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.

Planning - Vogue Magazine Annotated

Planning - Conventions of a Magazine Cover

Conventions of a Magazine Cover

Ø  Promotion banner

A promotional banner most commonly features at the top of a magazine cover; it is usually exclusive to the target audience and would interest them most. This is seen in the ‘Total Film’ magazine. It is usually in the same typography as the rest of the magazine and is not in bold font due to it not being the intended focus on the cover.

Ø  Mast head

The mast head is the name of the magazine and should be the most recognisable feature on the magazine cover. The target audience can easily recognise it and the more general audience can familiarize themselves with the brand. All three magazine covers have the celebrity layered on top of the masthead as all three of them are popular and well known magazines and therefore the style of the cover and the few letters used will be recognisable by the audience.

Ø  Headline

The purpose of a headline is to attract attention to a magazine. It also conveys the biggest story featured in the magazine and the most anticipated. This is seen on the cover of ‘Vogue’- Beyoncé is arguably the most iconic woman in the media, so just her name alone stands as a headline. It is clearer on the ‘Empire’ cover as the font is larger and bolder than the other text on the cover and corresponds to the main image. Sometimes the headline has a caption to further the information about the story inside. This is again, seen on the ‘Vogue’ cover.

Ø  Main image

The main image is the magazine cover background and corresponds to the headline. The picture conveys what stories will be in the magazine and also, along side with the headline, grabs the audience’s attention. Usually it is a photo, from a photo-shoot exclusive to the magazine and the celebrity acts as an endorsement because it is exclusive. The celebrity normally poses in the form of ‘direct mode of address’ so that the audience can get a feel for the tone, this is also done through the body language, facial expressions and colour scheme. In ‘Vogue’ the colour scheme is neutral colours which suggest a calm and relaxed tone. Whereas ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’ have contrasting and bold colours to convey the tone of ‘excitement’ and that it is packed full of exclusive interviews.

Ø  Secondary image

The secondary image is a second image on the magazine cover that leads to another story in the magazine. It is much smaller than the main image and isn’t seen at first glance. This is due to the Gutenberg theory which suggests that an audience will read the front cover from right to left and top to bottom; the secondary image will be one of the last pieces of information that the audience will see, despite being a series of pictures. In both ‘Empire’ and ‘Total Film’ the secondary image is in the format of a film strip going horizontally and at a slant across the cover, and is at the bottom. This fits in with the general house-style of both magazines and gives an insight into information featured in the magazine. This isn’t seen on the ‘Vogue’ front cover due to the tone being more formal and it being a more ‘sophisticated’ magazine genre whose target audience is mainly girls/women. Therefore, doesn’t need a secondary image to convince the audience to purchase the issue.

Ø  Colloquial language

Due to my target audience being male and females between the ages of 15-19, keeping them interested in the subjects being raised on the front cover, and them being able to relate to the language being used, it is important to create the correct tone. I don’t want the tone to be too formal as it will lose the target audiences interest and may come across as patronising when addressing some important issues, such as some education tips. If the tone is informal and relaxed then the target audience will be inclined to purchase or read the magazine in the future. An example of a magazine that does this is ‘Empire’, as the vocabulary is targeted at film enthusiasts it reviews films in stars but also with colloquial adjectives, such as ‘epic’ and ‘ultimate’.

Ø  Punctuation

The use of punctuation can make the cover seem direct to the person reading the magazine. For example, rhetorical questions engage the audience and usually contain the answer within. Exclamation marks are used to emphasise key information, and excitement. This is seen in all three magazines as they all include exclusive stories and coverlines.