Reflection Point : What Have I Learned About Magazine Contents Pages?

Contents page for music magazines usually feature one or multiple images of artists that will be featured in the magazine, the majority of the time this includes the musician featured on the main image of the cover. This attracts the audience's attention as the images stand out and entice the consumer to buy the magazine to read these articles as they are most prominent on the page. 

Generally, content pages separate the different stories into different sections which are marked by sub-headings. These are usually in bold or underlined to stand out against the background, which allows them to be quickly read by a consumer who might be deciding whether or not to purchase the magazine to interest them and encourage them to start reading the magazine. Also, the page numbers are easy to find which allows audiences to quickly and easily navigate the magazine to find what they want to read.

Normally, the stories featured on the contents page have a short caption designed to hook the readers interested and give them some context on what the specific article is about. The captions and titles of the articles are normally written consistently with the language register used on the front cover and throughout the rest of the magazine to easily appeal to their target audience and avoid causing any confusion.

Some reference is usually made to the front cover in the contents page, through image, main colour or other methods, which creates a sense of consistency when looking through the magazine.