Analysis of NME front cover, contents page and double page spread

The NME front cover is very lively and the use of bright colours attracts the target audience towards the magazine. One of the cover lines is featured in a box to the right of the masthead which means buyers of NME will look at this before looking at the smaller, less noticeable cover lines. The lead article in this issue of NME features The Arctic Monkeys. By using a bright red font and a very large font size the feature article stands out from the other cover lines. The NME masthead is very simple, following the spot colour used throughout the magazine of red. The NME masthead is placed very subtlety in the top left hand corner of the magazine front cover. The masthead doesn't particularly stand out from the rest of the magazine, but works well with the layout of the front cover. The cover price for NME is just under the masthead, and also beside the barcode. By placing this on the front cover twice NME are promoting the price of their magazine, and compared to the other music magazines I have analysed this is the cheapest, therefore they are trying to make this easily viewable and increase their readership. This also encourages downmarket people to read their magazine. The cover lines on NME are all rugged and line the bottom of the magazine front cover. The layout for NME's front cover is clear; a medium close up photo takes up the majority of the page and is centred whilst the cover lines and headline are formatted around and over this photo. There is no whitespace on this front cover, and the lack of this makes the magazine look lively and interesting. The front cover also uses different weights of text which adds emphasis to different articles in the magazine.

NME'S contents page is very busy but has quite a lot of white space but because this is spread out over the A4 contents page, it doesn't look like that much to the reader. Each of the main articles in the magazine is in a box, although not very obvious. Each photo on the contents page also has a caption which tells us about the photo and then a description of what we can expect from the article. The captions for each of the photos on the contents page are also quotes from the main body copy on each of these articles. All of the listings on the contents page have text formatted to flush left, apart from the main feature article which is the biggest in the centre of the contents page and has a ragged margin. A variety of fonts have been used on NME's contents page, which adds interest and variety. The main feature article/lead article has been placed in the centre of the contents page with the largest photo which will attract the readers to this first by instinct. The introduction to the page 'inside this week' has used an indentation on the word week to fit the layout of the page better. The masthead of NME is not actually featured on the contents page, however they have used an advertisement in the right corner of the contents page for two reasons, one to remind you that you are reading NME and two to promote their magazine. By seeing this advertisement in such bright colours it makes you think the magazine is aimed at lower class people and this is reinforced by the price of the magazine too. The lead article of the magazine uses a mug shot to advertise it and the majority of the photos featured on the contents page are mug shots or medium close up's. The spot colour of red also features on the contents page of NME. The different weights of text also create an interesting contents page.

The NME double page spread uses an interesting layout and choice of background colour. This double-page spread takes a particular angle on this story about drugs helping someone, and the title suggests that drugs can be positive. The body copy on this double page spread uses a variety of different techniques to make it interesting; it uses a drop cap at the beginning of the story which enhances the look of the story and makes it more interesting and it also uses the magazines spot colour of red for some of the text's colour which also enhances the look of the double page spread. The editors have only included text on one half of the page, and have opted for a visual aid of a photo on the right page of this double page spread. A section of the text has also been placed in a box which highlights this piece of information. There is a small caption at the bottom of the right page of the double page spread giving us a 'quirky' comment about the photo the editors have used. The double page spread uses a delayed drop by not jumping straight into the important part of the story, encouraging readers to carry on reading the article. The main body text is formatted to flush left which is the format many magazines use on their articles. The gutter in between the columns of the main body text isn't very wide however it is enough to distract the reader from reading across all the columns and almost instructs them to read down the columns. This articles intro actually comes immediately under the banner of the article, giving us a short intro about the article. The photo used is a medium close up shot which works well as there is quite a large space to fill on this page. The text on this page is of varying weights, the thicker letters by instinct are the ones the target audience will read first, and hence why the title is bolder than the main body copy.