Magazine Cover Analysis

As we can see from the image, the magazine's masthead is placed in the top left hand corner of the magazine, this is so when it is placed on shelves it is easy to spot and also because we read from left to right making it directly in our eye-line. The font of the masthead is in red because it helps attract the target audience, in this case men, because red raises a man's heartbeat.

The feature article photo is placed directly in the centre of the cover. This is so the image stands out on the cove to attract the eye of the target audience. This image is relevant to the topics of the magazine, hence why it also attracts the target audience. A lot of the time the image will always overlap the masthead, it doesn't really matter that it overlaps as the magazine is so famously known we know what it is.

Due to the feature article photo being placed in the middle of the magazine, all cover lines have been placed on the edges of the magazine. The main cover line is in a very large font. This is to make it stand out on the magazine so the reader reads that information because it is important to the topic of the magazine. It could also be classed as a plug as it is the magazine's unique selling point. The other cover lines are in a medium font and in a white colour because they are not so important. This is because this magazine is only really bought for the pictures it contains, therefore not much information is needed on the cover because the target audience haven't bought it to read.

Just underneath the masthead is a plug. This is not much information on what's on that page but gives the reader a slight in-sight as to what is on that page. However, it is written in a white colour making it not look very important as the reader will skip through all the pages looking at the photo's anyway. The price isn't even on this cover as it is probably rather expensive. Therefore, because it has an outstanding cover with use of plugs, masthead and photograph the reader will buy this magazine whatever price it is when they found out at the till. The bar-code is at the bottom left corner, this is purely for the member of staff at the shop, but it is out of the way so it doesn't affect the appearance of the cover. There is no strap-line used in this cover, just like most 'FHM' magazine's.  

Everything we see on this magazine cover had been put there for a reason, including font, size of font, colour of font and positioning of everything. Very effective cover as it is dedicated to it's intended target audience.