Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The magazine industry is now dominated by only a few different publishing companies, and therefore I must be sure to choose the correct distributor, which would best benefit my media product. Due to the recent state of the economy and the fast developments in technology, the entire publishing industry has fragmented, leading to a steady decrease in sales, so I want to pick a company that would help make my magazine a success - even throughout the current climate.

IPC Media






* they are one of the UK's leading consumer magazine and digital publishers

* on average, over 350 million copies are sold annually

* their groups titles under five magazine divisions; Connect ("women's weeklies"), Inspire (leisure and specialist), which would be were my own magazine slots in), SouthBank (women's lifestyle and home interest), TX (portfolio of television titles) and Ignite! (men's lifestyle and entertainment, which would be where my own magazine slots in).

* popular brands of music magazines sold include NME and Uncut.

Bauer Media

* a large German publishing company, operated in 15 countries worldwide.

* the worldwide circulation of their magazine titles amount to approximately 38 million copies per week.

* they sell more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests, from Grazia to Kerrang!

* popular brands of music magazines sold include Q, Mojo, and as aforementioned, Kerrang!

Despite the large number of music magazines available within the industry, the two above publishers are the only few that sell well-established brands known within the mainstream, proving that they both have great success with this genre of magazine - as well as many others. I believe that accomplishment for Dare is easily ahchievable which ever publication distributor I settle on, as they both appear to have built and maintained a positive reputation throughout their years in the magazine market. Below I have created a table comparing each magazines circulation figures and monthly revenue to help with my decision.

When analysing the contrast between each magazines statistics, they all provide advantages and disadvantages for either IPC or Bauer Media. Q magazine on average earns the highest monthly revenue, collecting over half a million. But, the price of the product must also be taken into consideration, as it is almost double the cost of Dare, and as a result could nearly half the amount of profit. NME also sells relatively well although, alike Kerrang!, it is published weekly rather than monthly. This could prove the statistics above to be unreliable or inaccurate because many devoted readers of these magazines would buy every new issue available, therefore purchasing multiple copies a month - whereas any followers of Q, Mojo and Uncut could only buy the possible one. It is also necessary to evaluate the lower end of the scale. Uncut, distributed by IPC Media, produces the least amount of revenue per month, despite being the most expensive of all five magazines. This may suggest that too high a price is a complete turn-off to most, hindering many potential buyers. However, its low income may not leave the publisher to blame, and could instead be based on the magazine itself and its music genre.

I have concluded that Dare will be distributed weekly by Bauer Media. NME and Kerrang! are two already popular music magazines that are published every week, and they share a similar price to my own, so I believed it would be suitable to do the same because £2.20 is far too cheap for the cost of a monthly magazine when compared to the others. I also intended mine to be very current and up-to-date, so that my readers are able to keep informed of all the latest news within the indie scene, so it is necessary for the magazine to be published every week, in order to be conisdered valid and reward a sense of exclusivity to the buyer. I believed Bauer would be the most appropriate choice of publisher for my magazine because there is currently no other sold by them that is of the same genre, and a lot of promise is shown after observing their circulation figures. I decided that IPC Media would be unsuitable for the distribution of my magazine, as it is too alike their own weekly music publishing, NME. This would cause serious competition between the two and a likely risk of both our sales decreasing, so this situation should be best avoided.