Market Research for Media Portfolio

1. Market Research
An overview of the UK music magazine market

2. Market Research
In order to be fully prepared for making my own music magazine, I had to research the types of publishers in the United Kingdom and the
music magazines that they publish that are relevant to my final magazine. Consequently, I decided to research the UK publishers Bauer Media
(whom have assets in a variety of media such as radio stations, magazines and sub-companies) and the lesser-known publisher Team Rock-
Bauer publish both Mojo magazine and Q magazine, both of which focus on the classic rock genre that I would base my magazine around;
Team Rock publish Classic Rock magazine which, of course, is also focused around the classic rock genre.
It was essential to research the UK music magazine market as it allows for an insight in what other magazines (that would subsequently
be competitors of my magazine) offer and the audiences that they appeal towards. The results of these findings did not have to be conclusive
to the audience of my magazine, however it would be helpful to gain an indication of the audience(s) that these publishers suite their
magazines towards. Essentially, the audience of the magazines could be determined not only through intuition of technical features in the
magazines themselves, such as certain mise-en-scene features or specific featured artists, yet simply in media packs that publishers give out
about their magazines on websites. Usually, media packs include; mission statements to give the magazine’s intentions, which is useful to link
what the magazine aims to be successful in doing to its audience and, therefore, concluding whether the magazine’s intentions are suited to
the audience; statistics to show actual figures from surveys about specific demographics of the reader, which is useful for linking class and
status to the audience; and a reader profile, which is typically a narrative or an overview of the magazine’s stereotypical reader, with their
likes and dislikes, hobbies, activity in the music scene and other music related insights. Media packs became a brilliant and convenient way
for me to gather information about the typical genders, classes, ages and interests of audiences for the magazines I was researching, and,
more importantly, how these specifics about the audience depicted the structure and technical features of magazines.
For example, the mean age for a MOJO reader, according to the Bauer media pack, is 41- I then could link this aspect of average age to
the era of the artists featured on the cover of most of the issues. Ultimately, most of the artists featured on covers of issues were from the
1960s, 70s, 80s and early 90s, which are prime eras of readers in their early 40s as they would have been adolescents in a time where these
artists were most popular. This means that a conclusion can be made that a typical feature of a magazine is to relate cover artists to the
target audience, in the sense that they are guaranteed to recognise them.
This market research should provide a coherent and concise insight into the target audiences and specific demographics of certain
magazines, and analyse how this market information will help determine the target audience and demographics of my own magazine.

3. MOJO

4. TheMojoAudienceMissionStatement
Mojo
Mojo is a music magazine published by Bauer Media; a multimedia company which publishes both Mojo
and Q of which I will be researching. The magazine focuses on, essentially, the classic rock era,
incorporating aspects of punk, post-punk, soul, folk and a multitude of genres that have artists
considered as ‘classics’. In terms of the magazine’s popularity, in a 2015 survey audited by ABC, Mojo
magazine had a circulation of 70,445 copies, with 98.9% of these copies being purchased actively- this means that only 775
copies were not purchased actively, which suggests that Mojo magazine has a keen subscription crowd or that Mojo has
successfully targeted their audience to have regular readers. Also, the circulation levels compare well against the figures of other
similar magazines such as ‘Q’ or ‘Classic Rock’ magazine. In the same survey, the circulation of Q magazine was 44,050 while the
circulation of Classic Rock magazine was 51,219, meaning that Mojo magazine was the most popular out of these three, in terms
of circulation.
The audience of Mojo magazine can be said to be one interested in the ‘classics’, the music of the 1950s onwards, and so, as a
mean from statistics from Bauer Media, the average age of the reader is 41- this typically follows the trend that the older the
music is, the older a target audience is for a magazine. As said by Bauer, the audience will fundamentally have a high disposable
income due to being, on average, from a professional profession, and so this may suggest that the demographic for the
magazine, when based from the National Readership Survey, would be ABC1. This gives reason not only for a reasonably high
price for the magazine yet for advertisement in Mojo, that are typically for such festivals as ‘Latitude’ or ‘Green Man’, or such
products as Apple Music or Spotify subscriptions.
Mojo can be said to almost be a boutique magazine, being a monthly magazine of which the readers can indulge in rather than
simply consume- the so-called quality of the magazine and its consequential price gives reason for a monthly release as opposed
to a weekly or fortnight release basis. The artists featured in Mojo can be perceived as iconic and retrospective, particularly for
the cover issues, with reviews of contemporary bands usually as sub-headings- this is evident in a January 2013 issue of Mojo
which features the 1977 Fleetwood Mac album ‘Rumours’, revisiting it as its feature topic, whereas the ‘Best Thing I’ve Heard All
Year!’ is only a sub-heading featured in the bottom right hand corner of the page. This may, therefore, suggest that the nature of
a Mojo magazine is to draw the reader in with specific artists that are suited to the target audience and later introduce and
critique contemporary music (this is a common theme in almost every modern Mojo magazine I have seen).

