Audience Research

By Matthew McMinn

Reader ProfilesTotal

ReadersGender

StatisticsAge Range Social

GradePublisher Circulation

Billboard48,000 Gender

Neutral71% 25-54

Median age 47 A-B Prometheus Global Media

16,327 (a week)

We <3 Pop135,000 Mostly Girls 13-15 year olds C1-E

class Egmont UK 42,864(a month)

Top of the Pops 357,000 Female 82%

Average age of 12

ABC1’s 49%

AB’s 26%Immediate Media

Company LTD78,352

(in 6 months)

I gathered this information from my publisher research and will use it to go into more depth about the readers on the next slide.

Billboard Reader Profiles

On initial sight you can see that a lot of these magazine colour pallet schemes have blues, greys, whites and blacks in them. However some colours are more punctual on some of the magazines. For example, the magazines with male cover stars punctuate blue a lot more than the covers with the female cover stars. This has been done more to represent the cover stars more than to influence a target audience which explains why billboard has been designed to be gender neutral.However, there is the odd magazine with pinks on them, this could possibly be swaying more towards a female audience but note hoe that it would be for just that issue only.Also we can see the sophistication of the design of these magazines which supports the readership social grade of A-B, a lot of the clothes worn by the cover stars look to be high end clothes, we relate this kind of thing to upper class citizens of the world and so why they are the target audience.Another thing is the ages 25-54 which is the age range of this magazines readers. This makes sense when compared with the social class as within these ages you are in a career and if it’s a high end one (eg orthodontist) then you maybe classed as a B class citizen.

We <3 Pop Reader Profiles

The main colour pallet scheme for these magazines are pink! Pink, pink and more pink. This is because the majority of the target audience for this magazine. The audience is mainly 13-15 year old girls. They will stereotypically like the colour pink which is why this colour will have chosen for almost every issue. Also young girls look up to a lot of celebrities on these front covers and fancy a lot of the lads too. These magazines will appeal a lot to the magazines target audience too. However most of these cover stars are female and this is because they will be idolised by a lot of young teens, some who maybe would like to be pop stars. Compared with billboard magazine this magazine is a lot less sophisticated, this can be expressed through some of the splash images, some being slightly inappropriate (the wanted). But this magazine does fit the social status of C1’s to E’s

Top of the Pops Reader profiles

A lot of these magazines colour pallet schemes show a lot of pink as the main base colour as it is the colour which stands out amongst the rest. We also have the pure white colour and a few blues here and there. Another colour which is present is purple. These colours reinforce their stereotypical audience of mainly 82% of the readership being females. The average age of this audience is 12 and the bright colours and happy smiles also project this target.Compared with the other teen magazine this one is aimed at a higher social grade bracket with 49% of the readership being ABC1’s and 26% being AB’s. This is shown by a more linear layout and less messy compared with “we love pop”. The average age is 12 for this magazine but that does not mean anyone older does not buy it, also upper class AB 12 year olds would be expected to have a similar intelligence level to 13-15 year olds who fit in the C1-E social grade.