MOJO Magazine Analysis: Front Cover

Done on the 5^th November 2010

On the front cover of this magazine, a portrait photo has been used. This shot at a medium straight angle. The main feature of the magazine is the singer songwriter Sir Paul McCartney, this photo has been extracted from a photo library as you can see this has been taken during his youth. Sir Paul McCartney has been placed directly in the centre of the front cover of Mojo magazine. He takes up more than half of the page showing that he is the main feature of the magazine. As he is looking directly into the camera it gives off an effect that he is looking directly at the consumer. This effect draws people into purchasing the product. As Sir Paul McCartney is looking through the corner of his eyes consumers get drawn into looking at the bottom corner of the page because consumers would want to know want he is looking at. He has been dressed in a smart black suit and tie; I think this style of dress represents the type of magazine instead of his style. Also I think that it may represent the regular consumers that buy the magazine.

An iconic signs that has been used on the front cover of this magazine is the image of Sir Paul McCartney as the image refers to an actual person; he is an icon of rock music. The image on the front cover of the magazine is important because this is what attracts your audience into purchasing the product. If your cover image is not suitable then the consumers wouldn’t be drawn into buying the magazine. Also the cover image is important because this is what the consumer first sees. In this case the image is more important to newer readers as this will give an insight of what the magazine is about, whereas for regular readers it is the quality of the image and the artist that represents that band. Having ‘Free CD!’ written in the top left corner of the magazine also draws readers attention, as this will be one of the first things the reader will see so this will persuade them to buy it. The sub-headings and smaller images tell us what features inside the magazine. As there are quite a few sub-headings, this makes the front cover look busy. Although the front cover looks busy it seems to have an arranged structure. The masthead is big, bold and white even though the masthead is situated behind the image consumers are still able to recognise the magazine.  The magazine has been laid out so that the main headings are on the left and the sub-headings are on the right; this is because as a western produced magazine we read from left to right so they need put their most important stories of the left so we see it first. The main colours that have been used on the magazine are black, red and white.  They have used black for the background, white for the writing and red for the extra features. These colours symbolise the magazine as being regular, straightforward and simple, also these colours are normally associated with classic rock in most of the western world. As they have used a dark background Sir Paul McCartney’s face contrasts with it, as he is the main feature on the front cover this makes him stand out even more.

Even though Sir McCartney is at the forefront of the magazine the band members are in the background behind him this gives off the impression that Sir Paul McCartney is the main feature in the group. You can tell that the picture of Sir Paul McCartney and his band members are to different images. The image of Sir Paul McCartney’s band members is also from a picture library.

This magazine is produced by Bauer Media, which is a Germany company. The cover price of Mojo magazine is £4.50. This is shown above the barcode in small price. The representational issues that can be identified from the front cover are that this magazine is designed for male consumers as the magazine uses dull colours instead of using bright colours which are usually used for women’s magazines. This magazine has a niche audience, their target audience is 25 and upwards. The language targets the audience as it has been written in Standard English showing that it is maybe for a mature audience. As they advertise their magazine on their website and their website in their magazine this shows cross media promotion. This also shows the different platforms in Bauer Media as it promotes their different Medias on different medium. This is an advantage to the magazines publishers as the cost of advertising in other magazines is high.