Audience Feedback on my MagazineAudience Feedback on my Magazine

I created a survey on surveymonkey.com to ask for peoples opinions on my magazine. I ask questions such as their sex and age to work out which sex and age groups preferred my magazine. I also asked for anything they’d changed about my magazine to see if they agreed with me on places I could improve on. I asked who they thought the magazine was aimed at to see if it was well suited to the target audience I chose to target. I asked about the photography and how they felt I’d portrayed the artist features in the magazine because the photography was a big part of my magazine and I wanted to see if it had the desired effect on the reader. I got 17 replies to my questionnaire and pretty much all the feedback will be useful for my evaluation.

The people who answered my questionnaire where mostly in the 16-19 age bracket, which was the age range I was targeting. Only two of the people I asked said they definitely wouldn’t buy the magazine and this could have been because the style of music just didn’t appeal to them. Everyone apart from one person said that they thought my magazine was aimed at both sexes. This is what I was hoping for because I wanted my target audience to be as wide as possible so it would sell well, by appealing to both males and females it would help me sell more copies if I was actually selling my magazine.

Target AudienceTarget Audience

Feedback on the front coverFeedback on the front coverI asked for feedback on my front cover and anything they thought I could improve on. A few said they didn’t think it needed to be improved and other mentioned small things that I could change. Four people mentioned the colour scheme, and that it was either two dark or that they just didn’t like the purple. I chose to use the purple and yellow because I wanted to use contrasting colours to make it stand out but it may not be to everyone's taste. One person picked up on a spelling mistake that I had missed when I first made it, which was useful and gave me a chance to change it. Two people said about using a clearer photo, I had chosen this photo because I thought it was different to most photos you see on the front cover of a magazine and it would fit with the unconventional feel I wanted the magazine to have.

Feedback on the content pageFeedback on the content page

Most people said they wouldn’t change much about my but the things they did mention was the lack of colours. My contents page does seem a lot darker than the other pages and I think if I was doing it again I might add a few more colours in just to make it more appealing. I did decide to do it slightly darker because it wasn’t meant to be as eye catching as the front cover or the double page spread. One person didn’t like the font and I used it because it matched with what I used on the front cover and I wanted to give my magazine an obvious house style and I thought by using the same font it would do this. Photoshop does have limited fonts and if I could have downloaded fonts to Photoshop I would have used much more interest fonts.

Feedback on the double page Feedback on the double page spreadspread

Again a few people mentioned the colour scheme I chose for my magazine, maybe purple isn’t a colour that appeals to everyone but I chose it because it fitted with the photo and stood out against the black. If i could do this again I would research into what colours my target audience liked so I could use them in my magazine. One person said it had a slightly confusing layout and I can see how it could be a little confusing but I chose to lay it out slightly differently to the typical magazine because again I wanted my magazine to feel unconventional and I thought by having a quirky layout it would make it different to all the other magazine.

Feedback on the photography usedFeedback on the photography usedI also asked my target audience about how they thought the band were portrayed because I wanted to see if I had been able to show the personality of the band by the photos I used and the way I wrote the article. From most of the feedback I got I could tell that most people had understood that I wanted to show the band as a lively, fun and laid back band. I also wanted to portray that a big part of why the band are so successful is because of the show they put on when they perform live, which is why I used the photos I did. I like the response that it ‘shows the band in a positive light by the photos showing interaction with the crowd.’ This was what I really wanted the live shots of the band to show, I wanted it to engage the reader and make them feel a certain interaction with the crowd. Someone said about the ‘Befriend The Blackout’ showing the interaction as well and this was something I didn’t really think about, but I thought was a nice link for someone to have noticed.

When asked quite a few of my target audience said their favourite thing about my magazine was the photography and the colour scheme. I used the photos and colours I did because I wanted them to stand out and really catch the readers eye, this seems to have worked from the feedback I got from my target audience.