Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Emily Davis

Masthead

Dateline

Main imageModel credit

Cover line

Main cover line

Barcode

Cover lines

Cover lines

Selling line

Masthead

Dateline

The selling line

Model credit

Main image

Cover lines Cover lines

ELLEElle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine so includes lots of the A-list celebrities from around the world on the covers. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. In1981Hatchette Magazines which owned the then struggling ELLE was brought by Daniel Filipacchi and Jean-Luc Lagardère and ELLE was launched in the U.S. ELLE translated in French means ‘she’ and is specifically aimed at young women aged between 16-30. The adverts in the magazines are aimed at women who like fashion and beauty which is why there are a lot of fashion cosmetic brands wanting to advertise in this magazine. In most fashion magazines including this one there is a lot of advice and tips for women about food, fashion and exercise. The type of readers are generally people with throw away money who are willing and can buy the products advertised in the magazine. 73% of readers have subscriptions with the remaining 27% purchasing single issues, which has helped make them the only fashion magazine to increase their newsstand sales within the space of 5 years. The type of fashion in this magazine is celebrity high street fashion. Celebrities are shown wearing glamorous clothes or the latest trends on the front of the magazine, then throughout celebrities clothes are matched or compared to something else more affordable to buy.

GLAMOUROriginally called Glamour of Hollywood, the magazine was founded in 1939 it promised its readers the “Hollywood way to fashion, beauty and charm”. It has been known to have a lot of first in the magazine world, like; the first magazine to put an African American woman on its cover, the first to extensively write about abortion rights and first to address its female readers from the viewpoint of work outside of the home. Glamour magazines target reader are women aged between 18-49. However recently with the celebrities on the front cover and the type of fashion I would say the target audience in my opinion is a young age maybe 18 to 25. The main focus point of this magazine are coverage of current events related to beauty, fashion, health and relationships also with women’s issues, work, money and law.Glamour magazine is a little bit bigger than most others and is a high competitor because of the celebrities used, price and contents. The key words used on the website are celebrity gossip, fashion trends and hair and beauty tips. This is attracting young women and I can tell straight away what's in this magazine and what kind of magazine it is.

Masthead & Selling Line

This is the selling line for this magazine. It is usually if the magazine has a motto that it uses all the time to attract a certain audience and make people want to buy it. However some magazines change there selling lines on certain magazines if it’s a special one, for example like on this magazine its selling line is ‘our biggest fashion issue of the year’ Because its advertising that it’s a ‘must have’ copy. Selling lines are used to do exactly what they say buy helping sell the magazine making it sound better.

The name of the magazine is the logo because that’s all people need to see to know what it is. Its big and the E is the first part of the logo, this is why it isn’t covered up. It isn’t covered on any magazine because its on the left so the first part that is always seen when sold in shops. The logo is a bright colour that stands out against the background so that it can be seen, which is also why it spreads across the whole top of the page. The logo is the part that needs to be seen.

Masthead & Selling Line

This is the logo for glamour magazine and is positioned all the way along the top in big bold writing to make it stand out so people can see it out of many other magazines. The left side of this magazine like all others isn’t covered up so people can see the start of the logo (masthead) and easily see what magazine it is.

This is the selling line for the magazine. This magazine is promoting that this one is ‘the style issue’ they have made this text bigger and bolder so people read it and see it better. This is the part of the magazine that is used to sell it. It does this by targeting a certain audience with what it says. Underneath the big text there is a little slogan that will appeal to women who want to be just like the slogan says. They keep them short so people can read them quick

Main imageKaty Perry is the main image on this edition of ELLE. She is the only image on the front cover and so she stands out. The image of her covers up part of the masthead because people know what the magazine is so they are more interested in who is on it. Also the model being over the top makes the magazine stand out more. The main image has been placed on a bright pink background and ELLE is typed in white so Katy Perry's purple hair and pink dress stand out against these colours but also blend and all work together to make the first look at the magazine fun and interesting. This magazine cover is quite busy because of the text and all the different fonts and colours. Then the models dress has got pattern on it. I think this cover is meant to represent Katy’s personality because its bright and fun and everything is bold and loud.

Main ImageEmma Watson is the main image on this magazine. She is the only image on the front and covers the whole of it. Magazines use this technique because it attracts people to the magazine because of the model. Also its not to busy there’s not much to think about its simple and sophisticated. I think it attracts a different audience because its not full of pictures like kids magazines, it gives them an older look. The main image here is covering some of the masthead which you see on a lot of magazines. I think this is because people can tell what the magazine is called or already know it, so there looking for what's on it. The main image is the attractor.

Cover Lines & Main Sells

These are the cover lines and the main cover lines. They help to sell the magazine by putting the best bits on the front to make people want to buy it. The cover lines are mostly or partly bold to draw peoples attention to them. The main sells are both in black bold text on this magazine and company's usually do this on all magazines because it makes them look stronger and more interesting. The lines are positioned on the left and the right all the way down the side so the model can be seen in the middle. Putting the name Katy Perry in black bold makes readers more interested because its her and so more likely to want to buy and read the magazine.

Cover Lines & Main Sells

The cover lines on this magazine are completely different to the dress Emma Watson is wearing which fills most of the page. This is so that it stands out and can be seen better by people walking past or looking. The main selling lines are in bolder bigger writing than all the other selling lines. This is because the magazine know what people are going to be more interested in reading so they make them big so people can see a bit of what's inside. On tis magazine there are more selling lines but it doesn’t look to busy because the main image is kept simple with only one statement colour. The key words in the cover lines are a bright orange to make the statement look better and get people interested by just seeing one word.

ComparisonsBoth magazines use bold text for main selling lines. All the selling lines are both placed on either side of the magazine all the way down both sides. This is a thing that most fashion magazines do because of the model or celebrity on the front so that we can see them and their outfit. On both magazines the model cover up part of the masthead but never the left hand side. This is because both magazines are trying to sell the person on the front to help to sell their magazine. Both strongly try to advertise that their magazine has fashion in it, and this is the main selling line on both. These magazines are within the affordable range for people who want to keep up with fashion health beauty and lifestyle. Both of them are £2 in shops however subscribers have to pay £13 more a year for Elle. Both are similar they both have fashion and beauty and celebrities in, but ELLE has news and politics in and it is recommended to people who are interested in the news side of fashion also rather than just advertising.

Glamour Magazine is ELLE’s biggest competitor with 500,000 in circulation. Glamour focuses on high fashion as well as high street fashion just like ELLE but Glamour has been running for 46 years more so has had more readers over the years and kept that number up. Both sell to a similar target audience of 18-35 on average and to young people particularly women, but ELLE is a lot newer so still has time to overtake and steal some of the glamour readers. Mostly the target audience will just buy both though as they do have some differences.

Ideas for my own magazine

A main image of a model filling the front page.

Bold selling lines about the model.

Bright colour text to make it stand out.

Cover lines on both sides of the magazine to show what's inside.

Have the most important and interesting selling lines on the front to make people buy it.

Have an interesting masthead that stands out.

Have something about fashion and style on the front.

Use two types of different colour text to make key words stand out for

customers to see better.Make sure I aim for my target audience.

Have a main selling line.