Research into music industries and institutions

A publishing company is an independent organisation that publishes the product for a company. They focus on printing and publishing the product and delivering the product to different stores. Magazine producers used to publish the product too but this method became too costly, so now in present day producers rely on standalone national and international publishers to publish company’s products. IPC is an example of a very big publishing company that publishes a variety of different products for companies.

1.) What types of magazine and target audiences has Times Inc (formerly IPC) been associated with over the years?

The 1800s-1900s

The field was launched in 1853 with 24 pages and within its first year of being published, became the largest magazine in Europe. The Field had its own correspondent throughout the Crimean War and therefore tells us that IPC focused on publishing products targeting men in war. During this time period, the patriarchal society meant women were housewives and therefore would not the interested in the news about war. Men were associated with war and therefore war was the main focus of any print that IPC produced. You could also argue that this magazine was geared towards upper class men.

An additional eight IPC titles were introduced and published in the late 1800s and are still widely successful today; Country Life, Horse & Hound, Shooting Times, Yachting World, Amateur Gardening, Cycling Weekly, Amateur Photographer and The Railway Magazine. This tells us how IPC are able to expand their audience range and develop what they publish to suit a lot more different people. It shows how IPC want to become available towards everyone and can move with the times. The institution is able to keep on top of the public and want to appeal to everyone’s interests. ‘Horse and Hound’ and ‘Yachting world’ signal upper class male audience because these sports are more prestige; however ‘amateur gardening’ would appeal to not only men, but also start to appeal to middle and upper class women too. Middle class men would attract towards The Railway Magazine which opens the publishing company to different classes of men also.

Competitions played a key role in sales promotions for all early IPC titles in 1889, as the prize offered by the magazine was the fortune of £1 a week for life to any reader who could guess the amount of gold and silver in the Bank of England on a given date. This expanded the audience for IPC because more working class people began to enter the competitions in the hopes of earning extra money. £1 was a lot of money at this time period and therefore people like working class men could provide a lot more for their families.

1920s-1940s Launches in the home interest and women's weekly market

In 1926, Woman & home entered the market referring to the governments promise in 1921 to build 100,000 houses as part of its post-war planning and, Captain GC Clarke, editor of Odhams new monthly Ideal Home, statement of “hideous houses”. IPC have increased their reach of targeting women by publishing magazines solely targeting them. This reaches out to even more people and makes IPC available for a range of audience. It targets working class women housewives who cook, clean and take care of the house all day and specifically targets these women as the magazine clearly states ‘women’ and ‘home’. IPC are gradually widening their audience.

Woman's Own was first published by IPC in 1932 and Newnes promoted its first issue of Woman's Own with a free cover-mounted gift of three skeins of wool with every copy. This specifically targets working class and middle class women with the free gift of wool to branch and offer women freebees as a way to lure them into the magazine. This widens their audience by making IPC appeal for different types of women, whether you are middle class or working.

The 1950sThe upsurge of the music scene lead to NME which set the ball rolling with its compilation of the first official UK record chart in 1952- topping that bill as Britain's very first number one was Al Martino's Here In My Heart. This attracted an audience of the younger generation interested in music towards IPC which they have never targeted towards and therefore expands their audience to a whole different generation making IPC even more successful.

The 1960s

In 1969 there was the publishing of a new football weekly - Shoot! IPC launched Shoot! To capitalise on the upsurge of interest in the game generated by England's World Cup victory three years earlier. This attracted audience with particular interests- in this case, passionate about football. This magazine audience was therefore dominated by working and middle class males, but also sons of these males too.

Other IPC magazines they published making their debut in the 1960’s included Rugby World, World Soccer, Angler's Mail and Family Circle. This clearly demonstrates that the success of a sport magazine made IPC focus on other sports as well which covers everybody interested in sports and therefore widens the audience reach of IPC. Family circle represents how IPC were trying to target families and therefore every one of all genders and ages could start associating themselves with IPC.

The 1970s Successful launches during the 1970s included Aeroplane Monthly, Sporting Gun and SuperBike. Whilst Aeroplane Monthly and Sporting Gun target upper class males, SuperBike attracts audience for the everyday male. Bikes became a popular way of transport for everyday males getting their way round quickly and become a popular trend and therefore this magazine attracts audience of men with specific interest of bikes.

The 1980s

In the 1980s, IPC declared the formation of European Magazines and in 1988 Marie Claire launched the UK edition of the international title Marie Claire. Marie Claire is a women’s magazine and therefore attracts alot of female audience however this in particular gained a lot more women readers because it was released in even more countries and so increased the audience numbers dramatically over a bigger area.

IPC also published Mizz which is a magazine targeted towards young female teenagers. This increased and widened the audience for IPC because this is the first magazine specifically targeted towards this aged range and targeting towards a completely different audience means IPC is widening their audience and eventually publishing magazine for every type of person.

The 1990s

Yet again, IPC publishes another magazine which targets a completely new audience and opens their reach with Loaded in 1994 which opens a whole new market of young men. Over the years, IPC have targeted all types of men from older upper class to middle and working but not of the younger ages. This broadens IPC’s reach and makes IPC available for more men.

The 2000s

IPC unveils TV easy in April 2005 which entails TV shows listed. This attracts target audience of people interested in TV and likes watching TV. IPC publishing other media platforms therefore widens their audience reach as they associate with another form of media that’s very popular.

