Contents Page Analysis 2

This contents page from NME is not very recent, it’s from about 2010 and the layout has since evolved. NME’s contents page is conventionally easy to navigate and provides information on most of the magazines content.  

Much like a front cover, contents pages conventionally use a colour code – here the uniform colours are red, black, and white. These tend to stay the same colours in every issue as opposed to the front cover. The contents page is the first page inside the magazine and therefore needs maximum brand association (logo, colours, images that only NME are capable of getting etc.). This is to provide an optimum preview of the issue for the consumer and for them to learn the brand. Yellow is also used as it is not a uniform colour of the magazine, therefore stands out more in order to advertise about the subscription offer. The ad is placed here because the consumer is shown a list if bands features in the magazine, which implies excellence and exclusivity to the consumer, and they are therefore positioned to subscribe to then have access to a good variety of music news every week, for a reduced price. This also gives NME a USP (unique selling point) that attracts readers from their desired demographic.

The logo is placed at the top left so it is the first thing, after the image that the eye is drawn to. Apart from the logo and title the page also makes use of a coverline in relation to the pages main image. This is to excite the audience about what the magazine contains. An image is used to fill space on this page and to show the full up close experience to bands that NME has to offer. Subtitles are used to make the page navigation even easier and quicker to look to for reference. The use of the band index is unconventional for music magazines however NME used this for a long time to again help the consumer and imply their place within the centre of the industry. The length of the index also creates the ideology that NME have access to almost every band of the genres concerned because if its length. This is highlighted with a red box to connote stop and attract attention. This sign of red is repeated at the bottom right corner where the magazine plugs its no. 1 position for gig guides.

The black on white is a juxtaposition and is effective for titles, subtitles and the date as the audience are told this information is needed to understand context, however by not using a bright colour it is not represented as being of highest importance on the page. This is another reason why the advert and plug uses brighter colours that pop from the page.

The typography is also unique to NME; they tend to use capitols for the preview line by each page number. They also make the title ‘This Week’ larger than the logo; this position the audience to believe that the week’s news is more important than the brand and creates the ideology that NME is truly ‘serving the people’. The text under the image is also unique as italics are used for the unimportant, but necessary, half of the sentence before the bands name and event. However use of “the moment that” further implies NME’s up close position and exclusivity – it implies they never miss a moment in music.