1. Homework 2 – Institutions Research
Using a relevant music magazine complete research into the company that produces it. You should
aim to find out what brands they produce, what audiences they target, examples of cross-media
ownership, and information about the ownership structure of the company, e.g. are they
subsidiary?
The publishing company of Q magazine: Bauer Media
Some Target Audiences of Bauer Media:
- Match! brings in a demographic of 11-14 year old boys. The hits radio has a demographic of
families; 15-34 year olds.
- Q has a demographic of 15-24 year old males, ABC1.
- 4Music’s demographic is 16-34 year olds. So far, this has created a pattern of appealing to
younger people.
Bauer Media is subsidiary to Bauer Media Group and also H Bauer.
Bauer Media is derived from the Bauer Media Group. The Bauer Media Group is Europe’s largest
privately owned publishing company. It is used all around the world and it offers over three hundred
magazines in a total of fifteen different countries. As well as this, Bauer Media Group publishes
online and controls some television and radio stations.
Bauer Media joined the Bauer Media Group in (January) 2008. Collectively the group employs
approximately six thousand four hundred people.
Bauer Media is UK-based and consists of many companies put together into two main sections:
Magazines and Radio. They are widely recognised as industry innovators.
Bauer Media have a wide portfolio of brands:
2. Bauer Media is a sister company of H Bauer Publishing. H Bauer Publishing is the publisher is the
UK’s biggest TV listings and the magazines: Take a Break and Bella.
H Bauer is a privately owned company in Europe. It published in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal,
the UK, US and Mexico.
The Bauer Publishing Group was founded in 1875 and under the control of our generations of the
Bauer family, the company grew as a mere printing house to a publi shing company which is now
comprised of two hundred and eighty two magazines published in fifteen countries. They employ six
thousand six hundred people worldwide and have an annual turnover of one point seven nine billion
Euros.
When Bauer entered the UK with Bella magazine (1987), they introduced a new format that mixed
unseen real life editorial with service features; allowing Bella to have a huge impact on their female
demographic. In 1990, Bauer launched the Take a Break magazine, which caught people’s attention
again. This magazine led the market (and maintaining its lead – even now – with one million copies
sold a week) because of its experimental blend of real life and competitions.
H Bauer has always been large in the UK magazine market (with a large share in the market) and in
1990 H Bauer strengthened with TVQuick (1991), That’s Life! (1995) and TVChoice (1999).
In 2008, Bauer expanded into Emap’s Radio and Consumer Magazine, changing these businesses to
Bauer Media. With this recent expansion of the company, Bauer is now the largest (consumer)
magazine publishing company in the UK. It plays a major role in Women’s Weeklies, Women’s
Interests, Women’s Lifestyle, TV listings, Puzzles, Men’s Lifestyle, Music and Film and even Specialist
magazine markets.
