Music Magazine Case Study

MOJO

Introduction

MOJO is a monthly published classic rock magazine in Britain. It was first published on 15^th October 1993 (right) by EMAP. Bob Dylan and John Lennon were the pioneering cover stars in order to firmly place the magazine’s classic rock theme. The magazine claims to scour out ‘quality over popularity – music that will stand the test of time’.

The magazine is noted for its detailed analysis of both popular and cult acts. It has been criticised for its recurring coverage of classic rock acts such as The Beatles, but it has covered many newer acts as well.

The magazine has proven very popular with music sensations such as Elton John, who praised it for being “one of the few magazines that really care about music”.

The magazine content

The editorial team try to make every issue of MOJO include: A definitive, book-like cover feature (i.e. you don’t need to read a book on the subject, just this issue of MOJO), a free cover mounted, themed CD, whose content is relevant to the cover feature, and a 30 page plus reviews section, known as ‘Filter’, which focuses on the music of the month.

In 2003, media company Bauer first broadcast MOJO Radio, a radio station based on the magazine. The final broadcast ended with a special instalment of the Editor-In-Chief’s weekly show, ‘MOJO Rocks’, where he reflected on the guests that had previously appeared on the show. The station closed its doors at 7.00pm on 30^th November 2008 in order to save Bauer money.

The magazine has also released many special editions and books, these started with an all-Beatles issue in 1995 to mark the release of The Beatles Anthology. Since then, many special editions have been released in which the entire magazine is dedicated to one particular artist, genre or era. A notable example is the three-part issue which wrote out the story of The Beatles; after their success, they were then collected together and published as a book: The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook The World (left). MOJO have also released a series of short biographies titled ‘MOJO Heroes’ and a short series of books called ‘The MOJO Collection: The Greatest Albums Of All Time’.

In recent days, the magazine has taken to include lists of Top 100s. To celebrate its 150^th Issue, the magazine released a ‘Top 100 Albums of Mojo’s Lifetime’ list. Other lists have covered such topics as drug songs, rock epics, protest songs and the most miserable songs of all time.

The publisher of the magazine

The magazine was originally published by EMAP, but in January 2008 they sold their radio, television and consumer media business to German company Bauer, whereupon they took over the magazine. Bauer also publishes 2 other highly successful music magazines, Q and Kerrang!. In other media, Bauer co-produces several TV channels with Channel 4, such as 4Music and The Box, and Bauer broadcasts several radio stations like Kiss.

The typical reader profile

From all of the information that MOJO have acquired from their readers, they have managed to write a small synopsis about the ‘average’ MOJO reader. MOJO thinks its readers meet these criteria:

Middle aged men, who favour all genres of music to the point of obsession; who have a decent income so they have enough money to comfortably maintain their ever growing library of vinyl, CDs and iTunes downloads which can cover literally any type of music at all; who invite their friends round over the weekend to just sit and chat about music, books and films the whole time; who have been in a band with their friends since their school days; who idolise the likes of Jimmy Page and David Bowie; and who still go to gigs regularly (they have begun to outgrow Glastonbury, but are just as likely to go to a smaller scale concert such as Latitude or Green Man).

Layout trademarks of the magazine

On the cover, the masthead is always centred at the top. The masthead is always either black or white (depending on the theme of the cover) and it is more often than not covered slightly by the main image. The main image on the cover denotes the theme of the rest of the cover (i.e. the colours and fonts are chosen to suit well with the image). If there’s only one person in the image, then their face is always in the exact middle, slightly raised above the centre. The bubble that says ‘free CD!’ is always in the top left-hand corner and the actual CD is always attached to the magazine in the bottom left-hand corner, the case art of which is usually in a similar style to the cover itself.

Inside the magazine, articles are evenly spaced, separated every two or three pages by a full page advertisement, usually a concert of some kind, but also thrown in are pieces of electronic equipment such as DVD players or headsets. On the last few pages, there is a montage of adverts for concerts happening within the next 5 months or so. On the other hand, the first few pages are dedicated to the regulars, which consists of the contents page, a two page in-depth discussion about the free CD, a brief interview with a random celebrity in which they reveal their favourite bands and so on, a two page feedback section titled “Theories, Rants, ETC.” which includes the editor’s notes and a selection of letters and emails from the readers of the magazine, and of course a few full page advertisements as well. The actual ‘content’ of the magazine (the articles and features) doesn’t start until about 10 pages in, then it’s wall-to-wall articles and adverts until the last few pages.

Does the magazine reflect the values of its audience?

Yes, it features terminology and clever puns (in the form of headlines for articles in the ‘Filter’ section which are classic song titles) which only music fans would fully appreciate. The magazine also includes many adverts for small-scale concerts for the target audience who is “likely to head to a smaller-scale shindig”. The articles are written in a style for a slightly older, more intellectual audience, and the organised layout would appeal to such a person as well. The content and design of the magazine wouldn’t necessarily mean an all-male audience, but perhaps the acts that they feature would lean that way more.