The 2010s

In June 2011, IPC Connect launches a major new brand called Feelgood games which targets mass market mums with the very best games and rewarding them with real gifts. IPC have begun to now target to ‘Mums’, a new category of women. IPC have extended their influence to Mothers because this is such a huge audience that they have not associated themselves with. Targeting such a huge audience means more people will be buying what IPC publish.

2.) Why might Times IPC be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine?

IPC I believe would be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine because they have clearly demonstrated how they are open to publish new things and aren’t afraid to branch out to specialist areas. They first published newspapers, but then gradually started publishing magazines for specific areas like Horse & Hound, Cycling Weekly, Amateur Photographer, Woman & home, New Musical Express and Rugby World. The range of magazines they publish is extremely diverse and therefore conveys how open minded and accepting they are to publish a new magazine.

International publishing that IPC allows means essentially, a larger audience as more people will be exposed to the magazine. This means IPC is an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine because it means the magazine will become bigger and successful as it’s widely accessible to more people.

“Innovation- it’s part of our DNA” is a quotation form IPC’s website which I believe implies that they are an appropriate publishers for a new music magazine because it conveys further how they want to publish new things and try out different magazines. IPC have never punished a roc m music magazine and therefore this statement gives hope that they would glad fully publish one.

Over the years, IPC have changed their target audience drastically so the publishing company appeals to a lot more different people. In 1853, The Field was their first magazine published and reached a target audience of upper class men interested in the war. Down the line, they started reaching audience of middle class men with The Railway Magazine and working class women with Women & Home. This denotes how IPC is an appropriate publisher because they reach different audiences. This is important because it allows the magazine to be available for a lot more different audience.

2.) What sorts of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish?

The first music magazine IPC published was NME in 1952 which originally only included the first official UK record chart. Today, NME is a highly successful music magazine geared towards indie, alternative and rock music and targeting an audience of males who are well educated by bands and enjoy reading about new music. IPC over the many

years of publishing have gradually reached different target audiences but in terms of music I don’t think they are very innovative. I think this because this is the only music magazine they publish and the genre of music only targets a specific type of audience and doesn’t cover all music genres either. Therefore the genre I think they are likely to publish is similar genres to what is represented in the NME magazine.

4.) Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?

The 1980s

Bauer first entered the UK scene with Bella magazine in 1987 and popularized a “new format that mixes previously unseen real life editorial and exciting service features”. According to the history page on their website, Belle made a “Significant impact on the women's market” and targets a specific audience of women for their first magazine published. This shows that Bauer is already more advanced because they immediately target towards women and are successful, not needing to towards men first like IPC.

The 1990s

Take a break magazine was published and gained Bauer more female audience as it yet again geared towards a women’s audience. This widened and expanded their already huge female audience.

Bauer then published more magazines including TVQuick in 1991 and TV Choice in 1999 which features weekly TV broadcast programming listings, running from Saturday to Friday, and goes on sale every Tuesday. These magazines were the first of Bauer to reach audience not just for women but to men and everyone of all ages interested in TV. Widening the audience range dramatically means more success for Bauer as the magazines start to reach a lot more audience of different gender and ages which means that Bauer can be associated with more people.

That’s life! Was published in 1995 and is targeted towards young females, yet again a different audience than the magazines previous hadn’t reached to. Instead of just women, young women were now exposed to Bauer and the magazine published by them. Publishing That’s life! meant more audience was able to be attained by Bauer as they specifically targeted one type of audience.

The 2000s

In 2008, Bauer expanded by acquiring Emap’s Radio and Consumer Magazine divisions and changed the name of these new UK businesses to Bauer Media.

With the new additions, Bauer is now the largest consumer magazine publishing company in the UK, and plays a huge role in the Women’s Weeklies, Women’s Interest,

Women’s Lifestyle, TV Listings, Puzzles, Men’s Lifestyle, Music & Film and Specialist magazine markets.

I believe Bauer might be appropriate because it’s extremely involved in a lot of different magazines with different target audience and topics. This includes music which is obviously in my case extremely interesting and important as I am producing a new music magazine. Therefore Bauer may be appropriate because it deals a lot more with music magazines and has more experience with this specialist magazine market. Also, Bauer is newer and therefore automatically seems more modern. My rock magazine focuses on new rock and using a newer publisher like Bauer would seem more appropriate and fitting.

5) Why they might be a better publisher than IPC?Bauer’s first magazine that published was targeted towards women. This is a huge contrast between Bauer and IPC as IPC aimed their first magazine published towards men (1853) and didn’t venture into aiming towards women until 73 years later with Women & Home in 1926. IPC began publishing in the 1800s and is extremely dated and old and started with publishing magazines like ‘The Field’ which talked about war and was only aimed towards upper class males. However, Bauer started publishing in the 1980s and the first two magazines published were aimed at only women. This shows the contrast of the two publishing company’s and how progressed Bauer is and how new and fresh it is. This implies Bauer to be more modern and open to new ideas and magazines and this is something my magazine will imply seeming it’s going to be targeted towards men and women. My new music magazine is a rock magazine in which Bauer has already had experience publishing a rock magazine; Kerrang. This shows Bauer to be more modern and seems to understand the newer generation. A quote from their website states “we think popular” which is definitely what they convey as the magazines they publish are all extremely popular and modern and something I would want my magazine to achieve whereas IPC have been publishing since the 1800s and publish magazines with other subjects like Aeroplane weekly and sporting gun and aren’t as experienced with publishing music magazines.