Research and Planning: Analysis of Q magazine

Audience- For the audience of this magazine I am going to look at the psychographics and the demographics to give me a guide to what type of people read pop magazines.

• Age- By looking at the front cover of Q magazine I would say that the age range of people who will read this magazine would be 18- 40 year old. This is because the magazine has a lot of content within it with long articles etc.
• Gender- for this magazine by looking at the picture on the front cover I would have to say that this magazine appeals to men and women as it features men and women in the magazine with all the current artists.
• Life-style- By looking at the cover of the magazine you can see that the lifestyle of the consumer will be semi-skilled, skilled workers. I think it will be skilled workers as the magazine is quite glossy as its not a cheap magazine as we can see it costs £3.99 so the people will have to be working to spend that much on a luxury item. Also with having long articles within the magazine this will stretch the intelligence of some people as it could be challenging for uneducated people.
• Interests- The consumers interests would be to know what is going on in the world if that would be through music magazines or even newspapers. They would be interested in more about the lives and what the articles in the magazines will be saying rather than looking at the music charts.

Representation

• The people on the front cover of the magazine look well groomed and wealthy with their long chains and the clothing in which they wear, as they are very clean cut. The way the people have been photographed also gives the audience the feel of wealth and power, this is because its a long shot photo graph and the way in which the people are stood creates the feel of strong and power. For example Jay-Z is stood with his feet wide apart and his head tilted back which creates fear and importance which attracts people into the magazine.

Genre

• The genre of the Q magazine is a mixture between Pop and hip hop. You can tell that its a mixture because all of the artists are wearing at least one piece of black clothing which shows you that the magazine has a mixture of people all in the same place which in this case that place is the magazine. Also the fact that Lady Gaga is one of the long shot people in the centre of the magazine shows yous that pop music is within the magazine as Lady Gaga is in the pop industry.

Layout

• The masthead of the magazine is in the top left hand side of the front cover in the biggest font on the page which makes it stand out as the letter Q is written within a red square. The image on the front cover is placed centre right with a long shot of artists wearing dominant black, which stands out on the white background. To the left hand side of the front cover there is the stories that feature in the magazine, they are positioned in a vertical list. The great thing about the featured stories is that they are about the artists that feature on the front cover creating an idea for the consumer what stories will be on the artists without them having to flick through the magazine.
• The front cover also has a banner at the top and circle shapes with information in them which not only draws the audience to that particular information, but it also makes the magazine seem more pop , as you relate shapes and colour with pop genre.