Times Inc (formerly IPC) would be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine based on their history and experience: - They have a long history publishing magazines across many genres including music (NME) and have experience targeting niche audiences. - They were early to target both female and international audiences, showing an ability to adapt to trends. - As a large, worldwide company, they could provide wider reach than smaller publishers. - Their brand is well-established and trusted, which would help in distributing a new magazine. - Genres they may be likely to publish include rock/indie magazines with broad appeal like NME that reach a large market.

1. 1. What types of magazine and target audiences has Times Inc (formely IPC) been associated
with over the years?
A publishing company is often a standalone organisation which focuses only on printing and distributing print
products. Magazine producers used to write, design, create and print the magazines but this was too expensive
so they decided to get their products distributed and printed by a separate company; which often have a wider
reach, creating a wider market. An example of a large publishing company is IPC which publishes magazines in
many genres such as music, sport and housekeeping.
In 1853 ICP launched their first product called ‘The Field’. This newspaper ran its own correspondence
throughout the Crimean War. It became the largest selling newspaper in Europe within a single year. This
tells us that at the start IPC had a niche audience of upper class men. This was targeted towards men as it
talked about the war which is something that stereotypically men are more interested in. Given its time
period of the 1800s women wouldn’t be the target audience as they were seen just as housewives and not
people who would care about wider issues and knowledge such as the war. It would be aimed at upper class
men as they are the ones who can afford the newspaper and would also have the knowledge to understand
the specialist things the paper would discuss.
In the late 1800s ICP laughed more titles including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Shooting Times, Yachting
World, Amateur Gardening, Cycling Weekly, Amateur Photographer and The Railway Magazine. This shows us
that ICP started to release they could make money on peoples interests rather than just world news. This also
meant that they expanded their audience. Magazines such as Shooting Times, Horse and Hound and Yachting
World show us that their audience was still upper class men as they were the only ones who would be able to
afford hobbies in such areas. They expanded their reach by publishing magazines such as Country Life, Cycling
Weekly, Amateur Photography which can be targeted as middle class men with disposable income as the
magazines were titled with things such as ‘amateur’ to show that it’s a hobby and not as excusive as the other
ones. They also indirectly started targeting middle class women with Amateur Gardening as this would be
something that women were able to do and often had as a hobby, and is stereotypically more female than male
but only middle class women would be able to afford this. This shows ICP as a revolutionary company as other
companies weren’t doing this.

2. ICP started to introduce competitions to their papers. Such as the £1 competition where people had to guess
how much money was in the Bank of England at a given date. This expands their audience to even more
working and middle class men who aren’t specifically interested in certain subjects but still have enough
disposable income to be able to spend it on things such as a competition or are willing to spend the extra money
on that opportunity. This shows them as a company that is making enough money to be able to give things away
and successful and is moving with the times as people are expecting higher standards of the products that they
are buying at this time because they are getting more options than before.
In 1926, ICP launched Woman and Home. This shows us that ICP started to expand their market to middle and
upper class women as well as men. They have a magazine specifically for woman rather than indirectly targeting
them, this can show that they changed with the times and understood that women started to have a bigger
influence and the things they did were beginning to matter. It would be targeted to upper and middle class
women as they would be the ones with the income to be able to spend money on a magazine. They are still
targeting an adult audience. They followed the trend of targeting a more female based audience by publishing
Woman’s Own in 1932. This magazine included a gift which expanded their audience into working class women
as well which might be willing to spend the extra money as they would feel that they are getting something back
for it. The expansion into women target carried into the second world war, where all women were encouraged to
work together to help the war effort. This means that ICPs magazines became classless as all women needed to
work together and the magazines no longer had men to target their newspapers towards therefore they
expanded their audience towards women of all classes.
NME magazine was published in 1952 being the first chart magazine, TV Times followed. This shows us that
ICP understood that peoples’ interests were changing and they adapted with the change of technology which
shows them as inventive and ready to change whenever necessary to do to keep all their different audiences.
In 1963 ICP was officially formed by merging three rival companies of Newnes, Fleetway and Odhams Press.
This means that different companies were now working for a parent company. This merger was important
because it means that companies no longer work against each other but together. The merger ensures that
all the target markets are kept within the company and they have access to people of all genders, ethnicities,
ages and social class as they own magazines in all genres and don’t have to compete for some of these niche
markets like they used to against each other. Magazines such Ideal Homes and Homes & Gardens were now
owned by the same company and not going against each other.

