My magazine is called UNDERGROUND and it is a brand new Hip-Hop magazine

UNDERGROUND is a magazine for the true fan of hip hop, it aspires to include unbiased and critical reviews across all the elements of hip-hop. We also maintain the importance of being up to date and providing exclusive news and in-depth interviews with top artists and producers taking a deeper look into the industry. The readers of UNDERGROUND live hip hop culture; consume music, fashion and lifestyle on a level that defines their personality. The readers are either in clubs, online, onstage, and at shops. UNDERGROUND is the definition of hip-hop, it encompasses all aspects of the genre and relates to the audience on more than just a superficial level.

The main focus of my magazine is to target the younger generation, they would typically be a male, living in the UK, who is interested in the world of hip-hop and the culture that surrounds it, they would be interested in streetwear fashion and news about everything urban.

Looking at my target audience, I had to create a magazine that fulfilled their needs, interests and wants, i did this through the use of cover lines and, the ideas of Blumler and Katz, and AIDA. Some aspects that would attract my target audience are the followimg

Hip-Hop news reviews interviews’ cover line, this tells the reader that my magazine will inform and educate them on the latest in the world of Hip-Hop Music

A$AP and Tyler new single- informs like most other cover lines but also indirectly entertains as it would make reader go listen to the song

Pierre Bourne exclusive tips, this informs my reader but also may reinforce their personal identity, an extreme hip hop fan would also be into creating music and this being included in a mainstream magazine would reinforce that idea

Lots of things on the contents page, would attract lots of readers to read a particular article that interests them

Festivals, talk about how this allows the readers to engage socially with this piece of media and how that it is an important aspect when trying to attract an audience

Hip Hop is a very american genre, talk about how my magazine is attracting a british audience and the ‘UK scene’ reinforces their identity as a british fan in a dominantly american genre

The women cover line, showcases the females in a male dominated genre this reinforces the identity of female hip-hop fans 

Double Page Spread

Long format questions feed reader lots of information, each response is long and well thought out giving the reader exactly want they want 

I believe that my magazine would work well with Time, they have a huge variety of magazines with a large presence in the USA and UK, they also are very diverse with they way they publish their magazines, they have capitalized on the emergence of the internet but have also retained their print magazines to retain the older generation.

My magazine would also fit well into Times’ repertoire of magazines as they have not yet produced a major music magazine so mine would be not competing with others within Time.

My magazine would be attracting modern companies with modern products that appeal to a younger audience. This beats ad is a perfect example of that. Beats has always used marketing extremely well to attract its target audience of young people who are up to date with urban trends. Linking to this, I have also chosen this NIke advert to use in my magazine, Nike has always been a leading brand in hip-hop, many top hip-hop artists are consumers of their products such as shoes and clothing, this influences their fans to also consume Nike products so this advert would fit well into my magazine.

In the digital age many magazines are shifting their distribution to a online biased format, the ability to consume all your media from your own home for free is seemingly superior than having to go to the newsagents or get the weekly issue in the post via a subscription program, therefore for print magazines to survive in the digital world they need to formulate smart and unique ways to attract readers. This could be through the use of freebies, such as CD’s or posters or through the use of higher quality journalism, this option would capitalize on the high quality feel that you can get from a print magazine due to the fact that it costs the reader money, this also ties into the psychological factor that people tend to believe information more if they can see it in their own eyes on paper, an advantage gained by print magazines inadvertently due to the widespread distribution of misinformation online.

However a magazine must adapt to this digital age; this could be through the means of a subscription plan, for a monthly rate, readers get access to the magazine online. This saves the reader money and time on having to go to the newsagents and also allows the reader the choice of print or digital depending on their preference. This freedom will attract more readers as they have more outlets to access the media.