My task is to create a front cover and index page for a school newspaper/magazine. The conventions that I used for my front cover are a ‘bold’ headline which stood out, this also fits with my target  audience, and it will appeal to both genders. I also used this because it will attract the attention of the reader. Another convention that I used is that it includes other articles that will be in the magazine. The reason I used this convention is that when they see the front cover these articles will help them make the decision whether they want to buy the magazine or not. These articles will make them want to buy the magazine as the stories will be based around their age.

The target audience for the magazine would be 16-18 year olds and will be for both genders. The reason for this age is that the articles that will be in my magazine will interest them, this is because the articles will be based on what is going on around school and will be a bit nosy with what is happening with the teachers. I feel that these kind of articles are what the target audience want to read into. The target audience's hobbies will be sport, going out with their friends to clubs overnight, they may also be driving or learning to drive. My front cover will appeal to this target audience as I have used an image of a student who is this age range, this will show that the magazine is for their age. The story behind my front cover is that it is trying to appeal to the target audience and make them buy the magazine.

In preparation for making my cover I did research into music magazines and looked at what conventions they follow to create a successful front cover.

The font that I used for the front cover was a bold blue font – NAME?? which stands out above the image I have used. The editing software that I used to create my front cover was publisher. As there are not many ways to edit on publisher it was easy to use. Therefore I did not use Photoshop as I am inexperienced and found it difficult to use.

I have become more skilled in trying to put together a front cover, I now have a better understanding of how to make a front cover appeal to the audience. Creating the front cover took around an hour and a half as we were trying to choose a suitable image to use.