Task 5 (a): Magazine Newsstand

Magazine Newsstand

I visited one of my local Tesco to find a magazine newsstand. The music magazines were placed at a preferred eye-level; therefore it is much easier for the readers to spot a music magazine they want to read. I realised that the magazines were laid out accordingly to their genres, for example Rock music magazine such as ‘Mojo’ and ‘Terrorizer’ were next to each other, while popular music magazine like ‘Q Magazine’ were next to the Rock music magazine to show the competition between them. I also realised that magazines on the bottom part of the newsstand have free gifts such as CD’s so it encourage the buyers to buy their magazines, as many music magazines on the newsstand did not have free gifts. I also realised that popular music magazines are mostly placed in the front, whereas less popular music magazines are placed at the back. This displays that much more recognisable magazines are easier for the buyers to spot the section of where the music magazines is placed on the newsstand. Despite the less popular magazines are placed at the back, however most of the less popular magazine tends to have much bigger and bolder mastheads so at the same time it can catch the attention to the buyers, as most of the buyers would likely buy the popular music magazines as it is recognisable and well-known. The magazine newsstand did not place it over each other however you can clearly see that the rock magazines placed their free gifts on the lower-third left, just in case if other newsagent placed the magazine over each other so the ‘free gifts’ would catch the buyers attention. 

In addition, the magazine newsstand placed the magazine in a full view so the buyers can see how the magazine in general looks like; this is where I also realised the images on the front cover are the main unique selling points, because it is more likely to catch the buyers’ attention, for instant popular magazine like ‘Q Magazines’ uses popular cover star so it can get more buyers. Lastly, for the cover lines most of the magazines use different font’s style and colours to point out the main features that’ll includes inside the magazine, since there is a competition between all the music magazine on the newsstand; therefore, most of the magazine would select a ‘main features’ of their cover lines to persuade and curious the buyers.