The target audience of this pop magazine is young girls between the ages of 10-13. This is reflected throughout the whole contents page, mainly through colour but also the features in it. To structure the magazine well, the best features are highlighted in yellow but also the box titles “We Love Boys” says the reason some articles are highlighted yellow is so you can find the features which will help you get inside the boys heads and look at cute pictures. The small box is straight away aimed at girls, so meeting its target audience's needs straight away.
The contents page is a lot like the front cover because it is very packed and a bit messy, but again as the front cover is supposed to be like this then it does not look bad. The amount of images on the contents pages contrasts with the front cover as there is only three images and one is of the front cover itself. In addition, only one of the images is of a celebrity, the other is of a bag which relates to the fashion part of the magazine. This shows by putting all famous music artists on the front cover, that music is the most popular media interest in this hybrid magazine.
The masthead is in a handwriting font which could make the reader feel more comfortable and make the page look more welcoming. Even though the majority of the page is full with writing, at the top there is an image of the magazine itself, with numbers coming off different sections of the front cover. This helps the reader, who would be quite young, find things they want to read much easier. Also not only do these features have a picture for them, but the numbers coming off them are much bigger than the numbers in the boxes. Same with the two images. This will grab the attention of the readers and make them feel like these are the most important features to read.
All the articles are split into boxes with different headings, like “We Love Shopping”, “All About You”, “Wins & Offers” and “Celebs & Gossip”. This helps to structure the magazine clearly for their younger target audience. It will help them find what they want to read so much easier than if it was all under one heading, as this is a hybrid magazine you may be interested in different media sections more than others.
A few unconventional things about this contents page is it does not have an editorial on it and the title does not typically say 'Contents', instead it says, 'Inside the mag'.This could make it stand out from its competitors. This makes it different from other magazines and also the makes the page much simpler, which it will need to be to meet their target audience. Also the word 'mag' is shortened from the word 'magazine' and this would be more popular for young girls as they shorted words more on social networking sites like facebook, twitter and also while texting. Another way this page is simplified is by how they have changed the word 'love' into a heart shape.
This could be used as it is a much more recognisable shape to young girls and also helps them understand what the sections are about. A lot of punctuation is used throughout and the majority is exclamation marks, putting emphasis on certain features; grabbing the attention of the reader. For example at the start of every article under the competitions section is the word 'Win!'. This entices the reader in as they feel excited to win stuff and want to be the first to win so they will rush to those pages. The headings for each section is the same typeface as the masthead on the front cover, linking both pages together. In addition, there is a lot of words which relate to young girls like 'Oops!', 'OMG' and 'Yum!' All these words make the articles seem more exciting from a young girls perspective so they will want to read more. These are all words which are used on social networking sites or instant messaging when friends talk to each other, helping the reader interact with the magazine. Another way this contents page is made fun and friendly, different techniques are used like alliteration, “Flirty Florals”. Alliteration is a basic English language technique learnt from a young age so all young girls are familiar with it and will notice it when they read it.
Overall the contents page is structured very well and even though it has a cahotic layout, it does not look cheap. It also compares to other magazines like Kerrang as they have full contents pages. The way the features are set out in different sections with headings and how the best features are highlighted has structured the magazine very well. In addition, this helps to meet their target audience of young girls between the ages of 10-13 too. Colour also helps this and fonts and pictures used, such as swirly writing and hearts.
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