MAGAZINE GENRES, CODES + CONVENTIONS.

Hannah
Nov 12, 2020
5 min read

Updated: Dec 11, 2020

GENRES:

Magazines are generally split into three categories:

1. Lifestyle.

2. Specialist.

3. Celebrity.

LIFESTYLE:

These types of magazines give advice on relationships, food, beauty, sex, and health. They often include tips on different themes of the edition and will include articles up to date on mainstream topics like major politics. They also allow work from their readers to show their unusual anecdotes, promoting stories and products that will make their audience feel accepted and apart of a group of people.

Includes: health, fashion, home.

For the health umbrella (under lifestyle), the model will be a well known celebrity in the field to attract a higher percentage of readers. For example, on the Men's Health magazine cover above, Michael B Jordan is the model, at the time of publication, he was just beginning to blow up. He was and still is known for his althetic body, this would make him the perfect collaboration for this magazine as people will want an insight into his regime to try and achieve his appearance.

SPECIALIST:

Specialist magazines are made for people with interests in niche markets, this means that the contents will be relevant to the topic and don't satisfy a mainstream audience. The topics are often based from activities which can be seen as 'hobbies' such as photography for the readers who passionate in the field. For example, the content includes tips (gardening tips to make plants stay alive in Winter) and anecdotes from specialists of the field to share experience as well as what they learned with their favourite products which have helped them.

Includes: horse riding, music, film, TV, gardening, craft, gaming, sport.

CELEBRITY:

Celebrity magazines are for a largely female mass audience. They show us details of celebrity lives. They are voyeuristic and allow us to feel a part of a social network that is not our own. We are apparently allowed to get close to the celebrities so that they appear to be on a similar level of intimacy as a friend. This can act as an addition to the reader’s social sphere and it allows the masses to escape into the success.

gossip, interviews.

Celebrity magazines usually have a serif font, this gives them the feel of luxury and elegance, so the reader feels important when picking up the edition. This is because this genre of magazine is generally purchased and targeted towards the working class, this helps them feel like they are rigged higher on the social ladder and are more special. This concept of higher classes being married with this style of font dates back to the seventeenth century when they were used for the invitations the riche parties. Some of these famous fonts are from the writers of George Shelley, George Bickham and Gorge Snell. Some of the most memorable fonts are Snell Roundhand and the Bickham Script.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS:

Magazines have features which are commonly found among most publications, these are magazine codes and conventions - things we can expect to see. These vary among the whole magazine, with some specific ones for the front cover compared to inside articles.

House Style: the main style / USP of the brand, something they are recognised by easily. This can be a colour theme, general style, text order or font.

Strapline: the tagline of the magazine brand, this can be printed on every publication to identify them.

Font: a magazine will usually have three fonts that they use throughout all their publications (on both print and digital), this helps keep consistency and makes the brand look organised. The font also reflects the vibe they want to give off (serif = elegance) so is very important to keep organised.

FRONT COVER:

Issue / date: the season, month or date of publication. This is typically in one of the corners of the front cover to keep out of the way. The font is generally sans serif because it can be read quickly and still looks sleek.
Masthead: This is the name of the magazine and is usually at either the top or along the edge of the cover. It is in bold to show the Skyline: the text which is placed at the very top of the article, this isn't necessarily the masthead, it can be a selling line, main coverline or model credit for example. The text is usually in bold and of a large font - often sans serif for ease while reading.
Selling line: the magazine slogan. This is what the magazine wishes for the general public to think of when the brand is mentioned, it is almost like their slogan.
Coverline: describes additional articles in the magazine other than the main article (featuring the model on the cover)
Anchorage text: additional info supporting the featured article
Model credit: states who the model in the image is, this usually credits the main image.
Pull quote: quotes from the relevant article inside.
Main coverline: the coverline of the focal article, this should be the most eyecatching and involve the model on the cover.
Tag: a stand out piece of text used to attract the attention of the reader, this can be done with a different colour, bold text, or italics.
Barcode: this is what the publication will be scanned with at purchase, it can be on either the front or the back of the publication, in the example below it is on the front.
Main cover image: this will be the image which fills the majority of the cover, for a celebrity magazine there is typically one single image on the page and they are the main focus, they have the main coverline, article and are the face of that specific issue.

Some important things to note:

Colour palette: issues have a colour theme of which they will stick to, for the tag or main coverline they will use the contrasting colour to the general main image colour. This makes the text stand out and not all of the text on the page will be this colour.

The colour white is popular for text with pastel cover backgrounds as it doesn't contrast too much to distract from the main image / model yet it is a simple opposition.

INSIDE:

Headline: this is the title of the article, so needs to be eye catching and easy to read.
Credit: this can be the credit of who took the photo, the outfit the model is wearing. In the case below, the text is a byline to credit the author / interviewer of the article.
Intro / kicker: this is the first paragraph of the article, it often describes the situation of the interview (how the celebrity is feeling, their clothes, stance etc.), it will also describe their upcoming project.
Folio: the text in the corners, the page number is mandatory however there is sometimes the magazine title next to it.
Subheading: this is the heading for each individual section, these are not mandatory however are used really well if there are numbers points of the article. This might include the question asked by the interviewer (in the case above) to easily identify the sections.
Body: the article itself, this includes the interview and the intro.
Image: this is the main photo of the page, this will be bold and easily identifiable. Model: this is only necessary if the focus of the image is the celebrity / model, however the model is usually the (main) subject of the article.

Pull quote: quotes from the body / article which will stand out and try to convince the consumer to read the body.

Image caption: these are captions - most commonly found underneath the image - which describe the image and will state where the clothing is from.