Investigation of two magazines

NME
NME (New Musical Express) is a weekly music magazine, published in the UK since the 1950s. It became a best selling magazine in the 1970's and has constantly developed since. It covers a range of music from indie music, rock and drum n bass - mainly the popular bands on the "alternative" scene. Pop/chart music is occasionally covered in the form of reviews and news sections which inform the reader of new talented artists, and new music products being on sale such as albums.

The magazine itself has a wide range of content. It includes:
• Reviews on live performances (gigs or festivals)
• Articles about musicians
• Interviews with musicians
• Reviews on songs, albums and music videos
• Music festival information and ticket opportunities
• A wide range of photographs (full page photographs which act as posters for the reader, photographs from live performances, photographs of products such as album covers and photographs of the musicians included in the articles)

As a successful and profitable business, NME has widely expanded. As well as the material magazine that is available to buy in shops, they have developed a successful internet website (NME.com), a radio station, an online store to buy musical memorabilia and a popular music tour which includes the popular acts that are usually covered in the magazine.

Language – The style of the writing in NME is very much adapted for its target audience – adolescents and adults who are particularly interested in certain genres of music. The language is used is casual and careless sounding, giving it a ‘young, edgy’ vibe and uses also expletives.
“In a world drowning in musical disinformation we're shit–shovelling Vikings, clearing the path for your festivals of wine and song.” < A line from the magazine gives an idea of the style of journalism in this magazine. There is also a mention of alcohol and festivals, which many of the readers will identify with as a young adult lifestyle.


Vogue

Vogue is one of the world’s most popular and successful fashion magazines. Published by Condé Nast Publications once a month in 18 national versions, it covers a range of topic from fashion, to lifestyle and design. Founded by Arthur Baldwin Turnure in 1892,the magazine is a huge part of the fashion world, giving fame to models, designers and celebrities and covering a wide variety of fashion based topics, such as information on the latest trends, news from the latest catwalks and lifestyle articles.

Vogue sells for £3.40 per issue, and covers mostly high end, expensive clothing, therefore is generally read by female readers who are particularly interested in fashion. Many upper class women are targeted by the magazine as it often gives advice on shopping in shops such as Harrods. However, young women especially interested in fashion are a large fan base. The magazine has created a popular website which includes many of the features of the magazine, as well as photographs from a large number of catwalk shows from the world’s most prestigious designers.

The magazine makes very good use of advertising opportunities; in some issues, approximately half of the pages in the magazine are full sized advertisements from companies such as Chanel, Calvin Klein and Moschino. This is clearly very profitable for the magazine, and also increases it’s ‘high end’ edge, as these advertisements are shot by well known and talented photographers using very successful models.
Its house style could be said to be very sophisticated. Contrasting against those of music magazines, its style is simple and feminine, attracting attention to the many fashion photographs and long articles.