2. What is a readers profile?
When searching the definition of a reader profile, I noticed that there are
several alternative purposes and aims of them however I have narrowed down
the two that I think are most relevant to my creation. These suggest a readers
profile is:
• A demographic analysis of company users developed by a company for
advertisers who want to know if they will be a good fit for that company.
• A profile developed by a content creator with the goal of determining who
content is being produced for so that it can be tailored for the audience.
In both cases, the reader profile should provide information about my audience
which can be used to make my products more relevant to their interests. As a
free regional magazine, advertisements are important for me to make money
from my magazine. I also want the best overview perspective of my audience so
that I can create all my products in light of them. Having a this information in
one place will really help with my construction process.
3. Example 1: NME
I found it very hard to find any reader profiles for a regional magazine such as
Spark or The Crack which I think is due to them only being small brands. I did
however find the reader profile for NME which is a popular music magazine and
therefore I can adapt the information to suite my own magazine genre and to learn
a bit about the general concept of a readers profile. The profile consists of key
stats and facts about the magazines success to try and appeal to advertisers .
Another key purpose of the profile is to fully demonstrate who their magazine is
aimed at by representing the audience through lifestyle choices and hobbies. The
stats they have used contain percentages of age and gender for instance. From this
I have been able to summarise an opinion of the audience they aim their magazine
at. I have found that the average reader of NME is a 23 year old fast-moving music
fan who lives at the cutting edge of media culture and development. 66% of the
readers are male with 34% still in education. 61% fall into the social classes of A,B
and C1 suggesting it is an upmarket magazine. They enjoy using mobile phones,
are obsessed by music and enjoy watching films in the cinema and at home.
The design of the readers profile follows the colour scheme of the brand and
therefore shows continuity of house image and means the brand can be easily
recognised by advertisers. I like how they have incorporated a collage of images as
part of a visual aid. The images are tightly compact which to me suggests that they
know a lot about their audience. The quote “The NME is damn honest” suggests
the readers are mature and therefore the magazine includes taboo and mature
language.
Other conventions of the profile include categorised headings, contact details for
advertising, masthead, web address and publishing logo.
4. Example 2:
Q magazine
Another popular reader profile that I found on google was for Q
magazine. As I haven’t looked into this magazine during my
research yet, I decided to find out a bit of background information
first.
Q is a music magazine published every month in the UK and is
national. It is published by Emap media company and its
publication saw a newer and much more higher standard of
photography and production of which people hadn’t noticed
before.
From the reader profile I can infer the
following: The magazine appeals to 68.3% of
men even though the content of the
magazine features artists that have a wide
demographic. The majority of readers are
aged between 15-34 and then reader
interest starts to decrease the older the
user.
I feel the layout and design of this reader
profile is much more basic and not as
advanced. I think they use their profile for
their personal use during the construction
process of articles and features whereas the
NME profile looked more targeted towards
advertising companies.
5. Example 3: KERRANG
KERRANGS reader profile is a lot more
simple in terms of colour and images
however has a lot of facts and written text.
It includes basic information about the
magazine such as the price, release
frequency and coverage genre. It incudes
an editorial which describes what the aims
of the music company is and why you
should choose them. It also includes
information about Reader’s Lifestyle which
is what I will focus on as that is the main
aim of my profile. The information they
include consists of the median age, age
range, gender and hobbies. This only
includes 3 images which have been taken
from the magazines themselves.
6. Features I will include
After doing my research into existing reader profiles, I
have decided I will include the following features in my
own:
• A collage of target audience images
• Magazine Price
• Frequency of Release
• Statistics with percentages
• Lifestyle facts about my audience
• Colour scheme relevant to my house image
• Keep it simple and straight to the point
• Use data from my surveys
