The Magazine Industry Blog

Magazine Analysis

WRITE A REPORT

Choose a magazine and answer the following questions.
Present your answers in the form of a report.

General

a)    What is the target audience according to the publisher’s website? (Look at the media info kit for advertisers, which describe the ideal reader and give detailed audience research information).

b)    Cover price, frequency, circulation?

c)    Work out the approximate monthly revenue streams from advertising and circulation.

d)    Is there an online version?

The cover

e)    The title: why is it called that?  What does the title connote?

f)     The masthead/title logo – analyse it.

g)    What is the main image?  Analyse the facial expression, direction of gaze, body language, clothing etc.  How does this reach out towards the ideal reader identified above?

h)   What other images appear on the cover?  Why?

i)     What content is promoted by the cover lines? 

j)      Does the cover look similar to other magazines?  If so why?  What does this magazine offer which rivals don’t (ie what is its USP)?

k)    Is there anything else distinctive about the cover/format? (eg size)

Inside

l)     What types of products are advertised in it?

m)  What type of articles are featured?

n)   What percentage of articles are related to buying stuff (pro-consumer)?

o)    How does the magazine achieve a unified “house style”?  Think about language and mode of address, colour schemes, graphical elements, etc. 

p)    Why is this house style appropriate to the target audience? What assumptions does it imply about the TA?

q)    One way a magazine creates a relationship with its readers is through its mode of address. How does your chosen magazine address the reader? E.g. ‘you’, ‘us’, in-jokes, etc.