Creating a readership profile

Readership Profiles

Researching and identifying your target audience is a crucial task for any media producer. In magazines, we refer to this as our ‘readership’, which we define with a readership profile.

Analysing feature articles

Music Magazines: Analysing magazine feature articles

—  Look at the layout and design visually- how does it link to the magazine’s front cover and overall design?

—  What are the connotations of the design? I.e. what does it make you think of.

—  How does the article support the artist’s style and image?

—  What is the purpose of the article in respect of the audience- introducing a new artist? Promoting new album? Image change? Post-scandal?

—  How does the presentation of the artist suit the magazine’s target audience? Consider language, mode of address etc.

—  Consider how the artist is represented- what do you think the intention was?

—  What is the ‘tone’ of the article? (Positive? Excitable? Angry?)

—  Mode of address- are we as a reader spoken to directly, in a friendly manner, or more detached? Is there a sense of the magazine’s voice doing the interviewing, or is it purely about the artist?

—  Anything you notice about the layout over the pages of the feature article?

—  How do the images support the text and add to the overall look of the article?

 

Analysing contents pages

Analysing magazine contents pages

Look at a minimum of 2 contents pages

—  Look at the layout and design- how does it link to the magazine’s front cover, feature articles and overall design?

—  How does it entice people to read the articles mentioned?

—  How many artists are featured on the page?

—  How does the contents page use photography and visual features for effect?

—  The job of the front cover is to make people buy the magazine in the first place. For a contents page, however, the reader has already bought it- so what is the purpose of a contents page?

—  How do they entice you to read the articles featured on the contents page? Think about the language they use, images, persuasive techniques etc.

Analysing Front Covers

Music Magazines: Front cover analysis

Masthead (title)

What are the connotations of (i.e. what is suggested by) the masthead? What kind of magazine identity is suggested? Does it use a ‘tagline’ (a phrase showing off the status of the magazine, e.g. Britain’s best loved music magazine)? Is the masthead obscured/hidden in any way, and what does this suggest about the success or status of the magazine?

Readership

What type of music fan is the magazine targeting?

What does the cover suggest about the age, gender and personality of the readership?

Dominant image

Analyse and interpret the dominant image on the front cover: shot framing, eyeline, body language, mise-en-scene, connotations and effect.

What’s the relationship between the subject of the photograph and the reader?

What genre of music is suggested from the image?

How might all this appeal to the target audience?

Coverlines (words or phrases promoting the articles inside)

Explain what they suggest and how they entice the reader to buy the magazine.

Freebies, competitions and giveaways

What do they say about the audience, and their relationship with the magazine?

Layout and composition

Explain how the different elements of the front cover are organised on the page- is it conventional?

Mode of address

Explain how the magazine addresses the reader- direct address? Formal/informal? With humour? Like a friend?

 

Remember: you need to present this analysis in a visually interesting way on your blog! You should analyse at least three different front covers.