Analysis of 'Closer' magazine

The publishing company, EMAP entertainment, publishes ‘Closer’ magazine weekly. It’s title, ‘Closer’, suggests the connotation of being closer to celebrities and real life. This is appealing to audiences because many of the audience will buy this magazine because they want to learn more and get the latest news on celebrities, diet plans as well as reading real life stories. Therefore the idea of getting ‘closer’ to this, gives the idea that you will learn more and get insight information on the stories.The magazine is £1 which will attract the audience because it is good value for money, even though it is a weekly released magazine.
‘Closer’ is published by EMAP entertainment. EMAP entertainment is a large publishing company that also publish the popular magazine ‘Heat’. EMAP entertainments also have other media interests such as Broadcasting, Retail and world retail congress, as well as radio and music television channels. By having a popular and well known publishing company to publish the magazine it will be marketed how other media interests of this company have and it will be popular with audiences because they may know of other media texts by EMAP which may make them want to buy ‘Closer’.
‘Closer’ seems to be targeted at an audience of middle aged women who would read the magazine as light reading for celebrity stories as well as real life and other articles such as diet facts.The stories in the magazine are about women and there are fashion pages within the magazine and therefore this is appealing to women and not men. The fashion pages show clothes that would be appealing to middle aged women and therefore the magazine is aimed at this age target audience.
The advertisements in the magazine are also aimed at this target group. There are 24 adverts in 1 typical edition of ‘closer’ magazine and the majority of the adverts are cosmetics, fake tan, make up, chocolate e.t.c and all these advertisements would be appealing to women of the targeted age group.
The cover of the magazine is made in stereotypically girly colours such as bold pinks and yellows. There are non-posed celebrity pictures on the front cover and this can appeal to the audience because it shows celebrities’ not looking their best and can show the middle aged women audience that not everyone always looks ‘celebrity perfect’ and can therefore make them feel good about themselves.
There are many particular features that are shown on the cover and contents pages that will attract women; such as the real life stories and diet plans.
The cover also includes the date, price, barcode and price which is a convention used for all magazines.‘Closer’ magazine has a slogan that is used above the title of each issue; ‘The only read you need’. This slogan is unique to ‘closer’ magazine and therefore when it is heard and written it is identified to be from this particular magazine. The slogan also suggests that the magazine includes all the news you will want to read and therefore is the best magazine for you and therefore will be appealing to the target audience.
By having the slogan and the title at the top of the magazine, it is at eye level for the targeted audience when on the shop shelves and is therefore eye catching.
The layout of ‘closer’ magazine is similar to the popular celebrity and real life magazine ‘New’ and this could attract the readers of ‘New’ magazine to ’Closer’ because it is of a similar format that seems to be popular amongst the middle aged women audience. Therefore, 'New' and other similar styled magazines are in competition with 'Closer'. However, 'Closer' is also in competition with the dominating women's weekly magazine, 'Take a Break'. It records nearly the double the circulation of that of 'Closer' magazine. Nevertheless, 'Closer' leads the young celebrity market with approximately 570,239 sales in half a year.
'Closer' magazine can also attract a wider audience by using its website. By having an official Internet website, it can appeal to a wider and larger audience, of those who use the Internet. The website, http://www.closeronline.co.uk/, is presented in the same colours as that of the printed magazine. It consists of features similar to those in the latest released magazine and also includes features and adverts that are targeted at the middle aged woman audience and that are similar to the stories featured.'Closer' is printed as a glossy magazine and this makes the magazine More appealing as it looks professional and presentable. It also makes the magazine look more expensive which can make the price of the magazine, £1, seem an even better price for the magazine. The bold text and large photos are used to create and overall effect that there is not much text but a lot of photos and this can be appealing for an audience who want a light, enjoyable read.
In conclusion, 'Closer' magazine is aimed at a middle aged female audience and this is presented but the features in the magazine, the colours and photos used and the advertisements that are appealing to women. The magazine used conventions of all magazines to attract to its audience as well as features that will compete against similar styled and designed magazines.
In my opinion, i feel that 'Closer' magazine is popular because it has interesting features that will appeal to the target audience and these features are presented on the front cover and this will initially give the first impression and attract the audience. The magazine offers its readers celebrity news that will be appealing to the audience and real life stories that many of the audience can relate to and therefore feel 'closer' too. This connotation links to the title of the magazine. I also feel that, 'Closer', uses ideologies to reflect the social needs and aspirations of the targeted audience. It achieves this by using real life stories that will be appealing to the audience, so that they can relate to it, and by using features that will be appealing and useful such as diet plans. Therefore, 'Closer' magazine uses its features and presentation well to attract its target audience.