Heat is a British entertainment magazine published by Bauer Consumer Media. As of 2004 it is one of the biggest selling magazines in the UK, with a regular circulation of over half a million. Its mix of celebrity news, gossip and fashion is primarily aimed at women. It also features movie and music reviews, TV listings and major celebrity interviews. Heat was launched in February 1999 as a general interest entertainment magazine. However, unlike EMAP launches before and after, it was not an immediate success, with a circulation below 100,000. A series of revamps quickly repositioned the magazine as a less serious, more gossip-oriented magazine aimed at women, and circulation quickly grew. A series of high-profile celebrity relationships, such as between David and Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt provided more ample material, while reality shows such as Big Brother and Pop Idol grew popular at just the right time to help fill pages. The cost of the magazine is currently £1.65. A version of the magazine is also published in South Africa.
Heatworld.com was launched in May,2007 and is edited by Julian Linley who was deputy editor of Heat magazine for 5 and a half years. The site is an online interpretation of the magazine emulating the mix of celebrity news, gossip and fashion. However, heatworld.com does not replicate magazine content and bases itself more on video and audio content and breaking news.
After the launch of heatworld.com we were then introduced into Heat Radio. The station is owned by Bauer Radio, a division of the company, Bauer which owns the magazine. The station can be listened to through digital television and through DAB radio. It can also be listened to through a live steam on the website. Celebrities often present shows on a one week contract.
As Heat grew in popularity, spin off merchandise was released to cash in on its success. Current items carrying the Heat name are an exercise DVD titled Heat: Get That Celeb Look, an interactive DVD game featuring celebrity questions, an annual of the year for the year 2007 and in 2003 a set of mini books titled 'Say What' were released containing quotes from celebrities such as Gareth Gates.
The layout of the magazine is very eye catching. Through the use of bright font colours red, black, yellow and pink the readers attention is caught. The main photograph of Charley from Big Brother used is posed, she is staring directly at the camera with an angry/aggressive look on her face which represents what her character was like when she was in the big brother house. The language used is slang which represents the idea that the magazine inside is informal.
I feel that the magazine is targeted at teenage to middle age women as it is mainly based on celebrity gossip and fashion. The adverts inside are for affordable products for example perfume and make-up which is what most teenagers are interested in. In comparison to magazines like Vogue which advertise more expensive designer labeled products.
