Information on Magazine Publishers

Bauer

Bauer Media Group is a large European-based media company that manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the world. The portfolio extends to include print shops, postal, distribution and marketing services. Bauer media is a multi- platform media group, with locations all across the UK. In 2007 Bauer media purchased Emap which is a company that specialises in the production of magazines. Bauer acquired a collection of media brands such as Grazia and Heat as well as a radio brands such as Kiss FM UK and Magic. Bauer also broadcasts TV music channels like The Box TV, in a joint venture with channel 4. There is also very popular music magazines such as Q magazine and Kerrang! Both of which have popular radio and TV shows like Q TV and Kerrang! Radio. Bauer media also has a sister company who publish magazine titles such as Take a Break, TV Choice, Bella and that’s life which are all very popular magazines in the UK. Some other publications that were done by Bauer media was closer which was launched in 2002. It specialises in celebrity news, gossip and entertainment. Yours is a magazine that is published every fortnight consisting of health, fashion and beauty mainly aimed towards women over the age of 50. Bauer has 24 million people tuned in to approximately 90 radio channels every day. In the UK alone Bauer is the second largest private radio provider in the UK with 42 radio channels which means  Bauer has a share of over 30% in the radio market.

Bauer owns more than 600 magazine titles worldwide and sell approximately 433 million issues per year, of which 96 % are in retail sales and subscriptions. 25 of Bauer magazines are among the 100 highest selling periodicals in retail sales. Bauer’s target audience is mostly aimed towards women, with titles such as Take a Break and Heat. Most of Bauer magazines consist of celebrity gossip and fashion which would reach more to a female audience compared to a men’s. However Bauer do have some magazines that are aimed towards men: FHM and Motor Cycle news. However, the majority of their magazines are aimed at females.

Future PLC

In 2006, Future PLC was ranked as the sixth-largest media corporation in the UK. It publishes more than 30 magazines in fields such as video games, films, technology, photography, sport. It also owns the US Company Future US. Over 200 print publications, websites and events are produces by Future PLC. It produces the official gaming magazines for the popular gaming consoles Xbox and PlayStation. It also produced the official Nintendo magazine but stopped production in October 2014. 35% of the market is owned by Future PLC. This is a fairly low figure due to genre of magazines that they publish. The majority of magazines are bought by women and with Future PLC owning magazines that is mostly aimed towards males they don’t do so well in market percentage. The target audience for Future PLC magazines would be aimed at mostly a men because of the contents of magazines that they publish which includes technology, video games, films and sports. While women would still be interested in the magazine it is mostly produced for the male audience of around 16 and over.

Livingly Media

Livingly Media is a US based online media that publishes articles, photography and videos on all three of its lifestyle websites. These three are Zimbio, Stylebistro and Lonny. The company was founded by Tony Mamone and Danny Khatib in 2006 as Zimbio Inc. Livingly released an iPad application in 2011 titled Celebrity Pictures, which allows users to access a large library of celebrity photos online. In October 2012, Livingly also released an iPad application for Lonny in the iTunes Newsstand.  All of Livingly’s websites have mobile versions. As of August 2013, Livingly had over 8.7 million monthly mobile readers, according to Quantcast. In total they achieve a huge 20 million each month from the different platforms available. The target audience for Livingly Media is mostly women due to all three magazines being about lifestyle. Fashion, beauty, entertainment and home design are generally targeted towards the female audience. Tony Mamone says himself that Livingly Media “is focused on captivating audiences on mobile, desktop, and social platforms”.

Font Mood Board

I have selected fourteen fonts from the website DaFont to possibly be used for my masthead. Dafont was used for this because it provides a much larger and more creative variety of fonts to draw attention to my magazine. I have decided to use the font in the blue text box as it is most relevant and would look the best on my magazine cover.

        In the bottom left hand corner I have included a box with some of the fonts I could use for the body of text. I wanted to use a more basic font that is also very easy to read. Verdana and Ariel are most popular according to numeral research studies and therefore I will be using Verdana as the edgy look complements the genre. Some of the other fonts are also good but they didn’t match the attractiveness and simplicity of the selected two. I might use Rockwell Extra Bold for titles or questions in my magazine to separate the text more to improve the clarity of text and give the read a better understanding of whats going on.

Colours Mood Board

Overview of the Magazine Industry

·         1. The average price of a music magazine is £3.66.

