Report on the Audience of Doctor Who Magazine

The magazine is aimed primarily at an adult audience of pre-existing fans of its niche subject
matter, the TV show Doctor Who.
This was reflected in the results of my survey, in which I gained comments such as "some
people my age would love it" from a 31 year old. The general consensus was that while the
subject matter (Doctor Who) is typically aimed at children, the magazine's dense writing,
sometimes sparse pictures, and general mode of address, make it more suited to adults.
The content of this writing, however, was very easily accessible "assuming you're a fan, it
doesn't alienate anybody" said one respondent.
In a follow-up survey, respondents told me who they think the target audience of Doctor Who
magazine is. 90% said that the audience is mostly men. 90% also said that they are aged
mostly 40 to 50. 60% said that they are predominantly in group C1, with the other 40%
thinking group B.

This leads me to conclude that the target audience of Doctor Who is lower-working class
men in their 40s.
But what makes it suitable for its target audience?

First, I'll explore the ways that it addresses its audience.

The words chosen are neither unnecessarily verbose
and complicated, nor are they dumbed down to the
level that a child would easily
understand. Linguistically, it is very conversational
but intelligent. My survey respondents said its
"perfectly suited to anyone of a decent reading age" and "isn't
patronising". Language is complex and at times old-fashioned
due to the age of who it's written by. For example, the article
says, "we discuss the incident that begins the plot" which is
not overly formal, nor is the type of language used to address
children.
The images used tend to be illustrative, making use of old archive
images. Almost none of the images have been shot especially for
use within the magazine, instead coming from the BBC's marketing
department (right), or from the magazine's own archive of material.
For example, the article uses archival images from the BBC and
Virgin Publishing (below, right). The images are generally offering
some form of insight, backing up information in the article, or as an
illustration to show a piece of work (or in this case the books cover
art, so that readers can recognise it) rather than to just describe it.
Even the front cover has been cobbled together from promotional images, this time from Big
Finish Productions. (below, left). Survey respondents said that the images were a bit tacky
but that they do the
job of helping to
inform.

Doctor Who Magazines use of colour is largely just to liven up the page designs, as well as
to make articles visually distinct from one another. The colour scheme of one article is
orange and teal. Partially, this is because these are colours present in every one of the
images used within the article, as seen in the screengrabs below, but also to tie the article in
to the genre of science fiction, as there has been a recent trend in mass media to use the
orange and teal colour combination in pieces of scifi media. When asked about design
elements such as the use of colour in the magazine, respondents to my survey said that it
looks a bit tacky. I feel that this ties in with the target audience of 40 year old men with a
niche interest in Doctor Who there is not a necessity for
every single article to look like a work of art.

Fonts are used creatively to differentiate various parts of the article, as well as offer a stark
visual interest through the stark contrast.
The main body of text is in a small, serif font, split into three different columns per page, in a
style that is both very old fashioned and reminiscent of newspapers, a traditional and grown-
up type of media. Contrasting this, is the use of rounded and sans-serif fonts for captions
and pull-quotes, as shown below. The use of font is also used on the front cover, to create
clear branding by making the magazines title closely resemble the shows official logo.
When asked about the layout of the magazine, respondents said that it is nicely laid out
and relaxed, uncluttered which I feel comes from different elements being given contrast
against each other, as I have described. On top of this, while it uses sans-serif fonts for
stylisation, the majority of text being in very newspaper-like serif in columns makes it
extremely suitable to its target audience. Their age group of men in their social class are
likely to read newspapers, and this style also makes is very easy to efficiently and effectively
include a large amount of text on each page, which is also suitable for them.

We must also consider the construction of the content, in relation to the audience.
The laying out of the text in newspaper-like thin columns, as shown below, makes it very
suitable to the target audience. Not only because it is an effective and familiar way to
densely pack a page with a large amount of text, but because the evoking of the newspaper
will appeal to the adult reader. Partially, I suspect, it will legitimate their reading of a
magazine about a kids show, by making it look visually like any other piece of mass media
aimed at the same demographic. My respondents said that the article is laid out nicely and
has a relaxed, uncluttered feel.
Captions are used in the magazine to pull quotes from the article, to grant context to the
images used, and to make small jokes, as shown below. This is standard practise in
magazines, and this sticking to codes and conventions makes it ideal for its target audience
these adult men arent looking for something that pushes the boundaries of the medium,
but something that is familiar and delivers the content they want in an unchallenging manner.
Again, respondents said that layout elements such as captions were laid out nicely.

With its construction of content, the magazine makes use of anchorage to tie elements
together. For example, the article I have been analysing anchors to the front cover. While the
front cover promotes the recent adaptation of a book into a radio drama, the article goes into
depth about the source material and its original release. Other examples found within the
article are the use of Davie name in the title, with photographs of him shown in the article.
As mentioned above, this close use of code and convention is ideal for the target audience.

There are some additional ways that Doctor Who Magazine sticks to codes and conventions
in order to cater to its audience of class B and C1 middle aged men.
Linguistically, the language is maturely complex without becoming unnecessarily verbose.
As with other codes and conventions that make the magazine unchallenging and easy to
consume, this use of language means that the articles are easy to read and will not
challenge the audience. A good quote to demonstrate this level of easily accessible but
relatively intellectual language is found in the opening paragraph where they say we discuss
the incident that begins the plot. In my survey, my respondents said that it is informal
without becoming patronising and suited to everybody of a decent reading age. The
informality mentioned reflects the mode of address to the audience that the magazine has
settled upon, and that suites the demographic, because they wold immediately turn away if
they felt like they were being spoken down to, but also are just laymen and not too highly
intellectual, so this has to be born in mind.
Visually, the magazine looks a bit tacky, as reflected by my survey respondents saying it
looks a bit tacky. As mentioned above, this is due to the strange colour combinations,
archival images, and the ugly sans serif fonts. But, again mentioned above, this is perfectly
suitable to the target audience who do not have strong aesthetic concerns, as they just want
a meaty block of text about the niche subject matter, because they are men in their 40s and
50s.

Something else used in the magazine is symbolism. This is seen on the front cover, where
Sylvester McCoys image is much larger than his much less well known co-starts, to
symbolically show that he is more important and of more interest.