1. Appealing to an Audience
Henry Buckham

2. Take a Break
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Take a Break is a magazine aimed at
lower-middle class (C1C2) middle aged
women, in their 30s/40s but research
has shown that this magazine has a
reader base of 18 years old up to 80.
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Readers are more likely to own their own
home, be married and have children.
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Take a Break has a total of 12 million
copies published every year, with 1.2
copies sold each second. There is a total
of around 2.5 million readers, with only
400,000 of these men. This shows a
very female core demographic.
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Readers are shown to have read this
publication more thoroughly than
competitors and have strong reader
loyalty.
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This magazine uses a mainstream
tabloid format and doesn’t appeal to
anything niche. It is created with the idea
in mind that readers will flick through this
on their lunch break. As such it has a lot
of short but dramatic stories about
lifestyle and romance.

3. Target Audience
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Take a Break is more aimed at the female
demographic as evidenced by many of the
stories focusing on the subject of relationship
troubles and drama, with a lot of focus on
gossip. These stories follow a pattern of being
about children or men, something women can
relate to as mothers and married women are a
core demographic.
Often these stories rely on sensationalism
(exaggerating certain aspects of the story to
incite a feeling) in order to sell copies or
encourage people to read. This includes
emphasizing certain words or dominating more
of the page with the story.
There is also content that review the soap
operas on TV (shows that are mainly watched
by middle-old aged women) and a large
emphasis on the magazine’s own bingo game
(a game with no major demographic but has a
large housewife following)

4. Layout, Colours and Image
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Each Take a Break magazine is radically different in terms of
the styling/positioning of the front page’s content. While the
familiar red logo is retained each time in the top left, there are
multicoloured boxes of varying sizes and shapes that hold the
snippets from each story, The bright and vibrant colours help
to catch the reader’s eyes from a shelf.
Each copy features a large photograph of a middle aged
woman on the right hand side, representing the majority
reader base. This also be a ploy for women to feel more
comfortable buying the magazine, as opposed to something
with a photograph of a male.
Each issue also offers a lot of prizes and giveaway with
rewards that are tailored for middle aged people, the target
audience – cars, shopping trips and holidays. These types of
gifts would be slightly out of place in a magazine tailored for
younger people, where the prizes offered are normally
cosmetics, electronics or video games.
The prizes offered are typically placed in the header bar,
where they can be easily seen thanks to their proximity of the
logo.

5. Page Layouts

Each story of Take a Break is arranged in a typical
tabloid format but with coloured highlights that
indicate where the text begins, as well as tilted
photographs and stylized header that create a
casual atmosphere, as if the magazine was an
informal notice board. This contributes to the
magazine’s overall casual ‘laid back’ approach for
its readers.

Frequently in the middle of the columns, there are
small red boxes that contain a notable quote from
the story being told. This helps readers to get a
basic gist if they are just scanning over. This fits
with the target markets busy lifestyle, as they will
likely have a big family to care for and as such only
have a limited amount of time to settle down and
read.
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Often these articles will contain a multitude of
different photos. They could consist of the event
itself, the person in particular, or photos that help to
set the story either by showing locations or people.
These photos are unique I that some don’t appear
to be professionally staged photos, but rather
photos that could be taken by anyone – humble
home or holiday photos. This allows readers to
easily integrate and relate with the people who are
sharing their stories.
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The captions included in stories are often
extremely basic and merely describe the image as
seen below. This means that the audience can
understand the context of these images with ease
instead of trying to decipher culture references or
complex descriptions.

6. Language
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The front covers of Take a Break rely heavily on informal terms
and British slang to entice it’s audience of middle aged women.
Words that fall under these categories are typically associated
with gossip, which is primarily what the magazine aims for with
the type of stories it publishes. Words like ‘lad’ or ‘pals’ or
‘naughty’ create quite an informal atmosphere that could give the
impression that the magazine is an area for women to share
gossip and informal anecdotes, which could make buyers feel
more comfortable purchasing. A lot of exclamation marks are
used to highlight sensationalist aspects and to hype stories up.
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Certain words are also capitalized or highlighted to show more
significance. This can entice people if they are browsing because
if certain ‘shocking’ words like wrecked or fury are highlighted, a
potential reader may be enticed into wanting to know more about
this story.
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The highlighting of words also includes the aspect that certain
shock words are in a different colour to the red of the text – for
example, the word ‘SIX’ referring to a number of partners is in
red, while the main body of text is in blue.

7. Font
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Take a Break uses a variety of sans-serif fonts on
the front cover to depict its logo and the story
taglines. Serif fonts haven’t really been used as
this is a modern day magazine focusing on
present stories, and serif fonts would not really fit
this, as they are quite traditional looking. Sans
serif fonts are clear, bold and modern, meaning
they are well suited for the purpose applied here.
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Different colours are used to separate stories from
one another and create a very colourful, eye
catching front cover.
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The choice of sans serif fonts also gives off a
calm, friendly atmosphere about the magazine.
This entices more buyers, specifically the middle
aged female audience, as coupled with the bright
colours this can create a very warm, inviting and
eye catching combination.

8. Codes and Conventions
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Each issue of Take a Break includes the logo and headline in the top left. This helps
readers quickly identify the magazine by looking up here.
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Each issue features its most prominent stories on the cover. These are arranged in an
untidy yet stylish format with bright colours used throughout. Occasionally, certain
words will be coloured differently to express their significance. Sometimes informal
language will be used to keep with the magazine’s casual styling.
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Take a Break always includes an offer of prizes to be won at the top – usually cash
prizes, cars, or package bundles like trips or holidays. This is especially enticing for
young-middle aged adults who are looking to chill out and hopefully win something in
the process. The offer of a car as a prize shows the target audience – a car wouldn’t
be a very good prize in a magazine for young people.
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Each issue features a large, doctored photograph of a smiling mid-aged woman on
the cover. This helps to promote the friendly, laid back image and to help female
purchasers feel more confident about buying the magazine.

9. Publisher Interaction
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Take a Break encourages readers
themselves to send in their stories for
print – many of the stories published are
from their readers. There is a tab on their
website that takes them directly to a
contact page for stories.
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The magazine has both a Facebook and
Twitter account, in which fans and
readers can contact the publishers of the
magazine and voice their opinions, or
chat with fellow fans. They will also be
able to find updates and news on these
sites, updated directly by the publishers.
Out of the magazine’s 400,000 strong
readership, there are just 29,000 people
who like the mag’s Facebook page, and
even less on the Twitter account, with
just under 2,000 followers.
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A section of their website is dedicated to
publisher communication, offering e-mail
addresses of many key members of
staff.