The first magazine I looked at was NME. Unlike Top Of The Pops NME is more text heavy and consists of a lot of reading which suggests they are targeting people with a high level of maturity. If we look at the advertisement in the publication we get a good idea of the type of audience they are targeting. There are 47 advertisements in the entire magazine which cover a good range of products such as video games, music concerts, technology and films. All these adverts put together take up around seven pages of the magazine in total, the main advert featured in the magazine was a four page spread of Halo Reach which is a video game for the xbox on the first four pages of the magazine, although it was the main advert in the magazine it was not he one they were looking to push on to their readers the most, three pages of the magazine were taken up just for listings of music concerts which gives me the idea that the majority of people who read their magazine are likely to enjoy going to music gigs. However there were no TV listings at all which gives me the impression that they are just sticking to music in their genre (Rock) so it wouldn't be a ideal magazine for anyone who isn't a fan of rock.
In terms of what the actual adverts were about, there was 1 advertisement for the IPad, six music related adverts and 1 advert for the video game Halo reach as well as three pages of adverts just for music concerts. However if you take a look at the features in the magazine you would see that they are very similar to every other feature you would find in another magazine so there was no real feeling of individuality there. The editorial of the magazine covered two pages, whereas the letter page only covered half of a page which suggests that isn't really one of the major aspects of the magazine. There were actually plenty of articles in the magazine of things like interviews for example which covered a whole page. The special features that were present in the specific copy I looked at were a free token for a free copy of the next issue of NME magazine and also polls about the summer festivals Glastonbury and Reading, the features as you can see were not high in number and depth but you can see there intent on getting readers to buy their magazine by getting them involved with polls about Glastonbury and reading which will appeal to people who actually did go to those festivals and also suggests what type of audience there trying to attract seeing as both festivals are mostly targeted at rock lovers, and also the token give away suggests there trying to keep readers interested in their magazine and is almost like a thank you to the reader for choosing to buy their magazine. After analysing NME magazine I have come to the conclusion that their target audience are of a more mature nature who are really into rock between the ages of 16-40, this is because of the formality of the articles and features and also the advertisements in the magazine would appeal to some one of this age group rather than a younger one.
The second publication that we looked at was 'Top of the pops magazine' this compared to NME had far more less featured in terms of advertisements. In total there were only 7 advertisements in the magazine and had topics concerning music soundtracks, new movies releasings and general healthcare. However they did include a lot more features in their magazine compared to NME in which there was very little, features included interviews with Justin Bieber and JLS, free sticker giveaways and also special prizes to win movie tickets. Like NME there were no T.V. Listings featured but also no small advertisements which did actually suprise me. Moreover there was actually no editorial page, 6 full article pages and only one letter page which possibly gives a hint to the age range of the audience that their trying to attract.
From the information I have gathered it is clearly evident that Top of the Pops magazine are generally trying to target their magazine at young females between the ages of 8-15. They are doing this through trying to cover most of the aspects that appeals to the young female culture of society today. The special features, for example the giveaway of free stickers, indicate that they are trying to target a audience of a young age whilst the interviews with popular contempary artists like Justin Bieber and JLS who are very much 'the flavour of the month' with girls shows they are trying to appeal to females rather than men. In contrast, NME are instead swaying towards a more male audience although the masculinity aspect of it may attract young women and mature women as well as the fact that 'Rock' as a genre is generally listened to by both men and women. The demographic scale of these two magazines are pretty much spread across the whole of the UK, with there being no specific area both magazines are targeting, although there are areas of the country, Camden Town in London for example, where Rock music is generally found to have a bigger culture and more popularity there.
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