Final case study

Case Study

Background Details- First issue was printed in February 1983 as a 16 page black and white magazine, intended as a newsletter for DJs- With the rise of house music, editor/DJ David Seaman turned the newsletter into a magazine which covered all dance music and club culture- Focused on acid house and rave culture within the mid 1990s, then started to focus on the rise of superstar DJs and Ibiza

The mid 1990’s saw Mixmag tending to focus on rave/acid house/electronic dance music culture

In the late 1980’s Mixmag focused on house music/early dance music

Background Details- Nowadays the mag tends to focus on all electronic dance music and aspects of club culture- Has always included cover mount in the form of a CD by a different DJ or artist- Was sold from DMC publishing in mid nineties to EMAP Ltd, and was then bought by Development Hell Ltd in 2005- Development Hell relaunched the magazine in 2006 with a new, revamped design- Sales have risen and fallen throughout the years; the circulation for the year 2011 was approximately 20,000- In 2009 the magazine launched a Brazilian edition

Mixmag Today- Costs £4.50- Released monthly- Calls itself “the world’s biggest selling dance music and clubbing magazine”- Has its own website, and, as stated earlier, a Brazilian version of the magazine- The pages of the magazine present a combination of both images and text, with articles themselves tending to appear text heavy. Nevertheless, the magazine is kept interesting through a use of funky futuristic fonts and bright colours and images which capture the essence of clubbing-The mode of address used is also friendly and colloquial appealing to the reader and signalling genre (i.e. “big tunes”, “club radar”, “party”, “glam”)

Inside Mixmag...

Here we can see that the pages appear text heavy yet manage to stay interesting through a use of vibrant colours and fonts...

Target Audience• Aged around 26 (26 = median age)• 72% male, 28% female• Single, with a high disposable income• First to recommend new songs or fashion trends

to their friends• They are trendy, unique, urban individuals who

are just as in touch with technology as they are with music, aspiring DJ’s

• Tend to spend money on nights out with their mates, on on-trend clothes, music (i.e. vinyl, albums, etc), technology (such as the latest mobile phone/ipod, sound systems, DJ decks, etc)

Content • Album and single reviews, rave/festival

reviews, interviews with artists, a technology section, fashion section, letter page, articles on issues regarding the genre and gig/festival/rave listings are commonly found in Mixmag

• Artists that commonly feature are: Benga, Rusko, Jack Beats, Calvin Harris, Fat Boy Slim, Carl Cox, Skream, Kissy Sell Out

• The Magazine ALWAYS has a cover mount CD, showing just how seriously its readers take their music

Style• The magazine always has a vibrant colour scheme, making it grab

attention easily• Throughout the magazine text and images tend to be set out in

column/row format giving Mixmag a sophisticated, mature feel• The style of the magazine tends to be set out in columns and rows,

with repeated fonts and a spacious layout and the magazine has headers featuring throughout – all these factors help maintain a clear brand identity

• Features different, vibrantly coloured texts and unique and kooky fonts; the magazine is quite text-heavy. Therefore this would keep the reader interested, whilst also creating an edgy, club/rave feel

• The front cover of Mixmag always looks extremely similar with its layout; the main sell line is placed in the middle or top left, with smaller sell lines placed in columns going down on the left and right hand side. The images seem to be of a single artist or model and so it creates brand identity for Mixmag as they either seem to be a DJ in front of a basic background or a model presented in a provocative way.

Bright colours such as yellow, white and blue create a party/club feel to the magazine

The sell lines relate to the genre of dance music and are organized in columns

The front cover is stylish and simplistic; all it has is one main image and text rather than lots going on at the same time, creating a sense of sophistication and maturity

Mode Of Address• The mode of address commonly used by

Mixmag is friendly, trendy and colloquial• It features words that the target audience

would know of and use, signalling the young audience of twenty-somethings

• The mode of address will attract the audience; they will be able to relate to the magazine and will feel as if they have a connection to it

Features words and adjectives which will excite the audience and make them anticipated

Intertextuality is used creating a humorous feel to the magazine - the audience will feel clever that they can recognise this

Mode Of AddressExamples of mode of address include:• “meet the young things that run tings!”• “with our lass in the grass”• “glam, bam, thank you ma’am...how Alison built

her wonderland”• “clubland”• “california screaming”• “every raver should read” • “Britain’s club scene is still killing it”• “..brew of booty bass, gutter house and weirdo

techno”

Ownership• Mixmag was originally published by DMC Publishing,

was then sold to EMAP Ltd, but is now owned by Development Hell Ltd

• Development Hell is an independent media company based in Islington, London

• As well as publishing Mixmag, Development Hell also publish the Mixmag iPad app, the website mixmag.net, Mixmag TV, Mixmag Events and dontstayin.com (“the worlds biggest clubbing social network”)

• Development Hell have also provided consultancy for some of the biggest publishers in Britain and have produced tour brochures‘ for chart topping, international artists.

Ownership Being owned by Development Hell benefits Mixmag in

the following ways...• It owns ‘dontstayin.com’, the world’s largest clubbing

social network, which gives them easy access to clubbers to find out what they want from a magazine and what the current trends are. This allows them to produce a dance mag that is current and relevant for its audience.

• It is an independent company, so it is fresh, edgy and cool.

• It focuses solely on dance and clubbing material without branching out elsewhere. This means they are likely to be experts within this field.

• They are on top of embracing technological change to maximise e-media and cross media synergy.