Soap magazine planning / ideas mindmap

1. OCR Media Studies – A2 Level
Unit G324: Advanced
Portfolio
Mind Map and
Research
Generation of Ideas for Ancillary Product 1) –
Name: Asuka Young
Candidate Number: 4149
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
TV Magazine Front Cover

2. Source of Inspiration
My source of inspiration is the Inside Soap magazine, which is published every Tuesday.
This magazine is published by Hearst Magazines UK, which is a company that was
formed when Nat Mags and Hachette Filipacchi Medias UK merged together in 2011.
The contents in this magazine include: interviews with actors where the audiences email questions to ask the actors themselves, and these will be answered in an interview
format. Other sections include: sneak previews, gossip, puzzles, weekly TV guide, event presentation where the readers vote for the best soap actor and actress featured
in this magazine.
In terms of the circulation figures in the second half of 2013, Inside soap was ranked
85th / 100 with a figure of: 147,294, which means that this amount of the magazine
copies is sold in the UK everyday. This is very low in comparison with other soap
magazines such as what’s on TV, which was 7th / 100 with a circulation figure of:
1,051,129, published by ICP Media. Hearst Magazine has a main target audiences women, as there are magazines published which target women mainly, such as : ‘and ‘Good House keeping’.
The total circulation figures of the Inside Soap magazine in 2014 is 136,184, however figures for last year was higher- it has gone down by -4.6. This suggests that the target
Readership nowadays are most likely to be staying at home, engaging in other forms media such as the TV and the internet, so the number of people who goes to stores buy magazines are decreasing. This is why on the other hand, the digital magazine rates are on the rise. Inside Soap Magazine is available on devices such as Ipads and
iPhones, through online music stores such as ITunes.
Source: most information from Wikipedia pages, company websites and
Pressgazette.co.uk and other media journalism websites for figures .

3. Mind Map

8. Mind Map - Conclusion
What I need to do next:
I need to try and purchase a copy of the real ‘InsideSoap’ magazine, in order to have a good sense of it’s
content, structure or layout of pages inside and what sort of language they use in their article. This will be
beneficial to me because I can apply some real life magazine conventions and techniques to my own magazine.
I also have to create some draft magazine cover to explore possible designs and house styles.
What I will need to arrange and prepare:
For the production of my magazine, I need to organise photo shoots for the main image and all other cover line
images (minimum of three images). This includes getting suitable people, arranging times and place of
shooting, and preparing props and what sort of costumes they should wear. I should be very clear with the poses
that they are going to make, so that the shooting will go smoothly without hassle. Other than that, I also need
to look at / download different fonts and font styles for the masthead and the main headline, so that it will fit
to the magazine convention.
What software I will use and why?
My magazine cover will be made using Photoshop, as it is suitable to make a publication where features
are not in particular order, but placed differently on a page. On here I can have many different font styles,
as well as adding shapes and manipulating images. Oh Photoshop, there is also layers which is extremely
useful when it comes to this, and helps me to organise little features and add details to my magazine cover.
Name: Asuka Young
Candidate Number: 4149
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135