Analysis of Heat magazine front covers

I have chosen to use Heat magazine for my linked production piece because it links well with my critical investigation focus, reality TV. Being a well established celebrity gossip magazine, Heat already has a loyal readership base which I can use to target with my production piece. Heat's primery target audience is mainstream, young-to-middle-aged women. The cover of any magazine is imperative as it's the first thing the target audience will see and therefore decides whether or not they'll read it. With Heat the first thing that you notice are the bright colours used on it's front cover. This is so that when consumers are looking for a magazine they see Heat first as it has the brightest colours, biggest fonts and interesting photos. This creates the representation of Heat magazine to be fun, action packed, exciting and scandalous. Therefore I am analysing the codes and conventions of Heat's front cover because I will have to replicate it when I come to create my 3-page print production piece. 

• Different from other magazines, Heat uses lots of different images on the front cover to explain all it's different stories instead of just one main image. Heat uses tag words such as "Exclusive", "Shock confession", "Only in Heat", "Reveals all" etc. to lure readers in and make them feel as though they have to read Heat otherwise they're missing out. 
• Ambiguous questions such as "Did Gwyneth 'cheat with Lawyer'?" to get readers thinking of possible outcomes to the stories but then they actually have to read the magazine to see if their assumptions are correct. 
• Some headlines are written in capitals and some in lower case which draws the readers attention to shocking stories. 

• The masthead (their logo), heat, is always in red with a white background, is all in lower case letters and is in a different font from all the other typography. 
• The logo stands out on it's plain background and red is stereotypically seen as a feminine colour, therefore this will attract it's target audience. Using the same logo on every magazine makes them instantly recognisable from other magazines and creates a strong brand identity. 
• It's also conventional for Heat to have 6 stories on the front cover; one main story in the middle, 2 at the bottom and 3 at the top. These are all individually identifiable due to the use of box-outs, i.e. different coloured boxes behind each story, and with their own small images. 
• Each story is given a short, punchy caption along with a small image so readers know what the magazine's content it, and so they're also attracted to read the magazine either through personal identity (Uses and Gratification- Bulmer and Katz) e.g. overweight celebrities; shock, or humour (entertainment).  

• It is rare that the main image, if any of the images, are actually posed for and shot in a studio. Instead they're usually action shots that paparazzi have taken, and aren't flattering to the celebrity. This represents the celebrities in a more 'normal' light, going about their day-to-day lives which would appeal to the audience through personal identity. Colours used on the front cover are feminine, bright colours such as reds, pinks, baby blues, and yellows which will also attract the target audience's attention from a long distance- meaning they're more likely to buy Heat than other rival gossip magazines.    

• It is conventional for Heat to write it's slogan,'This week's hottest celebrity news", above it's logo on every magazine front cover. They also reference their cross-platforms e.g. "www.heatworld.com", which is placed vertically before the H on the heat logo. 
• It's issue number and date is also found above the logo on every front cover e.g. "Issue 905 10 - 16 APRIL 2015". 

• Heat's barcode is positioned in the bottom right hand corner, which has a black banner underneath where all it's prices are found. The price in pounds is the biggest price and is in yellow, "£1.65". All the  other prices for different countries it sells in is then listed in white, "Spain & Canaries €2.90; France €3.40; Germany €4.40; Greece €3.30". This provides basic information to readers.     

As a result of my analysis of Heat's front covers I will: 

• Recreate Heat's logo and use it on my front cover, along with their slogan, issue number, date and their website. 
• Use my double-page spread article on TOWIE as the main story on the front cover, so it will therefore take up the majority of the space. 
• Create 5 or 6 smaller articles and place them in boxes around the edge of the front cover. 
• Recreate their barcode and put it in the bottom right corner of the front cover, along with their prices.   
• Use a bright colour scheme; primarily reds, pinks, baby blues, and yellows which will attract the target audience's attention.