Magazine Textual Analysis

FourFourTwo

This particular magazine is aimed at people in the 'C+' category as it is more expensive an professional than other such magazines. As it is a football magazine, the main audience will be men but also some women that are interested in football, with a general age of 18-40. However this can vary as football is popular among all ages but you would expect an older audience to be buying the magazine because of its level of information and price. People over the age of 40 could also buy the magazine because it has a lot of information relating to a sport that they like, even if it is a lot more modern than alternatives such as newspapers. It may also appeal to different people due to the different cover lines. For example it may only appeal to an England fan because of the article about England, rather than the main image. The masthead "FourFourTwo", is the visual branding of the magazine and is done in a very specially designed typeface. In this case, the text is in red to stand out amongst the rest of the contents on the cover and the pale background colour. It is also written at an angle to make it look more modern and exciting in relation to football and how the game is always changing. It could also be like this to match the action of the player on the cover and to show that he is ready to play. 

There are many cover lines written all over the page, surrounding the player. This is done to capture the audience's attention but also not to detract too much from the main image itself, as this is often a big mistake made by magazines as the text runs over the image. These cover lines are all distributed around the player and are also at angles. These include things like players names in red to match the masthead and stand out. This is because players such as Sneijder, Ozil and Canales are popular people and are more likely to make the reader want to pick up the magazine than if they see regular sentences as they want to find out about them. There are also phrases like "New Look!", "New Playing Section!", "42 Things We Know About Footballers Thanks To Twitter" and "Free Mag Inside: The Future Of England - Part 1". These all use exciting words and phrases to get people's attention and make them want to buy the magazine. For example, people will want to know what the 42 things are as they are fans of football. Many of the readers are from England which means they will be interested in finding out about England's future or how to improve performance through the "New Playing Section!" 

The dateline of the magazine is important as it guarantees the audience up to date information and news about football. This month's edition is September and is near the beginning of the season when football comes back. This is why along with things like the cover lines and main image, will probably be enough to grab people's interest in the magazine. 

The main image of the magazine is of Dutch player Wesley Sneijder, in his national team jersey. The main image of a magazine is usually used in a classic way, with certain parts of the person standing out more than others. In this case, the players leg is clearly the centre of attention as he is in a kicking motion. Those who recognise the player or colour kit will be immediately drawn towards them as they stand out more than anything else on the page. As the kit is a prodominantly orange, it contradicts the white, pale background and draws your attention more than anything else on the page. This is why the main image is the first thing that a readers sees when looking at a magazine and is what will hopefully make them want to  read on. Also it is helpful to have someone like Sneijder on as the main image because he is very popular and well known internationally, meaning more people are likely to want to read the magazine whether it be Dutch people or fans of Sneijder himself or the club that he plays for. The main image is linked with the main cover line which is "Return Of The Playmakers". This strongly suggests there are many more players just like Sneijder that are just not mentioned on the cover but conveniently means if the reader wants to find out who the others are then it will mean opening up the magazine. Strangely the player is not making eye-contact with the reader. This is something which is commonly done, especially in fashion magazines so that they feel more related or drawn towards the magazine. In this magazines case however, they do not  need to as he is a footballer and him looking away into the distance is also acceptable to illustrate that he is focussing on paying well as the playmaker that he is.

The main cover line, as mentioned, is "Return Of The Playmakers". However underneath this is a sentence that says "Why football's magician's are taking back centre stage." This along with the main cover line and the image of one such player, catches the audience's attention and is just the right amount of information to make them want to read. They could have chosen to show more of the playmakers on the front cover but have decided not to because it would stop people opening up the magazine and finding out for themselves. The whole text is once again slanted or at an angle to match what the player is doing. Another way that this is done is to have the word "playmakers" smashing or coming apart as the player kicks through it. This makes it seem more exciting than usual as most magazines would just use a more generic main cover line with an image, making someone more likely to buy "FourFourTwo" than any of the others. 

Kick!

This magazine is aimed at a much younger audience, between the ages of 5-14 years. However the category of the boys or girls is likely to be much lower than for "FourFourTwo". However this can vary because it doesn't matter what background the kids come from, they will all still prefer this type of magazine to 'FourFourTwo".  The main reason that it is clear that the magazine is aimed towards kids rather than children is because of the layout. It is clear that doesn't look as professional and is very messy compared to "FourFourTwo". It also uses much simpler language and techniques to attractive kids differently to if they were aiming their magazine at adults. 

The masthead of the magazine is "KiCK!". It looks a lot less professional than "FourFourTwo" because it uses a flying football as the "i". It also is much smaller than on the previous magazine. This is probably because for kids, they will not by the magazine because of where it is from, but because of who and what they see on the cover. This is why players like Suarez and Sturridge slightly over-lap it because they are very popular and are role model to young kids. As for the cover lines, they use much simpler wording and a variety of texts which looks very messy and unprofessional from an older person's point of view. However to a kid, it would be more attractive and exciting, therefore seeing it more as being less boring than the previous magazine rather than seeing it as being messy or unprofessional. It uses much simpler text like "Off To Brazil!", "Wicked Posters!" and "Countdown To The World Cup!". This is to suit the target audience and make it very simple, yet entertaining for them to read the magazine and then want to buy it. The arrangements of the cover lines are also very messy and uses many different and bright colours to get the reader's attention. These are also paired with even more pictures of footballers to try to attract the kids' interests rather than using long sentences. 

The dateline and price are also very different as instead of putting the month and year, it simply has 'Issue 103'. This is much less professional as magazines like "FourFourTwo" use the month and year for their editions. It also has a price of £3.50 on the cover so that people know how much to pay for the content of the magazine. However it is less visible in the previous magazine because many people but it regardless of the price as they know that there will be good content inside. 

The main image of the magazine features 5 Premier League footballers. However in more professional magazines, they would use one image and it may be done in a studio. But in this magazine, it looks like they have just been copied and pasted onto the front cover because it is less important to kids to have a professional image. They just need to put onto the cover players that kids will recognise and to make them want to read the magazine. It also looks like all the players are celebrating to show their excitement and hopefully also to get the kids excited about reading the magazine. They are matched with the main cover line