5. Q

6. Q
TheQAudience
Chris is 29 years old and lives in Leeds. Music is
more important to him than anything else. It’s
at the centre of his social life. It soundtracks all
the best moments in his life. It’s his identity,
his social currency and his world.
Chris lives for gigs, festivals and those
electrifying moments of togetherness that only
music can provide. He is the one who sorts out
gig tickets for his friends, turns them on to new
bands and sets up the big festival weekend.
Chris works in a professional job and finally
has the money and time to indulge his music
habit to the full. He lives with a partner (no
kids, yet) who is similarly music mad. He is
“discovering quality” in all areas, from sound
systems to deluxe reissues to cars, travel and
clothes. Chris loves technology- he was first
with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and now streaming
music services. He downloads music but still
prefers to own CDs. And he spends more on
music than anything else: a big gig every week
or so, six albums a month plus a Spotify
subscription and countless on-the-go
downloads.
Q is the ultimate guide to modern music,
distilling it down to the good stuff. Well-
respected by artists and labels, we have
unrivalled access to music’s biggest names.
Employing the world’s best music writers and
photographers, we deliver our features with
the depth and craft only a monthly music mag
can- taking the time to get to the core of a
story and producing a magazine you can truly
luxuriate in. With our website, social media
channels and partnership with Absolute Radio,
Q reaches over one million music fans each
month. Passionate but not prescriptive, we
deliver something for the novices and the
experts in everything we do.
We know our stuff- we’re eager to share it
with anyone who wants a friendly, informed
hand to guide them towards the best records,
the absorbing stories and the fascinating
personalities.
MissionStatement
Q is a music magazine published by Bauer Media (similar to Mojo magazine). Essentially, the magazine focusses on
modern music, with some consistent references to a classic era of music. To put this into context, the 300th issue of Q had
the featured artist as Adele, yet a subheading was of Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones, and so it can be said how the
magazine is aimed at a wider audience than Mojo magazine- this is logical as Q and Mojo are published by Bauer and so
it would not be a logical business plan to have two magazines with the same target audience and the same content under the
same publishing company.
In terms of the target audience, a Bauer media kit defines the median age of the audience to be 34, with 71.8% of the audience
being in the ABC1 demographics- if this is compared to Mojo, it is evident that only 70% of Mojo consumers were in the ABC1
demographic, which may indicate that readers of Q have a higher disposable income than Mojo readers, dependent on the specific
demographic in which readers are higher (for example, there may be simply a higher percentage of readers in the C1 demographic
for Q which would boost the overall percentage for ABC1 yet not necessarily conclude that there is a higher disposable income.
However, we can conclude from the regular pricing of Q that the price for an issue is significantly less than Mojo: in an October
2014 edition, the price for the issue was £3.99, while for a Mojo magazine, from the same month and year, the price was £4.80.
This may suggest how Q makes more money on advertisements featured in the issue and so they aim to sell on mass, or it may
suggest how, as their target audience is of, theoretically, a higher disposable income, the magazine can be priced for less as they
are aiming to make profit on mass sales as opposed to Mojo. It is also notable that Mojo magazine often features a CD with songs
or covers related to the featured artist, and so the additional cost of Mojo could certainly be attributed to this.
Q, similar to Mojo, may often feature an older feature artist- in the case of a recent issue from April 2016, the featured artist was
Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, covering the birth and effects of grunge from the 1990s. This was not a random feature- it is noted to the
audience on the cover of the issue that it is ‘25 Years On’ from what they can assume is Nirvana’s most prominent album
‘Nevermind’, and so the feature is paying homage to an era that is relevant, and this is often the case with the featured artists, yet,
on top of this, other sub headings from this issue include such contemporary pop bands as ‘The 1975’ and modern singer-
songwriter ‘Jake Bugg’. Therefore, Q, unlike Mojo, are focussing less on classic artists with the nostalgia and retrospective
‘boutique’ format, and focussing more on spreading their audience by including a multitude or artists from a multitude of times in
their issues. This gives reason for a younger target audience, and also gives Bauer another platform to reach people so that they
are not focussing on the same target audiences.

