Questions about the IPC.

1. TASK 4 RESEARCH INTO MUSIC
INDUSTRIES
AS Media Coursework

2. WHAT TYPES OF MAGAZINE AND
TARGET AUDIENCES HAS IPC BEEN
ASSOCIATED WITH OVER THE YEARS?
The IPC publications have been associated with a vast amount of different magazines aiming
at all different target groups.
 IPC was formed with the merge of 3 of the UK’s magazine publishers – George Newnes,
Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications in 1963.
 1800’s saw ‘The Field’ being launched and within a year became the largest newspaper in
Europe. A further 8 titles were published: Country Life, Horse & Hound, Shooting Times,
Amateur Gardening, Cycling Weekly, Amateur Photographer and The Railway.
 Early 1900’s: Yachting Monthly, Cage Birds and Motor Boat was published. Four of IPC’s
traditional women’s weeklies ‘Woman’s Weekly’ was launched. Homes & Gardens was also
published.
 1920’s: Woman’s Own was launched, and also Caravan, Stamp Magazine and Prediction
were published.
 1950’s: The arrival of NME (New Musical Express) and TV Times.
 1960’s: Saw the birth of ‘Shoot!’ and Rugby World, World Soccer, Angler’s Mail and Family
Circle.
 1970’s: Successful launches included Aeroplane Monthly, Sporting Gun and Superbike
 1980’s: Launch of the UK edition of Marie Claire.
 1990’s: What’s On TV makes a triumphant entrance.
 2000-Today: Launch of ‘Nuts’, Pick Me Up, and TV Easy.

3. CONTINUED…
In the early stages the magazines produced and launched are far more targeted at an
older audience. The topics that are concerned are very much related to the more
wealthy for e.g. Yachting, Horses, Railways. In this period of the 1800’s only the rich
could afford these hobbies and only the rich could really afford to buy magazines.
As the years progress there is a movement towards women, maybe through their
research they have found out more women than men read magazines. A large collection
of women’s magazines were launched for e.g. Ideal Home, Woman and Home and
Woman’s Own. There seems to be a real trend of the stereotype that females are
housewives, and its only women who have the free time to read magazines.
The 1950’s saw another change in movement; the TV. In 1955 was the arrival of TV in the
UK and following this the IPC brought out the TV Times, again most likely only aimed at
the more wealthy. In 1952 saw the launch of NME a music magazine aimed at late
teenagers through to early 20’s. TV and music were very big, this is why IPC took a
swerve from Women and sporting activities.
After the hype of the TV and music IPC go back to sport. The 1970’s saw the arrival of
Aeroplane, Sporting Gun and Super Bike. These would have been targeted at sporting
fans, and people who play sport.

4. WHAT MIGHT IPC BE AN
APPROPRIATE PUBLISHER FOR A
NEW MUSIC MAGAZINE?
The IPC would be appropriate as a publisher for a new music magazine for
the following reasons:
 They have been identified as reliable and distinguished publishers.
 They have a good grounding in many different types of magazines, they
publish all different varieties of magazines.
 They already publish a very successful music magazine called NME (New
Musical Express) so they have the knowledge and know how to advertise
and merchandise a new music magazine.
 The IPC are a trusted publisher, they publish millions of magazines, with
most of them being best sellers; overthrowing many competitors.

5. WHAT SORT OF GENRE/TYPE OF
MUSIC MAGAZINES ARE THE
LIKELY TO PUBLISH?
The IPC are likely to publish a music
magazine that hasn’t been put on the
market before. They would find a gap in
the market, do their research and find a
genre that people want to know more
about, and read about. They have to be
careful not to be too niched, as they could
only attract a small number of readers and
the magazine would collapse. A lot of
target research would have to be done to
make sure there is a market for the
particular genre they want to publish. IPC
would also publish popular magazine
genres as they know they would sell for
e.g Hip-Hop, RnB, Pop, Dance and Dub-
Step. This would atrract a large target
audience so they would be sold and a
wealthy profit would be made; this instead
of taking the risk of a niche, gap in the
market genre like ‘indie-pop’, ‘electro’.

6. WHY MIGHT AN ALTERNATIVE
PUBLISHER LIKE BAUER BE
APPROPRIATE?
Research into Bauer

7. CONTINUED…
Bauer has a very large target group of mainly women (mature). They publish many
gossip, puzzle, and factual magazine.
I believe that Bauer are no more appropriate to launch a new music magazine over IPC,
as they attract a totally different target audience. They have no music magazine
launched unlike IPC so they have no knowledge of the music magazine industry
whereas the IPC does.
Although Bauer could spot a gap in the market that the IPC hasn’t spotted and fulfill this
gap and merchandise a new genre in the magazine industry that could prove
successful.