Research Institutions - Distributers and Publishers

IPC Media:

 

International Publishing Company IPC Media is one of the United Kingdom's leading consumer magazine and digital publishers, with
a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. IPC Media Music magazines are dedicated to music and music cultures featuring many different famous musicians, but also new musicians that specialize in certain types of music. In the majority the music magazines focus on one genre although as well they do focus on the closest other music to this genre which they also include features, up and coming and profiles on artists. For example if they choose Rihanna she could be represented in a pop or an R&B magazine so she would span across two different genres. Also each of the different genres of music attracts certain types of audiences. The magazines need to relate to the target audience and this also relates to the whole content and style of the magazine as well. It has an age difference for their audience from Teenagers through to mid-twenties and also by gender so this is often a very difficult for magazines to appeal to their entire readership with exactly what they want to appear and feature within the publications. More and more the music magazines are featured heavily on-line and through different digital and social media channels as well, as their target audience are now choosing multi-media channels to access information.

IPC Media groups titles under five magazine divisions: Connect (women's weeklies such as Now Magazine and Look), Inspire (leisure and specialist), Ignite! (men's lifestyle and entertainment), SouthBank (women's lifestyle and home interest) and TX (portfolio of television titles). In addition, there is Marketforce, the UK's leading magazine distribution business. Digitally they have WOTV and goodtoknow. International Publishing Company.

The Music Magazines which they own are: NME and Guitar and Bass International Publishing Company

                                   Bauer Media Group:

Bauer Media Group Is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG.

The Music Magazines this publisher provides are: Q MOJO and KERRANG. All three are advertised on their website as being men’s magazines. Bauer Media Group.

Emap was the second largest magazine publisher in the UK with about 18% of the news-stand market by revenue (to IPC/Time Warner's 20%). However, in July 2007, the company announced a strategic review. The result was that the company was split up and sold off in December: The business-to-business magazines were sold to Guardian Media Group and private equity firm Apax - which owns Incisive - for £1bn. The new company is to be called Incisive-Emap, its consumer magazines and radio arm, including Kiss and Magic, went to Bauer for £1.14 billion - making the German magazine publisher the largest in Britain.

Development Hell Ltd Set up by ex-Emap executives David Hepworth, Jerry Perkins, Mark Ellen and Andrew Harrison. Business plan to launch three magazines over six years. First launch, in March 2003, was Word , focusing on music and entertainment: New! Something to read! screamed the cover. Bought clubbing magazine Mixmag from Emap in November 2005. The Guardian Media Group took a 14% share in the company in July 2004.

BBC magazine is the magazine publishing arm of the BBC worldwide. BBC provides a varied and wide range of magazines that target many different audiences. They focus their magazines on music, gardening, children’s popular TV programmes, cooking, cars and astrology.

The music magazines that the BBC has published include: Its Hot - Top of The Pops - Classical Music Magazine

The BBC publishes many different genres of magazines as well as major websites through their digital channels as well. There are only a few magazines that are of the same genre. Top of the Pops attracts age ranges from 11 up to 15 years due to the content, music articles such as ‘Glee’ and ‘X Factor’. TOTP – affectionately known was launched in February 1995 and is released in magazine style monthly, but now has a new website which is updated every day with new ‘Today’s News’ section and new features. The magazine concentrates on chart music and features and focuses more on the commercial groups. It was closely linked to the TV show ‘Top of The Pops’ which was all about the music that was currently in the charts and everyone who is into the chart music and that culture. The magazine and the website also feature interactive articles and competitions to win musical related prizes, posters and pop memorabilia of star personas.

Future plc:

The future plc creates high-quality multi-media products which are used to reach their audiences online, on mobile and in print. Future attracts more than 45 million unique visitors a month online and is one of the world’s leading publishers on tablets such as the Apple iPad. Future delivers compelling content across five core sectors: Technology, Entertainment & Video Games, Sport & Auto, Music and Creative. The magazine is also famous for combining award-winning editorial with outstanding design, for their video content and digital know-how.

They also base everything that they do on communities of enthusiasts who are passionate about their interests. From computer games to film, from cycling to music-making, from photography to fast cars, they provide magazines, websites, multimedia content and events that inform, entertain and unite these communities. Their aim is to be the number one provider of trusted editorial services for enthusiasts in every one of our specialist sectors, and to be the number one partner of the companies who want to do business with these enthusiasts. They share the same passions as our consumers. These insights and our expertise are helping us to build and exploit our market-leading positions across different platforms in all of the core sectors in which we operate.

The company is also an international special-interest media group that is listed on the London Stock Exchange which was Found in 1985 with one magazine, today the company has operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 180 special-interest publications, websites and events for people who are passionate about their interests.

Future plc is committed to ensuring that it conducts its business in a way that is environmentally, ethically and socially responsible. Corporate responsibility is inextricably linked to the reputation and commercial performance of the business.

Corporate responsibility is integral to the way Future plc conducts its business.  They focus their efforts around four key areas which they think can make a difference:

• The environment
• Our people
• The community
• Coorporate practice

Future plc has most recently won the awards of:

AOP Consumer Digital Publisher of the Year 2012

PPA Digital Consumer Publisher of the Year 2012