Front Covers
The front cover is one of the most important part of a magazine, as it is the first thing that the reader see on the shelf, they walk in a shop and look at the front cover to judge whether it is a good or a bad magazine. The cover aims to attract reader and different magazine produce different kinds of cover in order to show reader what it is going to be about, good covers also enable reader to identify the magazine. Front Covers Analysis For this, I have chosen to look at SUGAR and TOP GEAR because as a reader, I feel they are very different from each other in terms of what they put on cover page and how they are set out to attracts reader.
First of all, SUGAR is very clearly a teen-girl magazine. They attract the reader by selling the magazine with free gifts and often a plus-on magazine. The institution is Hachette Filipacchi UK Ltd and they are also the institution for ELLE, ELLE DECORATION, INSIDE SOAP, PSYCHOLOGIES and RED.
The cover page of SUGAR is very appealing to teen girls. On the example I am showing you, it has a large picture of Rachel Bilson who is in the OC- a teen program, with a Sans-serif neon pink masthead and headline and a lot of neon yellow cover lines, with some black and white strap line and sub-headlines that stands out and tells you what is in this magazine. There is not a lot of information on the cover, but just enough to ensure that it definitely makes the consumer want to buy and read more such as, "My dead granddad still lives with us” under the cover line – “teen girl’s sadness!” and “Lust-have styles from £4!” under the headline “HOTTEST JEANS 2008”. Hybrid is also applied to this magazine, this is where the fashion and the celebrity are combined together within the same magazine and this will definitely catch the attention of teen girls as they have just buy SUGAR and get fashion, celebrity and gossip all-in-one.
In conclusion, I think that SUGAR has an excellent cover to attract teens that enjoy fashion, celebs and gossip. The cover page is well set-out and structured. The only down-side might be the price quite is a bit expensive for teenagers as they don't have much money to spend on.
First of all, SUGAR is very clearly a teen-girl magazine. They attract the reader by selling the magazine with free gifts and often a plus-on magazine. The institution is Hachette Filipacchi UK Ltd and they are also the institution for ELLE, ELLE DECORATION, INSIDE SOAP, PSYCHOLOGIES and RED.
The cover page of SUGAR is very appealing to teen girls. On the example I am showing you, it has a large picture of Rachel Bilson who is in the OC- a teen program, with a Sans-serif neon pink masthead and headline and a lot of neon yellow cover lines, with some black and white strap line and sub-headlines that stands out and tells you what is in this magazine. There is not a lot of information on the cover, but just enough to ensure that it definitely makes the consumer want to buy and read more such as, "My dead granddad still lives with us” under the cover line – “teen girl’s sadness!” and “Lust-have styles from £4!” under the headline “HOTTEST JEANS 2008”. Hybrid is also applied to this magazine, this is where the fashion and the celebrity are combined together within the same magazine and this will definitely catch the attention of teen girls as they have just buy SUGAR and get fashion, celebrity and gossip all-in-one.
In conclusion, I think that SUGAR has an excellent cover to attract teens that enjoy fashion, celebs and gossip. The cover page is well set-out and structured. The only down-side might be the price quite is a bit expensive for teenagers as they don't have much money to spend on.
On the other hand, TOP GEAR is a magazine that is aimed at males, as its cover page states very clearly that it is all about cars. The institution is the BBC, which is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world. It is the most popular car magazine available and the cover page of TOP GEAR is very appealing to men. It has a large picture of Ferrari, with a Sans-serif red masthead and headline and a lot of yellow strips with white writing cover lines, strap line and sub-headlines that stand out and tells you what is in it. There is a limited amount of information on the cover, unlike SUGAR, it only have headline such as “IT’S A NEW FERRARI’ and “MORE PICTURES INSIDE” but it just says enough to make people wants to buy it and read what it is about. In conclusion, I think that TOP GEAR has a pretty good front page to catch the attention of consumers that enjoy reading about the latest cars with information and driving news. The cover page is well structured with limited writing but a huge picture of a car which immediately attracts its target audience. The only drawback might be the same as SUGAR, the price for TOP GEAR is relatively expensive and not many people would like to spend it on a magazine. In comparison, it is made very clear that they are very different from each other; SUGAR is aim for teen girls with lots of writing on the cover and along with the attraction of free gifts which are make-ups, make up bags and girly stuff. On the other side, TOP GEAR has a limited of writing on the front page and has always got pictures of cars on the front cover, which are aim for male and people who are interested in cars and racing, they occasionally include free gift and they are often DVDs. However, they both have niche audience. 
