Magazine Publishers

 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. Among the magazines published by Bauer are Kerrang, Closer, Zoo, Q and Grazia. The group collectively employs around 6400 people. Bauer Media is a UK-based media group consisting of many companies mainly around two main divisions-Magazine and Radio. Bauer have representatives on all of the main platforms of media as some brands are magazines, radio stations and TV channels, e.g-Kerrang. They publish a range of genres, from music magazines, to sports and gossip magazines. The magazine heritage stretches back to 1953 with the launch of Angling Times. Today Bauer spans over 80 influential brand names covering a range of interests such as Parkers, MATCH!, CAR and Yours.

Time Inc. 

Time Inc. is an American New York-based publishing company which publishes over 90 brands. Some iconic magazines Time Inc. publishes consist of: Health, People, Country life and Travel and Leisure. Time Inc. is one of the world's leading media companies, with a monthly global print audience of over  120 million and worldwide digital properties that attract more than 120 million visitors each month, including over 50 websites-reaching over 140 million people through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube. They are Britain’s leading publisher of print and digital magazine contents. Time magazine was co-founded in 1922 by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden. 

Outlook On The Magazine Business

All the 8000+ titles published in Britain can be separated into their own categories. These categories consist of consumer (sold in newsagents and available online), business/trade/professional/B2B (for the working class), staff magazines (to inform about their company, for the staff), newspaper supplements (come free with certain newspapers), part works (a number of issues which is built up into a type of ‘encyclopaedia’ on a specific topic) and academic journals (for university-level discussion). Consumer magazines make up the bulk of the titles for sale in newsagents. Like ‘Loaded’, ‘Elle’ or ‘Radio Times’ they may be aimed to entertain and inform or consumer specialist titles aimed at a specific interest or hobby like ‘Car’, ‘Total Film’ and ‘Gardeners’ World’. The biggest consumer magazine publishers by 2008 sales were Bauer Publishing with 25%, Time Warner with 20%, BBC with 7.8% and Hearst with 7.3%. There are over 3200 different consumer titles today in the UK with over 1.4 billion magazines being sold each year compared to 2.1 billion in 1970 and 1.2 billion in 1992. It is known that 85% of the population reads a magazine of some kind. Advertisers in 2008 spent £745 million in magazines. By the end of 2014 it is expected that more would have been spent of mobile advertising, which is set to surge by 83%. Consumers spend £2 billion on magazines annually. An average of 500 new magazines has been launched every year in the past decade, with only 3 in 10 titles surviving for more than 4 years. All media products emerge from a cultural context and society. An example can be shown in Cosmopolitan, which was launched in 1972 in the UK and offered women to a previously male world, giving more freedom and less dominance. Another example would be of Glamour magazine, which was launched in 2001 and is a way in front as the leading women’s monthly glossy. In the 2000s magazines such as Heat, Hello, OK and Grazia were launched, showing an ‘in-depth’ look at the shallow celebrity culture.

Analysis Of A Music Magazine Brand

The Kerrang brand was established over 30 years ago and is the biggest music weekly magazine in the world. Kerrang’s target audience are young people, therefore, as well as music releases. The typical reader would be a young male who loves music and enjoys talking about rock music and relating it to his hobbies, leisure time, attitudes, fashion sense and lifestyle. Readers would engage with music 24/7, if not listening to it constantly then they would be watching TV, discussing rock music with friends, attending gigs, playing instruments and dreaming about rock stardom. Kerrang also provide information about film and games, mobile technology and government messages. Kerrang writes mainly about the genre of rock music. The readers are the heaviest music consumers, purchasing over 6 albums per month on average and are 8 times more likely to spend over £200 a year on albums. The readers are also 5.5 times more likely to attend a rock gig. Kerrang offer a wide range of multimedia platform such as magazine, online, radio, TV, awards, tours and podcasts. Kerrang has been used by brands such as LG, Orange and National Express in the last 12 months. LG and Orange are a suitable consumer brand to mix with as they are phone networks, which relates to the target audience of young people that are interested in music as they will most likely provide themselves with a phone to stay in contact with others and gain access to music online or through the device. National Express is also suitable as the young audience that read the magazine will be the ones likely to use National Express to travel to gigs and go on tour. Kerrang online offer links to their Twitter and Facebook. On their social media sites they have 717K on Facebook and 535K followers on Twitter. This shows clearly just how popular Kerrang is with its young audience. As well as social media links there are also links to reading the magazine online, streaming TV and radio and a ‘win’ section. Kerrang hold competitions to win camcorders, CDs and tickets to see bands live. On the website for Kerrang they advertise their latest magazine issue and new releases.

Original Ideas Statement

For my music magazine I intend to explore the genres of rock and gothic rock. The target audience for my magazine will be mainly teenagers and young adults. The majority will likely be males who love rock and roll and dedicate their lives to music. The magazine will show new artists and advertise them to the target audience as well as give information on other well-known groups and new releases. My magazine’s front cover will show a new artist and feature some more recognisable people so it attracts my target audience. Colours I will use for my magazine will likely be mainly black, white, grey and dark red as to fit with the theme of gothic rock. I will use a range of informal and formal language for my target audience of teenagers and young adults so that it appeals to a wider range of people.

Fonts Moodboard

 For my fonts, I came up with a range and experimented to see what was most fitting for my target audience and theme of my magazine. I decided to use elegant and dark concepts for fonts to match the Gothic Rock theme. The fonts I used most were CHARLEMAGNE STD BOLD and GOUDY OLD STYLE as I found these fonts most fitting to the theme as well as being most simple to understand when reading.

Colours Moodboard

For my colours I decided that dark and pale colours would be best to use to fit my theme.  As well as dark and pale colours I thought that using some bright colours to attract the audience’s attention were also necessary so I decided to use a few that went best with the darker colours I used. As an outcome I used mostly black, red, medium grey, pale pink and purple. This colours are mostly present of the front cover and contents page with more purple on my feature article to differentiate from the artist and interviewer.

Advertisements Moodboard

For my advertisements I decided on a range of different companies and shops that my target audience would be interested in. As my target audience are people of quite a young age I thought that many multimedia websites and technology devices would appeal to them most. I also considered food to appeal to my target audience of a young age so decided that places such as KFC, McDonalds and Subway would be good for advertising in my magazine. As well as this I considered my target audiences interests, such as shopping, listening to music and watch movies. From this I decided that Beats, Skullcandy, Marvel and Netflix etc would interest my audience if advertised in my magazine. When deciding on advertisements for my magazine I considered the fashion of my target audience so thought popular gothic stores would be ideal to advertise.

Target Audience Moodboard

I decided that my target audience would be mainly young men and woman who have an interest in rock and gothic rock. In this mood board I wanted to portray the different fashion sense, music taste and interests that my audience have. My target audience would be interested in popular gothic rock and rock artists as well as less popular and foreign music. In this mood board for my target audience it is clear the different settings and clothing that my target audience would feel most comfortable in. It is also clear, through different symbols, the attitudes my target audience have against the world they are in. As well as listening to rock music, there are pictures on this mood board which suggest what my target audience do in their free time with friends, such as shop and holding parties together.