Audience questionnaire graphsWhen researching magazine design and audience I created a questionnaire of forty people. All of the people questioned in my survey were aged 15-24 and most were

students.

Which genre of music magazine do you read most?

rock

metal

indie/alternative

pop

rap/R&B

Mixed/multi

other

This question wasthe most importantto me as I wantedto know whatpeople my age (mytarget audience)were interested inand were listeningto. The results showthat rock magazinesare the mostpopular amongstmy sample, closelyfollowed by indie/alternativemagazines.

Which genre of magazine do you think is doing best and being bought the most currently?

rock

metal

indie/ alternative

pop

rap/R&B

mixed/ multi

other

This question is to beused in comparison tothe first. It’s purpose isto give a sufficientanswer to question one,even if my group are un-representative of theages group as whole.(E.g. I may have asked agroup of “emos” – who’smain interest would haveprobably been rock ormetal. The results cameback very similar to thefist question – with rockand indie being the twomost popular answers.

Are you a regular reader/ subscriber to any music magazine(s)?

yes

no

Which feature would appeal to you most if you were subscribing to a music magazine?

new bands

reviews

interviews

audience

This acts as a follow up to the previous question. According to the answers given here toappeal to my target audience, my magazine would need to include interviews and reviews– However a reasonable amount did vote for new bands and audience involvement, sothey are important possibilities to consider too.

Which feature would you most like to see on a double page spread?

famous band/artist

new band/artist

album review

gig review

List/comparison

pictures

The answers to this questionshowed that over half of mysample would prefer to seean article on a band or artist.This will be helpful whendesigning and planning mydouble page spread.

How many pictures do you like to see on a magazine double page spread?

0 or 1

2 or 3

4 or 5

6+

Almost half of the 40people I asked said theywould only like to see 2-3pictures on the doublepage spread. I think thisis representative as mytarget group are aged 15+and therefore a moremature looking magazinewould be more suitable;hence, less pictures so itdoesn’t seem crowded.

How many pictures do you like to see on a contents page?

0

1 to 3

4 or 5

6+

Contrary to the frontcover and contents pagealmost half of myselection answered insaying that they wouldprefer to see 3 to 5photos on the contentspage – maybe ascontents pages generallycan be more crowded, asthey need to representthe entire magazine.

How much time do you generally have to read a magazine?

<20

20-30

1-2hrs

2hrs+

The fact that youngadults typically only havea couple of hours to reada magazine helps me indeciding, not only howmany pages it shouldhave, but also how longthe articles should be andhow many words itshould include.(word/image ratio)

How much would you spend on a music magazine?

<£1

£1- £2.50

£2.50 - £4

£4+

The results suggest people want to spend somewhere between £1 and £4. However, the fact that teenagers (no matter how united by music genre they may be) all come from different financial backgrounds – therefore while some may be working and financially stable, others will be in full time education. I will have to take this into consideration when finalising the decision on my magazine’s pricing.

Conclusions

• From my questionnaire results, I have decided many things about the production of my magazine:– The genre will be rock/ indie.– It will be a weekly/ monthly magazine with regular

features.– It will contain a double page spread with an interview with

a new artist.– The double page spread will only contain a few images (2-

3.)– The contents page will contain a wider variety of images.– It will be priced between £2-£4.– The front cover will only contain one main image.