My magazine ideas Jamie Long Here, I will come up with some of my own ideas for my magazine. I will think about the style, audience, genre and content that it will include. After creating three ideas that I am happy with, I will then fully analyse them to compare their strengths and weaknesses before deciding on my final idea for this project. My magazine ideas Jamie Long

Idea 1 Home Style My first idea is to create a magazine based around decorating your home. During my content and cover research. Home décor is a rising trend with people wanting to have beautifully designed and comfortable homes. This can prove expensive, though, and therefore I could aim to find the latest trends and the cheapest prices for an audience who may be willing to pay the least amount of money to decorate their homes. The great thing about creating a home magazine is that I would not be limited in what I can talk about. For example, I can talk about how to decorate your; bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen, dining room and even how to create a beautifully landscaped garden or inviting front garden. The downside to me creating a magazine of this style is that although I have an eye for detail and understand the latest trends on art décor, I feel that I would not be suited to create a full article on a specific topic within the house. On the other hand, I could create an article on the latest ‘home décor bargains’ and base the text content on factual information, including what the items can be used for and where they can be bought from. Below are some home magazines that I like the look of and could take information from, should I go ahead with this idea. http://www.home.co.uk/guides/ideal_home_magazine.htm Ideal Home Cover [ONLINE] Last Accessed: 29/09/2016 http://thedailyrecord.com/2011/02/24/luxury-home-magazines-get-facelifts/ Daily Record [ONLINE] Last Accessed: 29/09/2016

SWOT Home Mag Strengths Threats Weaknesses Opportunities - A keen eye for detail when it comes to choosing the best looking décor. Motivated in terms of fixing a great idea and sticking to it. Good flare for writing, this could help me create professional content. Competitors in the market with clear and identifiable brands that are already popular and professional such as ‘Home Magazine’ There are television shows and online websites that focus on cheaper décor for the home, these are a threat because they are mostly available for free. Strengths Threats Home Mag Weaknesses Opportunities - Not as strong as a subject compared to my other ideas, my knowledge is relatively limited. Fewer magazines of this genre versus other competition. examples Potentially lots of ideas for the different rooms of the home. Home décor companies can advertise their products in this specially tailored magazine.

Idea 2 Fashion One of the biggest and most popular current trends is fashion. It is hard to escape from. Advertisements on television, billboards, magazines and shop windows; fashion is one of the leading trends that help us to define ourselves. Fashion helps us to make a statement and show who we are as people, with endless choices of what you can wear. Fashion is a highly competitive market but from my research I came to realise that there are relatively fewer magazines that show off cheaper ‘high-street’ fashion. Many of the magazines in the market talk about the expensive branded clothing that, simply, many people cannot afford. I would propose a magazine that focuses entirely on affordable fashion, the latest sales and bargains as well as how to look good for less. I feel that this would be well received by those who are not willing to pay extortionate prices for clothing. The downside to this idea is that this subject is highly competitive and I am slightly unsure whether there is any room in the market for yet another fashion magazine. On the other hand I do feel like there is the need for an alternative fashion magazine that focuses on affordable fashion, therefore it would be important to create a magazine with a unique selling point that goes above and beyond what already exists in the market place. Below are some home magazines that I like the look of and could take information from, should I go ahead with this idea. http://www.out.com/popnography/2016/2/10/justin-bieber-covers-gq-magazine Online – Out.com Last Accessed: 21/09/2016 https://uk.pinterest.com/KateTshipelo/vogue-magazine-covers/ Online – Pinterest Last Accessed 29/09/2016

swot - There are A LOT of fashion magazines in the market meaning that I need to create a professional magazine that would be ready to compete against others in the area. This is why I thought of doing a high street / cheaper fashion magazine compared to the famous high end fashion magazines. Many magazines focus on high – end fashion and tend to target an audience with more disposable income. I think it would be great to target an audience with less disposable income and focus on high-street, but yet good quality fashion. Fashion Mag I feel that my magazine would be best suited to females and this means that I would have to research lots of information about women's high-street fashion as I only particularly understand men's high street fashion. Fashion is a keen interest in many young people who take pride in their clothing. I can take real life fashion ideas from those in my target audience for certain features in my magazine.

Idea 3 Lifestyle / Celebrity Constantly trending on social media are Celebrities. We have grown to love or hate certain celebrities and most of us enjoy the fact that we can know the latest gossip. We like to be nosey, we like to know what is happening in the lives of our favourite celebrities and that is why lifestyle magazines take up a large percentage of the market. As soon as you head onto social media you are bombarded by celebrity stories; the same goes when you turn the television on or even sometimes the radio! Celebrity lifestyle has become more appealing to magazine audiences. As well as the latest celebrity stories, I would propose the idea of finding real life shocking stories, not just negative but also positive. Rather than the latest scandals, I would focus on the good things that are happening as this is where there seems to be more of a gap in the market. OK! Magazine and other UK leading celebrity and lifestyle magazines specifically target women and I would continue this trend throughout my own project. Below are some home magazines that I like the look of and could take information from, should I go ahead with this idea. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/02/16/jake-wood-heat-magazine-weird-crush-winners-list-2015_n_6691820.html Heat Magazine Cover – Huffington Post [ONLINE] Last Accessed 29/09/2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK! OK Magazine Cover [ONLINE] Last Accessed 29/09/2016

swot Celebrity / Lifestyle Magazine I have a keen interest in the latest showbiz and celebrity stories and would find it easy to write about the latest stories in detail with my keen knowledge in the area. There are always lots of stories surrounding the lifestyle of celebrities Celebrity and lifestyle magazines are highly competitive. You can walk into a supermarket and instantly see dozens of celebrity magazines, I feel that it would be hard to compete against these. Celebrity / Lifestyle  Magazine Celebrity stories are constantly updating, so before a story is even finished in production, the story may develop further or another breaking news story may arise. Due to the amount of stories, there is always something to write about. The online networking through social media would mean that it can be constantly updated with the latest developments.

My final idea After conducting a SWOT analysis of each idea, I feel like my strongest idea is the fashion magazine. I feel that there are A LOT of fashion magazines, but these all seem to focus on the high-end, designer fashion. I want to really focus my magazine on high-street fashion that is affordable to an audience with less disposable income. I feel that I can produce some good content and create a strong magazine that appeals to a specific audience. I have a younger audience in mind; an audience that may have less disposable income to spend on clothing, but this is something that I will research in the next step of my magazine research. To ensure that my idea reaches a specific audience, I will conduct some research, both primary and secondary. This will be my next step. It is important that I now go ahead and conduct audience research to find my core target demographic and also ensure that I produce relative and engaging content for the audience that will be reading the magazine. A target and relative/engaging content is the most important part, in my opinion, of creating my magazine. Once I have researched my idea and come up with a clearer design for my magazine, I will then justify my idea to show that I have a strong final product in mind.