How Magazines Profile their Target Audience

When researching magazines, I notice how they each have a specific look, and an identifiable target audience. The use of conventions, colours and themes throughout the magazine helps them target their audience.

Examples:

NME

'NME' Magazine is a rock-influenced magazine.

'NME' profiles their audience by using artists on the cover that appeal to the audience. for example, the artist on this cover is Billie Joe from Green Day. This band is well known and represents the genre of this magazine.

This makes the magazine stand out to people not only who like rock music, but who like the band Green Day too.

http://www.nme.com/

SEVENTEEN

'Seventeen' is an American magazine aimed at 12–19 year-old females.

The target audience of 'Young girls' is obvious to me, as the colours are stereo typically 'girly' with pink, yellow and orange used.

'Seventeen' profiles their audience with the use of the artist on the cover. 

As Beyonce is a very famous singer, this issue would gain a lot of attention from her fans. 

http://www.seventeen.com/

VIBE

'Vibe' is a Hip- Hop magazine, and this is obvious to me through the use of colours and fonts, aswell as artists on the cover.

Chris Brown is used to represent the genre, as he is a well known        hip-hop artist.

The magazine profiles their audience by using make colours, to suggest that the magazine is aimed mainly at males. These colours also connotate the hip-hop genre.

http://www.vibe.com/

BILLBOARD

'Billboard' is a magazine that involves all music genres. This makes the target audience more varied, and much less specific to a certain group.
This means the magazine can apply to simply anyone.

On the cover, the use of a multi-coloured masthead represents the variety of music the magazine provides to their audience, as the colours do not represent a certain gender or group of people.

The background colour, grey, is dull and makes the masthead stand out.

http://www.billboard.com/