1. Research into Music Industries and Institutions
1. What types of magazine and target audiences has Times Inc. (formerly
IPC) been associated with over the years?
A public company is a standalone company, only focuses on printing and
distributing magazines. Magazine producers used to create, produce and print
the magazines but this was very costly so they work with separate companies,
one that handles distribution (Collaboration). If the distribution company only
does national work, the producer will work to find an international distributor
to regulate the international reach for the music producer. IPC is an example of
a large publishing company that publishes different kinds of things.
1800s – 1900s – The Field launched in 1853 and within a year became the
largest newspaper in Europe – First thing this tells us about IPC/what they
published is that they predominantly focused on products aimed towards
men. Newspapers are factual and report news. During this time, women
weren’t targeted because they were seen as housewives who didn’t care
about the type of news, only men were associated with war. IPC maybe
published this magazine for upper class men.
1920s – 1940s – Odhams launched ‘IdealHome’ and Newnes released
‘Homes & Gardens’ . A lot of Women focused magazines began to launch. In
1926, ‘Women and Home’ was released & in 1932 Newnes launched ‘Women’s
Own.’ - Looking back at the 1800-1900sera, magazines where predominantly
focusedfor Upper Class Man and where not intendedfor womenat all. But
now moving intothe 1920s onwards, magazines begintotarget women, the
target audience changedas time developed. It alsofocusedon middle class
men because they may have beenworking on Gardens, or evenhousewives.
The point is that the product and the target audience changed.
1950s – 1970s – “Music and Mergers”. Magazines soon began to focus on
entertainment, mainly basing magazines on things such as music, TV times,
and football in the time England wherecompeting in the World Cup. – This
shows that magazines are trying toreacha wider audience by moving on to
entertainment. Including things suchas music, TV and football will gain the
2. interest of people andthat means these magazines will gainmore readers
and will have a base that is dependent onthemto supply themwith news in
all these different fields, that’s how the product changed. Rather thanstrictly
focusing on men or women, it seems that the magazines are just focusedon
any customers, social class or gender is not really a factor like it usedto be.
1980s – 2000s (European Expansion): IPC announces the launch of the
Europeans MagazineLtd. They start expanding to France. Motor Caravan
Magazine, Wedding & Home, Country Homes & Interiors, Classic Boat, Model
Collector, Motor Boats Monthly, Practical Parenting, VolksWorld and Bird
Keeper. - This shows thatthe IPC wanted to expend their viewership even
more by looking into an international reach. National coverageis healthy but
having an international baseincreases the amount of readers, so the target
audience has changed, frompeople in England to people in some parts of
Europe, also picking out certain things that will take the interest of some
readers eg. Boating, cars etc.
2000s= (New Millennium): IPC Magazines is renamed IPC Media in 2000,
Ignite! Drops Nuts*, first ever men’s weekly magazine in 2004. They made a website
called TrustedReviews.com, and they released an online games eg. Mousebreaker.-
This shows that as time goes by and technology advances, IPC had to advance also,
rather than making paper products, they’ve moved onto more online things and now
working on computer work. Their product has changed and become more
technological, also their shifting their focus back to men.
2010s: IPC Media restructured around three key audience groups: men, mass-
market women and up-market women, also start releasing video games and gifts:
This is an outline of how once again their target audience has changed over the
years and so has their products.
2. Why might Times Inc.be an appropriate publisherfor a new
music magazine?
3. Already well established: IPC has been around since
the 1800 and is very well established. A new magazine
could very much prosperwith the help of a company
that’s been around for overs 100 years
InternationalPublisher: National attention would be
good but worldwide attention is better, means the
magazine has more exposure and definitely more
readers. This will be the best possible start of a new
magazine which may very well become a globally
acknowledged company. E.g. America, which is a must
for music as America is like the global music HUB.
Know How To Appeal to TA: Dating back to the late
1800s on how IPC only focused their products towards a
certain gender and social class and then completelyflip
reversed their product to appeal to a complete different
demographic,this is a clear sign that the IPC knows how
to make a magazine appeal to a certain audience. This
will be good as I will have a certain audience I will be
aiming my product towards and the IPC will help me
appeal to them. My magazine will be targeting males and
females so my magazine will prosperwith someone like
IPC.
3. What sorts of genres of music/types of magazinesmight
they be likely to publish?
The business has been going on for a very long time, which
means they were gaining momentum when music from
minorities wasn’t as popular as it is today, like Jazz, Hip
Hop, Trap, R&B etc. They where most likely evolving as a
business when music by mostly white people was popular
4. which may lead us to believe they don’t particularly like
music from minorities but prefersuch as Indie/rock.
4a) 1875 – Baure was founded.
1987 – Launch Bella magazine,first magazine
out of Germany.
2008 – Started Radio coverage.
2012 – Got Australian magazine publisher,
increased its worth to $2 billion.
2014 – Launched firstwoman’s magazine ‘The
Debrief.’
4b) I feel that Baure is better than IPC. Baure is just
more modern, granted IPC has been around for over
100 years, they may find it hard to adapt to the new
times all the time, and so in this given generation,
Baure is better. Also Baure can get more media
coverage, which means more people will be able to
see Baure, making them more noticeable and
expanding their customer base.
