Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The music magazine market of today is becoming highly fragmented and recently it is becoming very problematic to keep the circulation sales of the magazines in high attendance. Therefore, the publishers of the magazine companies I am looking for my product to be sold to would very careful when taking on a new magazine as they want the best for their company, this means I would have to ensure I put forward my magazine to the most suitable publisher to my magazine. 

Media Institutions

Below is a short presentation of what a media institution is, the types there are and the main media institutes around currently. 

Circulation

Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
Classic Rock ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 62,354 ; -7.9%
Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 35,259 ; -15.7%
New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%

As you can see above the media market is currently down on sales by a vast amount and this is simply down to the fact of the uprising increase in online use in the media market. Some media groups are going to extreme lengths to increase their variety in target audience to keep their profit margins from going under and this is a key factor for choosing which company I wish to produce my magazine as the most likely group is going to be one that doesn't currently feature my genre of music which will increase the variety in choice for potential customers and hopefully increase the profit margin. 

There is a clear gap in the market for my music magazine as not many media groups produced urban magazines and this newly informed magazine would certainly boost the sale profits in years to come. Below is some examples of evidence I found when researching into the shocking decline of sales in the media market mainly focusing on music magazines. 

• "NME and Q suffered sales declines of almost 20% year-on-year in a tough first six months of 2012 for the music magazine market." 

• "Q was the worst performer in the music magazine sector, with sales down 16.7% compared to the six months to the end of December and 19.7% year on year, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures released on Thursday."

• "Sales of Kerrang! fell 4.5% period on period and 6.6% year on year to 40,203; Mojo, the best-selling paid for title in the sector, dropped 2.7% period on period and 2.4% year on year to 85,149."

• "The second biggest faller in the category was ICP Media-owned NME, down 13.5% period on period and 17.6% year on year to 23,924." 

(Guardian- Mark Sweney) http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/aug/16/nme-q-magazine-sales-declines

As I mentioned in the presentation above the two main Media Institutes are ICP Media and Bauer Media. 

  Direct quote from the Bauer website telling us what they are about (http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/)

"BAUER MEDIA REACHES OVER NINETEEN MILLION UK ADULTS EVERY WEEK.
We have more than eighty influential media brands, spanning a wide range of interests, including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parkers, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, Kerrang and 4Music. Our business is built on millions of personal relationships with engaged audiences."

Bauer media are Europe’s largest privately owned publishing German Group. They are a worldwide media empire contributing over 300 magazines in 15 different countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. Bauer joined the media market in January 2008 and have already highly established themselves as one of the best in the business. The multi-platform UK-based media group consist of many companies, however mainly focusing on magazines and radio. Bauer to not yet have an urban magazine to date which will provide me with the opportunity to slot into this gap in the market. Below are some of the music magazine brands that Bauer publish.

Below is a video clip to give you a more developed understanding of Bauer Media Group and everything about them.

 

IPC Media (International Publishing Corporation), could also be another possibility when choosing my publishing group. It is owned by Time Inc is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the UK, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. 

Direct Quote from the IPC Media website (http://www.ipcmedia.com/about)

"With more than 60 iconic media brands, IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events.  As the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher we engage with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men."

Similar to Bauer, IPC Media do not publish an urban genre of music magazine so this group could also be a strong possibility in choosing a company as it is one of the most established media groups today. There only music magazine currently being published is NME which tells me that they concentrate more on lifestyle rather than music. This could change if they were to publish a new genre of music in their group. Only having one music magazine could also indicate that they may be wishing to expand on the variety of music magazines to sell to the public in order to boost their profit margin. Urban music such as Rap, RnB and Hip Hop is a very popular genre at a young age and the most likely target market to buy music magazines are to be teens and people in their early adultery which would be more interested in the urban genre. 

Development Hell Ltd. is not as publicly recognised as other media groups such as Bauer or IPC Media and perhaps produces lesser known music magazines such as 'Mixmag'. They are an independent media company based in Islington, London that currently publishes the market leading international dance music magazine, Mixmag. This magazine may also be looking for a new genre to start publishing as dubstep and drum and bass are not commonly the most favoured music genre throughout all ages. However, if they were to introduce an urban magazine they may start to increase sales and develop their profit by reaching out to a wider target audience. 

 Finally, I have researched into another media publishing group called 'Future', founded in 1985. In 2006, Future was the sixth-largest in the UK, publishing more than 150 magazines. 

 Direct quote from the Future website (http://www.futureplc.com/about/)

"Future attracts more than 50 million monthly unique visitors to our digital properties websites; and we deliver over 100 digital editions and bespoke apps on tablet devices. We sell 2.2 million magazines every month, and export or syndicate to 89 countries, making us the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of magazine content."

Future is the biggest guitar and music-making publisher in the UK. Future produce a variety of classic rock magazines and one their music magazine called 'Rhythm' is currently maintaining it's position as the UK's number one drumming magazine. Although they already produce a lot of classic rock magazines, they could also benefit from a new magazine being introduced to the group as it will almost definitely increase the profit margin of the company from opening out to a larger target audience. 

 

As I mentioned earlier the music magazine market is in a huge decrease in popularity which is due to the increase in technology such as computers and smartphones. This is a major dilemma for the publishing companies like the four I have researched above, as they are confined to publishing the content on paper when people are predominantly more interested in using technology to source their information. To ensure my magazine uses some conventions of technology I made a QR Code and included it on the front cover so people can be redirected to the website and view the magazine online.