Analysis of NME Magazine

NME (New Musical Express) is a highly popular weekly music magazine published in the United Kingdom by IPC Media, one of the leading magazine publishers in Great Britain. IPC Media is a subsidiary of Time Inc. whose parent company is leading media conglomerate Time Warner. The magazine itself focuses on the genre of rock and its various sub-genres, whilst seeking to introduce innovative, up and coming bands and artists to its readers.

NME was originally published as a music Newspaper in 1952, taking on the form of a magazine in the 1980s, and has enjoyed enduring success since.

In contrast to many other well-established music magazines, NME often features ground-breaking new artists rather than those with an already well established fan base, as the audience predominantly seeks a world of music which is continuously revolutionised by a constant stream of new artists. This is exemplified below, as NME recently featured psych-rock band Warpaint on the cover of the publication just one week after the release of their debut album 'The Fool'.

Although those who purchase the publication may vary in terms of age, gender, class and status, etc; the perceived target audience for NME is likely to be predominantly male and between the ages of 16-25. This is reflected within the male targeted advertising of products such as Lynx, Wilkinson Sword (below) and sports companies such as Adidas, aswell as the habitual musical advertisements.

Like the music featured, NME also regularly breaks the convention of several columns with images secondary to the text, and images often bleed out rather than concisely fit into frames. This correlates with the youthful, exuberant nature of the magazine and captures the young audiences' attention. Until Krissi Murison, previously music editor at NYLON magazine in New York, was appointed as editor of the publication in mid 2009, the colour of the famous 'NME' logo was unchangingly red, the colour scheme often revolving around this. Upon her arrival as editor, Murison led the magazine to adopt a modernised aesthetic, opting for a more simplistic layout and a logo which changed colour from week to week - often bright and striking in order to attract potential readers.

The contents page of the magazine also follows a simple, clean style, featuring images of only the most important features within.