Overview
This is an analysis of the web genre of magazine websites- specifically, music magazine websites. Relevant magazine is geared towards the college student and does articles on bands that are interesting to the college-aged student. The website is www.relevantmag.com.

Writers & Developers of the Relevant Web Site
The members of the production team of the Relevant web site are “invisible” to the website’s visitors. All information is posted as its own separate entity and is written in third person. There is no first-person voice in the copy, but personality still shines through. Websites of an entire organization like this one must be sure that the attitude that they want to promote as a whole is reflected in the tone of the copy since there is no one person that the copy is attributed to. There are four people responsible for the website’s copy and design. They are: Joshua Smith- Senior Art Director, Jeremy Kennedy- Art Director, Artom Mirvkow- Web Developer, and Gary Dorsey- Web Developer.

The writers of the web content are simply mentioned in the “Staff” section, which tells their name and roll. There is no byline with a writer’s name after every section of copy. If there is a link to an article, the author’s name is cited, but other than that, most copy is organizational in nature and does not require such accredidation.

Audiences & Users of the Relevant Magazine Web Site
The readers of this website are most likely the same demographic that the magazine is geared for; college students and young adults are the primary readers. Visitors to the site could very likely be would-be readers that are considering subscribing to the magazine or people that have already decided that they do not want to pay for the magazine and would rather just retrieve highlights and other related information from the website for free. Although visitors are free to choose from books, music, interviews and more, most of the first articles and blurbs they run into are music-related. The primary audience is young adults who are interested in music. There is not really a secondary audience.

This site is most likely to be browsed frequently, perhaps even bookmarked for easy access. It is unlikely that anyone would have a need to print out or reference this site because most of the information is simple, self-contained, one-time read sort of copy.

The format and organization of the site tailor it to the types of people that would be most likely to visit the site by keeping it simple while still being visually interesting. The musical groups and album reviews that Relevant magazine does hold key interest to it's target audience.

Format & Organization of the Relevant Web Site
This site includes standard conventions of the print magazine genre. They have a weekly newsletter sign-up, an advertisement for subscription to the magazine, and information on where to buy the magazine. One thing that is not as easily accessible as it usually is, however, is the contact page. The visitor must go to the site of the media group page to find out contact information. Most sites in this genre have the staff of the magazine very easily accessible.

Some features that aid in format and organization are:

Sub Navigator
This section holds links to other parts of the magazine including a book section, a culture section, discussion boards, information on magazine distribution, and other articles.
Exclusive Online Features
Articles, including album reviews, that are only available for the online viewer and not included in the print edition.
Relevant Poll
A fun, playful poll encourages site visitors to interact with the website while the visual presence of the poll fills up extra space on the home page.
Relevant News
Latest updates from the magazine, including job openings, the latest article, and new articles.

The print on the site overall is pretty small, but generally, there is no need within the target demographic for large print. There are many links, which generally is not hard to handle for young adults because they are so used to navigating around complicated sites. While this site is not complicated, it is complex. The designers have done a good job in making sure that the organization of the information follows logical train of thought so that the visitor does not get lost. There is not sound on this website, but links to videos with sound can be found on the site. The ads utilize animation, which is good because the average visitor to this site is used to having a large amount of media thrown at them every day. If there were no moving visuals, the site would be significantly less appealing. There is a good percentage of text vs. white space, as the primary background of the site is white. Other comparable sites (www.spin.com) have a primarily black background, which does not allow for as much text to be on the site and still be visually appealing.

Level of Formality in Relevant
The level of formality in the Relevant website is moderate and appropriate. It is not completely formal, like a news site or a site of a large corporation. However, it is not extremely playful or sarcastic like a site meant to be humorous, like The Orange. Instead, it maintains a casual tone to be consistant with its laid-back audience and subject matter. Music is meant to be enjoyed, and apparently, so is this site.

This site is accurate in every way to deserve credibility. The copy is not sloppy or haphazard and the graphics are placed appropriately so that it has an overall feel of roughly seven sections for the home page with links organized neatly.

Use of Visuals in Relevant
The division of the site into sections makes the site much more easy to visually navigate. A variety of fonts are used, including bold typefaces to draw attention where needed. Many different fonts are used, but each section has its own font so that there is continuity and uniformity to the site. The main menu has bullets that help organize the site.

The site uses frames for layout, with X amount of information in a box that is the appropriate size for the web page. Relevant's site primarily uses vertical columns to achieve visual order.

The page layout and style are simple, like that of a news site. Visuals on this site include advertisements for their own magazine, special icons next to other sections of the web page, their logo, and a poll, but no advertisements for merchandise, events, or other items outside of their media group, Relevant Media.

Range of Variation Among Representative Samples of that Genre
Overall, this site conforms to it's genre of being a website for a magazine that is primarily geared towards music. Other sites, such as Spin.com, maintain the same headings of headlines and interviews, with the most recent or exciting article lead in the center of the main home page. The format is certainly standard of a print magazine's website. The casual, creative tone of the website is also consistant with other sites in its genre. I think that this site does a particularly good job of keeping a clean appearance that is not too busy, distracting, or overwhelming. This makes it stand out in its genre and I would rate it among the more impressive sites among similar print magazine sites.

One unique quality of this site among it's genre is that it does not have sponsored ads. I personally think this is great because the viewer does not have to deal with flashing ads that are not what he came to the site to see.

Future Experience Expected in this Genre
I expect that I could work for a magazine much like this in the future, but I don't particularly know in what capacity. My background in professional writing would allow me to play a part in many different aspects of a magazine like this. I might edit or write web copy or simply be a journalist for a company like this. I would love to work for a music magazine and can think of many different areas at which I would be good. Analyzing this genre helped me realize that there is much more information packed into a print magazine's website than it appears at first glance- if it is well done. This site is also an example to me about how far simplicity and consistency can go.