1. College Magazine Audience
Research.

2. Why do we conduct audience
research?
Audience research is necessary to find out the likes and dislikes of our
target audience; Their emotions, beliefs, attitudes and knowledge, so
that we can decide the best way to fulfil what they want in a magazine.
For my college magazine, I have
conducted audience research with a
questionnaire, using 6 questions asked
to 7 males and 7 females between the
ages of 16-19 in my college, to find out
what they would like to see in a college
magazine.

3. My audience research.
The questions I asked focussed on finding out the type of magazines people enjoy reading, and why. I did
this so that I could find out what my audience would wish to see in the college magazine. By looking at
other magazines that my audience are interested in, I can get a good idea of what will encourage them to
buy.
I also asked how much each participant is willing to pay for a magazine. This would help me price my
magazine in order to reach the largest portion of my target audience as possible.
The final question, ‘What would you like to see in a college magazine?’, is very important to my audience
research as it is clear and concise. This means I can obtain a simple answer from my participants.
These questionnaires were handed out to 7 males and 7 females, in order to get a fair and unbiased view on
what both genders want from a magazine. They used both Open and Closed questions in order to obtain
both simple, analysable answers, and more complex, individual ones.
1. How many times a month do you purchase a magazine? (Closed)
2. What genre/s of magazine do you tend to purchase most? (Closed)
3. Name a magazine/magazines that you enjoy reading.
4. What features do you like most about this/these magazines? (Open)
5. How much are you willing to pay for a magazine? (Closed)
6. What would you like to see in a college magazine? (Open)

4. My questionnaires after completion.

5. My audience research.
Gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6
Interviews with band £2.01-
P1 Male 1 Music Kerrang! members £3.00 News, Images
P2 Male <1 Entertainment OXM Freebies, articles >$4.00 College activities, News
Empire, Kerrang!, Rolling £2.01- College bands, College
P3 Male <1 Music, Entertainment Stone Interviews, articles £3.00 activities
£2.01-
P4 Male 2 Entertainment, Science New Scientist Articles £3.00 College activities, News
£1.01-
P5 Male <1 Entertainment OXM News £2.00 College activities, Images
£2.01-
P6 Male 2 Music Kerrang! Interviews, freebies £3.00 College bands, News
£2.01-
P7 Male 1 Music, Entertainment Empire, PSM, Kerrang! Interviews, articles £3.00 News, Images
£1.01-
P8 Female <1 Entertainment MYM Originality £2.00 Anything
£2.01-
P9 Female 4 Music, Entertainment Empire, Kerrang! Information about events. £3.00 News
Reviews, Fashion
P10 Female 3 Music, Gossip, Fashion Q, Look, Company information. >£4.00 Anything
£2.01-
P11 Female 2 Music, Gossip, Fashion Look, More, Reveal, OK! Fashion information. £3.00 Quizzes, Images
£1.01- College bands, News,
P12 Female 1 Music NME Interviews, articles £2.00 Images
Music, Lifestyle, Gossip, Fashion information,
P13 Female <1 Fashion Vogue, Heat, Elle, Grazia Images >£4.00 College bands, Fashion
Entertainment, Lifestyle, £2.01- News, College activities,
P14 Female 3 Fashion Look, OK!, Empire Interviews, Reviews, News £3.00 Images

6. Target Audience Interest.
From my findings I can see that most of my target audience are
interested in music. This can be seen by the genres chosen. Both males
and females often chose music as one of the genre’s they tend to
purchase most, with 9 of 14 participants. Males seemed more interested
in Entertainment (Film and Gaming) magazines than females, though
females seemed more interested in Fashion or Gossip magazines than
males.

7. How much are they willing to pay?
My findings show that most people are willing to pay £2.01-£3.00 for a
magazine, though some were willing to pay over this. This suggests
that my target audience is in the ABC1 social grade. I will price my
magazine in the middle of this range in order to appeal to the widest
proportion of my target audience.
More than
£1.01 to $4.00
£2.00
3 3
8
£2.01 to £3.00

8. Favourite Features.
My research shows that most of my target audience are interested in
articles and interviews. Females are shown to be interested in fashion
advice. Some people were attracted to a magazine by the freebies
available, such as posters, cinema tickets, or free Starbucks. This shows
that my college magazine could attract a wider audience with cinema or
food deals.

9. College Magazine Features.
As can be seen from my audience research, many people are interested in college
activities that may be available. My magazine could contain information on different
types of enrichment courses, such as music courses or clubs that people could join.
Many of the participants were interested in college news. The magazine could
contain articles written by students on various things that are happening around
college, such as the introduction of a new subject building.

10. Conclusion
Using the findings from my audience research questionnaire, I can decide on
which features would be most welcome in a magazine aimed towards this
target audience.
My magazine will be priced at £2.50 as most of my participants specified
£2.01-£3.00 as what they are willing to pay for a magazine. From my research
I can also see that the interests between male and female students are varied:
Males seemed more interested in entertainment, whereas females were often
interested in fashion. This means I can have many different articles to appeal to
both genders. I can use cover lines with more feminine/masculine fonts to
advertise these articles for their respective gender. My magazine will be based
mostly around college life, detailing college fashion, bands, enrichment
courses and stories of other news around college.
Overall, I believe this task has helped me define my target audience, and what
they want or expect from a college magazine. This will be beneficial in
creating the cover and contents page for my magazine.