‘Hello!’ is named after the meeting phrase. This is because it sounds friendly, common and exciting. It is price around the £2 mark, but it is aimed at women who have free time at home aged 25-40. This is because they could be a house wife and can have a read while they have their lunch etc.
It has information and interviews on celebrities that you couldn’t find on TV. On the cover, it has a big picture of a famous wedding that took place that week, and the cover story has lots of brilliant photos of the occasion, making the reader feel that they were invited and saw all the action of the day. It also has lots of interviews with other famous starts, including a lady who still looks very, very well at 70 years old, and Donny Osmond in his house with his family.
All the stories are aimed at the 25-40’s and wouldn’t suit any other audience, old or young. It does have a few adverts, advertising perfume, house interior and food. This is appropriate advertising in this magazine. If it had adverts on football boots costing £99, it would be a waste of space and the makers would not make any profit at all. It would be getting the audience wrong and would show un-professionalism.
In all the pictures, apart from the photos that where not organized with the celebrity, the people involved in the photo are always looking into the camera lens and smiling. This makes the person look like they are smiling at you and shows that in the interview, they were upbeat, friendly and having a good time. In the interviews, the author/interviewer describes every detail of the moment; expressions, actions, the way they said their sentence, making the reader picture this interview.
The reader gets the pleasure to see some of their favourite celebrities be happy and see how they are getting on. But, although they may not realise, they may also be jealous of this idealised happy world these people live in. ‘Hello!’ almost make these people sound perfect and always happy, which is impossible to anyone. You wouldn’t find an interview with an unhappy famous person telling the world about his weekend from Hell. ‘Hello!’ magazine takes the audience somewhere only they could dream of going, like Donny Osmond’s house, the Oscars, a famous marriage and many more places TV crews are not allowed.
‘Nuts’ is greatly named after the footballer’s quote “Nutmeg!” which is used when a player passes the ball though the opponents legs during a match. It’s very masculine and humorously slang. Its price varies every week because of tough competition, but its RRP is £1.20, but can be seen for as little as 60p. This is because men do not want to splash out on something like a magazine which will entertain them for about half an hour then get put down.
The reader’s age will be something like 18-30 year old males. This is basically because of all the women de-clothed, all the fast and flashy cars and all the latest news on the football and other sport. Common men will find this a £1.20 well spent. Men would find time for this magazine on their lunch breaks at work and just when they need to look up the times for the TV.
On the cover, it has a big picture of a half naked women staring at the lens with little sub-stories of football, more women and fast cars. This is the same with the double spread contents page. They have illustrations with bold writing. They have not used much writing throughout the magazine at all. This is because most of the audience have a short attention span, and would rather wonder what’s on the next page then to read a whole page of information.
Also, they may be reading this on a lunch break, and this might even be half an hour long, so they are mostly flicking through.
‘Nuts’ has only a couple of adverts. These are all appropriate for a male magazine as it includes football, new console games, deodorant and beer. If they had an advert for ‘my little pony: gift set’ It would be given a second look, but only of amazement on how random that was. It wouldn’t make any profit and again, it would show un-professionalism in the company and for ‘Nuts’.
All the models in ‘Nuts’ are looking at the camera lens. This makes her look like she is looking back at the male reader. This makes it a better picture then if she were to look away from the lens, as if she is not enjoying her work. You could see a beautiful woman in public, but only in ‘Nuts’ could you see her… in a different way. The same with the flash cars; although you could see them in the streets you would not be able to get verdicts, facts and interior unless you catch up the driver, but it’s doubtful you will see such marvelous cars in the streets anyway. It’s also good to read about football in an informal way too, rather then formal long-worded newspapers.
The TV times in ‘Nuts’ uses common words and explains the program in a true way. It also has a male rating, putting 5 stars next to things they would love, and 1 star next to things they wouldn’t. ‘Nuts’ is the first successful male magazine and it will long to continue.
Even by reading the front covers of the two magazines, it is very obvious that they will be nothing like each other. They are aimed at different ages and different sex. But, for their targeted audience, they have both fulfilled their purpose of delivering a successful magazine to the readers.
‘Hello!’ and ‘Nuts’ may be at opposite ends of the shelf, but they show that a magazine isn’t a word that describes one type or genre anymore. It could mean any age, any sex, any occupation and any education.
