Analysis Of Professional Magazine Covers

Danielle Molyneux

• Published monthly by BBC Magazines priced at £2.10• It features chart information, quizzes, song lyrics, posters and is seen as a

supplementary magazine for the TV show ‘ Top of the Pops’• It was launched in February 1995 and is famous for giving the girl group ‘

The Spice Girls ‘ their nicknames• It was originally marketed as the missing link between Smash Hits and

NME but it’s format was gradually changed, with less music content and a demographic shift to young girls between the ages of 11-14

• Despite the TV show being cancelled the magazine is still published today• The magazine has had several editors over the years including, Peter

Lorraine, Corinna Schaffer and Rosalie Snaith and contributing editors including Adam Tanswell , it’s curent editor is Peter Hartmagazine

• More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops_(magazine)

Top Of The Pops

Bold masthead, use of black shadow makes it stand out more attracting the reader.Header: Mentioning of a free gift inside attracts the target audience, the fact they are cinema tickets suggests this magazine is for a younger audience the word ‘free’ is written in yellow in order to stand out and ‘cinema tickets’ is also written in a different colour to grab the readers attention and against the pink background this works really well.

Main image is of a well known boy pop band, this suggests that is aimed at younger aged people into pop music and more likely to be females.

Use of flasher: attracts readers attention the word ‘new’ is written in yellow in order to stand out and against the pink background it works well

House style/colour scheme is pink yellow white and blue, bright colours which stand out these are typically girly colours so this suggests the magazine is targeted at young girls

Coverlines: ‘soap boys’ written in bubbly white font to grab the readers attention and the use of yellow font for ‘stripped’ helps to draw the reader in more, the use of cheesy language again suggests this magazine is for a young audience and as it is on about boys ‘stripping’ it would be fair to say this magazine is targe-ted more at females

Pull quote- written in white bubbly font in order to stand out, again helps us to realise this mag is targeted at a younger age group as language is informal/direct and cheesy Barcode/date/issue no.

Footer: number 7 is yellow in order to stand out along with the white bubbly text against pink background makes it more eye-catching

Logo

Main cover line: use of language here is cheesy and informal so therefore suggests it is aimed at younger people, the topic being discussed being cringes and kissing would lead us further to believe that it is aimed at females, we can also see this through the choice of colour being girly pinks/whites.

Images: main image is of a well known boy band associated with pop and on the front cover pop artists are featured e.g. Kelly Clarkson and girls aloud these artists/bands are from the pop genre

Layout: is simple and easy to follow, with the rule of thirds being used. The simplicity of the layout again suggests it is for a younger target audience

Footer: mentions posters which suggests again that it is for a younger audience, pictures of the posters which are featured inside ,attract the target audience. And the bright coloured childlike bubbly outstanding white attracts them

This magazine is targeted at girls aged 11-14, with a strong interest in pop music, male and female celebrities, gossip, TV shows, films and make-up etc we know this because..

Use of bright eye catching feminine colours attract the target audience

Sell line: ‘bursting with backstage gossip’ this suggests it is for a young female audience as they are more likely to be interested in gossip

too and therefore suggests someone interested in pop music would read this magazine as it is clearly from the pop genre. And the use of well known artists/bands being on the front would attract them

Language used: ‘you’ll look like a star’ this attracts the reader making them believe that by buying this magazine it will help them to achieve a ‘star like’ look. This also reinforces the idea that the reader of this magazine would be interested in fashion

yellow in order to stand out and the ‘and’ symbol is too, this is done to Grab the readers attention emphasise that there is even more prizes to be won etc and this attracts the target audience. This again suggests it is aimed at a younger audience and as it mentions ‘party outfit's we know it is targeted more at females

Coverlines: ‘314’ is written in

We love Pop is a new monthly music magazine which launched in September 2011. Each issue contains 68 pages and its target audience is teenage girls aged between 13-15 years old. Egmont saw a gap in the market after another pop music magazine ended called Smash hits in 2006. Smash Hits had a similar target audience to the now audience of We Love Pop and therefore when they closed there was a gap to fill for the benefit of this age group. The reason the magazine stopped was due to social media and websites gaining in popularity. But ironically it was social media at their disposal that helped to launch successfully We Love Pop and similarly they have Facebook and Twitter pages as well as a website in order to provide access all areas to the latest music. We Love Pop is published by Egmont UK and has circulation figures of around 115,000.

The typical content of a We Love Pop issue are articles on artists/bands, interviews, features on film, fashion, technology, and beauty and advertisements from companies also aiming at the teen audience such as Universal Music, Boohoo and So Fragrances.

For more information about We Love Pop visit http://www.welovepopmag.co.uk/

We Love Pop

The masthead looks bold, bright and quirky as it is slanted and the black and orange are strong colours that stand out. Black normally has quite negative connotations however here it could simply be used to make the masthead literally “pop”. Similarly the neon orange has connotations of happiness and energy which sparks from the colours used to make it (red and yellow). This could be a representation of the young teen audience. Orange also has connotations of heat which could link to how the young female audience find the cover male “hot”.

Medium Close up of a male looking flirtatious and suggestive but in a “watershed” way due to the audience only being 13-15 years old. There is a direct eye contact which pierces through to the reader and create a real intimate feel as its like he is looking at the reader. He is part of a very popular band (One Direction) extremely popular with teenage girls so having him on the cover can attract the core audience as well as passers by. What is interesting is how the magazine only has one member as opposed to the whole band, however they actually have produced five different front covers including this one with each member and his story on. They are encouraging their target audience to buy them all or as they call it “collect”. This can show the magazine going the extra mile to satisfy their target audience. Also it may have been that having a long shot of the band would mean that the female audience wouldn’t be able to have a proper look at their idols. Therefore the solution is doing separate copies!

Main Coverline

Footer explaining some of the content which are free posters of stars (mostly males for the female audience). Its sort of like a covermount.

Cover lines, including features on fashion, beauty and also about boys, dealing with bullies and the X Factor, all of which are very key elements in the target audiences lives.

There are supplementary images used which are crucial for this age group as they are attracted to an image led magazine.

Flasher in the black and orange creates a house style and attracts the target audience to the fact its a new magazine. It being new can perhaps make the audience feel they are getting not only the latest gossip but the newest magazine, hot off the press.

The pop of yellow in the flasher and in the “poster perfection” lexis adds variety, links to the happiness the audience feel when they see the magazine and its content and draws the readers eye to what the magazine are selling this month. Including that its a “The Boy Band Issue” which suits the young female audience.

Rule of thirds used creating a smart and modern layout which can reflect the content and the audience

Price/barcode/ issue number/ link to webiste/ name of publsiher

Liam, on the cover looks quite casual and can create a relaxed feel to the magazine that appeals to the audience who want a fun and informative magazine that entertains and is not too serious even though its about music which is a discipline. Similarly the background is simple making the cover star , the supplementary images and the copy stand out.

The yellow arrow can link to the band (One Direction) as an arrow can denote direction.