Ways to Test the appropriateness of the Publications for the Target Audience

Audience research is very important in the different and competitive markets that there are today. This is why using the best methods for researching audiences and their reactions to certain products. To find out what people think of the magazines, certain methods will be more effective. As an example, using Questionnaires would not be a very effective method of gaining feedback on the new product in this situation. Although questionnaires can create a lot of feedback as they can be distributed to huge audiences for very limited costs, the research should be focused towards people that fit the target audience. Collecting research and feedback from people that really aren't interested in the magazine is a waste of time and money. A much more effective way of getting feedback about magazines would be through focus groups that can be made up of people interested in that style of magazine and will be able to give much more constructive input.

Using a sample audience is also an effective way of getting feedback, as it is much more targeted towards people of the audience you want, and typically includes some sort of reward for partaking in the survey such as a gift card. Although this might increase the cost, it could get some very good responses without having to organise the interviews face to face. The difference between this and giving out questionnaires is that you can target the people that you want input from.

The Sun and Times style Magazines

This is the magazine that I have created in the style of a tabloid newspaper, similar to 'The Sun'. As you can see there is a huge image that would entice people to look at the cover. The cover shows Ann Widdecombe, who was a politician, but is now well known to the general public because of her time on Strictly Come Dancing. The title of the magazine is in the top left corner, which will help to identify the magazine. The text on the cover is large which will make it easy for consumers to read, and may also attract people to the magazine as the can read the title far away. It also gives a small amount of information. This might encourage people to buy the magazine. There are also side stories that will appeal to the male gaze. The use of this is a re-occurring through most tabloid magazines as that's what their readers want. Tabloids often cover stories about celebrity gossip, instead of more detailed stories on political events. This might include information about them or tips and ideas from them about their lifestyle. The amount of information on the cover is generally very limited. The publisher wants people to buy the magazine and find out the content by reading the story. What really makes this similar to other magazines is the bright colours and the lack of text of information that it shows.

On the moodboard you can see the different magazines that are popular with the same demographic of audience as the times, so I have tried to based my own magazine on them. Almost all of the magazines included in the moodboard have only got one image, and it is the huge main one. A couple of them have small pictures to advertise stories in the magazine which is similar to the Sun magazines. This magazine has much less content on it than all of the Sun magazines, and its the same for all the magazines on this moodboard. They just seem less cluttered. Although you can't see it here, these magazines are typically bigger, and allow more space for each story, and this is the same for their covers. It's what I've tried to show with my own design. 

Codes & Conventions of Newspapers

The Codes and Conventions

Most newspapers contain similar, if not the same conventions as each other and this even includes between Tabloid newspapers (The Sun) and Broadsheet Newspapers (The Times). Typically, the broadsheet papers will appeal to the audience in different ways, as although they have similar conventions, they are given more space, which makes them clearer and standout better. An example of this is using the names of the journalists on their stories. A lot of regular readers of the newspaper will look out for certain writers as they enjoy their styles and think of them as a reliable source. Some people may even buy the newspaper specifically because they have a favourite writer. This could be considered similar to people choosing a film because they like one of the actors involved in it. Generally, broadsheet papers include more detail. This will include captions that explain the content of an image so that it is interpreted correctly by the readers or subheadings included in the main body of the text to break it up and maybe put emphasis on a certain fact of figure.

Tabloids contain features that are used by them and not broadsheets as well, as they are appealing to a different type of audience. This includes 'Pugs' which are an advert included by the paper that advertises a competition or the price of the paper which will stand out and entice people to buy. Other features like using a large strap-line as well as a headline to explain the story, and having a image dominate the front cover are very typical of tabloid papers.

There are parts of the paper that link tabloids and broadsheets together as they are used by both editors as a regular feature on their paper. The first and main similarity is the use of a Mast head. This can be used to identify the magazine and make it stand out from the other covers. Tabloids often have a bold, sans serif Mast Head as it is easily readable, recognisable and distinguishable from other papers. The Sun's Mast head is its name in white text on a red background, which is very simple. The Time's Mast head is also its name, but doesn't include any colour. This means it won't necessarily catch the eye of someone browsing the papers. As the Times is a very established paper, it uses it's reputation as a lure to consumers.

The differences between The Time and The Sun, as well as another other paper, is to fit with audiences preferences. Which is why they appeal to the audiences that they do. The more spaced out layout of a broadsheet paper seems more professional in my opinion, and the content is designed to appeal to people that are more interested in the detailed analysis of stories. The Sun has quite a full cover, and uses the different preferences of its audience to appeal to them as well. The informal language can make the stories seem more chatty and is more suitable for some of the celebrity gossip stories covered by tabloid papers. The shorter length of the stories might actually encourage consumers to read every story as they won't get bored of a story before they finish. The male gaze is also utilised by including images of scantly clad women throughout which may attract people to read the story. An example of this is on my previous post about the American election where the Sun included an image of Jennifer Lopez in very little clothing, and although it is related, it doesn't follow the same method of reporting stories as Broadsheet papers.

