Evaluation Number Three

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

A media institution is a company that disperses a media product for audience consumption. A magazine would usually be put out nationally but not internationally and would be dispersed into shops such as grocery stores like Sainsbury’s or Tesco, or on a smaller scale, corner shops and newsagents. The most popular magazines in the UK include; IPC media and Bauer media. As these are popular in distributing magazines I decided to look into them further.

Bauer Media

Bauer media distribute a lot of magazines such as the ones in the picture below.

A few of the magazines that stood out from the crowds that Bauer media distribute are ‘Q’ and ‘Kerrang’. This is because they are very well known magazines. On the website (http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/about/our-company) I found that Bauer is a division of the Bauer media group, which is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, T.V and radio stations. This made me curious as to whether I thought they may be interested in distributing my magazine as we aim to target a large audience in the mass market. They are also a UK-based media group and are widely recognised and rewarded as being industry innovators. Bauer Media is very well-known in the industry as having a wide-span of control over well-known brands. Bauer is an example of media vertical integration; this is the process in which several steps in the production and/or distribution of a product or service are controlled by a single company in order to increase that companies power in the marketplace. Currently, the magazines with the leading sales figures for Bauer is heat. This is a womens weekly magazine so this shows Bauer is not as successful in music magazines that some other companies.

IPC Media

IPC is the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher and they engage with 2 million UK adults. IPC media has ownership over many popular brands such as Marie Claire and Women’s weekly. Their company reaches a huge number of people and is therefore a hugely influential player in the media market. Their audience consists of almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of men. This shows that IPC media own a broad genre of media products which shows that they appeal to many people. IPC media has three publishing divisions; IPC connect, IPC inspire and IPC Southbank. Each of these divisions serves a different function within the media group. They have more than 60 brands, less than Bauer Media.

IPC Media may also be a good company to distribute my media product as it is a very popular media institution and distributes music magazines such as ‘NME’. My magazine is targeting a mass audience and they are not currently distributing any magazine that is quite like mine, for example, the genre, dance, has not really been done before. The company is distributing well known music magazines and so it has experience in the marketing side to music magazines which would give me many advantages.

 Conclusion

I believe that Bauer magazine would be the best media institution to distribute my film as it is the best opportunity to make my magazine successful. In my opinion my magazine has the potential to expand and become as big as some of the other music magazines in the industry and so Bauer would be very interested in distributing my magazine. Bauer would benefit in investing in my magazine as they would be able to help my magazine grow and become big in the industry, this would look good as their reputation would go up for having another successful magazine added to their list. In addition to this, my magazine is physically appealing and uses many conventions of a magazine that have been successful in the past; meaning that my magazine has a big chance of surviving in the magazine industry. Therefore, it will not be a risk for Bauer to distribute my magazine. Bauer will see that the magazines that they are distributing may not be as popular in the future so they have to keep building up their database of magazines to keep the company fresh with ideas.