Female magazine research

I have read many different magazines in my life aimed at females from gossip magazines like Heat to more upmarket magazines like Vogue. The most popular types of female magazines are gossip magazines as they are cheap, usually published weekly (so they are up to date) and easy to purchase from many shops. There are no film magazines around that would particularly attract females so this magazine would be independent and would be likely to attract a large audience. I have chosen to look at Heat and Glamour magazines; 2 different magazines with differing audiences. This will help me develop an understanding of which sort of magazine I should make my film magazine similar to. I will compare audience profiles from these 2 magazines to those of a film magazine to decide which sort of audience would be best to aim for.

1. Heat

 

Audience profile (taken from Heat magazine's website): ABC1 women aged 16-35 who are obsessed with celebrity gossip. Typical heat readers are in their mid twenties – social butterflies with a career that’s on the up. They are incredibly entertainment literate: avid cinema-goers, DVD-renters, internet-users, music-lovers, TV-addicts. They are smart and prolific shoppers especially when it comes to beauty & fashion products. In fact, shopping is one of their key precious leisure activities and high street fashion, in particular, is supremely important to them.

The way this profile mentions 'cinema-goers' and 'DVD-renters' has got my attention. This is the readership I would expect my film magazine to have. The age group is 16- 35 which is also the target audience of our film. I have selected a Twilight special of Heat magazine to analyse so I can gather as many ideas as possible. There are lots of bold colours and eye-catching fonts and photos all over the cover which would easily catch the audience's eye. The colours also contrast significantly making all the text bold and easy to read. It advertises it's enticements on the cover (film preview tickets) which would encourage the reader to buy the magazine so they can find out how to win. In contrast to film magazines, there are more images than text. For film magazines, there is always a limited number of photos and lots of text.

 

2. Glamour

Audience profile for Glamour's website (according to Condé Nast's website):

Female: 90%   

Average Age: 31   

ABC1: 73%   

Average Net HHI: £37,335

 

This clearly shows that this magazine's main focus is fashion. The average age being 31 only just allows the reader to fit into my film's target audience. The colours on the cover are very soft and feminine clearly conveying the target audience.However, this colour scheme is also eye-catching because the colours contrast against the white background. Glamour also differs to Heat because there is only one photo surrounded by lots of text, similarly to a film magazine which also tends to have more text than photos.

I will combine elements of these two magazines when designing my magazine. I will feature elements from the Glamour magazine cover such as one photo with lots of text and the soft, feminine colour scheme. From Heat magazine, I will use the same language but adapt it to my magazine so it is purely about films and gossip behind-the-scenes. I am also going to feature a competition enticement on the cover of my magazine to encourage readers to buy the magazine and enter the competition.