Audience
Hello everybody! In today’s blog post, we will be analyzing the several aspects of the audience in food magazines. This includes the target, demographics, publish techniques, and routines (etc.).
So, let’s get started!
Target Audience
As a whole, food magazines cater to a wide variety of readers, from home cooks to experienced chefs to critics and food enthusiasts. These kinds of people are eager to:
· Learn new recipes
· Look over interesting and useful kitchen gadgets to
· Find cool tips, tricks, and hacks for their next dish
· Jump onto new trends and be immersed in cooking culture
To ensure this, food magazines must be written in a way that appeals visually to the eyes, is digestible to read, and approachable enough to replicate.
Gender
Nowadays magazine readership is mostly done online, however the skews in interest tend to be quite concrete. According to Ipsos, “Women are more than twice as likely as men to read cuisine magazines (52% VS. 23%)” This is a staggering statistic that does have some backing behind it. Traditionally women are more likely to be cooking in a household then men, women produce around 8.7 meals per week and men produce around 0.7.
If you are the main provider of meals in a household, you are much more likely to read over a magazine over someone who doesn’t. Now, while this does not apply to every household, it is where a majority of food magazine readers come from.
Age
The age range of magazines tend to sway to the older side, since most teens have access to different kinds of entertainment that other age ranges may not understand or enjoy as much. The general range of cuisine readers is about 20-55+.
Before I move on to production techniques and schedules, I want to go over the audience from a specific company, GoodFood!
Monthly reach of BBC Good Food magazine in Great Britain from April 2019 to March 2020, by demographic group
- Age: While this chart’s qualification of an adult is a little different from my standards of an adult, it shows that most readers are 35 and up, and a decent number of readers are aged 15-34. This demonstrates that in Britain reading is a lot more common of an activity compared to other countries
- Gender: More than 2.5x the number of women read magazines compared to men, just showing how strong this factor of audience is.
- Other Factors: In this graphic, it tells us that homes that house children are more likely to have monthly magazines than others. This is quite interesting and while I couldn't find a concrete reason I assume it’s because it is a form of entertainment for both adults and young children.
- GoodFood Examples: I’m sure this is most likely your 1000th viewing of a GoodFood cover in this blog, however I think it is a good reference and allows us to see what exactly is so alluring in this magazine.
I believe these covers show 2 different sides that a magazine could have. The cover on the left is more sophisticated, but still maintains a cozy tone to it, while all these magazines are targeted towards adults; the left one feels a lot more adult-ish. It uses more relaxed colors, cursive, and a dish that would look more appetizing to a 45-year-old compared to a 9-year-old (personally it looks delicious, but I digress).
The right magazine is a lot brighter in attitude and seems exciting in a sense. It uses fun colors such as blue, orange, green, and pink in order to entice viewers. The fonts are easier to read and a little bigger. The main subject is a sweet dessert that anyone could imagine enjoying themselves. Many would consider it something that a child would be more interested than any other age group.
Personally I find both sides to be very nice to look at, but for my brief specifically I think I would probably do something on the brighter and more “childish” side, because I not only want to be able to cater to a variety of ages, but it also seems simpler to try and create myself.
Publishing
Weekly – Uploads once every seven days
Monthly _ Uploads once a month
Bi-Monthly _ Uploads twice a month or Uploads once every 2 months
Annually _ Once a year
Bi-Annual _ Uploads twice a year or Uploads once every 2 years
These are the different publishing frequencies that any official piece of media usually follows, but when talking about food magazines they tend to be monthly, this is to keep readers interested in the new and upcoming recipes, stories, and any other things a specific food magazine may have. Updating any later may create uninterested or even forgetful viewers, but some publishers follow other schedules:
Bi-monthly: Food Network Magazine
Bi-annual: Saveur
In my opinion, I believe that the more often a publisher creates the better it is for them, although publishing too often (like once a week) is too much. Personally, I have never heard of the Saveur magazine, nor does any part of it stand out to me; the fonts are similar, and some texts are hard to see, and there isn’t much of a range of colors. It looks incredibly good don’t get me wrong, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. I believe this is partially because of their updating schedule; they come around every so often which makes it harder to recognize.
On the other hand, Food Network Magazine is one of the most popular pieces of media out there. Now they are at a major advantage because they are an actual network, but when looking at the cover, it is so colorful and bold that it makes it hard not to look at. There are a bunch of fun and swirly fonts, the kind that are easier to see.
This is something I want to replicate, a kind of magazine that almost forces the audience to look because it is so mesmerizing. I obviously can’t create an entire network, but I’m curious as to whether I can spin it into a CCR. If I could, that would be great, and would take great inspiration from the Food Network, a beloved piece of media.
Publishing Types
Print: This is the tangible version of the magazine and is typically sold in bookstores, grocery stores (like Publix and Walmart), or given in the mail (usually with a subscription).
- Print magazines create an experience that digital just can’t even come close to recreating, the touch of the paper, the smell of the book, and the rustling of the pages are all things that can engage the reader a lot better than digital, it’s why so many readers prefer to get the actual book than reading it online
- Research also shows that people retain information better when reading it from something that is physical, adding to the appeal of print.
Digital: This is the online version of the magazines and is either free to use or uses a subscription
- Digital magazines give readers a level of convenience that you really can’t get physically, being able to reach a world of media with a click of a button and little to no costs is insane, most digital magazines also have links to videos, podcasts, and other little bits of content that many would love to see.
Hybrid: This is when a publisher releases issues both online and physically (which is what most companies are currently doing in order to cater to the most amount of people).
- There’s a reason why hybrid is so popular, because it is the literal best of both worlds, it caters to those who want to hold their own magazines and to those who want to get it as quickly as possible. It boosts engagement a ton and can spread the word of the magazine on both sides of the spectrum. It also ensures that the magazine will be cemented somewhere, and ensure sustainability
There really is no one or the other when it comes to publishing types, because magazines flourish most when their most opposite components come together to create a compelling and long-lasting product for their entire audience.
So, before we wrap up with a reflection let’s go over the basics of what was in this post today:
The best food magazine caters to:
- Women
- Of ages 20-55+
- That updates monthly
- In both a physical and digital form
- (This one is opinion based) And tends to have a brighter and more “fun” design
Reflection
Surprisingly, this blog post turned out to be one of the most interesting entries I’ve done yet. When I was told that this was something that almost needed to be done, I was dreading it, it was completely off course from the lighting saga I was on and had been thrown into the corner as a last on the list task. But, after getting further and further into research, it showed me just how important this post actually ended up being, it has almost set the tone of my brief in stone and I’m curious to see how it leads me as I approach the next few weeks of planning. I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much I (somehow) liked writing it.
See you all on the next post!
References:
https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/512918/gender-gap-home-cooking-grows.aspx
https://ambertomlinsonmedia.weebly.com/goodfood.html
https://www.storaenso.com/en/newsroom/news/2020/1/which-country-is-the-biggest-magazine-reader
https://mediamaxnetwork.com/industry-insights/print-newspapers-magazines-still-matter/
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