History and background of magazines and regional magazines

Magazine publishing has been a profitable industry for over 100 years but technological advances, as the article and graphs above show, has changed the face of the industry at different points in time. As you cans see from the graph above digital publishing of magazines seems to be the future and whee profit lies, however, some consumers still prefer to consume texts in printed form. As this is the case I will be making a print version of my regional running magazine and an accompanying digital version to accompany for everyone in my target audience.
In terms of local running magazines there are no competitors(as the screenshot below shows), this is why I am creating my own one for my county as there is an obvious gap in the market in which I could fill to gross a profit.

However, I will need to compete against traditional regional magazines that dominate market share in the area such as Cornwall Today, My Cornwall and Cornwall Life.

I will also need to compete against national running magazines such as Runners World, Running Times and Womens running.

The first regional magazines were released in 1731 in London, where the release of 'The gentleman's Magazine' was released by Edward Cave. Now, it is unusual to see a regional magazine aimed at a specific gender.

Regional Magazines are typically released monthly and contain details on the area, or county they are from. Regional magazines have a purpose to build the knowledge of  people who live in the regional area the magazine is about. You are able to subscribe to regional magazines, just as you are with larger, well known magazines. Because, regional magazines are so specific, they tend to only be released once a month. This is in order to include enough information for the issue. However, this does increase the price of the product. Due to it's niche target audience and how packed full of information the magazine is, on it's monthly release, the price is a lot higher than a weekly published magazine. Regional magazines range between £3.70-£6.00 in price, per monthly issue. Regional magazines don't tend to have a specific gender based audience, however you can usually tell which way each issue sways towards, by the front cover image. It is very unusual for a regional magazine to aim at one specific gender though. Regional magazines can be bought by people all around the country. You do not have to be from that particular region, to read their magazine. Regional magazines are trying to branch out to a wider audience, by selling their magazine outside their region, as well as in it. This enables people who no longer live in this region, to keep  up to date with what is going on in the area.

Advanced Portfolio

I have chosen to create the first four pages from an original regional magazine for my A2 Media Coursework brief, as well as the website and billboard advertisement.I think that this will be a great brief for me as I am very interested in photography and the style of pictures I will be taking for the magazine. I decided to do a website and a billboard advertisement to go with my magazine as I prefer creating visual media. I like the idea of a regional magazine because having lived in cornwall all my life and being very interested in athletics I have many pictures of Cornish athletes. A regional magazine about Cornish athletes will be appealing to locals and attract a wider audience from around the country.

Evaluation

Part one of my evaluation.

Part two of my evaluation.

Final Front Cover

Final Contents Page

Final Double Page Spread

Double Page Spread Progress And Changes

Here you can see my initial idea for my double page spread. Firstly I thought I could put my headline and artist name in the middle of the page and work my article around my model's legs. I kept the model/artists' name in the same marmalade-orange colour used throughout the magazine so far. I did this to keep with the magazine house style. My title and subheading are neat, yet bold to influence the audience to be gentle yet bold.

From this screenshot you can see I have added my article, web address, date and page number. I have also moved my header and artist name to the right of my page. I did this so that when the magazine page is folded in half, you would still be able to read it. This is also why I didn't fit the text around my model's legs, as you wouldn't be able to read the text. It also makes the page neater and easier for the target audience to read. Although this page does not feature any purple, I feel it doesn't need any. This is because it still features the marmalade-orange colour, along with black and white, still keeping with the colour palette. These colours appeal to both males and females in my target audience. However the article is aimed mainly at my female audience.

This is my finished double page spread. I have added a quote in large writing. This is the quote also featured on my front page and it also features within the article. As you can see I have kept the same shade of marmalade-orange throughout. I really like how the page came out and the colours I have used. I also like the fonts and think that having the name and header in different fonts makes them stand out and look different. I changed the artists name to a much clearer font to make the page to better. I feel that this page is my favourite out of the three. I think it represents women as strong, outgoing and proud. This will influence and inspire my target audience of young females to set goals and achieve them. This is aimed perfectly towards my target audience.