7. Classic
Rock

8. Who is the Classic Rock reader?
Read by a loyal following of 35+
Affluent Informed Influential
Men, many of whom are entering
a life stage when they are
regaining their wallets, freedom
and teen spirit.
• Engaged and Loyal
Spend on average 4 hours reading
each issue.
• Consumers
Classic Rock is influential: 96%
have taken a positive action as a
result of seeing ads/articles in the
magazine.
• Informed and Influential
Classic Rock readers talk about
their music and are
knowledgeable.
Classic Rock is the definitive,
high-voltage Rock ‘n’ Roll
brand, going behind the scenes
to bring you news, views, in-
depth features and exclusive
interviews with the biggest
names in rock- past, present
and future; tour dates,
retrospectives, the hottest
newcomers, backstage gossip
and the biggest rock reviews
section on the planet.
TheClassicRockAudienceMissionStatement
Classic Rock
Classic Rock is a music magazine published by Team Rock, a publishing company
which has assets in 3 main magazines- Classic Rock, Prog Rock and Metal Hammer-
and a rock-themed digital radio station. As Classic Rock magazine publishes content
both similar to Q and Mojo and the sort of magazine I would aspire to create, it
seemed an ideal venture to focus on Classic Rock magazine. Classic Rock, by nature, is a magazine which focusses on the ‘classic’ era
of rock, with such artists as The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix, and, ultimately, this is inevitable with the genre of music they
have chosen to focus on. However, the magazine does attempt to make it clear that it is not simply a nostalgia trip, but a magazine
with contemporary prospect- this is clearest most in the mission statement of Classic Rock when it is said that the magazine covers
‘past, present and future’ and also in an issue featuring the band Van Halen, where the subheading is ‘Then & Now’. The use of
‘now’ here suggests to the audience that Classic Rock is current and not simply retrospective of music in days-gone-by.
The pricing of a Classic Rock issue from October 2014 is £5.00 with a regular pricing of £4.99, which, compared to Mojo and Q, is
the most expensive of magazines from that time. This may suggest that readers of Classic Rock magazine have a higher disposable
income than any other of the magazines I have researched and, henceforth, the pricing is justified by the ‘Affluent men’ concept that
Team Rock have portrayed as their reader in their media kit. In terms of an audience, Classic Rock seems to be mainly focussed
towards a male audience (as specified heavily in their ‘who is the Classic Rock reader?’ statement) and, seemingly, of a middle-age
(this is clear in the same statement when it is said of ‘a life stage when they are regaining their wallets’, which ultimately suggests
that the reader is at an age where they have paid off student loans or overcome financial crises brought on by adolescence and early
adulthood). Therefore, along with the idea that the average reading time is 4 hours (suggesting that the reader has a lot of
disposable time) we can conclude that the average readership age is 40-50. These readers would, most definitely, be placed in the
ABC1 demographic on the basis of disposable income and the concept from Team Rock’s media pack that 96% of readers have acted
upon adverts.
Classic Rock magazine is a growing magazine, despite its youth, with a national survey concluding a circulation of 51,219 as of
2015, which is just behind Mojo’s circulation from the same survey where the figures were of 70,445 copies. This difference may be
based on the difference of production teams (Bauer to Team Rock) or on the reputation of the magazines in terms of age (Mojo has
been published since 1993 while Classic Rock has been published since 1998).