Magazine Research

This is the cover of the magazine Metal Hammer, a music magazine devoted to the metal genre and all of its subgenres. This will be the type of magazine that I am going to focus in on for my work.

By looking at several Metal Hammer magazines, and owning some myself, I have noticed that they have a certain colour scheme, which they tend to stick to throughout the magazine, including the front cover. These colours are black, red, yellow and white. They also have a small thunder bolt (similar to the band AC/DC’s logo) that is used as bullet points, or to separate band names. These give me an idea that I should adopt a colour scheme and perhaps some sort of small emblem throughout.

The cover seems to be cramming as many band names on as possible. This helps the reader into briefly viewing what will be inside. Also, the wider the variety of bands, the more likely it is that people will buy it, if they see a band which perhaps is one of their favourites. These are usually put in short, using just the band names, on either the top or the bottom of the cover.

There is always one main band which is being focused in on. The entire front cover will have a picture of the band, or something which represents them (such as an album cover or elaborated logo) covering the entire background; this always includes over the main Metal Hammer title.

Metal Hammer often includes free gifts to encourage the reader to buy the magazines. For example, the two to the left show both have a free CD, and one with a free DVD. Most of them include posters. This month’s (January ’10) include a free CD, set of posters and two dog tags including the name and logo of the main band of the magazine.

When glancing across the magazine, the main things which stand out at the ‘HAMMER’ part of the title, and the main focus bands’ name. This is done by having the title and band name in a red, and the background in a grunge style, in dull colours.

Readership demographics
• Male: 64%
• Average age: 22
• Average annual household income: £22,100

Readership profile
• Readers have been purchasing Metal Hammer for an average of 1 year and 3 months.
• Nu Metal is still the most important music genre amongst readers.
• Adverts in Metal Hammer are shown to be a significant influence on readers' purchasing, with 59% having bought products and/or services advertised in Metal Hammer and 54% have discussed an article or feature with another person.
• 44% tune into Metal Hammer Riot for an average of 2 hours and 46 minutes a week. 46% play the guitar.
• The majority of those engaged in some form of musicianship play for pleasure at home (45%).

Metal Hammer is second in the rock genre market to Kerrang!, but is the leader in Germany. It is the UK leader in metal.