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 50th 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.
