Reader Profile Research

Reader profiles are made by magazines so that they can find out information about the types of people who read their magazine allowing them to adjust it around the reader. Magazines do this research because it helps them to understand the types of people that read there magazine and what these people would like to see more of in the magazine. They generally give information about the persons gender, average age, working status but they also look at main interests. The more personal information (gender, average age and working status) gives us information about the key demographic allowing the magazine to make a stereotypical judgement of what this demographic would like to see. For example if the magazine has mainly a male audience then it may choose to feature things such as cars and video games so that they can maintain their interest. Whereas the information about main interests, etc. gives the magazine a clear idea of what the demographic like and want to be featured in the magazine. For example if the magazine has an audience that use technology a lot they may decide to do a feature covering technology so they hold their interest and maybe attract other technology fans. Reader profiles therefore also help in the making process as they help the magazine to alter things so that all general readers are happy and continue to buy it.

This is a reader profile from NME magazine. Like all reader profiles it gives key information about the readers of the magazine, such as their gender, average age and working status. In this particular example we can see that 69% of readers are male compared to only 31% female readers. This tells us that NME magazine has more of a male audience suggesting that the content of the magazine needs to be more male orientated. We can see that the magazine have done this through the pictures on the top of the page which display a car, a Jack Daniels bottle, a converse shoe and an X-box controller. These are all things that are marketed at a male audience and so they appeal to the magazines main audience. The average age is also 24, therefore telling us that the content needs to appeal to a younger age group, which we can again see has been done through the use of video games, phones and other technologies being displayed at the top of the page. This is because these are the things that young people tend to use the most whereas an older age group would most likely be less interested in these things. This shows me that NME magazine is very focused on the main target audience and is careful with what things it features in it's magazine.The profile also tells us that 52% of people are working full time, 7% of people are working part time and 29% of people are still studying. This is quite a range of people, which tells us that there's no specific correlation between the reader of NME magazine and their working status, readers are linked through another demographic. The reader profile also informs us that the main interests that the readers all hold are based around technology (DVD's, the internet, consoles and games). This is helpful to the magazine as it lets them know that this is what readers want to see featured in the magazine for them to continue reading it. We can see that the pictures featured on this page appeal to the main audience which tells us that the magazine pays attention to readers and considers their views/interests.

By researching reader profiles I know have a better understanding of the type of demographic that I will be aiming my magazine at. The reader profile that I looked at is taken from NME magazine which is a magazine of the same genre to mine and so I will be aiming my magazine at a similar demographic. The average age span being 16-28 and the average social class being middle class. However my magazine will be more female orientated than male which is the opposite of NME magazine. Researching reader profiles also gave me an idea of the price that I should advertise my magazine at.