NME’ Front Cover Analysis

New Musical Express (NME) is a British music journalism magazine published since March 1952. It is largely associated with rock, alternative and indie music. An online version of NME, NME.com, was launched in 1996. It became the world's biggest standalone music site, with over seven million users per month. The magazine's paid circulation in the first half of 2014 was 15,830, and has been in long-term decline.Due to continuing poor sales, the magazine will be given away for free from September 2015.

The masthead on this magazine is behind the cover model suggesting they are a well known magazine and that many people would already know which magazine this is without having to see the whole masthead. However, It is not fully behind as more than ¾ of the masthead is shown and this may be done to show the font which I will write about later on.

Also, the issue date is at the very top left along with the writing ‘ Free every Friday’ which means many customers would be attracted by it. This is because on the magazine shelves we can only see the top of the magazine and the fact that is it free would be interesting to many people as everyone would go for cheaper prices, especially if the magazine is for free. Also, the bar-code is not included on this magazine cover because the magazine is free.

The cover model on the front cover is Chris Moyles and the image is a close up/mid shot. It is very close however we can still see his shoulders which makes it a mid-shot. The cover model is tilting his head upwards which suggests he is looking up to the audience but in a goofy way as he looks angry. It almost signifies that he wants the audience to be scared of him.

The main cover lines on this magazine are the only two writings on both sides which is ‘Chris Moyles - Cereal killer’. This is unusual as there are no cover lines. However, it does not look bad because the image is big and it covers most of the space around which does not make it look visually empty.

The skyline of this magazine is not at the top but at the bottom. It writes ‘ The return of the most hated/loved* man on radio.’ This is very eye catching as the audience would want to know why he is the most hated person man on radio. Also at the bottom, it states ‘ *delete as applicable’ which again brings curiosity into the audience’s minds.

There is one puff/flash on this magazine cover which is made to look like a sticker. It writes ‘ Music , Film, Style’ which shows that this magazine features many things. It is not only a music magazine but it also features films and style too. This is an advantage as it means this magazine is high in quantity. However it could also be a disadvantage as many people only want the magazine to feature music related things and not necessarily film and style.

The colour scheme on this magazine also fits the traditional magazine colour scheme where three colours are used. The colours that are used on this front cover are Yellow, white and black. Although these colours might make the magazine cover look blank, the burgundy background puts everything together, and the fact that the yellow puff suits the cereal colour makes the magazine look visually interesting.

The use of font on this magazine is very lively and filling. By filling, I mean without this font the magazine cover would look very blank because there aren't any cover lines. The font on this magazine links to the cereal Chris Moyles is holding as the milk is dripping down from his hands. The font used on this magazine cover is used on the masthead and the main cover line. The bottom part of the font makes the words look like they are dripping, this adds a Gothic and goofy effect as the denotation of this font could also imply blood. As from the cover line, ‘Cereal killer’ is pronounced like ‘Serial killer’ which links to the font used. This is very interesting mysterious.

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