The Magazine Industry

The magazine industry is a huge market that is only getting bigger. In 2014 there was 210 new magazine launches. The top selling magazine in the UK is TV Choice selling 1,276,045 single newsstand copies and made a profit of £18 million. From my observation it seems that 6/10 of the top selling magazines are 'Women's Weeklies/Monthlies' whilst majority of the rest are 'TV Listings'. This could imply that the industry believes that woman have more free time on their hands and are probably seen as house wives and full time mothers. This also shows that majority of the population buy magazines to gather information about TV schedules. But it also implies that middle aged woman like to read about celebrity gossip and learn new household tips which are usually featured in these types of magazines. 

In 2015, the UK made 151 million retail copy sales with a value of £282 million. This proves that the industry is still profitable in today's society even though we seem to depend more on technology now then what we did 10 years ago. However the industry is evolving to suit today's society, especially music magazines. The most popular and highest selling music magazine in the UK is 'Q'. But to remain as the highest selling music magazine, 'Q' has had to adapt in order to fit in with present day. Evidence of this would be their multi-platforms. 'Q' has an online edition of the magazine to gain more readers as well as a website and many social network accounts like: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. This makes it easier to connect with their readers but also to gain more readers as more people use social network to find information about their bands and artists. 

Advertisers Mood Board

Target Audience Mood Board

College Magazine Analysis

Questionnaire Analysis

We asked the target audience of the college magazine what they would want their magazine to look like and what they would want included in it. The first question we asked was whether they read the current college magazine, from the questionnaire we can see that 90% of the people we asked said no. This shows that the current college magazine is not reaching its target audience or maybe they are not aware of the college magazine. This tells us that the magazine needs to change to encourage more readers.  

We then asked more questions on what they would want the magazine to look like. When we asked what colours they would want on the cover, the four main colours that they asked for was: Black, Red, White and Blue. This makes it easier for us to choose what colours to use on the front cover. From there we asked what type of image they would want on the front cover, all together 80% of the audience wanted it to be either a student or a piece of students work. We also asked what they wanted the magazine to be called. Majority of the responses included ‘East Norfolk’ or ‘EN News’.  

One of the questions that we asked was what they would want featured in the article. From the response we got, the main topics that our target audience chose were: College Events, Technology, Job Tips, Gig Guide, Film Reviews and Subject Information. We also asked whether offers and freebies would encourage them to buy the magazine. From the feedback we got 85% said that it would encourage them. From there we asked how much money they would be willing to pay for a college magazine. From the questionnaire, we can see that 75% would be willing to pay between 50p - £1 for the magazine.

One of the last questions that we asked was how often they would like the magazine to be published. The response we got showed that 70% of our audience wanted the magazine to be published every week or fortnightly. The last question we asked was whether they would be interested in subscribing to an online version of the magazine, 50% said they would and 50% said they wouldn’t be interested. 

College Magazine Questionnaire

1.       Do you read the college magazine?

2.       What would you like in the magazine?

Choose your top 3

( )  College Events

( ) Gig Guide

( ) Subject Information

( ) Technology

( ) Problem Page

( ) Job Tips

( ) Puzzle Page

( ) Fashion

( ) Sport

( ) Film Reviews

3.       What three colours would attract you to the front cover?

4.       What main cover image would you like?

( ) Student

( ) Teacher

( ) Student Work

( ) Technology

( ) Nature

5.       What should the magazine be called?

6.       How much would you pay for it?

( ) Nothing

( ) 50p

( ) £1

( ) £2

7.       How often should it be published?

( ) Weekly

( ) Fortnightly

( ) Monthly

( ) Every Half-term

8.       Would you subscribe to an online version?

9.       What fonts would attract you to the magazine?

10.   Would offers/freebies attract you to the magazine?

College Magazine Contents Page

College Magazine Front Cover