Magazine Analysis

The title of the magazine is in the top third of the cover and has its unique font which is the Doctor Who font. It is also partially obscured by the image of the current doctor as the Doctor Who series has become a recognizable franchise and therefore the Title doesn’t necessarily need to be shown as the audience can automatically familiarise with the magazine.

The slogan is ‘Celebrating 50 Years Of Adventures In Space And Time’. This summarises what the magazine is about, and that the purpose is to celebrate the achievement and their success.

The central image is of the current doctor in the doctor who series as he is at the forefront of the magazine cover looking directly towards the camera. There are also past doctors behind him standing sideways looking directly at the audience, which give the image a focal point.

There is a large cover line/flash which is ‘The Day Of The Doctor’; and it is placed in the bottom left corner which is a typical convention. It is also followed by a series of small cover lines. This convention is used as the audience have been accustomed to the technique due to it being common across many magazines.

There are a series of free offers within the magazine to promote the franchise further. The free offers are placed in a gold ribbon in the right hand size which is effective as people tend to look more at the top right side of an image and therefore the first thing the audience will be drawn to is the free offers, causing more people to be attracted to the magazine and to buy the magazine.

The colour scheme used on the cover of the magazine is gold, silver, white, and red. These colours are effective as the old and Silver show that the franchise has reached a milestone and that the colours gold and silver are used to reflect the celebration of their work for 50 years. The colour red suggests its importance, like the red carpet. The silver, white and black also link with its genre which is sci-fi.

There are name checks as the magazine attempts to allow the audience to feel as if all their audience is one, together. They do this by saying ‘Celebrating 50 Years of Adventures in Space and Time’; this allows the audience to feel as if they are celebrating this milestone and achievement with the producers and all the other fans.

Language on the front cover is used to full effect as there are no wasted words and they are all straight to the point. Their cover line uses an alliteration which causes the audience to remember their short catchy line and this helps promote the event further. They’ve also placed the most important words in bold capital letters  so that even if the audience don’t want to read all that is on the cover they will notice the bold words and read them as their attention is drawn directly to them. The font used is the Doctor Who signature font and another font that is more rounded and bubbly to create a sense of celebration and provides a tidy finish.

Competitions are used on the magazine cover as it offers the chance to win a selection of Blu-rays, DVD’s, and CD’s. The text ‘WIN’ is large, capital, and a bold white in a red box. This helps emphasise the competition and draws attention to people. It also offers the chance to collect anniversary art cards, which could have significant value to fanatics and therefore publicises the magazine further.

The barcode is situated directly at the bottom at the page where it is out of the way of the image; it is placed in a neat small white box also so that it doesn’t draw any attention.  Next to the barcode the price is written in a small white font, this is so that the audience don’t notice it until they’ve seen the entire magazine; this is effective as people may view everything and then want the magazine badly enough to ignore the price which is quite expensive at £7.99. Also, on top of the price there is a little reminder of what people are purchasing as it states that it is ‘The 50^th Anniversary Souvenir Edition’, this then causes the reader to rethink of any doubts when seeing the price.

The real target audience of the magazine are pure Doctor Who fanatics who watch every episode that there is. It is mainly aimed at people aged 20 and above due to the colours not being bright and bold that younger people are more attracted to. Also, males are more likely to purchase the magazine due to the more manly approach of the characters in the images and the colour scheme being dark and mysterious which females aren’t accustomed to. However there are only males in the image so it could be argued that there is a female gaze and that due to these men on the front females would be attracted to the magazine.