NME Music Magazine

The British music magazine New Musical Express (NME) was first published on the 7th March 1952 and mainly focuses on indie, alternative rock music. The IPC publishers revealed that their ideal costumer would be a male 25 year old, who is obviously dedicated to the magazine and someone who will evolve with the NME magazine. 

Andy Gray was the first editor of NME from 1957 - 1972. The most common bands to get featured was of course The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. From 1959, NME would hold award ceremonies for artists to win awards given to them by the public vote. They were originally live, but then began to be recorded by 1964. During the 1960s the magazines sales were at a steady, 200,000 per week.

After NME began to 'fall' due to their competitors Melody Makers, the employees and new chief editor Alan Smith, began to introduce the magazine into this psychedelic rock era. Then in 1976 they gave the Sex Pistols their first music coverage. In 1978 Neil Spencer was made editor and he redesigned NMEs logo, and like The Rolling Stones music magazine, it started to expand from music and entwine with the world of politics, by including Margret Thatcher frequently in their magazine for a long period of time.

In the 1980s the magazine was in danger of shutting down, due to low sales and the era of rock was fading and hip hop was on the rise. It started to become difficult in what they should write about, and what would now appeal to the new generation. But by the 1990s, Grunge became increasingly popular with the reader demands and NME saw opportunity to write about American indie bands which over took demand over British music. Even though the grunge sound was still high, in 1994, Britpop became the essential genre, with NME including Oasis and U2. 

In 2000 the paper had officially upgraded into a typical magazine size and touch, meaning it upgraded from their old newsprint style to a glossy texture. Their rival Melody Maker decided to incorporate with NME, after Ben Knowles (former writer for the rival mag) became the new editor. In 2006, a new magazine called NME Irish was developed and launched in Dublin. 

The current editor is Krissi Murison, is still publishing the magazine weekly by IPC media, who's readership is at a well earned 411,000. 

The typical social groups that NME represents are the rock and indie groups, as the covers usually include people from that genre, like Arctic Monkeys and Oasis. The stereotypical reader is represented as loyal yet rebellious. The front covers consist or celebrities smoking, having tattoos and typically sitting their just looking almost 'dangerous'. The main genre is rock 'n' roll, which is all about rebellion and being different. Their image does reflect their reader statistics as currently the dominant reader is male at 73%, who are also part of the abc1. NMEs desired reader will devote their income to music, how they will buy and learn to play instruments and attend concerts who the magazine presents in their issues. 

To conclude I think that NME has been very successful in keeping dedicated to their magazine and making sure that they are producing what the audience wants to see. They care about the readers opinions and always try to stick to their british roots.