Comparison of reader Profiles

THE READER - the word
He is a very high-earning ABC1 male aged between 30 and 55. While we're blowing smoke up his fundament we shouldn't neglect to mention that our research shows that 44% of Word's readers earn over £50,000 and 11% earn over £100,000. He used to be what the entertainment retailers call the £50 guy but our last reader survey shows that this is out of date. He's now likely to be spending more than £90 a month on music, films and books.
When he was 19 music was his world. Music magazines were his first real print addiction. They gave him a sense of community, a language, a style and a whole new way of looking at the world. You won't find him following the crowd but you might find him leading it. He's trusted by his peers as the person to turn to for an informed opinion on music and media.
Now that he is over 30 with a partner and possibly even a family, he is as passionate about music as ever but his interests have broadened to encompass other forms of entertainment and new technology to enjoy these on. He is still after the sense of community he used to get from music magazines, but until the arrival of Word felt there was no longer anything in the market for him. On one hand he feels too old for what he considers to be the over-heated world of the current entertainment monthlies and on the other he does not want to live in the past with a nostalgia magazine.
He plays loud music in his car and Radio Four at home. He read Ian McEwan's "Atonement" years ago but will obviously laugh at the Simpsons. He has a limited amount of time to devote to entertainment and therefore demands that it delivers something in the way of substance. His tastes and interests have not stood still and he likes to discover new musicians, authors and movies. He prides himself that he is in the know, that he didn't get off the bus back in the 80s. Now, thanks to Word, the magazine, the site, the podcast, the web radio stream, the Facebook group and whatever comes next, he feels more in touch than ever.

Viper magazine - Reader profileThe men and women who read VIPER Magazine have the income and the motivation to follow their enthusiasm to the ultimate degree.

VM subscribers are well known to be car fanatics (73 percent have attended the huge Viper Owners Invitational). They buy aftermarket engine components, interior and exterior accessories, vehicle care products, sportswear, travel gear and much more. These are also readers who own or operate companies and corporations. And because they typically run the show, if they aren't buying for their companies themselves, they strongly influence purchase decisions.

VIPER Magazine's reader base is largely through subscriptions, but VM also performs exceptionally well on the newsstand with a sell-through of 75 percent or greater. In some major bookstores, VM's sell-through is over 90 percent! That means even people who don't own a Dodge Viper are ready to consume every part of the Viper Experience, from our magazine to your products.








The main difference between these two extracts is the amount of detail. The word goes into more personal detail the word goes into. It is orientated around a very intimate generalisation of its audience whist the Viper magazine is much more vague. No statistics are used in the latter reader profile for it seems to have no need for them. It is also obviously aimed at both sex’s and realises quite obviously that it has an audience of both genders for in its first line it states, “The men and women who read VIPER Magazine have the income and the motivation to follow their enthusiasm to the ultimate degree”. In this is clearly demonstrates its knowledge of who is picking up the magazine. However the word refers to its audience as though it is one man. “He is a very high-earning ABC1 male aged between 30 and 55.” This shows they know who their audience is but to new potential costumers, if they read this and did not fit the profile, they may feel uncomfortable or even out-of-place when they wish to become a fan or subscriber.