To better understand my audience it's important to see what existing magazines already have to say about them. Underneath I have presented Metalhammer's and Kerrang's media packs:
Metalhammer
Metalhammer's media is reinforcing my previous thoughts about my target audience. The media pack provides a very fitting description of them:
Providing access to the notoriously unobtainable young male audience, the Metal Hammer reader spends his spare cash on indulging his passion for everything loud. Non conformist and hard to please they desire only the best in entertainment.
Especially the point "hard to please" I think is very important. My audience just want
more from a magazine like Metalhammer then for example the audience of Q! or Mojo, but in return Metalhammer will get a more loyal fan base and subscribers. This is something i need to have in mind when designing the magazine.
There was some surprising facts in the media pack as well, especially how
much the reader engage in activities outside the music. The "word-of-mouth" factor was higher then I first thought as well, when 93% of the readers will pick up a band from the magazine and share their music with friends.
Kerrang!
The Kerrang media pack provides us with a very helpful reader profile. Although I think it's a little too passionate and exaggerated. I can imagine magazines like Metalhammer have readers like Kerrang! have described, but Kerrang! is a more "mainstream" magazine, more open towards what's going on in the alternative rock, indie and even mainstream pop music scenes. A greater variety in sales in just the last 10 years indicates that Kerrang! may be an more 'unstable' magazine (because of it's more trend-based approach) then Metalhammer.
The Media packs do fit in very well with the audience I've already imagined doing my previous research. There are some new interesting facts, but nothing very important that I've missed out.
