RESEARCH INTO AN EXISTING MUSIC MAGAZINE

HISTORY

The XXL Magazine was founded in August 1997. The first ever XXL Magazine had Jay-Z and Master P on the front cover. Their first editor was Reginald C. Dennis, he previously was the editor of ‘The Source’ magazine. XXL Magazine took over a well known DJ Magazine

called ‘Scratch’ and then simultaneously rebranded it as their own; calling it XXL Presents Scratch Magazine. The original brand unfortunately collapsed a year later. XXL have also

experimented on other media in the past such as DVDS, Mixtapes and Tour Programs.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The Target Audience of XXL is highly diverse as it can be anybody into Hip Hop and Rap music, or even RnB at a stretch. Their target audience

will usually consist of teenagers and young adults, as they make up the majority of the Hip

Hop fandom. They also have the ability to target the older age by creating special Old

School Hip Hop Magazines, this would mostly attract middle aged adults who enjoy

reminiscing on Old School Hip Hop, these magazines would consist of rappers such as Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Jay Z, Eazy- E etc.

OWNERSHIP

XXL Magazine is owned by Harris Publications Inc. The company is an American Publisher located in New York which was founded in 1977. They have

been publishing magazines for almost twenty years, publishing other titles such as King, Dog

News, Workout etc. The company published the XXL Magazine in 1997. Currently the Editor-in-

Chief of the XXL Magazine is Vanessa Satten, an author who studied at the City University of New York City College. While the current publisher of the XXL Magazine is Dennis Page, an author who

studied at Boston University.

CONTENT

The XXL Magazine contains up to date Hip Hop news about rappers, models and just about anybody else famous enough for their name to be known in the Hip Hop industry. While

also containing reviews on things specific to the Hip Hop culture, examples may be albums, singles, arguments, court case etc. On top of that it contains interviews with

people famous in the Hip Hop culture, mostly consisting of rappers. The XXL Magazine consist of these things simple because it’s what their audience desires, the magazine has

been a huge success and is still running to this day, that’s not just luck either.