Magazine research

1. MAGAZINE RESEARCH
Pre production

2. REAL LIFE BAUER MAGS
• Bella
• Closer
• That's life
• Take a break
• Your
• heat

3. BELLA – MAGAZINE
• Bella provides a modern spin on the classic
service elements of beauty, diet and health,
food and travel, intertwined with fashion,
celebrity and compelling real-life stories,
delivering the complete weekly package for
today's woman.
• Upbeat, fun and in touch, Bella has made great
strides in rejuvenating its offering, giving it a
more youthful, more energetic feel, where it
bridges the gap between the younger celebrity
titles and the more mature women's weeklies.
It speaks to women about what everyone's
talking about, leading the conversation, but
always in an entertaining way.

4. BELLA-ONLINE

5. BELLA - AUDIENCE
• The Bella reader loves gossiping with friends over coffee or a glass of wine, having
fun, watching her favourite shows – like This Morning or Loose Women – and
looking after her family. She’s a busy mum, working full- or part-time, who also
makes sure she has some time for herself in the midst of the mayhem! She’s
happiest watching Saturday night telly with her family while texting her friends on
her phone! Like most people, she’s interested in looking good, so Bella’s beauty tips
and fashion pages are a big hit with her. She also loves reading health and diet
features as, like most of us, she is keen to lose a few pounds. She doesn’t mind
treating herself to clothes and beauty buys, but wants to know how to do it on the
high street.

6. THAT’S LIFE!
• that's life! combines real-life
stories with classic women's
weekly editorial and a sense of
humour.
• Its unique mix of sassy, gritty and
involving editorial talks to its
readers in their own language.
This ensures it has one of the
strongest reader relationships of
any magazine in the UK and is
incredibly thoroughly read, with
readers devouring every last
page.
• that's life! is an empowering
magazine, bursting with
character. Its perfect mix of
humourous and captivating
editorial, make it the most
engaging magazine in the
market.

7. THAT’S LIFE! ONLINE

8. CLOSER
• Combining the news, buzz
and glamour of the
celebrity world with
extraordinary and
compelling real-life
content, Closer connects
with its reader by getting
to the very heart of every
story.

9. CLOSER - ONLINE

10. CLOSER STATS
• STATS: 65% ABC1 48% Married or living with partner 53% Children aged 0-15 Mean
age: 38 In employment: 73%

11. TAKE A BREAK
• Take a Break is a publishing phenomenon. It
has been comfortably the biggest-selling
women's magazine in the UK for over a quarter
of a century and its brand extensions alone sell
over 10 million copies each year.
• Carefully combining fascinating stories,
brilliant puzzles and generous prizes,
alongside women's lifestyle features, Take a
Break not only delivers the sharpest, most
original and entertaining magazine in the
market, but also an unrivalled sense of
community and loyalty that places it at the
heart of the family.
• Take a Break is an exceptionally interactive
magazine, which both engages readers and
makes them incredibly responsive - in fact it
receives well over 100,000 reader
communications every week.

12. TAKE A BREAK - ONLINE

13. TAKE A BREAK - AUDIENCE
• Take a Break readers are aged 25 to 51, and 1.2million of them are mums — who
are not just head of their household, but also the decision makers on which brands
make it into the house. Our readers put their family and friends first, but are active
and engaged members of their wider community. They are keen shoppers and make
up a fifth of the UK grocery spend.

14. YOURS
• Yours magazine puts its readers at
the heart of everything we do and
they reward us with
unprecedented levels of loyalty,
trust and engagement.
• We offer highly relevant, trusted
and useful advice, whether it’s to
help readers look their best, to
stay healthy and active, to enjoy
their free time or to manage their
money better. We celebrate 50+
women too, whether they’re
overcoming difficulties or
achieving amazing things. We like
to look back with our readers and
listen to their views, enjoy a shared
heritage, shared values and a
sense of friendship and
community.

15. YOURS - ONLINE

16. YOURS - AUDIENCE
• Statistics: Median age 70 46% ABC1 75% Retired 95% Female

17. HEAT
• heat is the brand that sets popular
culture alight and gets people talking.
• Now a huge multiplatform brand that's
unrivalled in the entertainment market,
heat is more than just a magazine- it's a
radio station, a podcast, an app and has
a huge online and social media
presence.

18. HEAT ONLINE

19. HEAT AUDIENCE

20. FONT TYPE RESEARCH
• FOCUS - aharoni
• FOCUS – verdana
• Focus – a astro space
• FOCUS – gillsans extrabold
• FOCUS – eras ultra
• FOCUS FOCUS focus focus – helvecica rounded boldcond
• FOCUS – univers blackext
• FOCUS – tempo heavy condensed

21. FONTS I HAVE SELECTED FOR USE IN
MY MAGAZINE
• FOCUS FOCUS
HelveticaRounded
• FOCUS FOCUS
Tempo HeavyCondense
• FOCUS FOCUS
Tempo HeavyCondense Bold
• FOCUS FOCUS
HelveticaRounded Bold
• FOCUS FOCUS
Verdana
• FOCUS FOCUS
Verdana Bold
I selected these fonts for use in my magazine because due to the
fact that they’re sans serif, they are on the informal side. This is
necessary for the informal nature of the real life magazine that I
am going to use them on. It is important that the font I choose
closely matches the subject of the magazine, because otherwise it
would look unnatural. I prefer the rounded style of the fonts
because it allows them to be used interchangeably easier without
a clash in style between fonts.
I have chosen Tempo HeavyCondense italic as the
font that I am going to use in the masthead. This is
because it stands out the most out of all the fonts.
This is due to the unique and elegant form of the
letters in the font. It is important that the masthead
font is notable because it is supposed to stand out
and provide the magazine its branding.

