Question one- The results for this question gave me the gender of my target audience. From this question I now know that 98% of those who will be reading the school magazine will be female and so therefore I must adapt the magazine to have female connotations which will attract a wider audience. From this question I know that the school is a majority girl school and so I have to direct the contents of the magazine to a female audience.
Question two- I chose to include this question in my questionnaire as I thought it would be necessary to find out the largest group of students who would read the school magazine and which year group they belonged to. From the ages I laid out I knew which the most likely year group they belonged to. Therefore this question gave me an idea of the age of my target audience. With 13 out of 20 aged 17-18 I presume that most students are sixth form. This means the magazine will more likely be about UCAS and career advice; I have also included a question to answer that question also. This kind of question is important for a school magazine questionnaire as I can adapt the suitability of the articles in the magazine.
Question three- Student profiles and career guidance were the most popular article types selected by the students. The results were even with these two choices which further suggests to me that the school magazine will be most likely read by sixth form students. I chose this question as it is important to understand what students would actually read in a school magazine. This market research is essential as now I know that students would read the magazine if I did articles on student profiles and career guidance.
Question four – I chosen to include this question because the front cover is what will firstly attract the reader so therefore I wanted to know what would attract the students to the school magazine. From these results I can see that ‘students’was the most popular choice for the front cover and inside articles. With 11 out of 20 students choosing this option I feel as though the school magazine should be based on students rather than teachers or specific students such as music and drama and top achievers. I think ‘students’ was the most popular option as ‘normal students’ will attract more readers as everyone will have a chance to be in the magazine.
Question five- This question was included as I wanted to know when students wanted the school magazine to be published. If I published it too often then less people would want to read it as it may be a ‘burden’ to read to be content. As I can see from the results, students would prefer to have the magazine published Termly which means the content would be relevant and contain more information as weekly may be hard to get relevant and different articles therefore the school magazine should be published Termly. 17 out of 20 students requested this.
Question six- This type of question is important for a questionnaire as appearance is very important for the reader. As the majority of my audience are female I will have to make female connotations throughout the magazine and on the front cover. In this question I included the option of‘school colours’ which proven the more popular option with the students who answered the questionnaire. I think the colours of the school were popular because it represents the school rather than random colours. The next common colour was yellow which is a ‘girly’ colour; comparable to the fact that the majority of my audience our female. Furthermore, the results showed zero students wanting the colour blue as the colour scheme for the magazine which means I will not be including blue as a main colour on the front cover. The colour scheme must be popular among the audience as the colour scheme of the magazine will be one of the first things to attract the reader so therefore I will have to make it appealing.
Question seven- I wanted to include vouchers in my school magazine so therefore I felt it be necessary to see what vouchers students would actually want in the magazine. As a result I included this question in my questionnaire. I know now that most students would rather iTunes and Topshop vouchers to be available in the magazine. I guessed that these options would be most popular as majority of students have apple devices and therefore would use iTunes and Topshop is a very popular shop within the student community. ITunes is just below Topshop in the results so I believe it to be better if I use both choices as vouchers in the school magazine.
Question eight- I included this question as I thought it would have been helpful to see what kind of competitions students would like to see in a school magazine, if any. The response showed me that Spot the Difference was the most popular. The results were Spot the Difference was 8 out of 20. With both crosswords and questionnaires coming equal I think they should be included in the school magazine less frequently than Spot the Difference to add variety to the competitions in the magazine.
Question nine- This question was very important to include in my questionnaire as I need to know if students would actually pay for the magazine as if so how much. As expected the results show that 16 out of 20 would pay nothing for the magazine while 3 would pay £1.00. This means that I will have to sell the magazine for free as this is where I will get the most sales. As the audience are students, many may only have change and so they may believe it to be a waste if they had to pay for a school magazine.
Question ten- I decided to include this question because I feel that if students have a choice of what size the magazine would be they would be more likely to read it. Knowing that the readers will be students I thought about the size as they may find it more comfortable for a A5 magazine as they could fit it in their blazer pockets. However, the results of my questionnaire show that students would rather a school magazine of A4 size; the ratio between A4 and A5 in the results were 2:1 which means A4 was more popular among the students.
Question eleven- This question was essential to include in my questionnaire as it was important to know the mode of address the students wished to read; either formal or informal. Of course, the results showed that the students would rather informal writing; this would be common among students as they will understand the articles more if there are no complicated words or stories in the magazine.
Question twelve- I included this question as I was looking to know if a student comment section was a good idea for my school magazine. And with the results being 19 out of 20 saying ‘yes’ to this question I believe that the student comment section would be a very good idea to include in my magazine. I think students will like to become more involved in what they want said and this column will allow them to do this which is why I believe majority students said yes to this question.
