textual analysis - magazines aimed at my target audience

Certain magazines aimed at the 13-17 year old demographic are being shunned by the latter years of this age range. Many of these magazines including Teen Vogue, Seventeen and Cosmo Girl, and are being favoured by the 13-15 year olds'. In this day in age, girls are growing up faster and with that, their taste in magazines. Many older teenage girls favour magazines that are considered too mature for their age group, however, they defy this by being a regular consumer of magazines such as Look, Vogue,  Tatler and More. When asked, girls said that they weren't interested in teen magazines anymore as they felt they were being targeted at younger year groups and that they felt they were more mature than what the magazine assumed. For my magazines aimed at my target audience, I have decided to include magazines that my demographic would be interested in reading, and not what may be considered as magazines targeted for them. 

I have chosen Grazia Magazine for one of my magazine analysis'. The title means grace in Italian which suggests that the readers would be sophisticated, and probably due to the content and price of the magazine would range between 22-35, although many younger adults between 16-21 also purchase it. The magazine costs £1.80 and is issued weekly by Bauer Consumption Media founded in 1875, which also publishes Heat, FHM and Empire. Grazia sells around 220,000 copies each distribution and the price and wide distribution suggest that the magazine is affordable, but because it is supposed to be a glossy is targeted mainly for middle-class women not the working class. The front cover is the focal point for the target audience as it is the first part of the magazine that they will see when deciding on whether to purchase the magazine. Grazia usually has a sub-heading which over the years has changed from 'BRITAIN'S FIRST WEEKLY GLOSSY' to 'BRITAIN'S NO.1 GLOSSY', this shows that the magazine has gained popularity over the years of distribution, and possibly since publishing was taken over by Bauer Consumption Media from EMAP ELAN. The fact that the magazine names itself 'BRITAIN'S NO.1 GLOSSY' informs the audience that it is very popular and by choosing to read Grazia they are choosing the best. Its vast circulation also proves that it is highly regarded by readers, and also by online readers who visit the Grazia website.

The article that has been used to represent the magazine is about actress Jennifer Aniston, who has become more and more popular since her divorce from Brad Pitt after his apparent infidelity. Their choice in using her is very wise as she has been getting a lot of media attention so readers will be interested to know more about her 

life. She is also a role model for young to middle-aged women as she is a very attractive, fashionable and a hard-working career woman, which is what most modern women aspire to be. The photograph that has been used is of herself looking very positive and happy at an awards ceremony or premiere, and it is a medium/close-up shot which keeps the focus on her. She also seems to be wearing very neutral make-up which would makes her appear more attractive as most young to middle-aged women would want to look naturally pretty, and also the magazine is more approachable when the target audience choose it. The cover also advertises clothing and accessories, which includes an expensive 'It' bag which would cost roughly £300-£400, this shows that the target audience are more likely to be young career women or middle-class women. It also shows different articles that are featured in the magazine, one of these is about 'The new super-rich women', this is a positive article as it make the target audience have something to aspire to whilst reading the magazine. It shows that the target audience are more likely to be interested in learning how to better their careers than about ten-year old tanaholics that you might read about in other Bauer published magazines such as Closer.

Grazia is dissimilar to other magazines due to its typeface and use of colour. The font used is Bordeaux Roman Bold and is very sophisticated, reflecting the target audience, and is usually in white which is simple and elegant but catches the eye. Inside the magazine it is also very dissimilar to other magazines. The articles all have a slanted background which exudes youthfulness whilst still being sophisticated. The paper used is also different to most weekly magazines, which is why Grazia tends to compare itself to 'glossies' such as, Tatler, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. This also gives the impression that the magazine is more upmarket and would be favoured by sophisticated women. The companies that are advertised in Grazia are commonly clothing and perfume brands, but may also include foods or television programmes that are being broadcast. The main features of the magazine are based around celebrities and clothing. This is also seen in the advertisements as many of the brands use celebrities to endorse their products, which gives them good publicity. Other models that are seen throughout the magazine tend to be very slim, which would resemble the type of reader that the magazine usually attracts, or wants to attract. This represents women with being slim and could be seen by some readers as a negative image.

My next magazine choice is Look. This magazine has a median reader age of 25, however the reader age ranges from 16-30. Look costs £1.40 and is issued weekly by IPC Media founded in 1963 and based in London, who also distribute leading magazines such as NME, Marie Claire, In Style and also cheaper magazines such as Now. IPC Media is one of the United Kingdoms leading consumer magazine publishers, selling around 350 million magazines every year - with Look having a 307,274 circulation and 521,000 readership. Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read an IPC magazine, which is almost 27 million adults. Look manages to outsell Grazia and also maintain a cheaper price, which could suggest that Grazia has to keep their magazine more costly to stay in line with this magazine. However, whereas it seems Grazia readers are more likely to be middle-class, it could be suggested the same for Look readers - as only 41% are in full time employment. The vast circulation and the popularity of the Look website suggest that it is a very popular magazine. Looks sub-heading also suggests this as it says, 'Britain's Best Selling Fashion Weekly', which its publishers also state on their website. 

