Newsstand Task

I visited the store WHSmith and looked at the music section newsstand. There were different variety of rock magazines and were all stacked one behind the other but each row was higher so that the main mastheads were visible in order for the magazines to be were well promoted. The people who created each magazine thought and planed their layout very well. They thought about what position the magazines were going to be stacked in and made sure their mastheads were placed right at the top of their cover page in bold so that the customers, when entering the shop and looking through the shelves, they are immediately drawn in and can see all types of magazines clearly.

Main cover lines and teasers were also laid out carefully around the page. The producers for the magazines placed these main cover lines and teasers around the top of the cover pages. This is very effective as the customers are shown main pieces of information that the magazine holds. This persuasive technique gets the customer to pick up the magazine and it also helps them to choose which one they want to pick out of the variety of choices on the shelves.

Magazines with images of famous and most well-known artists are placed on rows by which there are no other magazines laid on top of them. This makes the newsstand look more interesting and well planned out. The audience notice this stand straight away when walking into the store. More important magazines that sell more often are placed in noticeable sections of the shelves so that the audience and customers have easy access to their favourite magazine on the stand. Promoting these well-known magazines noticeably, helps the shop sell more without having to send big amounts of magazines back to the distributor.

Physical distribution- if the magazines are not all sold in the shops, it goes back to the distributor with no cost to the retailer/shop.

Direct distribution- this is usually a free magazine which is directly given to the customer/ audience e.g. magazines given at the stations organizations using direct distribution have to sell and distribute their magazines using their own warehouses and sales staff.

Postal distribution- this is magazines sent straight through your door. This can be a good way of distributing magazines because people are more like to read it on their free and own time

Internet/Online distribution- this consists of magazine downloads, magazines sent to inboxes. You can also subscribe to magazines to look at them. I would say the internet distribution is the most used because you can get a lot of free advantages from it. It’s also much easier to access and people can just read it at home without having to go out to buy a magazine. People can also post comments and suggestions about magazines online. Some comments help the producers of the magazines find out how they could make their magazines look better to suit the audience’s needs.