The Sun and The Times Comparison

Two of the most popular newspapers today ‘The Sun’ and ‘The Times’ appeal to similarly diverse audiences, that range from under 15 to over 65. They target different demographics of people which is why their audiences don't clash. I'm going to review some of their similarities and differences.

The Sun

The Sun is clearly the more popular newspaper, having a circulation of nearly 1.7 million, but a total readership of over 4 million. The reason for this is that it is cheaper and the content is explained in a shorter and more understandable way. Therefore, the majority of it’s consumers are in the C1, C2, D and E demographics. Both magazines appeal more to the over 65's. 25.9% of 'The Suns' readership are in that age range, even though the stories that are covered and the way they report them aren't what would typically appeal to this older audience.

The difference between the print readership and PC readership is huge and shows that print media still dominates the online editions. Although 32% of the online readers are under 35 whereas 17% of the printed versions are read are read by the same age category which shows which way the news is going. It is also worth recognising that while the majority of readers are from a low demographic, most online readers are from the A and B demographic, maybe because they have more money to spend on technology.

The Times

The Times is a more expensive and different style of newspaper to the Sun. It focuses on more intellectual topics and gives detailed insights into each story. It's because of this that it attracts a higher social demographic of people. As you can see from the graph below, there is a much smaller readership and circulation of the Times with the latter only being 440,048. The paper also clearly appeals more to older people as the over 65's make up 35% of the readership. This is because of the different way that the topics are assessed and reported on.

The online readership is still dominated by the over 35's, however the percentage of younger readers is higher than the Sun, which is surprising as most of its readers are in that over 35 age category. The demographic of its online readers is hugely dominated by the ABC1 groups. This is probably because they have more disposable income that they can spend on a more expensive paper. The additional money to spend on technology is possibly the reason for the larger number of under 35 readers.

The Times and Sun Comparison

These magazines are both very different. They target and appeal to quite different audiences. This includes their age and demographic. The controversial topics and simplistic writing style of the sun appeals to a lower demographic, that want a newspaper that is easy to follow and understand. The news they report are also often based more around celebrity gossip, and uses images of women in little clothing to appeal to the male gaze. The more intellectual newspaper, The Times, talks about more political subjects in much more detail. This is why the paper is bigger and appeals to a more educated audience. It uses smaller adverts and focuses more on the content of its news stories. This shows the very clear difference between the broadsheet newspapers and the tabloids.

Differences in Reporting

Their different styles of writing and reporting mean that the way they cover the same story will be completely different. The Sun informal and simplistic style may not give the biggest headlines of today as much page space as they should have, and the Times might go into too much detail that will lose or bore readers.

The Sun

Here we see the Sun's contribution to reporting on the election going on in America. They clearly think it is information that their readers aren't very interested in so have included revealing images that will attract the male gaze, and given it a comical headline. Although you can't read the smaller text, you can just tell from the pages layout that this is informal. The mode of address is chatty and focuses on gossip than the actual facts. You can also see that there is very little text on the story. Most of the page in taken up with a picture of Jenifer Lopez and the two different titles. The entire story isn't even given a whole page, and has to share it's space with adverts and other, unrelated stories. The content on the page also suggests that the paper is targeted towards a younger audience (18-35) that might also be a low demographic. Some older readers might not be interested in looking at pictures like that, or want a more informative paper. People over the age of 65, which is the biggest audience for this paper are also probably not very interested in powerful WiFi.

The Times

This is the Time's version of a similar story. Here you can see that it takes up an entire 2 page spread without adverts. Clearly the editors think that this is an important story that their readers will be interested in. The image is very big and takes prominence on the page, but it surrounded by tiny writing that gives all the details of the story. This paper is very formal and gives a very detailed insight into each story, especially if it is world news such as this. The font in this paper is tiny which allows for more information and larger pictures. This will also save paper and ink, which is very important as newspapers are all about profit. This might be a problem for their biggest demographic of consumer as older people typically have worse eyes so may struggle to read. This is a benefit to using the paper online, as you can zoom in and there is no production costs.

Comparing their Layouts

These papers are so different in their styles and approaches that it is hard to talk about their similarities. Although they use similar size fonts so that more can fit onto a page, and include large images to catch the readers eye. They have different modes of address which sets the mood of the magazine and is the main reason that they appeal to different demographics. The Times, being a much bigger paper, gives each of its stories much more space on the page. You can see that it has given this American election story a lot of space and hasn't put adverts or overfilled it with pictures. The Sun however gives a much shorter version, which is accompanied by adverts and another story that isn't related to american politics. This shows that the Sun audience is more concerned by the quantity of stories instead of a quality, in-depth analysis of the debates so far.