G321 – Task 4(Research into music industries and institutions)

1. What types of magazine and target audiences has IPC been associated with over the years?

There are a vast amount of magazines that IPC have been associated with since the 1800’s. Some of which include: Country Life, Horse and Hound, Shooting Times, Yachting World, Amateur Gardening, Cycling Weekly, Amateur Photographer and The Railway Magazines. The majority of these magazines can be classed as informative because they target the audience into wanting to learn new things; this is why they have stated in some of the titles of the magazines the word amateur.

The target audiences for these magazines would be between the age ranges of 27-50 and with be within upper class and middle class. The subjects, in which the magazines are about, are topics in

which working class couldn’t afford to do as a hobby. For example, owning a yacht would be something in which a wealthier male or female would have, the same would also go for ‘Horse and Hound’ because not many working class citizens own horses.

Towards the 1950’s the genre of the magazines started to change, as the times changed. Instead of narrowing their target audiences down by just aiming it at middle and upper class, IPC started to publish music magazines such as the ‘New Musical Express’ which launched amidst the heady days of Radio Luxembourg.

IPC’s most recent magazines that appeal to a target audience of 16-19 year olds would be NME, it is known as a rock/indie magazine. They have been publishing NME since March 1952. The social class in which the magazine is aimed at is C1-C2. This is because the target audience of the magazine would either be students or teenagers, although the price of this magazine differs in comparison to their other magazines such as ‘Whats on TV’ and ‘Womans Weekly’ it means they are broadening their audiences, to appeal to different ranges of people.

2. Why might IPC be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine? What sorts of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish? Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?

IPC would be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine because they haven’t already got a music magazine within the industry. They mainly stay within their comfort zone of comic magazines and newspapers.

It would be better for them to create a music magazine as they already have a market set up with women, and as the majority of the audiences are women, they’re targets would already be set up for them.

Although, the magazines in which they make are aimed at upmarket women, this could create a problem. This is why Bauer would be a preferred alternative because they’ve had experience with other successful music magazines, such as ‘Kerrang’ and they also have 50% stakes in music channels such as Q TV, 4Music, Kiss TV, Kerrang! TV, The Box, Magic TV and Smash HITS TV. This would give them expertise within the music scene. As they already have a certain amount of knowledge within magazines, this would make their magazines stand out, and the company would be able to distinguish certain types of music, and their audiences, and how to target their audiences.

They have different genres of music channels, starting with rock, pop and alternative. This would mean they would be more likely to stray towards either a pop magazine or a magazine that could be aimed at a niche market. For example, an alternative ‘music scene’ magazine. It would be pointless for them to make another rock magazine, as ‘Kerrang’ magazine is already well known, and the target audience is set up, and it would create another opponent for the magazine.

TASK 4B – Research into a specific music magazine that links in some way to your chosen genre and find out who publishes it. Do research into this publisher and why it might or might not make a suitable publisher for your final magazine.

NME started off as a newspaper in March 1952, and gradually changed to a magazine format in the 1980’s. It officially changed from newsprint in 1998. It’s published by IPC media.

They would make a suitable publisher for my magazine because the genre of my magazine is rock, they would have expertise on this topic as they have a number of magazines now, which are like ‘ NME’. The magazine ‘Uncut’ in which they publish could also be associated with the genre of my magazine, because they don’t associate their audience with just music, they include movies also, to broaden their options.

On the other hand, I don’t think IPC Media would be a good publisher for my magazine, as they tend to specialise in informative and ‘how to’ magazines. My magazine isn’t going to be anything like that, and I don’t think that their

knowledge within music, is the same as their knowledge within activity orientated magazines.

Also, the majority of their magazines are above £2.00 with the exception of the ‘TV’ audience magazines which range from 50p-£1, which I think for the type of magazine and the audience they are aiming it at is a little high. The majority of people that read ‘NME’ are between the ages of 16-24 which means they are either students or just going into work. This is a price I wouldn’t expect people that age to pay.

I think for my magazine, Bauer would be a much better option, as they wouldn’t have a problem applying themselves to a niche market of people and as they own one of the ticketing companies, it would allow the magazine to be given special offers, which revolve around music, which would be a perfect appeal to the readers of my magazine, it would allow me to give them more for their money, and maybe offer something which magazines within my genre don’t.