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

What I have learned from looking at multiple contents pages is that there are several methods used by magazines to make their contents pages engaging for an audience. 

One such case is the use of images next to stories, for example announcing that they sat down and talked with a well-known celebrity will put a picture of that celebrity next to the story to give it meaning and a picture will draw a readers eye more than just having their name in the description of whatever page their interview is spoken about. 

A second way to make an engaging contents page is with the use of colour. Specifically, having text for headings of new sections be a different colour, this puts emphasis on new sections as it is communicating to readers where one section starts and ends, and where the next begins. For The Wire it was 'Features' and 'Reviews' whilst for Mojo it was 'Features' and 'Cover story' but also something clever that Mojo does is put the page numbers in red whilst its description is in black, to make it nearly impossible not to know where in the magazine this can be found. 

Thirdly the cover lines are, though stylized, kept simple. There never done in a way where it could be a struggle for some readers to understand them. Though The Wire, Mojo and Vogue interpret a contents page differently, they all understand that it should not be a mess of words on a page. All keeping some structure, going down in a listed order of each story and what it features. As to not confuse an audience. 

All three of these details are important to the creation of content pages, as for a magazine a contents page can make the difference between a person choosing to read the magazine and not. And a contents page will be highly likely the second page they see of the magazine, apart from the front cover, skimming it to see what the content is, and where in the magazine they can find it. But if they find the contents page too confusing or unappealing, they may just put the magazine down. That is why the colours used should be chosen to make the contents page pop and definitely use pictures to get across the stories the magazine wants the average readers eye to go to.