History and development

IPC Media is a British magazine publishing industry that was set up in mid- 1950s that was

dominated by a handful of companies mainly by the Associated Newspapers, which was founded by

Lord Harmsworth in 1980. Publishers C. Arthur Pearson and Hulton Press fought each other for a

market share in a highly competitive marketplace. In 1958 Cecil Harmsworth King chairman of a

newspaper group which included the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Pictorial which, is now the Sunday

Mirror, made an offer for Amalgamated Press, the offer was accept in January 1959. He was

appointed chairman and within a few months changed its name to Fleetway Publications, Ltd after

the name of its headquarters, Fleetway House in London’s Farringdon Street

Important Dates

In 1989 IPC acquired TV Times and in the early 1990s IPC launched Loaded which began a wave

of what was known a “lads mags”.

In 1991 Egmont UK bought Fleetway merging it with their own comics publishing operation,

London’s Editions, to form Fleetway Editions.

In 2009 the company’s chief executive was replaced from Sylvia Auton who had run it from 2001 to

Evelyn Webster.

In April 2012 IPC Media won an award for Best Production Team of the Year at the Professional

Publishers Association Production and Environment Awards 2012.

Company size

IPC Media has over 60 iconic brands.

IPC Media engages with 26 million of UK adult- two thirds of women and over 40 percent of men.

IPC Media has an award winning portfolio reaching over 25 million users each month.

Target Audience

IPC Media has a very wide target audience but I feel that these types of magazine that have

been published by this company are aimed at older adults rather than teenagers. However,

there seem to be more magazines available for men than women. For the age range I would say

people in the early twenties to people in their late seventies, which is a similar age range to the

Bauer Media Company’s target age. The IPC Media Company does a lot of different genres of

magazine in order to attract their target audience, this is making them a very successful

publishing company as they know their target audience very well and they know what magazines

will appeal to that specific target audience of people and how to get them to buy the magazines

that they are publishing.

IPC Media’s website http://www.timeincuk.com/brands/ Telephone number 020 3148 5000

IPC Media publishing Brands

IPC Media groups its current titles under three magazine

divisions in order to focus on the core audience.

Connect- Targeting the mass market for women

Teen Now

Woman’s Own

Pick Me up Chat Passion

What’s On TV?

Soap Life

TV easy

Southbank- Targeting upmarket women

Look

Woman & Home

Ideal Home

Homes and Gardens

25 Beautiful Homes

Style at Home

Wallpaper

Inspire- Targeting the market for men

Country Life

The Fields

Shooting Time

Horse and Hounds

HORSE

Motor Boats Monthly

Rugby World

World Soccer

Golf Monthly

Golf Monthly

New Musical Express (NME)

Cycling Weekly

VolksWorld

When I am thinking about what company I want to choose to publish my magazine, I need to think which company

has the best range of magazines aimed at my target audience. When I am publishing my magazine I will think very

carefully about the target audience that the IPC media Company aims at. However the IPC Media Company does not

have the same target audience that I am aiming at, this may cause a problem as my magazine may not get the

publicity that it needs in order to get the sales and the audience I want. Between these two companies I would pick

the Bauer Media Company to publish my magazine as it has the best target audience for my magazine.