What kind of mediainstitution might distribute your mediaproduct and why?

As there are many magazines similar to mine, publishing could be seen as a bit of a problem as there would be a lot of competition. My magazine, Juice, is also mainstream so there is likely to already be a magazine similar to mine in most publishing groups. The publishing group is unlikely to have two magazines very similar to each other as they could just be taking sales away from one of their own magazines. I decided that Bauer publishing company wouldn’t be the place to go as they already have magazines such as Mojo, which is quite similar; this is mostly a classic rock magazine. I thought because the genres of music would be somewhat similar it would create too much competition between the two magazines. Bauer also publish Kerrang which, although it doesn’t feature similar music to my magazine, the target audience may be quite close to mine. The public are unlikely to buy two magazines at the same time.  Furthermore, they also publish a 4music magazine which is aimed at a similar target audience to mine as it covers the same genre of music, although 4music is seen as more of a female magazine, whereas mine is aimed at both sexes.

I then looked at IPC media to see if there was a potential place for my magazine. As IPC media is one of the biggest publishing groups in the UK, it engages with 26 million UK adults, I wasn’t expecting much space for a magazine like mine. However, although they do cover a massive range of magazines like golf and soaps, they didn’t seem to cover many modern music magazines. In my view the closest competition they had was NME which is aimed at a very different target audience to mine; the genre of music covered in NME contrasts heavily to mine.  There is also a magazine being published by IPC called Teen Now, which is aimed at a very similar target audience to mine. This could be seen as a competition, however that magazine is more to do with fashion, gossip and beauty. I decided that IPC media would be the place for me to publish as there does seem a place in the market for my magazine.

 

Another alternative would be to self-publish. This would in turn lead to more independence for my magazine as the publishing group would want to make editorial changes to suit them better, along with deciding advertisements etc. On the other hand, a positive aspect of being signed with a large company such as Bauer/IPC is the fact i need to consider Juice need for synergy. Being signed to a corporate media company will give Juice the opportunity to become established, faster- and host sister products such as a radio station and website. If Juice is successful, and is signed up to IPC, IPC will take a large proportion of the profit. Whilst, if it is to be self-published, all of the profits will return to myself, to put back into the magazine and establish the magazine that little bit further. Both options have a strong argument; it is a very hard decision considering i cannot anticipate the success of the magazine.