1. Case Study: Q Magazine Research into an existing publisher of a music magazine which relates to my own coursework.
2. Background Q magazine was first published in 1986 after being founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth.The magazine is published monthly in the U.K by Bauer Media Group. Bauer Media Group is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. The Bauer Publishing Group now owns 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer started in the UK with the launch of “Bella” magazine in 1987.As well as Q, Bauer also owns the popular music magazines and radio stations of British Kerrang and MOJO.
3. Comparison of existing Bauer publications and Q magazine I chose to use Q magazine as I felt it was an individual magazine which focused on more than one genre of music as well as alternative music which appeals more to me. Bauer Media group also own kerrang which tends to generally only focus on heavy rock and does not seem to include other genres of music. I also think that kerrang only focuses on a small audience of rock enthusiasts in their teenage years as well as twenties. Whereas I believe Q is more sophisticated and it’s audience ranges from teenagers to late thirties. In addition Q also mostly focused on popular artist interviews and has an extensive review section, which features new releases, reissues, music compilations, film ,television ,radio and live concert reviews. It is also known for compiling lists such as “the 100 greatest..”, I used this technique in my own coursework because I think this is an effective way to attract the attention of the audience. Another way Q attracts an audience is by producing a special edition issue every other month, which will focus on an artist , musical time (for example the 80’s era )or genre of music, this works as most readers who read Q would be familiar with these concepts. Q’s sister magazine MOJO (owned by Bauer)also uses this technique.
