousands of magazines each day. According to industry data an average of 2,600 magazines are sold every minute in the UK.Telling us how we should look,what we should wear, how to act and whats see as right and wrong. For example lots of trends that have started today have been what people have seen through magazines, and then gone out and copied. By having celebrities in magazines give people role models to be influenced by so they would then start copying them. Celebrities are represented to almost be superior than normal everyday people, a higher status. This is why we have so many ,especially the young, inspiring to be like them.

Magazines are constantly injecting us with there own representations, which we then absorb and then release into how we are in society.
' 78% of teens read magazines '
The majority of teenagers read large amounts of magazines today, this is having huge impact on they way they are acting in modern society. The magazines are portraying images which is showing teenagers what is viewed as acceptable and unacceptable in society. For example its very common now days for many young teenage girls to have insecurities about there appearance. This is from the images they are being shown I'm magazines such as Vogue, Heat, Closer and many more. They see people being criticised if they are abit curvier than before or if they are as skinny as another person, then next theres people being slated for being to skinny. Its sending out mixed messages and signs. Such years ago we had models in magazine who where curvy and that was seen a beautiful, people like Marilyn Monroe. Looking back people felt a lot more comfortable in there own skin and where less image conscious. Nowadays we have models such as kate mosses who are so skinny you can see there bone structure, and its a rarity to see curvy models now. Which has shown why so many younger generations are wary of there 

appearance. As its see that you are only pretty if you are skinny like the people in all the glossy magazines. 

As you look across each of the magazine covers aimed at teenage girls you will notice that the conventions of each magazines are all pretty much based the same.

For example the majority of the models on the front covers are white. Clearly straight away this knocks the confidence of other raced girls out there as they are portraying one type of girl, not showing the diversity of other women out there. It just shows one images and is like that is what you should look like, its forgetting that there is a wide range of different styled girls.

 Magazines portray a very typical out look of girls this can be shown through the color schemes of the magazines. Such as the front pages of all the magazines are all pink ,purple and yellows all giving feminine associations. They don't show a range of colours, this almost brain washes teenage girls into thinking that they have to be the colours to like. Also they tend to use lots of floral prints through out the magazines this connotes the flower being like a girl, flowers being very delicate,sensitive and calm almost saying thats how girls should act.  

As you look through teen magazines you will notice one thing that frequently comes up, ways to help get you a boyfriend. Almost 70% of teenage magazines aimed at girls contain something about getting a boyfriend. ‘5 ways to bag yourself a boyfriend’ ‘say good by to single’ ‘Follows these steps to get yourself a boyfriend’. Girls are being bombarded with headlines telling them to get a boyfriend, this then is putting pressured on young teens to go and find relationships. This then can cause girls to feel insecure about themselves if they don't have one as they could think that it is bad to not have one, that its something to do with how they look or act causing them to change. The effect of this is causing people to become shallow and  that everything is based on appearance. Also it also give a negitive stigma to homosexuals as it only focusing on girls liking boys, ignoring the fact that not all girl like boys. Magazine companies used all these different techniques to get girl to purchase there magazines. They see them as a way to make money, exploiting them 

for there own financial benefit.

I feel that publishers should take more consideration in what they are printing, also to think about the impact it is having on its readers and how its effecting them. Also to use a wider range of diverse factors, such as models and colour schemes.

This is my first post as a blogger

This post is going to tell yo about all the things i can do with blogger and why it will be useful for my coursework.

Things i can do with Blogger

• Add lots of information about myself & life
• I can add pictures of my work and ideas
• Upload my work files
• Create regular posts
• Video clips are easily uploaded
• Add quotes 
• I can customize my blog to how i want it to look

How i think Blogger will be useful for my coursework

• Keep's everything all together and organized 
• Everything is easy accessible 
• I cant update for many different places
• Allows me to make regular updates 
• Post are able to be edited
• Easily view
• Well organized