Now! Magazine: Online

When you go onto the Now magazine website, the first thing you see at the top of the page is "Now Video". Providing interactive ways to get the information contained in the glossy magazines. Underneath the videos, is an interactive picture slide show that contains five different news stories such as: "Celebrity fashion disasters" or "Celebrity hair - New Styles". Other things that are on the 'front cover' of the Now website are:


-Polls: "Do you think Katie Price should marry Leandro Penna?"
-A slider with 12 stories that fit different types of news: Eg- Celebrity News, TV News and Teen News
-There is a "Top Story" section with 4 different stories that include: "Stars with no makeup" and "Victoria and David Beckham- A Love Story In Pictures"
-There is also and article on Prince William called "The big photo story"
-Competitions
-An advert for Herbal Essences shampoo (Which on a print version would therefore waste printing space for stories)
-An option to subscribe to a free online newsletter- In the middle of the page, there are banners saying "Get Now magazine on your mobile", although it's only available on Apple, Android and Blackberry phones, and a "Twitter" and "Facebook" logo to follow them on. This shows that the magazine is now becoming more available to everyone on other devices, meaning more readers of their magazine.


-There are adverts down the side, advertising their own new brand of magazine called "Now Mum and Baby", as well as "brand advice" for shopping and adverts for Imperial Leather body wash.
-Now magazine also has a shopping section, with 336 pages of shoes. When people click on the item they like, it links them directly to the store's website to buy them online.
-At the very bottom of the page, the latest issue of their magazine is advertised, with an option to subscribe to it online.
-There is also another news story called "Celebrity files" about Cheryl Cole.
-Finally at the bottom of the page there is a site map, which acts as a contents page of the website magazine.

The Banner of the website shows all the options that you have on the homepage. News, Photos, Videos, Style, Celebrity Files, Horoscopes, Shop, Win and Blogs each contain 1000's of pieces of information.
On the "News" page, it takes you to a page of 10 stories with large pictures to accompany them, which then link onto the stories themselves. At the bottom of the page, there are 2794 pages of stories to look at. With online magazines, it is easier to find past stories because everything is archived and it isn't needed to hunt through earlier issues to find what you want. Down the side, there is an advert for Rimmel London Eyeshadow which moves down the page and follows you as you scroll.
Interestingly, in the middle of these 10 stories, there is a section for NME magazine, with some headlines from their website.which take you directly to the NME website when you click on them.


I had a break between the lesson writing the above and now. Since coming back, the Now website has updated and new stories have appeared on the homepage with new pictures. Online, news can be updated immediately whereas once something has been printed in a magazine it's official.


On the banner, on photos, it has galleries and archives dating from the latest to the oldest photos. The names of the galleries are: Celebrity Spy, Gallery Specials, Red Carpet, Star Style and Funnies.


Now also has a Video section which means that you can watch the latest celebrity gossip and not just read it. It contains videos from Britain's Got Talent to The Oscars. There are also videos on how to do a certain style of hair or makeup, which is providing a visual aid for the reader so they don't just have to read it.
Now magazine offers readers videos and links to shop websites in the style section. It has many pages and links that let you follow celebrity style, see what is in fashion, shop online and get hundreds of beauty secrets and tips, whereas a magazine could only offer one or two of these.
In a magazine, information about only a few certain celebrities is already printed. Online, under the "Celebrity Files" section, there is a list of hundreds of celebrities names listed in alphabetical order. This way, if you only want to read about a certain celebrity, it's easy to find their name and any stories relating to them. 


With the horoscopes on the website, You have the option of choosing whether you want a daily, weekly, monthly or even a video version of your horoscope. It also lets you view many celebrity horoscopes.