This document provides an analysis of the target audience and design elements of a magazine. The target audience is identified as mainly young females between 11-15 years old, as evidenced by the choice of cover model Joe McElderry and features asking readers questions. Pink, blue, and yellow colors are used throughout the magazine, which generally appeal to females. Sans-serif fonts and interactive elements are meant to make the magazine seem friendly and approachable to its young, primarily female readership.

1. Title – ‘Top of The Pops’ is a well known TV show which has been axed but the magazine edition still carries on. Gives evidence that the magazine is mainly about pop. The white bubble around the title highlights it’s importance. The font used is rather bubbly and relates to the pop theme. It is also rather curved and has a relaxed feel. Colour – The main title colour is pink which is a soft and stereotypically girls colour. The blue background sits next to the pink well allowing the colours to blend and not look out of place. Blue also gives connotations of clarity and comfort. The baby blue, pink and yellow are generally related to females. Target Audience – The main audience for this magazine is mainly young people aged between 11 and 15 with a 90% female audience. This is shown by the choice of cover model, Joe McElderry. Being a young artist, Joe will appeal to the audience as they may find him attractive etc. The ‘star style on a budget’ heading also backs up the target audience as they are young and do not have a strong source of income. The ‘Joe Needs You’ feature is the most strong piece of female targeting as it relates around dating and relationships – ‘are you his perfect match?’ The baby blue, pink and yellow are generally related to females too. The design makes the magazine seem friendly and welcoming to the audience. Mainly young females. The magazine seems very interactive as most of the features ask questions to involve the audience therefore using personalization e.g. ‘wanna be famous?’ and ‘Guess who?!’ The cover model , Joe McElderry is covering part of the ‘Top of The Pops’ logo. This shows how the magazine is an established brand and is confident that people will recognise it without the full title. The copy throughout the cover is sans serif. This shows the relaxation and ‘coolness’ of the magazine and also relates to the pop genre. The magazine is not cluttered but contains a lot of content . Lots of regular shapes are used such as squares and circles, to highlight the key features. Even though this magazine is featured around music, there is a true story featured about sun beds which once again relates to the target audience as they may use them. The preferred meaning of this magazine is that you should buy Joe’s music and that he is looking for a girlfriend.

2. Target Audience The target audience for this magazine, according to the rate card, is mainly female as it has a 86% of the market. There are features to the magazine cover which link and relate to the rate card below. The main buying gender of this magazine is female (86%) which is shown by the key colours of the magazine – pink. Also but the key content – ‘Joe Needs You’. This shows that the female is mainly targeted. Blue is also used for the 14% of boys buying the magazine.

3. The story title represents the target audience . The word ‘teacher’ is used which shows how the audience are still at school age and it also represents rebellion. The title colour of pink, signifies the female audience. The background colour is baby blue which is also rather female orientated. The choice of artist, Charlotte Church, is a good choice as she is relatively young so the audience believes that they can relate to her. She is also spraying a can of ‘silly string’ which connotes fun and youth. The blue and pink colour scheme seem to be a reoccurring style in the magazine. The front cover of Joe McElderry also followed the same colour scheme. The preferred meaning of this double page spread is that Charlotte Church is a fun, outgoing person and rebellious. The copy in this spread, is a sans serif font and clear to read. This shows that the magazine is not serious and rather relaxed. The title of the spread is written in a hand written typeface. This adds personalization to the piece as it seems like Charlotte Church has written it herself. The mode of address is rather chatty and casual. This is due to the young audience and the casual story featured. The mise-en-scene connotes a party type scene with presents, cakes and then the ‘silly string’. The layout of the double page is not crowded but is quite detailed in copy. The outfit choice of a pink top and jeans, represents the casual nature of the magazine and the article itself. An oppositional reading to this may be that Charlotte Church is much more mature in real life and is just putting this ‘act’ on for the magazine.