Q - 'discover great music'

HISTORY
Q was first published in October 1986, automatically setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher photography and printing standards. When starting out the magazine was sub-titled 'The modern guide to music and more', but this later changed to its now 'Discover great music'. It was originally going to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed in oder to avoid confusision for a snooker magazine. Another reason which was ucovered in Q's 200th edition is that a single letter title would appear more prominent on newsstands.


TYPICAL CONTENT

The typical cover on Q is quite similar to that of NME's. There will be a main artist - although on some issues there is more than one or not even a person - this will be accompanied by the artists name being the most prominent word on the page, excluding the 'Q' of course. Also alike with NME is the changing colour scheme taken from the main image. For example on the issue above the blue colour scheme is taken from Florence's eye make-up. The colour scheme will normally have only one extra colour added to it as issue will usually comply with the red and white colour scheme first and foremost.
The typical Q issue will use around 150 pages but this may change with special/limited editions. Many artists including Adele, The Kings of Leon, The Killers, Madonna and loads more. The issue will start with the 'Q Contents' followed by its monthly features that are all subbed at the beginning with Q. These features include things such as 'QNow' and 'QLive'. There will be some recent music news and then feature articles on special stars for each different magazine. The magazine will often include things with statistics such as in the most recent issue 'The Superbowl in Numbers'.
The page layout within the magazine is fairly consistent, the red and white colour scheme is carried throughout the magazine with a different colour featured on various pages. The Q is also very often featured on various pages.


TYPICAL READER
Using the national readership survey tells us that between October 2010 and September 2011 we can see that 476,000 people brought the magazine. Like for NME this will only show the amount of people that brought the magazine apposed to how many that would have actually read it as more people than the one that brought it are likely to have read it. As with NME you can also see the percentage of men and women that buy it, by this we see that 0.9% more of the male population buy the magazine as opposed to women. This seems like a believable statistic as Q is quite targeted at the male population and you can see this on the cover and throughout. For the most part, readers of ‘Q’ will be fans of indie or alternative genres of music, because this is the genre that the magazine mostly writes about. Although quite often Q will feature artists such as Rhianna or Lady Gaga who would fit more under the 'pop' genre.


HOUSESTYLE
Q is an instantly recognisable magazine by its large red and white developed logo. This is always found in the top left corner although it may sometimes be slightly covered by the main cover image. Q is not only a magazine now but a household brand, with a successful website, hosting many TV events and having many links with charitable organisations. The cover will usually host a main artist or sometimes even film stars or a special edition cover.


PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION
Q is published monthly by Bauer Media Group. Brauer is a german publishing company which operates in 15 countries worldwide. There magazine circulations amounts to around 38 million magazines a week. Brauer owns two media brands Q and Kerrang which are both heavily based around alterntive/rock music. Their publishing brands consist of women's weekly magazines; namely Bella and Take A Break. And also TV listing magazines such as TVChoice and Total TVGuide.


SOCIAL GROUP REPRESENTATION
Q shows a softer side of some artists and presents a new look at the music industry. With its quite frequent use of statistics and ratio graphs it presents the Indie genre as an intellectual and logical one. Reading the words in the magazine allows you too see its very often use of sarcasm; a widely used form of wit. This creates some humour in the magazine giving it the 'softer' side compared to NME.


ANYTHING INTERESTING?
The title dropped 10, 718 in the 12 months to December 2011, sliding 12.1% from 88,240 to 77,522. Q magazine is feeling the credit crunch like everyone else..