2. 3. What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
What is a media institution?
A media institution, group or conglomerate is a company that owns numerous
companies in various mass media such as television, film, and publishing, which is what I
will be covering in this presentation.
Examples of music magazine institutions are Bauer Media, IPC Media (now Time Inc.) and
Future PLC.
3. Bauer Media
Bauer Media Group is a European-based media company, headquartered in Hamburg,
Germany that manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products
and 50 radio and TV stations around the world.
Having this many products and services under their control makes them one of
the most influential media institutions to this day, and they have been founded
since 1875. Their revenue approximates to 2.4 billion euros with 11,000 employees
(according to stats from 2013, so it is fair to assume this number is bigger or
smaller) with the current CEO being Yvonne Bauer.
4. Time Inc. (Formerly IPC Media)
Time Inc. UK (formerly International Publishing Corporation and IPC Media), a wholly owned
subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom,
with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.
Time magazine groups its current titles under three magazine divisions each focusing on a
core audience: Lifestyle, Luxury and Specialist, all targeting their desired audience by
producing various magazines based on different interests and hobbies.
Lifestyle targets the mass market for women by publishing Woman’s Weekly, Chat, and Teen
Now.
Luxury focuses on upmarket women, with publications such as Ideal Home, Homes &
Gardens, and Look.
Specialist, however, targets the market for men with things like TrustedReviews, Country Life
and World Soccer.
5. Future PLC
In 2006, it was ranked as the sixth-largest media corporation in the United
Kingdom. It publishes more than 30 magazines in fields such as video games,
technology, films, photography, and sport.
It was founded in 1985, so it is the most recent institution of the three that are
being presented, which also says something about the content they produce
being mainly technology based.
However, the company has been in the process of getting rid of printed media in
favour of digital media, closing many of its titles and selling off others. This
included its music media brands too, as in January 2012 they sold their US brands,
including magazines Guitar World and Revolver to New Bay Media LLC for $3
million.
In April 2013, Future completed the sale of major components of their UK media-
music brands to Team Rock Ltd. for £10.2 million.
Later in 2014, Future sold their sport, craft and auto titles, further solidifying the
conversion over to digital media and technology publications.
6. Publications of the 3 institutions
Bauer Media – Bauer publishes Q and Kerrang!, two of the most popular music
magazines to date.
Time Inc. – Time publishes NME, another popular rock music magazine.
Future PLC – Mainly publishes video game magazines, and sometimes tech/film
magazines. They used to publish music brands such as Guitar World and Revolver,
but were sold in 2012.
7. Which media institution would be most
likely to publish my product?
My media product is a music magazine, specifically a rock n’ roll magazine aimed
at young people around 18, 19 or 20 years old. Due to this, a publisher such as
Future PLC will not want to publish my product due to it being a music magazine
as Future are selling their printed publications in favour of digital media, so it
would be useless. Bauer Media or Time Inc. may want to, since they are
experienced with publishing music magazines, with them being popular. Bauer
and Time also publish popular magazines like Q and NME, which is aimed at the
same sort of demographic my media product is aimed at, making them similar by
comparison.
8. My choice: Bauer Media
Bauer Media and Time Inc. are both suitable choices for my media product, but
one is obviously better for the job than the other.
I choose Bauer Media as the only music magazines they currently distribute are
rock and/or pop music magazines, which means they target the same kind of
audience that would read my media product. My product is also a rock n’ roll
themed magazine, so Bauer would have experience when dealing with the rock
genre and marketing it to a wide audience.
They also seem to be able to take my product and distribute it to a mass market
rather than a smaller one. However, there is a problem as most popular music
magazines are already pop/rock magazines, and it may be difficult for my product
to fit in when there may be other better choices for the audience to pick.
Overall, I think Bauer Media is the best course of action if I wanted to distribute
my media product effectively, and it would be the best fit for Bauer as they mainly
publish rock magazines with similar demographics.
