How does the NME website address its audience?

The format of the home page is aimed towards young adults as it's too formal for children, but as there's lots going on, it makes it have a younger feel to it. You can tell the genre of music that the website mainly covers, based on the latest news stories. For instance today, Biffy Clyro is the main news story topic.


The advertisements for tickets are for Kings of Leon and Foo Fighters. So far, all the audience has seen are bands in a similar genre to another, helping to emphasise the overall music that is covered online and in the magazine.


With easy navigation bars and quick links to articles, NME's website is addressing the audience in a way that makes it easy to use and highly accessible.

What does the NME website offer it's audience?

The NME website offers its audience many services which include the latest; news, videos, tickets, reviews, photos, movies amongst many other things. The website also allows users to listen to NME radio.


The main aim of the website is to entertain its audience and it does just this by having all sorts under one roof and in one place. Users can shop at the NME Store, look at photos in the galleries and read articles from NME's archive.

NME (The New Musical Express)

• Popular music magazine in the UK.
• Published weekly since 7th March 1952.
• Initially non-glossy.
• It created the first UK Singles Chart.

1960

• NME sales were healthy with the paper selling approximately 200,000 per week.
• Tense rivalry between NME and fellow weekly music paper, Melody Maker.

1970

• NME lost its ground to Melody Maker as its music coverage failed to keep up.
• Nearly closed down in 1972 after sales fell to 60,000.
• Alan Smith was made editor and aimed to turn the magazine around by making it; smarter, hipper, more cynical and funnier than any other like it in Britain.
• By mid-1973, when Smith handed the editorial position back, the paper was selling almost 300,000 copies a week, beating its rivals.
• In 1976, it was felt that younger people were needed, so they employed Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill.
• The young pair knew all about the new Punk age and created a new tone for the paper.
• In the late 1970's , the paper covered some things other than music, such as politics - especially youth-orientated issues.

1980

• NME released a cassette tape in 1981, available via mail order and it featured bands that were featured in the magazine.
• A second tape was released in 1986.
• Sales began dropping and by the mid-1980's, NME were in danger of closing down.
• The paper split into 2, rock and hip-hop. Hip-hop seemed far more popular as it was new to the UK and the paper appeared to readers as if it had no set direction of what it was doing/covering.

1990

• The 1990's saw NME covering new British indie bands.
• By the end of 1990, NME was covering new bands from the U.S. creating a new movement called Grudge. It included bands such as Pearl Jam and Nirvana
• NME took very slowly to grudge but when "Nevermind" became popular,it became highly dominated by American Bands.
• 1991-1993 saw American bands becoming increasingly dominant, but NME didn't ignore British bands.
• 1992 saw NME covering different types or grudge, like heavy grudge.
• After Kurt Cobain died in 1994, the age of Britpop was introduced, with bands like Blur. By the end of 1994, Blur and Oasis were the 2 biggest bands in the UK and thanks to the Britpop effect, NME sales were increasing.
• 1993-1995, Glastonbury held a stage called "NME Stage", now it's known as the "Other Stage".
• As Britpop became the music genre of the 1990's NME saw their sales rise, but Britpop burned itself out, leaving NME directionless again.
• In an attempt to become popular, NME attempted to embrace DJ culture, but was only criticised for not supporting indie or rock music.
• NME sales saw a low point at the turn of the millennium.

2000

• From 21st March 1998 --> Present, NME became tabloid sized with fully glossy and coloured covers.
• Attempting to broaden its coverage, they covered artists like Jay-Z, Missy Elliot, Hear'say and Destiny's Child. This proved unpopular so they stopped.
• In 2002, with new writers, photographers, etc the paper began to increase in sales again.
• In October 2006, NME launched NME Ireland but poor sales resulted in it ending in November, the same year.
• In May 2008, the magazine received a redesign aimed at an older audience - less "poppy".
• In the second half of 2009. the magazine's circulation was down 34,486.47% on a 2003 figure or 74,442.