3. In 1988 IPC expanded their market into Europe with European Magazines Ltd, with the magazine Marie Claire.
This shows us the scale of the company as they turned into an international publishing company meaning they
were extremely successful already to even can accomplish something like that. It also shows that they were
thinking of international markets and audiences’ other companies weren’t even thinking about yet.
IPC carries on expanding into the 2000s with the launch of Nuts! A new man’s weekly magazine and Pick Me Up
in 2005 for women. At this time IPC, has expanded onto all markets and pretty much all genres. The launches of
these new magazines were backed with £8 million and £6 million each, this means that IPC is successful as they
have enough money to back new sorts of magazines and are sure it’ll be successful even when there’s already
magazines within the same genre.

4. 2. Why might Times Inc be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine?
IPC would be a good publishing company for my music magazine as they have a history in publishing in
many different genres and expanding into specialist magazines. For example they started with The Field
which is a newspaper and now have branched out into many different genres such as music and Sports with
magazines like NME. These are extremely different genres and IPC is successful in selling all of these
magazines which means that they are definitely appropriate to sell an indie music magazine; which NME can
come under therefore they’re already experienced in the field that my magazine will be under.
IPC started by targeting only males but moved onto making female magazines faster than any other
publishing company, with magazines like Wedding and Home and Real Life. The fact that they change with
the times shows they understand what people are demanding at the current times ensures me that they will
be able to publish my magazine because they are specialised in many different genres, this gives them a wide
knowledge of what is popular and what will sell.
IPC is a worldwide company which would make it a good company for me because they could give my
magazine a wider reach than a smaller publishing company. For example they have offices all over the world
including Tampa, New York and Hong Kong. They would be able to publish magazine in a wide variety of
places giving my magazine a bigger audience than what I would be able to get with a smaller brand. They are
also trusted all over the world so people would buy the magazine.
The quote from their website states ‘over 100 iconic Time Inc. brands that have captivated millions of people
around the world and connected them to some of the biggest ideas and innovations of our time.’ This would
make IPC good to publish my magazine because it shows them as brand which is stable and successful so I
wouldn’t be afraid of my magazine being distributed badly as many other companies trust them and were
successful publishing their magazine through IPC so I could trust them.

5. 3. What sorts of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish?
I think Times Inc are more likely to publish magazines
that give them a wide outreach such as NME which is
mostly a rock/indie magazine but does feature other
genres of music. This type of magazine gives them a
bigger market than a magazine which solely concentrates
on just one genre which means they’ll get more money.

6. Bauer Media Group
Ludolf Bauer was 23 when he set up a printing press for business cards.
Bauer media first came to England from Germany in 1987 with the publication of the magazine Bella magazine.
He published Rothenburgersorter Zeitung, an advertising newspaper. Rundfunk-Kritik was a radio magazine
which followed Rothenburgersorter Zeitung and was published in 1926. It reached sales over half a million a
week.
Youth magazines and listing guides were introduced during and after the Second World War, putting the
publishing house on top as they were the main target audiences while everyone else was at war.
Bauer publishes its first women weekly magazines in the 1970s, Bella and Tina.
Later in the 70s Bauer buys a stake in TV broadcasting and the radio station Radio Hamburg, expanding their
market.
Bauer launched itself into the USA with the launch of Woman’s World in 1981.
They once again got attention by publishing Take a Break magazine in 1990. It quickly became the market
leader in its genre.
TVQuick and TVChoice were launched in 1991 and 1999.
Their radio outreach is expanded with BROKER FM to Poland in 2007.
In 2012 they acquire companies in New Zealand and Australia, expanding them even further.
At the start of 2008 Bauer expanded further by acquiring Consumer Magazine and Emap’s Radio divisions.
4. Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?

7. I would choose Times Inc to publish my magazine because I feel like they have more experience in
publishing magazines overall.
They can also help me reach a wider marker of people as they have audiences everywhere.
ICP also has NME magazine which is one of the biggest music magazines in the UK which means that they
have experience in the genre that Bauer doesn’t as they mainly concentrate on women magazine and TV
listings.
Who should publish my magazine?