History of NME Magazine

Brief History of NME
NME is also known as New Music Express. The first edition of NME was published in March 1952 and published weekly, after Maurice Kinn bought the Musical Express and Accordion Weekly and relaunched it. It was initially a non glossy tabloid music newspaper and moved to a magazine during the 80's. NME was the first British paper to have a singles chart and in the 70's it was the best selling British music newspaper. It supported a number of up and coming artists, and in the 90's started featuring indie artists. In 2008 the magazine had a redesign to make the magazine aimed at an older audience with less pop music and a more authoritative tone.

Typical Content
Typically NME is around 70 pages long and features rock artists recently including indie rock also they feature guitar bands. The magazine includes 'Track of the Week', 'The NME Chart'. Also you would expect to see reviews on music albums from new tracks and artists of the week, in addition you would see interviews with bands or artists such as 'Lana Del Ray' and 'The Maccabees'. Towards the back of NME you would typically find a gig guide and tour dates for featured artists and a competitions.

Typical Reader
According to National Readership Survey (www.nrs.co.uk) the typical age would be between 15-44 with 253,000 of them reading the magazine. This is a very broad age range, but only a smaller range within this group may actually buy this magazine. Also National Readership Survey shows us that only 86,000 women read the magazine and 167,000 males read it, showing that the target audience is males between 15-44. As the magazine includes new music artists and indie bands, it is quite a niche market making the magazine about the music and not about the money.

Magazine House-style

• The title is always on the left hand side 
• The main image is a mid shot  and they look directly at the camera
• Only a few other images on the page alongside the main image
• The boost is always about the model on the front cover
• The sell lines are more structured
• Always a 3 part colour scheme

Who produces and distributes NME?

NME is produced and distributed by IPC Media, UK's leading publisher of consumer magazines.