Print Media Analysis - The People's Friend

There are many things that we can find out about the magazine from the various elements on the cover. By looking at the several cover lines, we can see the types of articles a typical issue includes. 'The People's Friend' is a magazine based in Dundee, Scotland, and we can see that the publication has a bias towards Scottish subjects because of the main cover line "The Road From Selkirk: Explore the lovely Scottish borders" as well as the main image that fills the whole cover to accompany the article, which takes centre stage. It also features traditional British meals, such as cottage pie, and the British charity the RSPCA, which shows they focus heavily on national themes and issues, rather than world wide.

When having a look on the 'People's Friend' website, I came across a PDF with the guidelines for those wishing to submit a short story to be featured in a magazine. From reading this, it is clear that they have a very strong idea of who their audience is and what they want to read. The general audience for the publication is over the age of fifty, the majority being retired or around retirement age. The guideline says "They’re practical women — and men — with ordinary interests and hobbies." which shows that they are mostly targeted towards women, but also are aware that they have male reader too. The content also has a very traditionalist point of view, perhaps even old fashioned. It does cover "modern themes" but tactfully as to not stray too out of the ordinary for its traditional readership as to not be too shocking or 'out there'. Because the magazine is based in Dundee, it also has a bias towards Scottish subjects which would attract readers with a Scottish background.

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