MEDIA STUDIES AS LEVEL RESEARCH INTO PUBLISHING

2. Publishing Music Magazines:
• Bauer Media Group • Time Inc Uk

3. Music magazines:
• The magazine I am focusing
on to aid in the production of
my own magazine is Q. Q is
produced and distributed by
the Bauer Media Group in
which its popularity has been
a success. As a result I aim to
follow in the same company
with my magazine. This will
aid audience recognition of
quality in relation to its other
successful music magazines
and have a strong initial
target audience.
• Time Inc UK took over IPC
media via horizontal
integration in the UK
publishing industry . As a
result, music magazines
they feature are mainly rock
and roll based and upon the
front of unmanufactured
live music, as seen by Uncut
and NME.

4. • Independent magazines publish themselves and do
not belong to any major publishing company.
Because of this, often writers have more freedom in
their content and usually are freelance writers.
Often, many readers can contribute articles to the
magazine.
• These magazines tend to have a niche/limited
audience and are therefore likely to be distributed
by subscription or a small selection of specialised
retailers rather than in big supermarkets. They self
fund the distribution of the magazine as a result.
• Examples of independent magazines are:
• The Wire and The Clash

5. POSITIVES/NEGATIVES
• The positives of independent magazines are that they
are more specialised to a specific audience and may
feature more relatable content as a better
understanding of the audiences sociographics is
maintained due to it being smaller and more
maintainable.
• The negatives however may be the extra freedom in
writing, the articles may be quite biased to opinion of
the journalists and may be more controversial for
audiences. Furthermore, there may be a lack of
consistency within the magazine due to the fact it is
often freelance writers who may not be contracted to
the company permanently.

6. CONVERGENCE
• Horizontal intergration
• Smash Hits are now a radio station, TV channel and have a website however they
are no longer a magazine.
• This demonstrates the development of the digital age within society and the
various devices we have accessibility for the kind of information we would have
originally received through magazines.
• With my magazine, to tend to this issue, I plan to create a subscription opportunity
to ensure reader loyalty throughout a course of time whilst also offering a website
complimenting the magazine and app, the content online wont be as exclusive as
in the magazine and feature minimal content as to what’s inside the mag. This will
encourage audiences to actively purchase the magazine by luring them in and
leaving cliff-hangers.
• Many magazines also coincide with many major music events, for example, Q
magazine has a high level of connectivity with Glastonbury festival whilst other
magazines such as Billboard have music events of their own such as the billboard
awards. This method of cross promotion builds publicity and excitement around
the time of the events and therefore the magazines.

7. • Artists featured in most
recent edition of Q:
• The strokes – major – sony
entertainment
• Royal blood – major- warner
bros
• The who -major- warner
bros
• The libertines- major- virgin
EMI records
• Bombay bicycle club –
major- island records (part
of universal)
• All of the artists featured in
the most recent edition of Q
magazine are signed to
major record labels or
companies owned by the
conglomerates. As a result,
the artists on the cover tend
to be well known and my
artists will be high up in the
music industry with a
degree of high respect
between other artists,
audiences and music
producers in the industry.

8. THE PCC
• THE PCC
• The press complaints commission is an independent body that deals with
complaints made by the public about editorial content of newspapers and
magazines within the UK, also including their websites.
• It abides by a 6-clause code of practice which acts as rules in which journalists and
editors must addresses and follow.
• They investigate complaints by people who believe the code has been breached
either in material or how they believe the journalist obtained their material. The
PCC acts as the mediator between editor and client to resolve a dispute by either
publishing a correction or apology.
• The code however does not cover the complaints over taste or decency due to the
recognition of a democratic society and the right to free speech. This is due to the
audiences choice in reading the material, if they do not like it they can simply
choose not to purchase the magazine.