Target Audience

It is necessary for a magazine to have a target audience in mind when producing a magazine for it to be successful. This is so that they know how to specifically aim their magazine at a certain audience, know what they want and sell lots of the magazine. Other than sex and age, another important thing to consider when choosing a target audience for a magazine is socio-economic classification which is a common way of measuring social class according to the job of the main bread winner of a household. These are set out in categories of different jobs: A, B, C1, C2, D & E.

A - high ranking professionals; lawyers, doctors etc
B - middle ranking professional; middle managers in businesses, teachers etc
C1 - “white-collar” (office) workers; junior managers, office clerks, bank clerks, nurses etc
C2 - skilled manual workers; carpenters, electricians etc
D - semi and unskilled manual workers; drivers, post sorters, labourers etc
E - people subsisting on state benefits; the unemployed, pensioners etc

I took a print screen from the National Readership Survey website (www.nrs.co.uk) which gives statistics about which people read "Q" and "Mojo" magazine. This information tells me that the main audience that buy "Q" magazine are mostly men, around 85% of the readers are aged 15-44 and two thirds of the readers are in the ABC1 category. I can also tell from these statistics that the main audience that buy "mojo" are very similar as that of "Q", though "Mojo" has a smaller amount of readers and the amount is different, the trends are the same.

From the Bauer website (http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q/Audience Profile) I found a small section describing the psychographics/Audience Profile for readers of Q Magazine. The readers of Q Magazine are "Open minded experience seekers, the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy."

From this I know I should target my magazine at mostly men aged 15-44 in the socio economic category ABC1.

Introduction to Main Task

The main task will be a development of my previous preliminary coursework blog of creating a student magazine for my college.

For my main task I have been asked to design a music magazine. I have decided to create a magazine similar to "Q" magazine which involves a variety of genres such as indie and rock and artists ranging from Lily Allen to The Killers. I will design a front cover, contents page and double page spread. I will be using both Adobe Photoshop and InDesign to create my magazine.

Katie Richardson AS Media Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task, I have been asked to design a Sussex Downs college magazine using Adobe InDesign. I have chosen teenage students as the target audience for my college magazine and it is called "EC" which stands for "Everything college".

These are the flat plans I made in the process of designing my magazine. One is for the front cover and the other is for the contents page of the magazine.

I decided that the masthead for my magazine would be bold, a different font to the rest of text and biggest on the page. This is so that it stands out and attracts attention. Underneath the masthead I used the tagline "everything college" which is what the masthead stands for. This is so that the readers know what the magazine is about.

I used informative language and I avoided using too formal language in my main flash and main sells so that it would appeal to my target audience as I feel they would be happier reading something more relaxed. I also personalised my strap line by using the word "your" to get the reader involved.

On the cover of my magazine I put the issue number and the date of issue. This is so that the target audience knows they are reading the most up to date issue of the magazine. I did not use price or a bar code as this is a college magazine for students which will be free.

The layout of my contents page was simple yet effective. It involved words and pictures so that the layout of the page wasn't boring. This would appeal to my target audience because they wouldn't want to read a magazine that was loads of writing. I kept my contents in easy to read and easy to find categories for an easy read. I used the brand logo at the top of the contents page to give a feel of familiarity to the magazine.

These are the two photographs I took for the front cover of my magazine. The first photo was not a suitable choice for my magazine as I took the photograph in landscape which would not fit precisely onto the cover the way I wanted it too. Also you cannot see directly into the persons eyes as his hair is in the way and his head is tilted at an odd angle. Therefore I chose to use the second photograph for the cover of my magazine. Firstly because the background suited my cover story for my magazine. Secondly, the photograph is in portrait and would fit my magazine perfectly the way I wanted. Furthermore, the person in the photo is looking directly at the camera and is smiling which will appeal to the target audience as they would not want to read a magazine that seemed unfriendly or uninviting.


I am pleased with the final outcome of my college magazine for students. I think to improve my magazine cover I should make the writing stand out more so that it is easier to read and also include some more main sells so that the magazine looks like it contains more. To improve my contents page I would use a different colour background to make it look less plain. I am pleased with the cover of my magazine because I think the colours work well and I really like the brand logo. This was something that stood out to my target audience when I asked for feedback on my magazine.