Evaluation Question 3 - Distributing My Magazine

Evaluation Question 3

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

I would choose Bauer because I followed the styling and layout of Q magazine who are also distributed by Bauer. There are also a lot radio stations and some rock magazine who are distributed by Bauer which is also most of my target audience. I think that I can get my music magazine distributed by Bauer because my target audience is not as specific as other magazines so it can appeal to more audiences that Bauer distribute too. My target audience is young adults and teenagers, male or female and my magazine includes more than one genre of music, it includes rock, pop and R&B. Also it wouldn’t need a lot of time and effort to advertise which could benefit Bauer as they have a lot of brands to advertise and distribute. My magazine maybe similar to some of the magazines that Bauer already produce but I think that my magazine has some unique qualities such as the image on my front cover is not of a famous music star which shows that I focus more on the future of music and the past whereas most music magazines such as Q publish modern and present stuff which is up to date whereas my music magazine doesn’t.

I would say that my magazine would be well published with a big publisher because it would get more recognised even though with a small publisher it would get published a lot more often because there won’t be as many brands being published. With the big publishers they have a wider range of target audiences which helps me more and Bauer has the target audiences that are suitable to my magazine. I would also choose a big distributer (Bauer) because they can distribute/publish over a wide range of media such as Radio, Magazines and Websites and I want to distribute my magazine online and as a magazine.

The advantages to having my magazine published by Bauer is that it can get to my target audience quicker as Bauer have a bigger market than smaller publishers. That means that my music magazine would become more of a success because Bauer publish big magazines so if I went with Bauer, people (my target audience) would think that my magazine is worth looking at. However, there are some disadvantages with using Bauer as my publisher because they have so many brands being published that most people would focus on the bigger name brands which that have been around longer so if I went with a smaller publisher then my magazine would get seen more often. An advantage with self-publishing compared to having your magazine published by a big company is that you can publish your magazine whenever you want and how often you want because you’re in charge of publishing your magazine. However, since you’re in charge of publishing your magazine there is more responsibility for you to handle and you could forget one week to publish it but with a big company you know that it is definitely going to be published at the right time. An advantage with self-publishing is that you don’t have to publish it globally so then you can save the cost of shipping and you can just distribute it in the country that it is being made, but with working with a big distributer i.e. Bauer you would have to pay the cost of shipping because they publish their magazines globally. As you can see from the pie chart 45% of the magazine costs is distributing. Depending on who you get to distribute your magazine you could pay a lot for it and whether it gets sold you could not make a profit. But with a local shop it would cost less to distribute and it still may not get sold a lot but it could make a profit.

However, I think that I can’t get my magazine distributed by one of the UK’s big distributers just because my magazine is not as big as some others. I do think it can be distributed in local shops however, it would cost less to distribute it in a local shop like newsagents rather than supermarkets like Asda.

I wouldn’t consider the idea of distributing my magazine online because there are not many big name brands of music magazine apart from Billboard that are distributed online. Also selling my magazine from subscription I wouldn’t think of doing because again there isn’t many big name brands that are sold from a subscription. Also with subscription and online publishing you have to be able to appeal to a wider audience and I don’t think at first my magazine would achieve that so I wouldn’t choose that to publish my music magazine. Even though getting it distributed online and through subscription is cheaper than getting it distributed in shops etc, I don’t think that my magazine would get seen by my target audience as much as if it were published and distributed in local shops.

With Billboard it is only online. It is also a very popular brand and it is read often globally. It is published weekly and per month there is 15.2 million visitors looking at the magazine. So this shows online magazines could sometimes work but not for a new magazine or up and coming like mine. Billboard is one of the most read online music magazine at the moment but Billboard started in 1894 so it has had a lot of time to become popular.

It’s important for my magazine to have synergy i.e. radio stations and tie-ins with iTunes or Spotify because it will publicize my magazine more and it will become popular. With my target audience this will fit in perfectly because young teens and adults usually listen to a lot of music nowadays so if they hear an advert for my magazine on Spotify or iTunes then they would remember it more than if I publicize as an advert in another magazine.