Website Analysis 3

https://www.vanityfair.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqlGod2ON7GuYmn8_SpF1zCRGpiNj0ypKumbAFoHF-cn1VuDzAR

The Vanity Fair website has a white background, ensuring any images of any colour won’t contrast with the background and make an unattractive mess of shades. However, unlike other conventional magazine websites, Vanity Fair use their bold red typography to create a statement of their brand as vivid and audacious. To the right of their logo positioned at the top of the page, there are two navigation tabs ‘newsletters’ and ‘menu’, which drop down to a signup to their paid content, and a variety of other tabs specific to the user’s interest, such as ‘celebrity’ and ‘business’. This demonstrates the primary target audience of middle-class. well-educated 25-54 year olds who are more interested in sophisticated topics and receiving frequent newsletters about the brand they have subscribed to, highlighting that Vanity Fair want their members to be vastly interested in and loyal to their content. Underneath the logo, there are three 5 main titles of ‘politics’, ‘Hollywood’, ‘royals’, ‘style’, and ‘culture’, appealing to the knowledgeable demographic who are able to select the specific genre of stories they are interested in. Below this is a pop up of ‘limited time offer: subscribe now and receive a FREE tote’, enchanting users with a free gift for the luxury of subscribing. Highlighting the word ‘free’ in capital letters will pique the interest of their audience who aren’t afraid to shy away from free items, which will massively increase the revenue of the company, for they will immediately gain more subscribers with the simple temptation.

The layout of stories are presented in size based on what Vanity Fair believe to be the most important appealing to their audience. Each genre of story such as ‘Hollywood’ is written in the bold red capitalised font, drawing the attention of users to the news that interest them the most. The main stories are evenly categorised on the front page, with pictures used for each genre, rather than only promoting the ‘Hollywood’ stories for example. Underneath the red print, the headlines are written in a stylised black font, maintaining the sophisticated and professional look of the webpage. For the three main stories, there are short descriptions underneath, which relate to the images, tempting the users with a teaser to help them decide whether they should read the story or not. On the right hand side of these main stories, is a section labelled ‘trending’ in a large bold black font, recommending users with the statistically popular stories - people easily trust others online, so Vanity Fair utilise this to promote their top stories, as a user would believe that a trending article is the equivalent to a good article, and therefore click on the story with intrigue, adding to the statistic which will in turn generate more clicks - this is important, as Vanity Fair have a paywall to subscribe after viewing a couple of free articles; if users are clicking on more articles, then they will need to pay to continue their reading leisure. This guarantees an increase in revenue stream for the company.

As you scroll down the webpage, a black and white image takes up the whole screen with the white title ‘Editor’s Picks’, with the headline of the cover story in the bottom right quarter of the image, and a short description underneath. Vanity Fair maintains this format for their most significant stories so they are able to highlight and further promote their valued content to their customers, willing them to click on the best articles they have to offer by giving them a taster of each one. Having an Editor’s Picks segment further demonstrates the luxury that Vanity Fair are offering, making users feel as important as the writers and staff by recommending their favourite articles, one of which is ‘exclusive’, suggesting that their content is premium, and very suitable for their esteemed audience.

Below this is the ‘featured video’ section which instantly plays a clip of prominent stars, staying updated within the trending faces of the entertainments industry, choosing people that appeal to everyone in order to entice them into watching the video and also read the article relating to it. To the right of this video, are two additional stories from the previous weeks, ensuring users don’t miss any of the recent content. The shorthand ‘VF’ logo is positioned at the top right of the video in a white, low opacity house font, so not to draw attention away from the video, but ensuring their content is labelled and claimed, so if people were to watch this on YouTube, they could be directed to the website and explore what Vanity Fair has to offer. When you scroll to the end of the page, an email sign up tab fills the space, with the title ‘Our biggest stories, straight to your inbox’ - this simple yet effective tagline as well as the accompanied adjective ‘essential’ makes a subscription to the company feel easy and low-effort, so members can receive their content without doing anything - in this technologically advancing age, attention spans are lowering, so this will appeal to the target audience as they won’t be forced to complete an abundance of lengthy steps to sign up. The word ‘essential’ makes this feel like a necessity, further encouraging users to subscribe.

On Instagram, Vanity Fair share photos and clips of celebrities and their stories to 9.3 million followers - this highlights they have a large online audience, suggesting a teenage and young adult demographic are also fans of their magazine. They make at least 2 posts every day, ensuring they have consistent engagement and are staying relevant and committed to their social media audience. Additionally, they have 2.3M followers on TikTok, 4.6M on X, and 3.2M on Facebook, targeting each age group suitable for each platform, diversifying their audience as much as possible.

According to YouGov.co.uk, Vanity Fair is the 18th most popular fashion and lifestyle magazine in the UK, and in 2019, had a monthly reach of 2,700. This demonstrates that whilst it is not the most favoured magazine in the UK, it still attracts a large audience, and can therefore generate large revenue streams which keep it in business.