Magazine Cover

The magazine cover that I am going to study is of the highly known brand Vibe. It is owned by a man known as Quincy Jones and features mostly hip hop and R&B music. It was a success before it shut down unexpectedly in 2009 although the reason behind this was never fully stated or explained. However is was soon bought by the private investment fund Intermedia Partners who issue double covers quarterly a month with a larger online presence. Its audience is relatively young and are usually urban followers of hip hop culture. Vibe is believed to cover a broader range of interest than its closer competitors who are the source and XXL due to them focusing narrowly on just rap music. Some of the most successful content that was featured in each within magazine includes:

The back page list 20 Questions, Revolutions music reviews and Vibe Confidential, a celebrity gossip column

The front cover points towards the fact that it is suppost to be well known as the singer on the front cover almost covers the two middle letters which suggests that the audience will know what the magazine is without needing to read the title. The letters however are fairly big to probably draw attention to them anyway as you can just work out what the letters spell out and they are white in colour to distinguish that they are important and to stand out against the red darkish background.

The genre of the magazine is clearly shown by the bottom hand corner which advertise where to find that genre of music as well as the main model/singer who is an R&B artist which is again shown by his stereotypical clothes which include the cap to the side, the necklace, tattoos and the leaning posture of the male. This not only promotes the artist but also the magazine as the female audience will buy the magazine from the males attractiveness while the males will buy it because they aspire to by that star who women love. The way that the male is photographed also allows the viewers sight to look at the whole cover as it leads your eyes around the cover.

The title to the left of the magazine draws the audience in as it is a question which the magazine will answer however being the consumer you may wish to find out the answer thus you will need to buy it. The colour is again in white as this promotes the text as important and something that the viewers should focus on. The bar in the bottom left hand corner shows the price and the fact that it is on the front shows that the company are proud of this and shows that they think the price is reasonable for what they want.

The right side is full of teases with various R&B singers mentioned to probably draw the audience in as like I pointed out before the genre is hip hop and R&B so them empathises that fact. Another teaser is shown in a red circle near the top left to draw attention due the bright red colour and shows the mega music issue, this could be a way to try and get the audience/consumer to buy the magazine as it is almost like a bonus type edition and this makes it seem to the diehard fans of the magazine that they need to buy it.