·         2. 5 most popular music: Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Variety, Billboard and NME.

·         3. Many have an online version and website.

·         4. One of the biggest fallers year on year was Reader's Digest, down 38 per cent to 133,496 sales a month.

·         5. 5 most popular: TV choice, what’s on TV, radio times, take a break, slimming world.

·         6. Mostly women’s magazines read in the UK. 73% of adults (15+) read a magazine, 43% of those are woman’s meaning 30% are male.

·         7. There are 430 million smartphone users worldwide. All of which are potential customers for digital magazines.

·        8.  86% of I pad users would be willing to watch an advertisement in return for free access to content.

·        9.  60% of digital magazine consumers go to an advertiser’s website. This would help with funding the magazine.

·        10. 69% of readers have posted a magazine article on Facebook. This would increase popularity rapidly       considering the staggering amount of social media users.

·        11. 54% of the worlds population read a magazine.

Complete Analysis of a Music Magazine - Kerrang!

Kerrang! was founded in 1981 and initially was a one-time addition to the sounds magazine. Popular artists were featured on the front cover: AD DC and Angus Young. The magazine made a gradual move to a weekly magazine in 1987, originating as a monthly release to every fortnight. The style of the rock genre changes as new trends come about, it is often criticised for this. This shows that their target audience was aimed at the younger generations as they always picked up on the latest trends, leaving the others behind or including them less. However, there are many things still to appeal to a larger audience on their website. Kerrang! was also later published in Australia, Spain and Germany. The Australian version was published monthly, however, due to the competition with free local music publications. The colour scheme of the magazine varies often but sticks to bold block colours such as red, white and yellow. It is very image based and has an artist or artists as the main image with smaller photos also included on the cover. Besides the masthead there is very little format that stays the same from each addition.

www.kerrang.com, launched in 2001, is the website for their magazine. It contains music features, videos, the latest headlines, music facts, a link to the latest version with an option to subscribe at a discounted price (40% off), advertisements, a radio station, links to social media pages, a search bar to find out about older content, a TV channel and purchasable merchandise from the online shop. Kerrang! runs and sponsors the relentless awards ceremony each year for different types of media. This includes film, music and TV which brings a much greater audience to the Kerrang! fan base. This, in turn, widens the target audience meaning they will have to vary their content more. It has other sponsors for that such as Relentless, Zombie Evacuation Race, Strongbow, Jack Daniel’s and Sea Shepherd. Kerrang! Also gives recognition to tours that a sponsored by Relentless Energy Drink very frequently. Tours by bands such as Bowling For Soup, Asking Alexandra and Fearless Vampire Killers are featured on their website. 

Music Magazine Analysis

Questionnaire Results Main Task

From my questionnaire I have gathered sufficient information about my product from 26 different people. There is a large audience for rock music. Also that I should aim to charge £2.50 (72%) and 83% wanted it published every two weeks. This is ideal because it isn’t too much money and doesn’t have to be produced too frequently. A price like £4 would be too much to spend on a weekly basis.

92% of people want freebies and 80% would be interested in an online version of the magazine. The primary colour of my magazine will be black. This is because it was most popular at 46%, closely followed by blue at 34%.

People wanted all of the features in the magazine. The Two highest scorers being quizzes and gig guides. Others were: Rock news, Instrument sales, Music tutors, Interviews and Puzzles/Crosswords.

The most wanted rock bands were Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Who and The Beatles. Therefore I will be using these as my Cover lines. This should draw fans of these bands to the rock magazine and increase sales.

Main Task Questionnaire

1. Do you listen to rock music?

Yes

No

2. How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine?

£2.00

£2.50

£3.00

£3.50

£4.00+

3. Which of these would you want to see in a music magazine?

Rock news

Gig guide

Instrument sales

Music tutors

Interviews

Puzzles/Crosswords

Quizzes

Other (please specify)

4. How often would you like the rock magazine to be published?

Every 1 week

Every 2 weeks

Every 1 month

5. What colours would you like for the magazine?

Black

Red

Green

Blue

White

Grey

6. How likely is it that you would recommend this product to a friend or colleague?

Not at all likely

Extremely likely

Not at all likely - 0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Extremely likely - 10

7. Would freebies interest you?

Yes

No

8. Would you be interested in an online subscription?

Yes

No

9. What rock bands would you most like to see in the magazine?

10. Is there any other comment you would like to make on the production of this rock magazine?