Target Audience Research #1

Magazine: ESPN

Title: The Man, The Myth, The Number, RG3.

Audience:
    Age- 18-40
    Gender- Males
    Geography- United States
    Income Level- Any
    Education Level- Any

ESPN's target audience with the RG3 article is young adult males to males in their mid-forties. ESPN marketed their product on a pro-football player to advertise the upcoming televised NFL draft. The reason the age of the target audience does not include younger children is that the article discusses the statistics and in-depth details of the draft. The picture of RG3 was used to bring attention to the draft for the prospected draft picks could one day be as good as him. This magazine is print media which is used to promote their televised showing of the NFL draft. This magazine is similar to mine where the audience can come from a wide range of income and education levels, however, my article focuses on high school sports and is targeted at a younger demographic.

Peer Review Feedback

My peer feedback came back very positive. Along with many positive comments, constructive criticisms were also provided. My most common pieces of critiques included: the font on the front cover for the subtitles blending in with the main focus, the bland font for my titles, and adjusting the pages numbers in the table of contents to go in order. Positive comments included: great photographs, professional/clean layout, and unique editing of the photos. Based on my feedback I will adjust the page numbers on the table of contents, edit the subtitle font to stand out more, and jazz up the font used in my titles.

Conventions

In order to create a professional magazine cover, table of contents, and two-page article I looked for inspiration in popular published sports magazines such as Sports Illustrated and ESPN. Along with the published sports articles, I also used the "Classic Newsletter" template in Pages as an outline when outlaying my two-page article.

For my cover page, I mimicked Sports Illustrated most common layout where the headliner story's subject or person is covering the length of the cover. In my case, the subject was basketball player Jack Duffy sitting on the bleachers holding a basketball between his legs. I took the photo from ground level and had Jack sit about five rows up. By doing this I was able to get a shot that incorporated depth making Jack seem higher which connotes power and excellence which he has in his sport. For the Branding of the magazine company, I mimicked ESPN's style with HSSN. In today's media industry abbreviations have become increasingly popular for they are easy to remember and often catchy.

For my table of contents, I filled the page with photos that I have taken over the course of the past couple of months as a background. Each photo relates directly to the title of the article. In order to make the titles standout and legible, I made the opacity of the images 63%.

For my two-page article, I used the Pages template as a guide in outlaying my article. To make it my own I added photos, moved and deleted text boxes, changed the fonts, and edited the photo properties and outlines. In addition to several action shots throughout the article, I also put a game schedule to encourage readers to attend the basketball games and support the local high schools.

Midterm Submission