History of the magazine… • The New Musical Express globally known as NME is an

extremely popular music magazine in the United Kingdom.• The magazine has been published weekly since March

1952 when its first issue was released.• Throughout the years NME has been through some serious

changes, with various different editors and approaches to the magazine’s focus.

• From March 1998 onwards the magazine was no longer printed on newsprint and was shifted to tabloid size with full, glossy, colour covers.

• In May 2008 the magazine received a redesign, aimed at an older readership with a less poppy, more authoritative tone.

Content of magazine …• NME was the first UK music magazine to create

a singles chart.• Well known for introducing the next big thing. Has

an inside look into the most current and upcoming

bands and artists which includes my artist

Benjamin Francis Leftwich who is becoming an

increasingly popular and succesful artist.• The magazine contains a number of articles,

competitions, opportunities to get involved, gig

dates, events, interviews and adverts for things

such as album releases.

Success of NME …• In the 1970s NME became the best-selling British music magazine. • They feature top artists of their time such as the Beatles and The

rolling stones.• NME is so successful that it also hosts it own Award, Radio and TV

shows.

Key Dates• 1978 - The future editor of The Face, Neil Spencer, takes over. The

paper takes on a political voice. • 2004 - Conor McNicholas becomes the Editor. The paper is re-

launched as a glossy magazine. • 2008 - NME hosts its largest awards gig at the 02 Arena.

Target audience …

• NME has a quite a mass target audience as it covers quite a variety of music genres which shall therefor cater to quite a wide mix in musical tastes.

• Both male and female• Aged late teen mid 20’s which is the same target audience of my

artist

Cost…• For a music magazine NME is reasonably priced for the content,

this means it will appeal mainly to working class.• The magazine is on average at £2.30, however yearly subscriptions

can be brought.

NME sales figures… • 2004 the NME enjoyed a 5% boost, scoring some 73,640 sales per

week!• 2007 Sales fell 12.3 per cent to 64,033.

Plans for NME’s future …• NME currently has a website, mainly containing information about

buying the magazine and advertisement. • The website also has details of articles and current artists.• In the feature we can expect the website to be expanded, containing

more feature articles.

In conclusion…NME is a very successful magazine that caters to a wide variety of music tastes. My chosen artist Benjamin Francis Leftwich would fit very well into the ideology of this institution as he has an original style to his music which NME quite clearly prides itself in promoting to their readers as they like to be responsible for discovering the ‘new big act’. The readership target audience of NME is the same as that of my artist so his listeners are likely to buy NME so this is the institution that is most likely to promote my artists music.