Question 3What kind of media institution

might distribute your media product and why?

Jack Richards

IPC Media

IPC media is an example of a distributor which sends out many magazines and websites too. They have some big names under there wing such as NME, Nuts, Mousebreaker and Chat. They have a wide range of products from music magazines to game websites to TV guides. This is good for them as they don’t want to give competition to themselves by having two similar products. This would be a good company to distribute my magazine as there isn’t really many music magazines with NME the only real on and my magazine is off a different genre.

Immediate media

Immediate media is an example of another distributor who sends out magazines. Immediate has a lot of the BBC magazines including, Top Gear, Top of the Pops, Counrtyfile, Match of the Day and Cbeebies. As they distribute Top of the Pops they are unlikely to distribute my magazine as it will be a big competitor of there as it will take money off them. Immediate unlike IPC only distribute magazine with them focusing on female and children targeted magazines because as you can see from the picture of the logos they distribute there is a lot of pink.

Bauer Media

Bauer Media is the third and final distributer I will look at. As you can see from the brand logos Bauer distributes a wide range of magazines such as Music, Men's and Women's and Motor sport magazines. There are two big music magazine names they distribute which are Q and Mojo. This will probably mean they won’t distribute my magazine as they already have two names and won’t want or need another. The company also owns a lot of radio stations which could lead to a good opportunity if I choose them.

Conclusion

After looking at these three media distribution company's I had to choose one that I would like to distribute my magazine to the best effects. IPC Media looked

like a good option as they distribute a wide range of magazines so they know what they are doing and they only send out one big music magazine which is

NME this a different type of magazine to mine so there wouldn’t be any problems with sending my magazine out too. Immediate Media was another option to

consider and I thought they wouldn’t be the best for me as they mainly targeted children and female audiences with lots of cartoon and fashion and celebrity magazines. Also they issue Top of the Pops which will probably be my main

competitor so they won’t want to sign my magazine up nor will I want to go with them. Finally there was Bauer Media which looked good as they have a wide

range of magazines with some radio stations too which could lead to expansion into a station like Kerrang and Q have done with them. However they already had

some big music magazine names signed up to them which was a problem.

My Choice

After thinking about it I decided to choose IPC Media to distribute my magazine as they have a music magazine already in NME

which is doing well so they have experience but it is a different genre and target market to ‘The Sound’ so it will help it rather than being a negative factor. They also distribute a lot of well

established successful magazines.