What kind of Media Institution would distribute your product and why?

Question 3

‘EMI’ could publish my magazine because they are an institution that is very well known and successful in marketing and distributing magazines in the UK and US, thus providing the magazine with a potential global market. They have also published 1.3 million songs in the EMI publishing catalogue, which includes a variety of genres to suit many target audiences. Therefore if they were the publishers of the magazine, ‘BADA$$’ would obtain the publishing and marketing that it would need.

A publisher who I feel would not be suitable in publishing ‘BADA$$’ would be Egmont. ‘BADA$$’ is very different to other music magazines they current publish under the brand as they usually cover a wide range of popular artists who all target different markets, for example Taylor Swift targets the ‘pop’ genre. The denotation of the verbal code of Egmont’s slogan is ‘inspiring children to read’, which connotes the attention that the target of my magazine is very different to those of the magazines that they post distribute now. I feel that working with Egmont would not be effective as they will not generate audience awareness and popularity within my suitable target audience therefore mot boosting sales. My magazine however does include some similar aspects to the magazines that Egmont publishes. The denotation of the verbal code of Egmont’s slogan is ‘we bring stories to life’, the publisher states that this has helped sell the institution to me when considering who a suitable publisher would be. However Egmont specialises in books so is not suitable for my magazine.However, taking everything into consideration I have looked at other institutions that may wish to publish and distribute the publication.

A more realistic publisher for my magazine would be Bauer media as they already cater for a target audience suitable to mine, the reason they are my number one is because they have published and distributed magazines such as Q and Mojo, which are both globally renowned print media products. This institution may not be known for distributing Hip Hop/Pop/R&B magazines and definitely not all of them together; however this could be seen as a good thing as it enables me to exploit the current gap in Bauer’s market. If Bauer were to distribute my magazine it would enable me to distribute my magazine into retail outlets such as WH Smith and supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s who have a partnership with Bauer. My magazine will be distributed weekly and will be put on shelves for the price of £1.50. I also think Bauer Media would be a good media institution to distribute my magazine. The company distributes popular music magazines such as ‘Kerrang’. As Bauer Media doesn’t distribute a magazine similar to my magazine consumers may be interested in my music magazine. As the company deals with popular music magazines it means the company has experience and reaches to a big audience.

Analysing all my previous points about each distributer I have decided to use Bauer as my publisher for my magazine ‘BADA$$’. Although EMI is already such a global phenomenon I feel like they are not the best suited as they already have a large platform of magazines, therefore Bauer is a much more realistic option. Bauer have already published magazines in the UK and therefore they have the experience needed to ‘BADA$$’ become as successful as possible. Bauer has worked successfully with numerous different magazines in the UK as well as around the world. It is the most popular media institution in the UK, therefore would be capable of distributing my magazine. Bauer do not currently have a hip hop magazine, therefore I wold be providing them with a new project, expanding my chances of doing well and also expanding their business into another hugely popular genre of music.

Bauer also has a wide online platform which would boost sales. Releasing my magazine online would also be an effective example of "Digital Distribution" of which is the delivery or distribution of media content such as audio, video, or in my case a magazine would be uploaded on different software such as a website that is based around my magazine. Bauer currently distribute one of their magazines digitally, this allows them to build up their brand identity and work on reaching their viewers on multiple-platforms for example interview videos and this allows the magazine to use E-Media sign offs to encourage the reader to interact with the content and/or someone being interviewed within the magazine online. If successful my magazine will also be available to download on an app. Subscribers would pay a monthly fee (of £6), which again gives another platform for viewers and my target audience and brings more money into the institution.