1. Magazines
Covers

2. Questions to start your annotation
WHO is the TARGET AUDIENCE for this magazine?
HOW can I tell that from what’s on the cover?
Subject matter? / Featured people? / Special Offers or Gifts?
HOW does the magazine cover attract their TA?
WHAT do you think the USP is for this magazine / this EDITION?
Demonstrate that you know what CONVENTIONS are used on magazine covers and why they are there.

3. Target Audiences? EMPIRE (Film): men, late 20s / early 30s.
Kerrang! (Music): early-mid 20s / students.
Match of the Day (Football): boys, early teens.
Marie Claire (Women’s Lifestyle): women, late 20s to mid 30s.
Cosmopolitan (Women’s Lifestyle): women, mid-late 20s / early 30s.
GQ (Men’s Lifestyle): men, late 20s to mid 30s.
BBC Top Gear (Cars): men, late 20s to mid 50s.
Closer (Gossip / lifestyle): women, mid-late 20s / early 30s.

4. CONVENTIONS
The following CONVENTIONS need to be identified and commented on – What purpose do they serve on the cover of your magazine?
MASTHEAD
STRAPLINE
SUPERIMPOSITION
BARCODE
PRICE
DATE
GOLDEN THIRD

5. KEITH LANGTON - COSTELLO SCHOOL - AUTUMN 2015
Golden Third
Masthead
Strapline
Superimposition
Price
Barcode
Date
KEITH LANGTON - COSTELLO SCHOOL - AUTUMN 2015

6. CONVENTIONS – WHY?
MASTHEAD: shows the title of the magazine and the style of the design.
STRAPLINE: a persuasive reason to buy this magazine e.g Magazine of the Year!
SUPERIMPOSITION: shows the confidence of the publisher and highlights the central image.
BARCODE: for use on EPOS stock-control.
PRICE: to tell the customer how much it is.
DATE: so that the customer knows that they have the current edition.
GOLDEN THIRD: a selling technique to make the magazine’s features stand out on busy shop shelves.

7. COVER FEATURES
The following features of a magazine cover should be identified and commented on:
TITLE: what does it mean?
CENTRAL IMAGE: who is it? Why? Tie in with TA?
ANCHORING TEXT: what does it say? Why?
MAIN SELL LINE: what is it? Tie in with TA?
SECONDARY SELL LINES: what is the subject matter? Tie in with TA?

8. Magazine Title
Central Image
Anchoring text
Secondary Sell lines
Secondary Sell lines
Main sell line

9. What’s on the cover?
How do the sell-lines make the magazine appeal to the widest possible TA?
Fashion 2
Celebrity interview
Fashion 1
Celebrity article
Make up tips
Shopping tips
Summer fashion 2
Charity / Competition
Summer fashion 1

10. Man of the Year – Celeb interview
Men are mostly bears with small brains when it comes to magazines.
They don’t need as much persuading so there’s less on the cover.
Football - quirky
Politics
Man of the Year – Celeb interview
And also…

11. Humorous football story
Even with a single topic magazine – there is still a variety of stories.
Celeb interview
Humorous football story
Skills tips / funny
Player interview

12. Titles – what do they mean?
Cosmopolitan: someone sophisticated and fashionable.
Vogue: something in fashion.
FourFourTwo: a formation used in football using two strikers.
Match of the Day: the name of a popular BBC TV football programme.
Vanity Fair: a famous novel which describes fashionable people and their lifestyles.
GQ (Gentleman’s Quarterly): suggesting a handbook or guide to assist gentlemen to conduct a fashionable lifestyle.
Kerrang!: an onomatopoeic word suggesting a loud sound, possibly from a guitar.
Mojo: a word connected with magic and voodoo.

13. COLOUR and IMAGE What colours are used on the cover of your magazine?
What message do those colours suggest?
Are the colours representative of the season / time of the year? – bright colours for Summer / snow colours for Winter / rich colours for Christmas, etc.
How many images are on the cover?
Traditionally, the less images, the more “upmarket” the magazine / the more images, the more “downmarket” the magazine.

14. Bright Spring / Summer colours

15. Winter colours – silvers and whites

16. Winter / Christmas – reds and golds

17. Black and leather – music magazines

18. Action covers

19. Traditional sports covers

20. Car & Bike magazines

21. Upmarket or Downmarket? – How many images?

22. First Blog Post
Conventions of a Magazine Front Cover
Here are some examples of magazine front covers to allow me to investigate the conventions of a magazine front cover.
This first example is the front cover of the September 2015 edition of Vogue. Superimposition has been used to allow the cover star, Kate Moss to be the stand out feature of the front cover. As Kate Moss is a very popular model, the magazine will be hoping that she will allow them to sell more magazines. This will appeal to the magazines target audience of young, affluent women.