Textual analysis of Sugar magazine

The issue of Sugar that I am going to analyse is March 2004. The institution that publishes Sugar is Hachette Filipacchi Ltd, they are one of Britain’s newest publishing house. They are committed to publishing magazines that motivate and entertain. Their portfolio contains the magazines, ELLE, ELLE Decorations, Red, Red Direct, Sugar, Psychologies, Real Homes, Inside Soap and All About Soap. The medium of Sugar is print in the form of a magazine. Sugar’s audience are young teenage girls who are shown through the colour scheme and information in the magazine.
The denotations of the magazine are the masthead of the magazine is in a big, bold font. The colour of the title links to the audience because they are young girls and young girls seem to enjoy the colour pink. However they have placed a medium shot of the model over the title so you can only see the letters, ‘S’ ‘U’ and ‘R.’ I feel this has a negative impact on the potential buyers because they can’t see the title properly, therefore they may not know it is Sugar magazine.
Following the title they then show the price and date. These words are quite small so it isn’t as noticeable as the rest. However the price is bigger because the audience will want to know how much they are paying for the magazine. The tagline reads, ‘BRITAIN’S NO1 TEEN MAG,’ this is very influential on the possible buyers because they will feel that by buying the magazine they are getting good quality. If it is the no1 teen magazine in Britain then many people buy it so others may want it too if they know it is popular.
The title ‘real life shockers’ is quite small and the headlines of the two articles is a medium size. This suggests that they aren’t as important as the other headlines. However one of them is in a contrasting colour; yellow. The yellow colour against the purple background helps it to stand out and catch the reader’s eye. The rest of the cover stories are in small print because they aren’t as important as the rest. The stories with large font are the ones that are used mostly to attract the audience’s attention. However by having coloured font over a white background it also helps to attract their targeted audience.
The main cover line called ‘Nab that lad!’ is very large and bold. This is because it is for Valentine’s Day which would have been coming up. Although it can be confusing that it is a March issue, the magazine is monthly and is published early.
The genre of the magazine is fashion, beauty, music and celebrity gossip. These different genres fit well with their target audience of young teen girls. All these different genres will help to attract the intended audience.
The representation of Sugar is that it is a young magazine which is read by teenage girls. They represent this by using colours that young girls like, writing articles for the audience and using pictures that would relate to them. Sugar has a niche audience because the magazine is only for a small population as it does not appeal to everyone.
From looking at the front cover you can assume that Sugar’s ideologies are beauty and gossip. Most of their headlines cover gossip in the celebrity world such as, ‘why I can’t wait to be a dad by Charlie Busted.’ They also want to influence their audience to be fashionable and presentable as they inform them of ‘fashion buys’ and how to achieve ‘perfect nails.’The narrative of Sugar magazine is quite similar every week as they keep roughly to the same colour schemes. They include fashion in every issue and always have real life articles written by their audience

I will now analyse the contents page of Sugar magazine. The layout of the contents page is spread out onto two pages, the connotation of this makes it easier to read and find the pages that you want. As a result Sugar has more space to group together all the different headlines so readers are able to jump to a section they want. They include a picture of the front cover to inform the readers where they can find the cover stories in the magazine. I feel this is a fantastic idea because readers are able to clearly find what interests them. The colours are quite different from the front cover as the front colour is purple, pink and yellow but the contents page is red and blue. I think they have done this to show a variety and to make everything look different and exciting. However I think it is better to create a house style so readers can familiarize themselves with the magazine, therefore I will keep the colours roughly the same throughout. They have used pictures in their contents page which jump out at you and attract your attention. Attached to the pictures are the page you will find it, I feel this is a good idea to use as too much text may bore the readers so by using pictures it helps keep the readers lively and excited to read the magazine. On the right hand side of the magazine is all the information about who publishes Sugar and where it is created, they also give numbers, and email and web addresses in case readers want to contact them. The information is spread out clearly and does not take away the focus of the rest of the contents page. They use the same font throughout the magazine to create a house style; the font used is plain but understandable to read. They advertise a hook in the bottom left hand corner which reads, ‘Free this month in Sugar! Want cool keys? Make sure you’ve got your swanky silver key ring, free with this issue!’ The hook is noticeable and stands out against the white background; I like the idea of a hook and may use one in my magazine to attract an audience.

Following I am going to analyze a double page spread of my choice. I have decided to analyze an interview with a famous celebrity; I feel this will benefit me because I am going to include an interview on the artist in my magazine. On the first page of the double page spread is a huge photograph of Charlie from Busted; it is quite an intimate photo as his eyes are looking straight at the reader. I feel this is a good idea to have a large photograph of the singer on one page as readers enjoy viewing their favourite artists and it creates a personal feeling. They have also included three other personal photos, one of him backstage, one on stage and one during every day life. This is a positive idea for my target audience as they will appreciate the personal photos of their favourite celebrities. The questions are in pink and the answers in black; this breaks up the interview and makes it simpler for the readers to see who has spoken. The title is in very large and bold font so it quickly attracts reader’s attention. At the end of the magazine they inform readers of the new single that is being released by the performer, this helps keep readers up to date of with their music. The language is very friendly and informal, this relates to the target audience of young teenage girls because they can understand it and it appeals to them. It also keeps to the magazine’s codes and conventions of a young and lively audience.

In conclusion from analysing Sugar magazine it has helped me to understand what my chosen target audience like and how to achieve this.