Planning - Readership Profile

Readership profile

This is the readership profile for the ‘KERRANG!’ magazine audience. More of the male gender read the magazine than girls, and over half of the overall audience are between the ages 15-24, although the median age is 19 year olds. This overlaps my intended target audience of 15-19. From these statistics suggest that is because the target audience is limited, as the audience have to be interested in the music and the content in the magazine to want to purchase the issue. Whereas, I want my magazine to attract a wider audience and be have a smaller age range target. I think I’ll go about this by asking my target audience what they want to read about, specific content and also more general information if wanted.

The colour theme is distinctive to ‘KERRANG!’ readers, as the majority of the cover is red, black and yellow. In addition to this information I will use the idea of distinctive colours on my cover so that the target audience would begin to recognise the magazine by just the colour and positioning of cover lines, tags, masthead and secondary images to create a house-style and eventually create and maintain a loyal audience/readership.

To get an understanding of what my target audience would want to read about I went on to ask my peers: 3 male and females all within the age range of my target audience (15-19) - all answers are anonymous.

Gender and age	Do you read any magazines at the moment or buy a magazine on a regular basis? If yes, what magazine?	Would you be interested in reading a Sixth Form magazine?	What kind of stories would you like to read about in a Sixth Form magazine?
Female, 16.	I read ‘Empire’ magazine as I enjoy looking at the front covers, probably because of the pictures and the films included on it.	Yes	Past students way of dealing with A Levels. Advice for universities.
Female, 17.	I don't read any magazines because most of the stories are now included in the news or advertised on the likes of ‘Closer’ magazine on the TV.	Maybe, depends; I wouldn't if it was just about education.	Sporting achievements and any other achievements that people in Sixth Form have accomplished. Maybe even a bit of gossip.
Male, 17.	Vanity Fair. I get a lot of style tips from them but I only get them about 4 times a year.	Yes, why not. I wouldn't pay for it though, unless it was something completely different to what is already out there.	Maybe some style tips, but not excessive because I think boys don’t like to admit that they take tips from others.
Female, 18	Hello and sometimes company. I like finding out gossip as it interests me.	YES. I would want to find out about exams and revision tips	Exam stress management, revision tips, current affairs, fashion ideas
Male, 16	No.	Probably not.	Nothing about education or revision because there is plenty of other resources provided by the school to find out about that.
Male, 19	I don't magazines as such, but I do read the headlines online if they're down to side of my Facebook or Twitter profile.	Yes.	I like reading something that makes me laugh – but for the right reasons, not in a bad way. It has to be quality and be beneficial.

From this information I have found out what my target audience want to read about, which gives me an idea of what cover lines to include and put on the magazine cover. Summarizing everyone’s feedback about why they read magazines. I've found out that the magazine cover plays an important part in selling the magazine to the target audience, therefore I will need to further my research into what main images would be suitable for the target audience and appeal to both genders.

Research showed that females are more likely to read a new magazine; as a result I have decided that the magazine cover will be of a male. This is to ensure that the magazine is attractive to the eye, and attract one half of the target audience; in theory this is because females will talk about the front cover more than males. The effect of that is spreading the magazine through word of mouth. This will be possible as there will be a website for the magazine where all the articles will be on, which will convince the male gender to read the stories.