NME Research

New Musical Express (NME) is a weekly British magazine. The main music genre is a stretch from punk rock to indie music and so has precise target readers; though this isn’t one specific genre, in most cases, the target audience are fans of both styles of music. It was first published in magazine format during the 1980s after being in newspaper style since 1952 and was popularised by their coverage of the sixties’ super groups The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. NME is published by IPC Media’s magazine branch, which is the leading magazine publisher in the UK. NME has a large online presence, it’s website which was founded in 1996 is the largest music website in Europe and is a constant winner in Interactive Consumer Magazine Awards. Their website is quoted many times within the magazine, frequently within interviews – “check out the full video interview online” which shows a link between the two medias.

The main attraction towards the NME magazine is the cover image. In most issues the image takes up most, if not all, the spaces on the cover with Coverlines around it. In all posed images on the cover, the model is making direct address to the reader, again making the magazine more appealing. In most cases the cover image is linked to the double page spread within the issue. It is typically an interview with a big artist(s), which is clearly advertised on the cover by their image and a few quotes from the interview.

Average sales of NME Magazine reach up to 30,000 per issue with the NME brand itself, television, radio, online etc. reaching over a million people per week. 50% of the NME audience is 16-24 years old and 23% are between 24 and 34 years old (http://www.nme.com/mediapack/). These ages are where most people thrive on technology and so a website for their magazine would be ideal. As well as this, NME is on television, radio and even has its own mobile application so more people can be reached and become interested in the NME brand. Due to the fact that going online is easier and cheaper than going out to buy a magazine, the NME website gains a lot of interest and clearly more than the magazine itself. Around 38% online audience is between 35 and 50+ years (http://www.quantcast.com/nme.com) an age range that doesn’t appear in the magazine sales survey, this shows how the ease of the online website can increase the audience to more diverse ages that are not deliberately targeted by the brand. The easy access of other media could see sales in the magazine itself decreasing.