Masthead analysis

Masthead analysis

In this post I will analyse three mastheads from magazines designed by professional producers. I will analyse how each one of these mastheads may be used to attract there target audience and how this will appeal to them. I will also look for conventions that they follow, for me to consider when it comes to me making my own magazine and masthead.

The first masthead that I will analyse is from Cornwall Today magazine, a regional lifestyle magazine based in Cornwall.This magazine includes content which should appeal to a wide range of people meaning that their target audience is not limited as there should be something that interests everyone.

This is the masthead featured on a printed issue of the magazine. The first thing which can appeal to the audience is the choice of font. This is because the font used is fairly simple but yet makes the magazine come across as fairly fancy which may appeal to people in the upper classes or an older target audience as this sort of font will stereotypically appeal to these people. The font used doesn’t come across as fun which makes me think that they are not particularly trying to appeal to a young target audience. A ‘fun’ font would usually be more blocky and bold and will often have additional ‘flicks’ on the letters when compared to standard fonts. These sorts of fonts can be seen as fun which would stereotypically appeal to a younger audience. This is because as Hebdige said ‘youth as fun’, suggesting that anything which can be connoted as ‘fun’ will allow a young audience to relate to it and would appeal them, which this font doesn’t do. 

The second thing which leads me to believe that this magazine is not aimed at a young audience is the choice of colour. The colour is an off white sort of creamy colour. This can be seen as quite dull when compared to brighter colours. Bright colours will stereotypically appeal to a young audience again because they are seen as fun. This choice of colour may be used to make the magazine come across as more elegant which will usually attract an older audience.  The colour is close to the colour white. The colour white connotes perfection. This may be used to connote that this is the perfect regional magazine for it’s readers. This theory is backed up because they have included the words ‘Voted the UK’s best regional magazine’ in a tag featured on the masthead. These combined should attract their target audience as this makes them seem more appealing in comparison to their rivals including magazines such as Cornwall Life magazine. In a banner at the top of the masthead they have also chosen to include the words ‘the biggest and the best selling magazine for Cornwall. This again supports my theory about them trying to beat their competition.

They have also chosen to include the tagline “your county…the magazine”. By using this tagline they are doing two things. The first thing they are doing is attracting the people who live in the county of Cornwall as they are able to relate to this magazine better as they know that this magazine is aimed at these people specifically. However, the second thing that this tagline achieves is that they are limiting their magazine to just people who live in the county. This tagline will discourage people from outside of the Cornish region from purchasing this magazine, whereas if they hadn’t used this tagline they may have considered purchasing the magazine as they may be interested in life in this area. 

The final thing to analyse about this masthead is the fact they have chosen to use a combination of both upper and lowercase letters. They have used an uppercase letter at the start of the word “Cornwall”. They may have done this not only because it is a name but because it highlights the importance of what the magazine is about and instantly draws the audiences attention as this  makes it seem like the most dominant part of the masthead. The rest of the masthead is all in lowercase letters which may be used to suggest that this magazine is more ‘fun’ than formal. This is because a lot of magazines which are designed to come across as formal used all uppercase letters or at least uppercase letters at the start of each word. This may be a way that this magazine is made to appeal to a young audience as this is the only part of the masthead which can be connoted as fun. 

The second masthead which I will analyse comes from one of Cornwall Today’s biggest rivals, Cornwall Life magazine. This is another regional magazine of the lifestyle genre based in Cornwall. This magazine is designed to give the ‘in’s and out’s’ of life in this famous region of the UK. The masthead for this magazine looks like this:

This masthead like the one which I analysed from Cornwall Today magazine, comes from one of the issues of the magazine and was published in September last year.

The font on this magazine is fairly similar to the one used on Cornwall Today magazine, as they have chosen to use a formal style serif font. Again this leads me to believe that this magazine is aimed at more of an older and upper class audience instead of a young audience is the middle or lower classes. This is because it comes across as more formal than fun. This will stereotypically appeal to an older audience as these fonts have been more traditionally used and they have become accustomed to seeing fonts like this used in the masthead above. To appeal to younger a magazine should use a more blocky and more ‘fun’ font which includes different shapes to the letters than standard font use. 

The second thing I want to analyse on this masthead is the choice of colour. The colour white can be used to connote perfection. Similarly to Cornwall Today magazine, they may have used this to suggest that this it the perfect magazine for people who are wanting a regional lifestyle magazine based in Cornwall. This may be the way in which this magazine helps to combat the clear advantage which Cornwall magazine has over them with the things they have chosen to feature on their masthead. 

This magazine used its masthead to relate the print version to the website for it. This is because the have included the url of their website just under the title for the magazine. This may be used to help relate the magazine to a younger audience. This is because young people will stereotypically have a better knowledge of technology when compared too an older audience. This may indirectly allow the magazine to appeal to a young audience in this way. This may also encourage people to purchase the digital version of the magazine which they offer which will reduce the cost of them having to print the magazine and will allow them to distribute the magazine to a wider audience, as almost everyone know has access to the internet. 

Another similarity that this masthead has too the one featured on Cornwall Today magazine is the size of it. When looking at the whole cover each one of these takes up approximately an eighth of the page. This makes the masthead an important part of the magazine.  

The third and final masthead which I will be analysing comes from Coast magazine a lifestyle magazine aimed at people living in or who are interested about the coastal regions of the UK. This is what the masthead looks like:

This masthead leads me too believe that this magazine is aimed at younger audience than the other two. This is for a few reasons. The first reasons for this is the choice of font, as it is more blocky than the other two which I have analysed. This can comes across as quite fun and things which can be connoted as fun will stereotypically appeal to young people.

The second thing about the masthead that makes it seem quite fun is the fact that the whole title is in lowercase letters. This makes it seem informal as most formal publications use at least one capital letter at the start of each word and some are often in all caps. This again suggests that this magazine is aimed at a young audience. However, something which makes this masthead come across as formal is through the use of a serif font, something commonly found of formally made publications. This makes me feel that it may be aimed towards the higher end of a young target audience because although overall it appears fun, this will not make it seem childish. 

Another thing that makes me believe that this is aimed at a young audience is from the choice of colour. they have chosen to use bright colours which will often appeal to a young audience because this can be seen as fun. 

This masthead also follows the other two magazines in size as it takes up approximately and eight of the page. This makes me feel that when I come to designing my own magazine this is the size that I should use because it follows the conventions of most magazines especially in the lifestyle genre.