Planning for my magazine

What will the target audience of my

magazine be?

The target audience of my magazine will range from categories A – C2. This includes individuals who

are high professionals to skilled manual workers. This audience will tend to have more disposable

income and therefore there will still be a high demand for my magazine even at a high price.

People within these categories tend to purchase more high quality goods rather than buying items

which are just cheap and affordable. Therefore, my magazine will need to be of high quality and

look sophisticated. It will also need to include well respected music artists who are very well known,

this is because my target audience will want to invest their money into a magazine which gives them

important information about A-List musicians, not just an interview with someone who has had little

impact in the music industry. This was demonstrated by my research into music magazines. Also, my

audience will want a good-looking magazine which looks of high standard, for this reason I will make

sure I have an appealing colour scheme and make sure I don’t use too many bright colours as I

learnt in my research that magazines which aim for the lower social classes (D-E) and lower age

groups tend to use bright, eye catching colours on crowded front covers. I also observed that the

magazines aiming for the same target audiences as I am, e.g. ‘Q’, tend to only use a small selection

of colours but with high impact (for example, red against dark colours) to give a high-class theme to

the magazine and still be eye catching.

How will it fit alongside existing

publications?

I want my magazine to be the best of the best. I want it to be the best music magazine that money can

buy, therefore appealing to the upper-classes. I aim for my magazine to be the ‘Vogue’ of the music

magazine industry – people to know that it is the best magazine to fulfil their wants/needs and know that

you cannot buy any magazine better. This is how my magazine will stand out against other publications.

I therefore am aiming for my magazine to look iconic, like ‘Vogue’ (even though it is not a music

magazine) or like ‘Q’. These magazines demonstrate that less is more, and by having an iconic and

classy logo, front cover and only having the top, most respected artists (or models/designers in Vogue’s

case) included in their magazines, they appeal to be the best quality magazines on the market. I will

make sure that my magazine has only the most admirable artists and the most iconic, classic masthead

and theme to achieve this goal to stand out against other publications. When I researched ‘Q’ I noticed

that its adverts were for ‘Channel’ and other designer brands, which would appeal to my target

audience. Therefore, I am going to include very expensive products in the advertising for my magazine,

to reinforce that the magazine will be aimed at those with high incomes which can afford these desired

items.

What will the tone and style be for my

magazine?

After doing my research, I have concluded that the tone of my magazine will be quite formal. This is

because ‘Q’, which aims at the same audience demographics as my magazine will, uses rather formal

language to address their reader. The tone is also very informative and does not directly speak to the

reader often. I will write my articles in a similar fashion as this will aim for the categories (A – C2) that I am

aiming for because it will give it a sophisticated tone, which the audience I am aiming for will be looking

for.

The style of my magazine will be quite plain but with one or two, bold colours and a prominent cover

photo. This is because the main magazines that I have looked at which aim for the highest audience

demographics use this sort or style in their magazines to achieve it looking classy but still eye-catching

without lots of bright, busy colours.

A profile of a potential reader

James Mccran

Aged 24

Just finished a degree at Bristol University

Works as an accountant at Barclays

Has high income

Likes to go out clubbing and festivals such as Glastonbury

Enjoys good music bands such as the Artic Monkeys and other artists such as Kendrick

Lamar or Kanye West

An extract from ‘Q’s Media Pack,

explaining a potential reader

There are many similar aspects to the

potential reader profile, for example the

readers love of festivals and music and

having a professional job.

Magazines which have relevance to my

magazine

One magazine that I felt has relevance to my

magazine is ‘Rolling Stone’. It aims for high

audience demographics (A-C1/C2) which is what

I am also aiming for. I like how it uses a simple, not

over-edited, bold image as it’s front cover and

how the image over takes the iconic masthead to

make it stand out and make the cover image the

main focus of attention. I also like how the

masthead changes colour in different editions of

the magazine to fit with the scheme. The style of

the magazine is quite simplistic, only using three

different colours in general. The colours also

match the cover image (the gold writing and red

writing with gold borders to the gold chain and

watch)which is an effect I have not come across

before and think looks appealing as it links the

cover image and text together, giving it a

consistent theme. I think this is an effective way to

present the magazine as it makes the text stand

out more as the bright red and gold stands out

against the light picture. The fact that the cover

isn’t too busy gives the magazine a stylish and

high-class appeal. I aim to have a similar style in

my magazine as I find it effective at reaching my

target audience, which will be looking for a

polished and upmarket looking magazine. The

tone of the magazine also ties with how it

presented, as it speaks in a formal, informative

tone which would again reinforce it is aims at well-

educated, upper-class individuals by its use of

sophisticated words and lack of use of slang.

Another magazine which gave me ideas

to base my magazine on is ‘Q’. In contrast

to ‘Rolling Stone’, ‘Q’ always keeps the

masthead the same iconic red colour. I

think this is highly effective as it is well

known and respected logo which people

would look for in a news stand and

instantly recognise and trust to provide

high-quality content; it has brand loyalty.

This magazine is slightly more crowded that

‘Rolling Stone’, however the text is well

spaced out and is presented in a variety of

different ways which looks attractive. I like

the way that the theme of the magazine is

one main bold colour to highlight the

important aspects and attractions of the

magazine and the more informative bits of

texts telling the potential reader more

about the highlighted text are in less bold

colours, in this case white or black. Again,

this magazine aims for the same audience

demographics as ‘Rolling Stone’ and

achieves it well with how the front covers

of the magazine are presented- with

generally one bright colour to highlight text

and the other colours being simplistic. This

gives the magazine a fashionable and

attractive look. ‘Q’s articles are generally

written in a formal tone, which is the tone I

will attempt to adopt in my music

magazine.