Look uses a lot of exclamation marks which connotates that the magazine has new information or surprising one off offers. This is a good way to interest the consumer, and may bring in new consumers. Also, using words such as 'secret, shock, new and details' it enforces the audience to buy the magazine and read it. The cover girl on Look is also Jennifer Aniston, and I have used a magazine with her on the cover for my final magazine analysis to create cohesion. The magazines are all from around similar times, when she was very much in the public eye. I thought that this would demonstrate that all of the magazines consumers would be interested in reading about her, which is why my target audience would all be interested in reading any of my magazine choices. The font used on the cover is very bold, which would stand out to consumers. Look's general font colour varies between pink, orange, red or yellow, these are all very bright colours so the magazine is very recognisable. The subheading is written in a slightly different font, but is still very bold, and is white which catches the eye. The photograph is a medium close-up of Jennifer, which is traditionally used on weekly distributed magazines, but varies on covers of monthly glossies. 

Although Look could be compared to other magazines in terms of some content and its structure, it is comparatively dissimilar to other magazines' as it is fashion based compared to other magazines thats focal point is celebrity gossip. Look does include some gossip inside, but most of it's content is about fashion and this is recognised in it's sub-heading, 'Britain's Best Selling Fashion Weekly'. Look tends to stick to one structure in terms of its layout. After the contents it will show a double-page spread of new fashion items or  new collections at high street shops. It then would usually showcases dresses that have been worn to award ceremonies by celebrities and then be followed by the cover story and other articles. Unlike many other fashion-based magazines, Look includes a variety of different companies advertisements, ranging from perfumes, to clothes, to television shows which is very unusual. The main features in Look are obviously fashion, then celebrities, including celebrity love lives, diets and fashions. However, the magazine also does two real-life articles in every magazine, and these would usually include a global issue about women and a collection of people with a similarity such as cancer victims, leaving jobs to better their career and also the lives of gap-year students. On the Look website, and on IPC media's website, the magazine is hailed as ' the fast paced, glamorous, glossy high street fashion and celebrity weekly for young women', this highlight the fact that the readers are generally young and that its content is largely about fashion. 

My final choice of magazine for my textual analysis is Elle. As well as students reading weekly issued 

magazine,  many also read monthly glossies such as Tatler, Vogue and Elle. Elle magazine is also fashion-based magazine and was originally founded in the US. The english version costs £3.50, and is issued monthly by Hachette Filipacchi UK Ltd, Britain's newest and 'most exciting magazine publishing house'. Hachette Filipacchi is a subsidiary of Lagardère Active one of the world's leading media companies present in 39 countries, they publish 262 magazine titles and sell over 1 billion copes worldwide. Hachette Filipacchi UK Ltd also publishes other leading magazines such as Sugar, Red and Elle Decoration. The first UK edition of Elle was published in 1985 and since then has become a leading fashion glossy. Elle magazine has a median age of 34.7 years old and has an audience of between ages 16-49. Subscriptions to the magazine account for 73% of readers with the remaining 23% purchasing single issues, the magazine reaches over 4.8 million readers. With such a vast circulation and readership it is no wonder why the magazines website says 'first stop for daily fashion, shopping and celebrity style news, up to the minute reports from the international collections, beauty news, celebrity style secrets, spa guides, the latest diets, hair and beauty trends from the catwalk, celebrity trends, everyone's wearing and get the look, the best edit of what to buy in designer stores and on the high street, fashion, shopping and celebrity blogs!'

The font cover is very recognisable as all of the Elle products have the same font which is Bordeaux Roman Bold LET - also used by Grazia - and it is a very recognisable and bold font.  Elle magazine tend to change the colour of their font with each cover and the colour is used for sub-headings as well. The cover uses words which will grab the consumer such as 'must haves' and 'your', this creates a personal feel and the use of 'must haves' is a clever advertising slogan as many people will go and purchase whatever products are being advertised. Elle doesn't use a lot of punctuation on the cover and this makes it seem more personal again at as if it is aimed at the younger generation who do not care about punctuation. The sub-headings are all bold which draws focus to what they are about even though the information is actually in a regular sized font. Elle is also able to bring focus to what they think is an important article or feature, this is done by using yellow as a font or to underline headings. 'Win' is written in yellow and so is '10' when talking about make-up must haves. Jennifer Aniston - the cover girl again - is shot in a medium long-shot which is popular as a cover shot for monthly glossies. 

Although Elle is dissimilar to the other two magazine choices, Grazia and Look, it is very similar to other magazines in its market area such as Tatler, Vogue and Harpars Bazaar. They all tend to have similar layouts and articles inside, usually of a popular actress or model, and sometimes a young socialite which brings a younger demographic to the magazine. The layout of Elle is very customary of a glossy, it will include a main feature article of the cover girl, pictures of events that have happened such as the MET Ball, or the possibly an awards ceremony, and also has a regular article feature of 'the life of an Elle girl'. The companies that Elle is most likely to advertise are generally perfumes or big fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Gucci. Elle magazines main articles would be based around a few celebrities, and mainly fashion. The magazine tends to focus entirely on fashion, even in its interviews. Articles based around fashion and beauty are common in such magazines as Elle and Vogue as these are their focal points for the magazine. It is also common for some glossies to advertise high-priced housing at the back of the magazine near-side the horoscopes which tend to be in-depth.