Analysis of Empire Magazine Cover and Empire

Readership Figures

Empire Magazine is owned by Bauer Media, and is a magazine

focussing solely on the release of new films and an in depth looks at
film culture. Finding a media pack for Empire magazine isn’t easy
for a study of what kind of target audience the magazine appeals to.
However, Empire does describe their audience as “76% male,
affluent ABC1 movie fans and cinema hounds”. Empire is Britain’s
leading film based magazine with a circulation of 198,947 in the
month of January 2010.

The price of the cover I’m analysing is £3.99, which is a fair price for
a monthly publication.

Furthermore, the National Readership Survey produces the following

figures which support Empire’s description of their target audience:
Mostly male and belonging to ABC1 Sociograde.

Here it’s demonstrated that:

• Readers are predominately in the AB1 sociograde with an
overall percentage of around 74%
 • The age of most of Empire’s readers are between the ages of
15-44, making a percentage of around 89% of the total
number of readers.
• Most of the readers are male, making it around 74% of the
total readership.

With this information we can apply that more to our target audience
when considering designing our own magazine cover as it needs to
appeal to people between 15 and 44 year of age, have text, colours
and imagery that appeals to male stereotypes and has a fair deal of
intellectual content for an ABC1 audience, though many of the
readers will still be in education.

Analysis of Cover

Masthead
The masthead title of the magazine ‘Empire’ is a sans serif typeface,
which tends to give it a lot more impact. This appeals to male
majority audience and demonstrates the magazine’s upfront in
depth look at exiting new movies, drawing the viewer’s attention
into the page and making the title of the magazine memorable. It’s
the iconography of Empire’s font typeface that makes it easy to
recognize an Empire magazine front cover, as its most likely the first
word you’ll see on the page, even when its been covered up as
demonstrated here by Matt Damon’s head. You could argue
however in this sense that the character Matt Damon plays here is
more important than the title itself, demonstrating the magazine’s
priority to supply the information on new entertainment. The vivid
red of the text adds to the powerful imagery in the magazine and
fits with the theme, being action orientated.

Strapline
The strapline reads ‘Bourne goes to war!’, adding a bit of satire to
the cover, considering that the film ‘Green Zone’ isn’t a sequel to
The Bourne Trilogy but includes the same actor and same director.
This could appeal to a male audience, as it has a spoof feel to it but
delivers the right punchy line telling the reader everything they
need to know in short about the upcoming feature ‘Green Zone’,
being that it’s a lot like the Bourne series but in warfare scenarios.
The text itself matches the title of the movie’s typeface with its serif
font that has impact, looking both formal and imposing to give off a
warfare themed feel. It continues on with ‘A week on location with
Matt Damon’, which adds intrigue as to the contents of the
magazine.

Main Image
The main image probably has the most impact, despite the main
character’s lack of a dynamic pose. However, he does look quite
determined and resolute as he stands legs wide and arms apart
whilst holding a gun in his right hand, clenching it slightly. The
contrast between light and shadow is very large, giving a low key
lighting effect to present depth and powerful imagery. The character
is backlit, most likely from the fire/explosion that’s been shopped
into the background. The motion of the fire against the black makes
it seem like the image is spilling out of the page and over the text.
The colours are very deep and once again powerful to reinforce this
combination of imagery.
Coverlines
The house theme of this edition keeps between the colours white,
red, black, green and yellow. This gives not only a lot of impact but
a military feel to it as well due to the green, whilst the red supplies a
guerrilla warfare touch to it all. The black and white is the basic
bread and butter of any text theme to appeal to a stereotypical
male audience. All of the text is san serif apart from the titles and
straplines, which helps them stand out against the others, possibly
making it the first thing you read. This method could be interpreted
in our own magazine, with the use of alternating colour of feature
films down the side

Other Features
Other things to take notice of that could be constructed in our own
magazine is the use of a sticker like bit of text at right side of the
magazine, reading ‘Amazing 2010 Preview Issue’. This not only
draws attention to the text but layers the magazine more for an
aesthetic advantage. Another feature is the use of other photos like
features from other films along the bottom, which is used frequently
in magazines. Each of the pictures have lighter frames to help it
stand out and seem more like a Polaroid, though they often slip
under the image of the main character as demonstrated here as the
picture slips under Matt Damon’s gun. One more thing to take note
of that applies to the common conventions of a film magazine cover
is the text above the Masthead reading ‘New! Ultimate guide to DVD
/ Blu-Ray / TV inside!’. This is usually another selling point that
entices the reader to buy the magazine for the extra features inside
the magazine.