MAGAZINE

PUBLISHERS

WHICH MEDIA INSTITUTION COULD

PUBLISH MY MUSIC MAGAZINE?

IPC MEDIA

IPC Media is one of the leading of both consumer magazine

and digital publishers in the UK. It was formed in 1963 and

currently produces over 60 iconic media brands.

IPC Media is known for the New Musical Express (NME)

music magazine, which has been going for over 50 years.

NME’s genre is advertised as rock which attracts a wide

audience of both mixed age, gender and target groups. The

type of musicians included are bands like Kings of Leon, The

Killers and Arctic Monkeys.

IPC Media also publish Guitar & Bass, a magazine dedicated

to guitars rather than bands. This music magazine is also

heavily involved in the rock genre.

BAUER MEDIA

Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing

group. The Bauer Publishing Group is a worldwide media

empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries.

They publish Q, the UK’s biggest selling monthly music

magazine; MOJO, the world’s largest UK music magazine and

Kerrang!; the UK music magazine devoted to rock music. All

3 of these are extremely popular and all focus on different

types of rock music.

Although Bauer Media would be useful in terms of widely

advertising and distributing my magazine, there isn’t a gap in

their market for another rock music magazine as they already

publish 3 popular brands. Compared to other publishers, I

don’t think they would be interested in taking on my

magazine.

BBC MAGAZINE

BBC Magazine provides a varied and wide range of

magazines that target many different audiences. The music

magazines they have published include It’s HOT!, Top Of The

Pop and Classical Music Magazine. Top Of The Pops is

generally aimed at 11 – 15 year olds interested in pop music.

It’s HOT! used to be published and aimed at 9 – 13 year old

girls, featuring articles about pop music, TV, movies and

celebrity gossip.

Due to the difference between the genres of music magazine

sold by BBC Magazine and the genre of my music

magazine, I don’t think they would be interested in publishing

Download. Although it means there is a gap in their market

for a rock music magazine, the difference between target

audience in terms of age, gender and music taste is just too

big.

EMAP

Emap (East Midlands Allied Press) was established and

founded in 1947. It attracts a wide audience by having

specific publications for each genre – ranging from

nursing, retail and media.

Emap published Smash Hits, a music magazine focused on

pop music and aimed at children and young teens. It was

published in the UK and ran from 1978 to 2006, during which

time it was very popular.

Emap would not be a suitable publisher to produce

Download as again, its previous publications have been too

varied for it to have built up a good audience who could buy

my music magazine.

PUBLISHING

The publisher that I would use to publish my magazine would

be IPC Media. The reason for this is that they are one of the

biggest media institutions in the UK and already publish

magazines which are similar to Download, but not too similar.

Download features similar bands and articles to NME but is

aimed at a younger generation, and more specifically, punk

rock music rather than all rock and indie music like NME.

As IPC Media is such a well known and leading company,

there is more advertisement options and it should be both

easier and cheaper to advertise with help from such a big

media institution.

PITCH

To: IPC Media

I would like to put forward the idea for a new music magazine

dedicated to the genre of punk rock. The magazine will be called

‘Download’ and is aimed at 15+ year olds. It will be sold biweekly

for £2.99. ‘Download’ magazine brings a new look to punk rock

music and will be featuring the biggest and best upcoming bands

of the genre. The target audience are teenagers in education or

jobs, meaning they can afford to pay £2.99 a fortnight.

‘Download’ magazine will feature a number of recurring articles

such as an advice column for teenagers from the lead singer of

popular rock band Paramore, Hayley Williams; a feature on the best

upcoming bands; a list of concerts playing the following month

and competitions. The magazine will also feature articles on the

current popular bands and news about them, for example new

albums, singles or tour dates.

‘Download’ magazine has been created to appeal to males and

PITCH

females who are interested in punk rock music. It will be sold in

newsagents like WHSmiths, supermarkets such as Tesco and

Sainsbury’s and also available to order online, as market research

has shown that our target audience spend a lot of their free time on

the Internet.

‘Download’ will be advertised in a number of places: billboards, TV

adverts and popular social networking sites such as Twitter and

Facebook. The first issue will feature a mix of popular, well known

bands and upcoming bands. I think this will appeal to a wide

audience and I hope you will take on and publish this magazine.

Amber Slater, editor of ‘Download’ magazine