Contents Page Analysis 1 - Q Magazine

Q Contents Page Analysis

Contents pages are designed to inform the reader of what is in the magazine, they make it easier for them to find what they are looking for, and to entice them into specific articles that may be featured in the magazine in that issue.

Here are some examples of how Q does this...

Layout and Design:

The contents page here is linked to the front cover through the house style of the magazine. The main colours are white, black, and red. The look of it is generally very neat, laid out in squared shapes, that fit well together and make both the front cover and the contents page look very organized and professional.

The layout of the contents page consists of several pictures. The largest picture is advertising their feature article, this is the largest to make it the most obvious to the reader, and entice them to read the article. The picture is of a band, who are all looking at the camera, engaging with the reader. As well as this, their name is made obvious, larger and in a different place to the rest of the artist names, making it obvious to the reader that they are featuring this band. Below this is an advertisement for their 'reviews', getting the reader interested, and hoping that it will make them want to continue buying the magazine.

Artists Featured:

There are just 8 artists featured on the contents page, which isn't a lot, however it makes it less overwhelming for the reader than some other magazines where they list many more artists than that. This suggests that Q are trying to not include too much information and keep their readers interested.

Purpose:

The purpose of a contents page is to give the reader an idea of what articles, stories and other information is inside the magazine and what page they can be found on. They make it easier for the reader to find what they are looking for, and to advertise to the reader other products and their featured articles. 

Enticement:

The magazine entices the reader by using pictures and large text to advertise particular features of the magazine. It separates it's feature articles from the other articles by using the large picture, and placing it's page number separately from all the others, this is a persuasive technique because it is showing the reader that this is the article that Q thinks they should be reading, by making it very large and very obvious.