My Institution Research

Nancy Goldstraw

IPC Media

IPC is one of the largest magazine distributor in the UK. It publishes NME one of the most common magazines at this present time in the UK 2014.

IPC publishes a wide range of magazines for example; Now, Look, Nuts and even Gardening magazines. They only publish two music magazines; NME and Uncut, suggesting that IPC have there own demographic for there own specialist music magazines this implies they have loads of experience in attracting a specific target audience for music lovers.

NME

NME is a music magazine published by IPC media, they have a target audience aged from 16- 24 year olds. They focus on specific types of music known as Indie music often featured in the UK top 40. if my magazine fitted the same genre of indie music then IPC would already have experience in this field of music however I’m adding more competition too the media and my magazine could struggle against such well known magazines that are currently out their.

My target audience is of a similar age to me, 16-21 ear olds which is very similar to NME, but because IPC sell a large number of magazine that focus on women specifically, like Marie Claire and Now, it obviously means they have wider knowledge of representing more female based magazines.

Bauer Media

Bauer Media is Europe's Largest publishing group, worldwide empire with over 300 magazines in so many different countries.

The difference between IPC and Bauer Media is that IPC only focuses on magazines where as the Bauer Media has an extensive variety from radio to television networks. Where as IPC only distributes women specific magazines, like Marie Claire and Now, the Bauer also produces magazines for car lovers; women's lifestyle, bikes, and gardening enthusiasts. There most commonly known magazines are Q and KERRANG, which shows there versatility.

KERRANG

KERRANG is a rock magazine aimed at 15-24 year olds similar to that of NME. This is the only magazine Bauer published which is aimed at a younger audience, this will work in my advantage as the competition wont be as high. By publishing my magazine their company is more likely to be apart of a larger market in media.

Kerrang readers are mostly men, if I aim my magazine at women, the Bauer would enter completely different market as they would never had produced a 16-24 year olds female magazine. It will create more competition and hopefully bring in more profit for th company as it will be more beneficial.

Publishing Similar Magazines

By using a distributor that doesn’t already produce a similar type of magazine to the one I would like to create will make it easier for me. This is because the company are more likely to take my magazine on as they wont have any competition and have nothing to loose, in the long run if my magazine became a success they could be making more profit and becoming a more well known magazine.

Which company would be best for me?

Overall I believe that Bauer Media has the edge over IPC for my choice in which distributor would help me most. IPC doesn’t fit in with the genre of music I would like to focus on but it does target the age range I would like to target my magazine at.

The Bauer is highly skilled at multi plat forming and we see this through them not just focussing on magazines by the Bauer Media having an extensive variety from radio to television networks. Where as IPC only distributes women specific magazines, like Marie Claire and Now, the Bauer also produces magazines for car lovers; women's lifestyle, bikes, and gardening enthusiasts.