Research and Planning: Magazine Analysis

Empire magazine is a well established film magazine, as is clear from the bold red masthead which is also partially covered by the image in the centre of the page. The cover is obviously a special edition as the banner suggests there is a specific focus on covers, as well as the fact there are no smaller cover-lines, only the main cover-line about the main article within the magazine.
It is clear this is a magazine cover through the use of the following conventions:

• Masthead
• Three Colour Rule
• Banner
• Main cover-line
• Dominating image in the centre of the page
• Issue Date and Price
• Website

There is however no positioning statement or bar code on the front cover.
The narrative genre of the magazine is obviously a film magazine as the focus is entirely around a film, the medium close-up image clearly relates to a character from a film and the strict three-colour rule is used to keep with the look other magazines have.
The representation of the film fetured clearly shows that this 'hobbit' is an evil character and has a creepy twisted look in his eyes, which also do not match, adding to the creepy effect created by a horror film.
The target audience of this film magazine is presumably film fans aged between 18 and 25 as it has a strong focus on a current film and looks to be of a more mature content than young teenagers would be interested in.