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1. Research Task 4 research into
music industries and institutions
(Q4)
Bauer publishing group
Baldeep Gahir.

2. Bauer, is Germanys largest magazine publisher and also one of the
largest in Europe. The company have aimed their magazines at
different target audiences. For example,”Neue post” is aimed at older
women, in contrast to one of Bauer's newest magazines “Kerrang!”
which is a rock magazine targeted at white males around the ages of
18 to mid 20s and that are interested in this sub-genre. They are a
successful company, and this is seen due to achievements such as in
1998, they were able to claim 42% of all magazines sold in West
Germany. They also publish three magazines in the U.S. Eg: First for
Women, Soap Opera Update and Woman`s World. Also, they own
extensive printing which would be an advantage for me as a publisher
as it`s cheaper.

3. 1875-The start of Bauer.
In 1903, Heinrich Bauer became a partner in the company and bought
old style technology such as a typesetting machine and a high speed
press. The company was quickly expanding, for example: they
published their first advertising newspaper called “Rothenburgsorter
Zeitung” and shortly after, “Hammerbrooker Zeitung” was introduced.
As they were both successful, this enabled them to buy a new printing
press in 1913.

4. 1818-1927:
Bauer published “Extrablatt am Montag” which was a magazine that
started off as a weekly newspaper and eventually turned into a sports
–only magazine. It targeted young, white males between the ages of
perhaps 20s-late 30s that were interested in sports. Also, in 1927
another weekly magazine called “Rundfunkkrtik” made its debut and
accomplished roughly half a million purchases. It is claimed to be the
company's greatest success yet. This is good for my magazine, as it
shows that they have a good reputation and have had a lot of success
in the past, as well as the present.

5. 1939-1945:
This was when World War 2 occurred. After the war, the company had
to rebuild itself. It successfully managed to do this by quickly becoming
one of West Germanys largest publishing company's. This information
is useful to know for my magazine, because in the future if another
event was to occur such as this, it shows that Bauer could successfully
manage to deal with the circumstances.

6. 1948-1961:
> In 1948, Bauer published the weekly magazine “Quick” on the 25th April.
This included weekly TV listings. In 1953, the magazine “Horen und Sehen”
was published and was also about television programming. Then in 1958,
they published one of its successful magazines about fashion “Neue Mode.”
The target audience for this magazine is young (mainly white ) mass-market
women who are interested in fashion. In that time period, Bauer also began
to publish “Fix und Foxi” which was a unisex children's comic. All these
different target audiences show that Bauer has intentionally aimed different
magazines at different ages and genders etc to gain a larger range of people
purchasing their magazines. This is useful to know for my magazine, as
Bauer could help develop my music magazine into magazines that would
appeal to a wider variety of people from different classes,ages,genders and
ethnicities..

7. In 1960, the company was increasingly expanding by launching
magazines such as its popular weekly “Neue Revue” by merging
together “Neue illustrierteand.”But later because the production
volume kept growing the printing facilities were drained, so this
resulted in the company expanding in the Hanseatic North.It acquired
Du mont Press. And so, by 1990 the new equipment was printing out
roughly 28 million copies per week. The company expanded to Munich
to allow new and more recent equipment to be introduced. This is
good for my magazine as it means that the publishing company can
financially support me as well as being successful and having a good
reputation.

8. 1970-1987:
Two of its best selling magazines in 1970, were “Tina” and
“Fernsehwoche” Both of them were aimed at older white, mass-market
females, that were aged between their late 20s-mid 30s and had an
interest in their personal appearance, cooking etc. It is interesting to
note that even though the majority of the images of women that are on
the front cover (particularly on “Tina”) are around their mid 30s, they
are still mediated and made to look enthusiastic and lively .Features
such as wrinkles are photo shopped so that the models look young.
This stereotype of women having to look attractive for men (aswell as
other women) is represented as “fake consciousness” by Laura
Mulvey.

9. Also In 1987, Bauer decided to launch the weekly magazine: “Woman`s World.”
And also created company's is the U.k, as well as Spain. This would be an
advantage for my magazine, as it means that the publishing company is global,
which would result in the magazines appealing to a wider range of people. Bauer
then decided to launch another one of its magazines at women called “Bella."
And later in 1987, the publishing company decided to target a different audience
of mainly young, white males around the ages of 18-mid 20s that are interested
in thing such as fashion and music etc.It was called “Esquire.” Later,
”Aujourd`hui Madame” another women's magazine was published in France. It is
a popular fashion magazine targeted at white, up-market women aged between
their early 20`s to early 30`s and are interested in fashion and also have a
disposable income. The company mainly targets women and those magazines
are usually the most successful as they are aimed at a particular audience. This
is good for my magazine, as it shows that Bauer it knowledgeable on what types
of magazines sell the most. This would enable me to gather a larger range of
people willing to read and purchase my magazines.

10. 1992:
In this time period, the company decided to focus on television serials
rather than women's magazines. This was because of the expanding
competition for these types of magazines.eg: The magazine First for
Women rivalled with Woman's Day and Family Circle. The advantages
of Baeur moving on from the Women`s lifestyle magazines to TV
serials included, a large number of people buying them due to an
increase in this particular market. This would be a good pro for my
magazine, as the company is well-informed of the other genres that
would be popular to readers.

11. Bauer or IPC?
Overall, after researching both companies, I feel as if IPC would be
able to provide me with reliability and success based on their many
past achievements such as becoming the worlds first publishing
company to launch a men's weekly magazine i.e: “Nuts” And also, they
aim their magazines at different target audiences such as middle-
class men, mass-market women which results in the magazines
appealing to more people.