Concentrating on G2 magazine..

The Guardian

The Guardian paper (founded in 1982) is a British National newspaper associated with a complex organisational structure and international multimedia presence. It is part of The Guardian Media Group Ltd, which is owned by the Scott Trust.

It had an average daily circulation of 232,566 from August- October 2011 and, according to its editor Alan Rusbridger, has the second largest online readership in the world. The paper covers current affairs from across the world such as the recent Italy Euro crisis that has been a regular story in The Guardian. It adopts a liberal attitude meaning it has a belief in liberty and equal rights. There is no clear opinion expressed, choosing to leave the topic open for debate.

It claims to target an audience of financially aware individuals with a high income. This is reflected in its articles about the economy and current finances. The advertisers are also confident that The Guardian readers have money as its adverts consist of expensive furniture, holidays and jewellery. Guardian journalists are aware of where their target audience would shop and use this to their advantage. A whole page advertisement in The Guardian, such as the frequent Carphone Warehouse Iphone 4 advert, costs £18,000. This is significantly cheaper than The Sun where it would cost £100,000 for a page spread due to its larger readership.

The Guardian offers an additional magazine called G2 that comes free with the paper Monday- Friday. G2 targets a wider audience than The Guardian as it concentrates on features and is written in a less formal manner. The magazine is smaller than the paper and has a more stylistic appearance as it contains large images with less text. It is filled with showbiz and current articles on social issues, such as female cyber bullying in the UK. At the back of the magazine it has the weekly radio and television listings where they recommend readers to listen to BBC Radio 4 and to watch ‘Unreported World: Going for gold in Gaza,’ 'Brunel’s last launch: A time team special' and 'Life’s too Short'. These all follow the conventions of a documentary that target a broader audience who may enjoy these specific topics, along with Radio 4 which is aimed at an upper class audience. X Factor is also mentioned with a feature page dedicated to the contestant Frankie Cocozza, who was kicked off the show due to allegedly taking cocaine. This adds an element of ‘gossip’ entertainment to the magazine that can be a topic for social discussion.

As The Guardian targets both male and female readers, with 53% of the readership being male, G2 magazine appears to aim towards the majority of women. The social features appear to be based around female problems in society such as, ‘Men still outnumber women by five to one in Westminster, ’ ‘The naked truth’ which is about the psychological damage lap dancers gain from dancing in clubs and ‘Women- hating is all over the internet.’ This may be to do with the fact that most of the feature writers are female and are writing from their own perspective. There are also features aimed towards men such as a discussion based on how safe it is for police to use a taser and an interview with comedian Jerry Sadowitz.

Many of the adverts featured in G2 are based around art, opera, theatre and novels. This again assumes the readers are from a higher cultured background where they will be familiar with these sorts of hobbies and interests. The back page is always full of puzzles such as Sudoku and crosswords that allow the reader to escape the news and put their knowledge to the test!

Sources

http://www.nmauk.co.uk/nma/do/live/factsAndFigures?newspaperID=12

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian