Research into Magazine Front Covers

Textual Analysis of a Magazine Front Cover

I have chosen to analyse and evaluate the connotations of a popular motoring magazine. This allows me to distinguish features of this magazine against my college one. For example, the target audience of this magazine is slightly older than for my college magazine, although you could argue that college students would also enjoy this magazine.

The masthead is the name of the brand the magazine is from and used to distinguish the brand from any other. This magazine is a monthly spin-off from the popular motoring show ‘Top Gear’, and shares its name with the program to show that they are linked. This will create more subscribers to the magazine, as people who are fans of the well-established show will be more likely to buy this magazine rather than another motoring rival. The masthead would be considered as quite basic compared to other magazine, with a white, sans-serif font used. However, italics are used to give the effect that there is movement. This connotes speed, which relates to the magazine as it specialises in fast cars.

Magazines will usually include on the front page the date the issue was published, the issue, the price and usually a tagline above or below the masthead. This magazine does not have a tagline, but instead has an extra lure as an attempt to make the customer buy the magazine.