What are the differences between different magazine prices?

Lucy Fitzsimmons.

Cheap magazines.Magazine ranging from the price ranges of free - £1.

These magazines (for example heat/now magazine) are priced around the free - £1 price range, and from simply looking at the magazine you could identify that.

You could tell this from the colour schemes, they are very bright and bold and they use more than three different colours, which makes it look quite messy. Also, the way the magazine conventions are positioned is very busy and cluttered and there is no free space, which sometimes can be eye-catching, but also can be off putting because there is too much there. Also, the celebrities they feature on their front covers are usually either from soap operas, or from bands or are singers and this makes the target audience feel that they can relate to them more, and a lot of the stories would not be seen as classy, they are simply for the gossip purposes and you never really know if the information written in them is true. The fashion pages featured in these magazines are always high street prices which shows that the target audience would be lower/middle class women, or teenage girls.

Middle class magazines. Magazines priced from around £1.50 - £2.50

These magazines (for example look/grazia magazine) are priced from around £1.50 - £2.50, and from looking at them you could identify that.

You could tell that these magazine were from the ‘middle class’ range from the colour scheme, they use pastel colours and they are much more subtle. Also, they use a maximum of three different colours, so they aren’t overly messy and busy. The front covers aren’t as cluttered as heat/now magazine, however there still isn’t much free space anymore. The celebrities featured are usually more famous than the ones featured in heat/now, however the target audience still feel that they may be able to relate to them. The fashion pages in these magazines are usually still high street prices, however a bit more expensive than the shops featured in heat/now, and sometimes they feature designer clothing/accessories.

Upper class magazines.Magazines priced from around £3.00 - £4.00

These magazines (for example vogue/marie claire) are priced from around £3.00/£4.00, and looking at them you could identify that.

You could tell that these magazines are ‘upper class’ from the colour schemes, they use very subtle colours, which look more expensive and classy. Also, because the colours are soft, it doesn’t put the customer off. The positioning of the conventions is quite spaced out and isn’t cluttered, which is better for the customer because it’s more readable.

The celebrities used on these magazines are usually famous actresses/singers/models, which make the magazine much more sophisticated. The main stories are more reliable and they not for gossip purposes. These magazines are mostly about high fashion, and high street fashion is rarely advertised. Which tells you that the target audience are upper class, interested in fashion, and wealthy.

Where are magazines sold? All types of magazines are usually sold in most supermarkets, e.g tesco, sainsburys,

marks and spencers etc, and this is because they are very accessible and also because many different target audiences go there so there is a magazine for everyone.

Also, magazines are often sold in news agents, however upper class magazines are not usually sold there, because they are more expensive and do not fit in with the

target audience and the demographic of the news agents.

Also, magazines are also sold in shops such as boots, however mostly only womens magazines such as Look, Grazia, Womens weekly etc are sold there, and that is

because the customers that go into boots are the main target audience for these magazine. So for example, if they were to sell Kerrang or NME in boots, they wouldn’t

sell well because their target audience do not shop in boots.