College Magazine Questionnaire Analysis

By conducting a questionnaire, I discovered that 80% of students asked would like a College Magazine - clearly this states that there is a market for this type of magazine. After establishing an available market I needed to know if people would be prepared to buy the magazine. Unfortunately, 90% would not or would only possibly buy the magazine. Obviously, another way of bringing money into the magazine was needed. I decided this could be through advertising so space would be need to be included and the advertisements would need to be relevant to the magazine audience. Retail, food and music could be some of the advertisements included.

When asked how much they would be prepared to pay, 60% of students asked said they would pay something for the magazine ranging from 50p-£1.50, providing it was good. This could mean that the first issue would need to be free as a sort of 'trial run' to encourage students to purchase the next issue. 40% of students asked said they would like to recieve the magazine either fornightly or monthly. But nothing above or below. When given options of what they would like included in the magazine, the highest rated topics to be included were a gossip page - from this we can immediately say that an agony aunt would be needed in order to pursue the page. Others highest rated were College information (this could be news within the college), Course Information (2 or 3 different courses could be included each week with information, news and trips ect.), an Events Guide (cinema listings, theatre, concerts ect.) and a Jobs section.

I asked students what would encourage them to read the college magazine and was told that bright colours, plenty of good photography and important news would make them more inclined to buy the magazine. Obviously all need to be included on the front page to entice potential customers. I also asked if they would subscribe to the magazine, 80% said no. This means that other means of encouraging the students to subscribe is needed. Again, this could mean that the first issue may need to be free, and maybe first come first serve would recieve a discounted subscription rate. Lastly I asked what people would like to see on the front: the majority said they would like to other students within the college, this could be included within competition pages, as to once a month a student wins a chance to be on the cover.