Who are the people you want to reach? In order to create a magazine that will attract and effectively serve them, you need to know your audience. How well do you know your readers? Ask yourself these questions to develop a reader profile. When you have a clear reader profile, you can quickly decide if an article, topic, or design fits your publication and will benefit your readers.

Demographics:

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Marital status/family
4. Education
5. Church and ministry involvement.
6. Work/Occupation
7. Economic class/salary
8. Lifestyle
9. Interests
10. Ethnicity

Experience and Emotional description:

11. What are this person’s priorities?
12. How does this person feel about life?
13. What issues interest this person?
14. What are the challenges in his or her life?
15. What is this person’s relationship with God like?
16. What are his or her spiritual practices? Daily Bible reading? Prayer?
17. Who is important to this person?
18. Why does this person need a magazine?
19. What questions would this person have about subjects you will cover in your magazine?
20. What is the best method to reach this person? Print magazine? Social media? Digital?

A magazine is personal. The reader needs to feel like “This magazine is for me.” If you try to reach everyone, you will not reach anyone. Even though people outside your target audience may read your magazine, the magazine needs to be tailored for a specific audience if you want to reach people effectively.

[bctt tweet=”A magazine is personal. The reader needs to feel like ‘This magazine is for me.'”]

**Adapted from “Editing the Magazine” unit 2**