Aug 28 2008
Analyzing Magazines
A magazine can tell you quite a bit about the type of publication it is as well as what type of audience it’s trying to reach. When I was in college, one of my professors had us do a magazine analysis. I still have it to this day, because I have gone back to it to look for ideas and potential magazines where I can send my writing. Creating a magazine analysis is time consuming, but in the end, you will have valuable information to take away from it.
You will want to keep your magazine analysis as a reference, so buy a cheap three-ring binder and some tabs. This will make it look nice and keep all of your papers organized. Choose at least five magazines that you would be interested in writing for. Consider your interests and what topics you are well-versed in. For each of the magazines you choose, create an analysis sheet for it. This will include the following: managing editor’s contact information, what types of writers they employ (freelance, in-house), magazine’s subhead and what it means, explain the contents of the magazine (write a paragraph about each section), read two articles and explain what made it appropriate for the magazine, discuss the editor’s introduction, read and discuss the readers’ letters, examine the advertisements and who they are targeting and examine three of the advertisements.
After you have listed out and discussed this information, you will be prepared to provide a profile of the audience that the magazine is trying to target. Also compare your audience profile to the profile written up in Writer’s Market. Finally, list out as many story ideas you can think of for each magazine. When you are ever having a writer’s block, you will now know where to go.