22. FOCUS focus
I have chosen HelveticaRounded
Bold as the font I am going to
use for my body text, this is
because it is rounded and easy
to read, while maintaining a
modern and stylish profile.
Body text
FOCUS FOCUS
I am going to use Verdana as
my coverline font, due to the
fact that it is sans serif, while
also displaying an air of
importance, due to its neat
and uniform lettering. It
meshes well with my other
chosen fonts, as it is elegant
and refined.
Coverline

23. Inflammatory story
to attract viewer’s
attention
Information about food
and dieting – appealing
to the demographic of
the magazine
Large
picture of
person
Prizes and giveaways
for readers to win
Large masthead with
price and edition
number
Main coverline – crazy
story to attract attention
and appeal to
demographic
Vibrant colour
scheme –
matches with
informal motif of
the magazine

24. Incentives to buy
magazine – giveaway
and cash prize
Outrageous story
in large print font
– attracts reader’s
attention – main
coverline.
Masthead in sans
serif font; connotes
casualness. Text
overlapping with
picture as the
cluttered nature of
the magazine
connotes busyness,
which fits with the
lifestyle of the
reader.
Vibrant colour scheme –
connotes informality and
fun

25. Cash
giveaway,
incentive to
buy
Deals and
offers to
people that are
interested
Masthead – largest
text on cover – sans
serif; informality
Pop – contains
outrageous story,
adds to the cluttered
layout of the cover,
connoting busyness.
Barcode on display,
not high class like
other magazines

26. Headings are in
bold and a
contrasting
colour to make
them stand out
from the normal
text on the index
Index headings are
labelled with the
number of the page
on which the content
is found in the
magazine
Links to the social media
accounts of the magazine,
allow readers to engage
with the magazine more
Heading in a large bold font in
pink, a colour that contrasts
with the black body text. This
makes it stand out and
contributes to the pastel pink
colour scheme of the contents
page
Sans serif
font type,
connotes
informality

27. Magazine issue
and branding in
their house
style pink
colour
Pink background
of index makes the
section stand out,
as it relates to the
images on the
cover
Page numbers
in pink to make
them contrast
with the black
text in the index
Large image
illustrating the main
article of the issue,
with a page number
Sans serif font type,
connoting casualness
rather than seriousness, as
this is a magazine targeted
at an informal
demographic
Index divided into
subheadings about different
topics, allows for easier
reading of the index page, as
well as looking neater
Use of images to convey
information in a more concise
fashion than text, more informal
too

28. Image takes up a
large amount of the
page, used to
highlight the cover
feature, as well as
identify the theme
and topic of the
magazine.
Index subdivided into
subheadings depending on
topic, allows for easier
understanding of the
topics covered by this
issue, as well as making it
look less cluttered
Use of a different font
and colour for the
subheadings makes it
stand out over the
plain black body text in
the index, makes the
contents page easier to
read
Link to the social
media accounts of the
magazine, allows
them to market it via
social media
Pictures of products available in the
magazine along with the page
number they can be found at. Gets
the reader interested in what the
issue contains, as well as populating
the content

29. Font types:
Consistent
usage of sans
serif font types
to connote
informality.
Layouts:
Both the front cover and the
contents page have a cluttered
layout, which connotes
busyness and informality,
which fits with the lifestyle and
expectations of the target
audience.
Colour scheme:
The front cover and the
contents page share a
colourful colour scheme, as
opposed to a monochrome
one. This connotes liveliness
and fun.
Use of images:
Both the front cover and
the contents page use a
lot of images to convey
information, rather than
being especially heavy
with the use of text. This
makes it pop more and
appear more interesting to
the eye.

31. CONCLUSION
• Audience research: Bauer media also produces HEAT magazine, which is targeted at
the same audience as ‘yours’ Their audiences are overwhelmingly female, with 50%
of the readers in the ABC economic categories. The main difference between the
two magazine’s audiences is the median age of the reader, with heat’s audience
being 37 on average, and yours’ having a median age of 70.
• ‘Celebrity real life stories’ is a magazine targeted at the same audience that isn’t
produced by Bauer media.

32. CONCLUSION
• Genre research: Audiences expect a certain kind of aesthetic style for the graphic
design of the magazine which conforms with the codes and conventions of typical
of real life magazine. In terms of content, the audiences expect interesting and
outrageous stories about real people and celebrity gossip and news.
• Aesthetically, the audiences are interested in a casual, busy, and colourful style for
the cover page of the magazine.

33. GRAPHIC ELEMENTS
• Bright, diverse colour palette
• Cluttered layout, for both front cover and contents page
• Easy to read index for the contents page
• Multiple headings that stand out on the front cover
• Giveaways and prizes to win on the front cover
• Large picture of model on the front cover, title covers them slightly
• Products and offers on the front cover

34. CONCLUSION
• House style: