Magazine industry overview

Magazine industry overview.

The biggest consumer magazine publishers are Bauer, publishing up to 25% of magazines, IPC, publishing up to 20%, other publishers such as BBC magazine and National Magazine publish 7-8% of magazines.

Today in the UK, there are over 3,200 different consumer titles and 1.4 billion magazines being sold each year. 85% of the population reads a magazine and they spend £2 billion on magazines annually.

There are more than 8000 titles published in Britain which can be categorised as, consumer, business/trade, customer magazines, staff magazines, newspaper supplements, part works, and academic journals, which have their own target audience.

IPC media makes over 60 iconic media brands, and creates multiple platforms, across print, online, mobiles, tablets and events. As the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher they engage with over 26million UK adults – almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of men.

IPC’s magazines that are aimed at men include: Nuts, Rugby world, ShootingUK and world soccer. Magazines aimed at women include: Woman’s weekly, Beautiful Kitchens, Chat and Essentials.

IPC have different divisions such as:

IPC connect: IPC Connect is IPC Media's mass market women's division with a range of brands that provide powerful reach. Connect's magazines are read by 9.4 million mass market women, which equates to 49% of all mass market women, while its digital brands reach over 5.3 million unique users and deliver 35 million page impressions every month. Connect's audience is highly valuable and responsive, responsible for the vast majority of UK purchasing decisions.

IPC Inspire: IPC Inspire is IPC’s men’s divison. Its portfolio of 38 brands covers a huge spectrum of interests and includes famous names from Country Life and The Field, to Nuts and NME.

Future plc is an international media group, founded in 1985 with one magazine, today they have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 200 specialist publications, apps, websites and events. Future plcis the No.1 technology publisher in the UK.

Future plc’s magazines are mainly aimed at males aged from teens to adults (20-30 year olds) and include magazines such as Xbox 360, Classic Rock, Playstation and Mountain Biking UK. 

How did you attract/address your audience?

My magazine addresses my target audience by including music and artist that they are interested in. Since my target audience includes ravers and clubbers, the music in my magazine is trance, electro and all music genres that would normally be heard at events like raves. The language I use in my magazine if quite informal, so that it appeals to the audience. The color scheme of the magazine would attract my target audience as I think they are colors that give a club-like feel, which would appeal to the audience. My advertisement mood board would appeal to the target audience as it is generally things that they would buy, or be interested in.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

On the right is my college magazine, it was very simple and did not have a lot of pictures or text, and the front cover and contents image were taken quickly and did not look very good. My magazine on the left has pictures which were taking in the studio at college and with a good camera, which gave my magazine a better look. On the cover is many stories, which all give a rough idea of what the magazine is about and what type of magazine it is. It has a big bold masthead which shows that it is obviously the name of the magazine. The main cover story is bigger and bolder than all other cover stories to show that it is the main story of the magazine, and it also associates with the picture on the cover of the magazine. With my contents page, I added sub-headings to the contents so that things could be found easier within the magazine. I also added more photos which linked to the stories in the magazine, with page numbers in the corners so they could be found easily. My magazine has a house style which I kept throughout my magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When making and working on my magazine, I have mainly been using photoshop and blogger. I have also used Issuu once, but found it relatively easy to use. I found blogger to be really handy in the ways you can present your work, and the amount of customization on your blog itself was really good so that I could have it the way I wanted it. I have picked up a lot about photoshop, as this was my first proper time using it so I was new to it. I have found it quite easy to achieve some of the styles I wanted on my magazine, because I have been using it for a while, I know more shortcuts and easier ways to do certain things.

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

When deciding who to get to publish your magazine, there are a few things to consider. If you go with a big company like IPC media, you may end up losing 'editorial independance' as they would be more interested in profits, but would be able to reach a larger target audience. If deciding to be an independent publisher, you would have complete control about what goes into your magazine, and wouldn't have to worry about having loads of advertisements in your magazine. I think I would choose future plc to publish my magazine, as my magazine may be a niche market and would introduce a new target audience for future plc.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience is mainly 'ravers', these are the people that tend to go to clubs, raves or free parties and most look as if they're rather aggressive or 'chavs'. The age group for these kind of people would be roughly '17-30', depending on the sort of event that they are going to. They tend to wear baggy jeans or sports brand joggers, and maybe some sports brand shirt or jumper, with a buzz cut hairstyle, dreadlocks, or medium-long hair. The music they would listen to be is all sub-genres of trance, electro, D'n'B, and generally anything with nice bass, which is everything that my magazine is about. My target audience may not have a specific TV program that they favor, as they are usually out with their mates or at parties.