Most regional magazines aim their content at middle-aged and older readers as they focus on community updates and regional features that appeal more to older audiences. Absolute and The Source target younger readers through their modern style and content like fashion, music, and gossip. Specifically, they aim at artsy, indie, LGBT, and student audiences in Brighton which has a cultural scene and prominent university known for arts. While they could not obtain specific demographic percentages, they aim to attract a wide readership across most of the local population with fresh ideas.

1. TARGET AUDIENCE OF
REGIONAL MAGAZINES

2.  Most regional magazines tend to aim at the middle
aged/working class readership. This is because regional
magazines tend to include information about the importance
of the community and many updates on the region, as this is
often attractive to older people.
 They tend to base themselves around the idea that the
audience would like to read about culture and society in the
region. For example, there are normally many articles
containing information about: restaurants, getaways, property
for sale and many other things that have been reviewed.
 Similarly, the trend for common regional magazines tends to
be that they focus on beautiful landscapes from the region,
perhaps enforcing pride to live in the place you live in, which
is more common in the older generations.
 This is common for magazines such as Dorset, Essex life,
Northern life and Cambridge magazine.
WHAT IS THE CONVENTIONAL TARGET
AUDIENCE OF MOST REGIONAL
MAGAZINES?

3. CONVENTIONAL REGIONAL MAGAZINES
BORING!!!
In my opinion
anyway...

4.  For these unique and modern magazines, it’s clear from the
style/layout and the content in the articles that it tends to
aim at a younger audience. Also, it could be that these
magazines focus on aiming at more working class majorities,
due to Absolute often being distributed with newspapers. In
addition, the fact that both the magazines are free could also
appeal to everyone, but specifically the working class.
WHAT IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR
ABSOLUTE AND THE SOURCE?
This shows that 60% of
the population are
working/employed.

5.  As both magazines are younger and more fresh in culture, the
content is a little edgier and it contains more “gossip”,
musical content and specifically fashion. This aspect allows
us to know that the audience being targeted are specifically
people who are interested in young and modern culture,
mainly being the younger generations.
WHAT IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR
ABSOLUTE AND THE SOURCE?
This shows
that 41.7% of
the
population
are 20-44
year olds
(young
people).

6.  As young and “indie” culture is clearly apparent in these
magazines, it clearly is linked into the region it is based. As
Brighton is well known for being a cultural area, the
population of homosexuals reading the magazine will be much
higher than other common regional magazines.
WHAT IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR
ABSOLUTE AND THE SOURCE?
Section of the
article which is
dedicated to
gay pride.

7.  Similarly, these cultured and modern magazines tend to aim
at a certain demographic, with it specifically focusing on
arty/indie people. For example, with Brighton University being
well known for its art and crafts and producing rife harvests
of excellent students consistently, this means that the Source
and Absolute can focus on aiming at a younger audience like
these students.
WHAT IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR
ABSOLUTE AND THE SOURCE?
“Passionate about their lifestyle” here
shows that the writers aim their
magazine at people who love
arts/culture.
These two statistics (top: film, bottom: art)
are the rankings of Brighton University, as
you can tell they are a popular and
successful university in terms of arts, and
combining this with the rich culture the city
has, it’s clear Absolute and Source thrive
here.

9.  I contacted the editor of the Source magazine in order to gain
a better understanding of the audience who read the
magazine. Unfortunately, I am yet to receive a response from
them, this means that I cannot gain a percentage ratio of the
demographic of the audience. For example, I can’t obtain the
information that tells me what percentage of the readership
are above the age of 20 etc.
 However, due to the vagueness and the fact the target
audience is based off of regional magazine conventions and
the social composition of that area, it means that my
magazine doesn’t have to be focused around a specific social
group (e.g. Cambridge magazine solely aims at adults). This
means that I can aim to focus on the majority of the
population, and can also implement fresh ideas that might
attract both young, old and people who are ethnically
different.
FINDING OUT MORE INFORMATI0N ABOUT
THE READERSHIP

10. READERSHIP: 25,000 per month.
COST: Free of charge.
DISTRIBUTION: Throughout Brighton and London in specially
selected outlets (Over 1,500) including 5* Hotels, Luxury
Apartments, private members clubs, Various hair & Beauty Salons,
restaurants and bars, coffee houses and fashion shops.
This information allows us to realise the wide variety of people
who read the magazine. As modern and fresh magazines like these
two are normally read by working class (normally young) people,
the fact that Absolute is distributed in higher class areas like 5*
hotels means that it is attractive/focuses on richer people too, not
just the working class.
FIGURES? ABSOLUTE BRIGHTON