Evaluation - Question 3

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

  
Music magazine distributors:

• Q - Bauer Media
• Mojo - Bauer Media
• NME - IPC Media
• Kerrang! - Bauer Media
• Rolling Stone - Wenner Media LLC
• Billboard - Prometheus Global Media

 The role of music magazine distribution is one for the most important factors affecting how popular and successful a company is. Take Bauer for example; they publish 3 of the most successful music magazines, whereas companies like IPC and Wenner Media are shown to be less successful, due to the fact that they represent less magazines. This means that Bauer have always been very good at publishing their magazines, them having ownership over the 3 most popular (non-free) music magazines, as the figures below show:

Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%

 Statistically, Bauer are the most successful publishing company, so for a new magazine it would be unwise to approach a massive company like Bauer in hope that they would publish their magazine. Perhaps if my magazine was more well-known and held in higher esteem then I would approach Bauer for them to publish 'Vantage.', as I recognised that all 3 of their magazines retain certain qualities and attributes that my magazine also portrays (i.e pop rock music, discovering new artists etc.) as I used Q, Mojo and Kerrang! for lots of my research into what my magazine should be like.

 Although I believe Bauer is the company I would most like to publish my magazine, I would also consider a smaller company like IPC, who publish NME as they are much more independent than Q, Mojo and Kerrang!, as NME isn't part of a huge company that controls what their 3 magazines. Therefore, they have fewer boundaries that they need to stick to and will have more of a say in what they put in their magazine. I would prefer this as I would have more freedom of speech in my articles regardless of what is perhaps socially acceptable in today's society that a bigger company like Bauer would want their magazines to present. This also furthers the idea that NME is an 'Indie' (independent) magazine, something that I would like my magazine to represent, having no boundaries to conform to that Bauer might inflict upon their magazines.

 To conclude if I wanted to set up a magazine company I would want to publish it independently, similar to NME, so I could have freedom in what I wrote, but I would like to run the publishing side similarly to how Bauer run Q, Mojo and Kerrang!, for I have stated in the above that I admired their ideals and attributes that make them so successful as an institution. So I would retain the attributes and qualities of Bauer's magazines that I admire, but manage a distribution company that was similar to IPC in the way that it is independent and free from underlying factors that would affect the contents of my magazine and the writing style that defines it as an 'Indie' magazine and sets it apart from other music magazines on the market.