Surrey Life Magazine

Rian Doherty

The front cover of Surrey life is obviously a beautiful image. The landscape is glistening and is perfect for its ‘wonderland’ theme. However, I feel the use of landscapes on the front of regional magazines has become overused. Although the particular image is slightly different to the rest, it doesn’t excite or draw me in. Because of this, I don’t wish to comply with this convention as it may not sell with my target audience.

The use of a celebrities name on the cover may encourage people to buy it, as they wonder what connection the celebrity has to their home town/ the place they are visiting or reading up on.

Another convention I think is beneficial to the magazine is the offers and competitions that are available as due to the smaller audience reading the magazines as they will feel they have more chance of winning.

FRONT COVER

ADVERTISEMENTThe magazine has a double page advertisement based on a college that has been claimed as ‘school of the year’ due to educational opportunities being a key aim in the content of the magazine. For this reason it’s clear that the magazine advertises things it believes will appeal to their target audience. Magazine adverts can also reach a larger audience through word of mouth, as even if the person who sees the magazine can’t make use of it they may tell somebody who can

The use of attractive imagery and a formal layout and colour scheme can both attract an audience and reinforce the nature of the advertisement, which is to advertise an exceptional place of education.

CONTENTSThe contents page is very plain yet informative. The use of a simple colour scheme helps to highlight areas of particular interest and draw the readers attention, however, the lack of colour and imagery is likely to discourage somebody from reading the whole page or being intrigued to read an article.

The use of the subheadings divides the content into sections of particular interest. I think this would be useful within a regional magazine, as a wider audience may look inside for information on a specific thing eg. music

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD - 1This double page spread is an example of an informative piece that aims to encourage people to experience what surrey has to offer during the Christmas season. Due to the target audience being predominately older people, the information about events and the dates they are taking place within the community will be useful as they can plan to attend In advance.

Although the layout is logical and appeals to the target audience of this magazine, due to mine being more directed towards a younger audience I want a more dynamic layour to be included.

CELEBRITY ARTICLEThis article combines to elements of public interest that can encourage a large amount of people to want to read it. Football and celebrities. In a regional magazine, combining these areas of interest with the region of choice will make for an intriguing article.In this example, Gary Lineker is describing Surrey as ‘pretty perfect’ which is endorsement for their region.

I think the use of celebrities with relevance to your region can assist in selling/ advertising your magazine.

• In my opinion, Surrey life has the correct information and layout for its target audience. It provides informative, clear articles and news that many people are able to ingest

• Personally, I plan to take some of the ideas used within this magazine, such as celebrity endorsement of the region, and adapt them to a more dynamic style of presentation.

• I don’t feel the contents or cover really represent the range of features and opportunities within the region, which is something I hope mine will.

EVALUATION OF SURREY LIFE