Criteria Grid

Criteria	Must have?	Could have?	Where seen	How I will use it	Intended impact
House Style			All magazines	Through the research I have done, I have realised that every big magazine has a certain house style they stick to. This helps the audience identify the magazines since they would be used to seeing the house style in the same format the magazine has used multiple times.	Doing this will get my audience to associate my house style with my magazine only. This will give the impression that my magazine is professional as it sticks to its house style and doesn’t change to confuse my audience.
Masthead			All magazines	My masthead will always be on the top since that is the conventional place to place a masthead from what I’ve seen through my research in metal magazines.	My masthead will contain the name of my magazine. I intend to catch the customers eye with a catchy font and a name that is short and sweet since names like these usually stick in the customer’s head.
Centre of visual interest (CVI)			All magazines	From my research, all of the magazines have a CVI, whether it’s a celebrity, band etc. This means that it is a very conventional thing to have in a magazine, especially a music magazine since customers could be attracted to the magazines if they see their favourite artist/band.	This will impact the customer in a big way since the CVI will give the customer a snippet of what is to come in the magazine and the feel of it. This will also attract the customer in case they see their favourite artists on the front cover, this will influence them to buy it. I will use the CVI to boost my double page spread.
Contents Page			All magazines	The contents page is one of the most important parts in a magazine since it will be the second place the reader will look at, this is because they will want to know what content the magazine has and if it will be worth the price they will be paying.	Having an attractive contents page will also attract the reader to buy the magazine since it will make them want to read a story that catches their eye. So I will have to think of eye catching titles it lures my customer in.
Double Page Spread			All magazines	Most if not all magazines have a double page spread in the magazines somewhere. A double page spread looks very attractive to the customer and will also look attractive on the magazine company since this will show the magazine is successful enough to have a big story that requires two full pages of content.	The double page spread will be what the customers are most looking forward to in my magazine since I boosted it on my front cover and it will probably be the main reason why they bought it. With that in mind I will have to catch my reader’s attention with a very eye catching headline and kicker. From this my reader will read the feature written within the double page spread and get a good experience from the magazine.
Barcode			All magazines	All magazines have a barcode on them besides the magazines that are free like NME, the barcodes are used at the checkout so the cashier and scan it so the customer can pay.	A barcode will allow the magazine to be distributed easily since the machines can scan the barcode and send it to the right pile. This barcode is also used to not confuse the customer in case the product is free or not.
Cover lines			All magazines	Cover lines get the reader’s attention to a magazine since they will have eye catching titles. Cover lines give a brief look of what the customer will be expecting to see inside the magazine. Although, I noticed that Metal Hammer, a metal music magazine, doesn’t use cover lines in the conventional way, Metal Hammer instead writes the names of the bands that will be included in the magazine, this is to catch the reader’s attention in case they see their favourite band included.	I expect this to lure the customer into picking up this magazine, from there, I expect the other features that I have mentioned above to come into play into getting the customer to buy and read the magazine.
Colour scheme			All magazines	I will use consistent colour schemes throughout my magazine so each page wouldn’t look out of place compared the page before.	This will give the reader the impression that this magazine is very professional and it will make the user take the magazine seriously.
Captions under photos			All magazines	I will use captions to describe certain photos in the magazine in case the reader doesn’t know what is going on in the photo.	This will help the reader understand the photo being captioned and it will give them a good understanding of the article. This will improve their experience within the magazine.
Column			All magazines	The use of columns in my magazines will give my copy a structure and a good layout that the reader would be used to seeing since columns are used in other magazines along with newspapers.	This will also give the impression that this magazine is professionally made since the copies contained within the magazine are perfectly structured and laid out.
Drop Cap			Metal Hammer, Kerrang, NME	I will use drop caps to begin the copy, this is to make the columns look fancy and to intrigue the reader.	This will indicate the beginning of the copy and it will cause less confusion in case a reader isn’t used to the format.
Running headline			Kerrang, NME	I will use this so I can make the most of the double page spread so there will be no empty spaces on the pages.	This will give a nice impression on the reader as it will make the article look nicer and more aesthetically pleasing.
Technical musical language			Metal Hammer, Kerrang	I will use technical musical language that musical enthusiast will understand,