Overview of the magazine industry

                                                      Overview of the magazine industry

There are lots of magazine publishers hoping to capture the magazine industry, but the largest consumer is Bauer with 25% share of the market. Closely followed by IPC media with a 20% share of the market, both of them producing big brand magazines such as; Marie Claire, Now, Kerrang and Grazia. By dominating the magazine industry they are now the biggest publishers in the magazine industry and this allows them to branch out their product and explore the different genres which allows them to become even bigger media producers.  On the opposite end of the scale the more unpopular choices are publishers who produce national magazines such as Herst. These industries fail to become more well-known because they only stick to one genre of magazine and they may only distribute them to one particular area which will bring sales down even more.

Today in the UK the magazine industry is forever growing. There are now over 3,200 different consumer titles, compared to 1980 when there were only around 1,383 consumer titles, so we can see how the industry is gaining more and more products to keep their target audiences interested. In 1992 only 1.2 billon magazines were said to be sold each year, which seems like a lot but compared to 1970 when these figures were almost doubled to 2.1 billion magazines sold a year. Now the statistics have dropped greatly to just 1.4 billion a year, this may be due to all of the technology we have become accustomed to, causing the consumer to purchase less  magazines.

The main focus of the magazine industry is to sell the main load of their product in newsagents, and to be sold to the general person, the working people. To help promote their magazine some publishers will have their magazine included as part of a special offer in a newspaper which may encourage a wider range of people to buy the magazine. Consumer magazines make up most of the titles that are sold in newsagents. Most of these are general titles that are designed to entertain or inform but the remaining ones are mainly consumer specialists aimed at a particular interest or hobby.

Information on magazine publishing

Information on magazine publishing

IPC media

They have over than 60 iconic media brands; IPC creates content for multiple platforms, across print, online, mobile, tablets and events. They engage with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. IPC was created in 1968 but the company’s history dates back to 1799.

Bauer

Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. Today, Bauer Media spans over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests including heat – the must have weekly celebrity title, Parkers, MATCH!, CAR and Yours. Their magazine heritage stretches back to 1953 with the launch of Angling Times and the acquisition in 1956 of Motor Cycle News, both still iconic brands within their portfolio.

Future PLC

Future PLC is an international media group, listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR).  Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 200 specialist publications, apps, websites and events. Founded in 1985 as a UK company with just one magazine, today Future specialises in many high-quality multi-media products.

Conde’nast

Condé Nast is home to some of the world’s most celebrated media brands. In the United States, Condé Nast publishes 18 consumer magazines, four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps for mobile and tablet devices, all of which define excellence in their categories. Condé Nast has won more National Magazine Awards over the past ten years than all of its competitors combined.

Location, props and costume

Location, props and costume

For location I decided to use the photography studio in the college because I felt that the white background would brighten up the front cover. I wanted to keep the front cover simple because there is already a lot of colour in the text and this may cause the text to become lost or less visible. I did want to use a different background for the feature article though. I wanted to have my model leaning on a brick background to show how down to earth the singer was, so that the reader could relate to him. But I couldn’t find the right model and the person that I did use, Liam, was being very difficult to work with so I doubt I would be able to have him pose outside of college. Also but keeping the background plain it made it easier to edit them out of the images and place them on different backgrounds.

I decide not to use any props because I didn’t want to have too much on the front cover and I didn’t want to take the focus away from the model. Since the picture I took of my model was mainly of his face I didn’t use props because you wouldn’t be able to see them anyway. For the feature article I wanted to only use images of the band members because I wanted all of the focus to be on them and not the material goods that would surround them. But for the contents page I did use some images of some props like the guitar, I thought this would make the page look more interesting rather than having just images of people on it. Also I felt that if I put images of props on this page then it may encourage the reader to see what else is inside the magazine.

I tried to have my model wear clothes that would match the genre of the magazine, rock. Luckily he wears clothes similar to this so I didn’t need to ask him to wear anything specific. These clothes represent the clothes that my target audience would wear so hopefully they will feel the connection between then and the magazine and this will encourage them to buy it.

My original ideas

My original ideas

My original idea was to do a Dubstep magazine because I know quite a lot about this genre of music but I wanted to do a magazine that the majority of people would read so eventually I decide to create a rock magazine. In the magazine I will probably have a few articles linking to technology and music to keep it more interesting. This may lead to a greater range of people buy and reading the magazine.

My idea for the front cover is to keep it plain but effective. I will probably use an image of a group of people to make it look like a rock band of people. I will use bold fonts but keep most of them similar but maybe have a few contrasting fonts so that the text can be easily divided up amongst the images.  I would like to keep the image in the middle so I can have all of the text surrounding it. I will have the email address of the magazine somewhere on the page so that it can easily be recognised and by incorporating technology into the magazine it may encourage people to check out the website which may lead to them subscribing to the magazine via the internet.

For the contents page I am unsure on how I am going to lay it out but I am hoping to use lots of images to keep it interesting. I’ll use some of the colours from the front cover and this will tie them both together. I may add and editor’s note on this page but I may decide against it because I don’t think it really suits the style of my magazine. I will make sure I have the email address of the magazine on this page too, in case the reader missed it on the front cover. I may have it on most pages where possible to keep the idea fresh in the readers mind.

For my feature article I may write an interview of the band on the front cover, linking to how they became famous and what music means to them.  This may include more images of the band members posing on the page. I will use simple fonts because I don’t want it to look too crowded with all the images and stuff going on, on the page.

For the images, I hope to take lots of the different members of the band posing in lots of different ways to show how down to earth they are which may make the target audience feel more comfortable reading it. I would like to take them mainly outside but that depends on the weather, if it’s too dark and gloomy I will probably take them in the photography studio because of all of the lighting equipment we have available. I may take some of the photos in the studio and then edit them onto a different background so that I don’t have to worry too much about a detailed background. I think that a simple background will be more affective as it won’t take the attention away from the images and text on the page.