How does the NME website address its audience?

The website of the NME looks fairly formal, due to its format similar to that of perhaps the website of a newspaper, and this addresses the audience in a way that makes them believe they are taken seriously about their music tastes. The main news also acknowledges that the reader of NME is a certain type of person; for example, main news stories today are about Paramore, Biffy Clyro and Chris Martin, which gives us the impression that it is not pop music being shown or reported on this site. One article about a Biffy Clyro song being chosen as a "winners song" in the X-factor addresses the audience as people who dislike the show, claiming it poses no threat to "real" music, and saying that those who watch X-factor are likely to be buying Robbie Williams calendars; this gives the audience the impression that NME is addressing them as "real" music fans, and so not imitations.
On the main page, there are the names of the main pages across the top, letting the viewer know what information is available to them, and so addressing them in a way that is easy and accessible.

"The magazine industry has survived the coming of the digital age because it has been able to exploit technological advances. Indeed, it has always done so throughout its long history."

Throughout the history of printed magazines, they have had to adapt and change to meet new demands and desires for magazines by the consumers. However, in recent years the internet and other technologies have become a huge part of daily life, and the magazine industry may not have been able to survive as well as it had done had it not exploited the changes to technology and it’s advances.

For example, in the mid 1990s, we saw the creation of websites for a few mainstream magazines which would publish articles on the internet, which was becoming more and more accessible as more of the population owned a computer. In this way, magazines were already trying to appeal to a wider audience, and this could be argued to be exploiting technological advances. As more magazines created their own websites, new expectations were set for magazines to be online as well as in paper, and in this way the industry has used the internet to further their readership, and after each magazine was online, new technological advances were made, and the industry joined these advances.

One of these newest advances is apps for products such as iPhones; the magazines would be available to people who owned one of these products, once more increasing their readership, and so chances of survival in the digital age. As more people buy products with apps available, the more these apps are “exploited” by magazine companies, and so we could say that the industry is exploiting the digital age, and without apps, perhaps less people would be reading the magazine, and so the company would be earning less revenue.

In conclusion, the magazine industry has survived as well as it has done due to the exploitation of the digital age. From the very early use of coloured ink as a technological advance making magazines more appealing, to apps, magazines are surviving better due to new technology. Many more people have access to the magazines, and in this way it may be said that magazines always have, and still are exploiting the new technology of the digital age.

What does the NME website offer its audience?

The NME website home page gives the audience a general overview of the main music news that has cropped up recently, such as articles about the X-factor and recently announced gigs and tours. It also offers direct links to photo galleries and other news, which makes the best part of the website accessible and easy to find. Other pages of the website are divided up under titles such as “artists” and “Tickets”, and this allows users of the website to navigate their way around the site and find the things available to them such as music news and photographs. In all, the NME website offers its audience a large range of information and entertainment about the music industry that any reader of the NME, or music fans would like to know about.