Print Media: Men's Fitness Magazine (Research)

Print: I decided to research an alternate Lifestyle magazine because it may give me different ideas and shows the differences in target audiences, which is important when it comes to justifying my target audience choice. I decided to look at Men's Fitness because it falls into a completely contrasting Lifestyle genre to the other magazines which I have evaluated.

Men's Fitness

Content Type
'Men's Fitness' make focus is on the health and fitness of males and how to incorporate it into a daily lifestyle. It contains nutritional information, weight loss, and workouts. In addition to the health at fitness content, the magazine also has content on 'Woman and Sex' and 'Style and Grooming'. Furthermore professional and expert opinions on health and fitness are included in the magazine, which may be a selling point because it boosts the reliability of the information. Furthermore recipes, sports and surveys are included in the content of the magazine.

Readership/Target Audience
The target audience gender is men- which can clearly be seen in the title. Also the colour blue is always used on the front cover which connotes the male gender and so suggests the magazine is for males, showing that a gender stereotype is used. Furthermore an image of  toned man is featured on the cover of every issue of the magazine. This suggests that the target audience is fitness involved males, or those that idealize a healthy and toned body. Masculinity is stereo-typically portrayed as muscly, toned and handsome. The image of the male on the front cover also contains these stereotypes which suggests to a male by buying the magazine they can achieve the same, desirable look. The age of the target audience is from 20-40. This is because the image on the front cover is of a male from around this age range which suggests that not only is the magazine for that particular age, but that people of that age can achieve the same status and fitness.

House Style
Masculine-associated colours are used in the articles and the front cover. These are often blues, reds and blacks, of which blue is more often used. The page layout is less extravagant than in a female targeted magazine, and the information is simply presented accompanied with fitness-orientated images. Headings are enlarged and a different colour to the rest of the text, but use a less exaggerated font to the headings in the magazines such as 'Country Living'. Titles are dark and bold and often in capitals which creates a toughness to the magazine, whereas female magazines use a lighter and smaller style. Celebrities are mostly used to attract and appeal to the audience.

Industry & Where It Fits In
'Men's Fitness' is in the Health and Fitness industry and is one of largest titles in the category. It fits in with the male lifestyle of those who want to diet, improve health or those who are personal trainers as well as being a platform for advice for men. However controversy surrounds the nature of the magazine. This is because it published an article which was titled  "NY Comic Con: Flabby Versions of Your Favorite Superheroes!' and featured unflattering photos of attendees at the New York Comic Con compiled with mean captions. This article was written by Jordan Burchette. Burchette appears to have written an equally negative article for 'Maxim'. Bad publicity followed this bad article for 'Men's Fitness'.

History/Traditions
'Men's Fitness' was first published in 1988 by American Medic Inc. and featured Michael Pare. The slogan of the magazine is 'How The Best Man Wins' and 10 issue a year are published. Due to the magazine's popularity, British, Russian and Australian editions were also published. In 2009 the British edition was bought by Dennis Publishing who now acquire complete publishing rights. The 'Men's Fitness' website offers a newsletter through e-mail and subscription to the magazine for iPad or print. The magazine has an annual 'Men's Fitness Look Good Awards' where products which the magazine recommends are talked about in more detail and commended to the audience.

Evaluation
As this research was to provide an alternative view of how Lifestyle magazines are produced for different audiences, I can use this research to help me to understand what is not expected from my target audience. For example from this research I have learnt that the use of dark and bold titles features mainly on male targeted magazines rather than feminine magazines and so I shall avoid using this style. Also, the content of the magazine is different because of the audience that is intended for. This means that I can use this research to  guide me on what not to include in the magazine. Controversy surrounding the magazine (as well as the other magazines which I have researched in to) also guides me on what areas to tread lightly on and what to not include or avoid. This is because the inclusion of matters which may trangress taboos or offend society will result in bad publicity, offense and criticism of my production.