research into music industries and institutions
TRANSCRIPT
I P C RESEARCH INTOMUSIC INDUSTRIESAND INSTITUTIONS
1. What types of magazineand target audiences hasTimes Inc (formely IPC)
been associated with overthe years?
Publishing companies are external to the print and
distribute the magazine. They make profit from this
alone. The majority of newspapers and magazines
today do not print and distribute their own magazine.
One of the benefits of publishing companies is that a
magazine could be put together in one location.
However, the publishing company can distribute it in
different locations to the one which it was made.
This is because they have offices everywhere,
which allows them to have a wider span of
distribution and allowing the magazine to reach a
wider audience, instead of being confined to one
particular location.
1800s - 1900s
The International Publishing Corporation (IPC) started publication in the 1800’s with ‘The Field’newspaper. This was predominantly directed towards men. At this time newspapers are very formaland are only targeted towards men women weren’t fully considered yet. They were seen to be
‘property’ of men, and therefore the news didn’t concern, nor appeal to them. The newspaper quicklybecame the largest in Europe and was comprised of 24 pages. During the Crimean War, the
newspaper had a correspondent there and on November 18, 1854 the paper ran a series of personalnarratives of those who took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade. Then, in the late 1800’s, IPCbranched out and expanded their audience. They did this by releasing a series of niche market
magazines, all of which are relevant to this day. These were Country Life, Horse & Hound, ShootingTimes, Yachting World, Amateur Gardening, Cycling Weekly, Amateur Photographer and TheRailway Magazine. IPC’s target audience for these is clearly affluent men. This is because the
interests covered in the magazines are typically taken up by upper class men especially in Horse &Hound, Shooting Times, Yachting World. The reason these magazines were so popular is that thesocial class of its readers (middle/upper class) allowed them to flippantly spend money. It could beargued that Amateur Gardening may have been targeted to women also, but as it is a slightly
laborious activity it may have been more male dominated. It also may have been directed at mentowards the higher end of the social ladder, as they would have had more land and a bigger garden,compared to people who were poorer. It was at this time they introduced interactive competitions,which helped to increase their popularity immensely. There were many competitions, one being bythe budding magazine Answers which offered the unheard of fortune of £1 a week for life to anyreader who could guess the amount of gold and silver in the Bank of England on a given date.
1920s - 1940s
Odhams launched the new monthly Ideal Home in opposition to Newnes' Homes & Gardens. This was so
revolutionary as it was the first of the magazines published by IPC that were aimed at women. In this time
period, women were in charge of making sure the house looked presentable and other domestic chores. So,
to have a magazine that directly played on this gave women something to read also. This was a big thing as
they had never had anything that was aimed just to them. The target audience of the Homes & Gardens was
generally women, as it was unheard of for men to do domestic chores and take pride in the home. This
magazine may have been relatively less expensive than the magazines in the past that had a male based
readership. A reason for this may have been because men were the breadwinners, and it was frowned upon
for women to have a career of their own. So, they would have had less money and consequently less
disposable income. To have a magazine that was based just on women and their needs would have made
them feel more independent. Woman & Home entered the market in 1926, and by its third birthday in 1929
had grown to a steady 144 pages. The demand for more feminine magazines was growing and to cater for
this they added more pages. However, it would have been predominately aimed at women who were richer.
This is because the houses pictured in the magazines would have been very grand and the décor would have
been more sophisticated. The 1932 launch of Woman's Own heralded the arrival of one of IPC's traditional
'Big Two', with the appearance of Woman following just five years later. The fact it was named ‘Women’s Own’
shows how it was just catering to women and made sure they had their own thing to read, now they were
becoming more independent to men. Newnes promoted its first issue of Woman's Own with a free cover
mounted gift three skeins of wool with every copy which was new and exciting. The price was 2d. This was
cheap, because they had no career of their own so money was limited. It was the first fullcolour magazine
retailed at such a low price. Other titles launched in this decade included Caravan, Stamp Magazine and
Prediction, which weren’t as female based. IPC’s weekly magazines played a key role in keeping morale high
and making women feel empowered during the war, aswell as supplying information. This shifted the class at
which publications were aimed at, because suddenly everybody was equal and wealth was pointless. The
aims of the magazines changed and were suddenly also to encourage women to pull together and magazines
did this in a way that was also enjoyable for women.
1950s
The sudden musical revolution called for more music magazines to
be put into publication. IPC answered this with New Musical
Express (NME) in 1952. NME comprised the UK’s first music chart.
And, swiftly following the creation of ITV was TV Times. This was a
new innovation and was originally in black and white, and was
operated out of a small office.
1960s
This saw people who were used to competing against each other join forces andstart working for the same parent company Ideal Home and Homes & Gardens,Woman and Woman's Own are just some. 1969 also brought the birth of a newfootball weekly Shoot!* launched to play on the influx of football fans, due toEngland’s World Cup victory earlier that decade. A series of other IPC titles
making their debut in the Swinging Sixties included Rugby World, World Soccer,Angler's Mail and Family Circle. These were all different divisions of genresalready circulating. Rugby World and World Soccer were, I would assume,mostly men related. This is because during this time, rugby and football were
both men dominated sports.
1970s
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh both
visited its King's Reach Tower HQ. Her
Majesty went to Horse & Hound, Country
Life, Woman and Woman's Own, where as
Prince Philip makes a solo visit to Angler's
Mail and Yachting Monthly. The magazine
titles that the Queen visited are very typical
of wealthy women lower class women
would typically not have access to much
land and would not be exposed to game
shooting and other activities associated with
farm life, therefore Horse & Hound and
Country Life would not appeal to them.
This decade marked the expansion into Europe. IPC announces the formation
of European Magazines Ltd., joined with Groupe Marie Claire to launch the UK
edition of the international title Marie Claire in 1988. Other magazines put into
circulation then are; 4x4*, Eventing, Chat, Mizz*, Motor Caravan Magazine*,
Wedding & Home*, Country Homes & Interiors, Classic Boat*, Model Collector*,
Motor Boats Monthly, Practical Parenting*, VolksWorld and Bird Keeper*. Many
of these delved into the niche market, and are very specifically tailored to
people’s needs and interests. More and more niche magazines were being
created, thus appealing to a wider audience of people. For instance, Wedding &
Home would most likely appeal more to women who were in relationships and
possibley late 20’s to early 30’s as this is the prime age for people to get
married, in nuclear generic families. The target audience is more likely to be
women as they are generally the ones who are more organised and put
planning into an event, such as a wedding.
1990 - 2000
What's on TV magazine is born in 1991. Despite competition, itbecame the UK’s number 1 selling magazine, and still maintainsthat title. This may be because during this period TV became
more relevant and there were plenty more variety in TV channels,thus providing an opportunity and demand on TV guides. Thelads title Loaded* hits the newsstands in 1994. This was
revolutionary and was a new invention. It was comprised ofmatters that were typically associated with young men. Theseincluded sex, drinking, and football. James Brown, one of theintitial executives, said that Loaded was targeted for men who
‘believes he can do anything, if only he wasn’t hung over’. This iscompletely antithetical to the magazines IPC endorsed decadesearlier, and was finally something appealing to men who weren’t
completely mature, but also grown.
This is where IPC evolved into ‘IPC Media’. Ignite! launches Nuts*, theworld's first men's weekly magazine, in January 2004. IPC Connect unveilsthe new generation Real Life weekly for women Pick Me Up in January
2005. The launch is backed by a £6million marketing investment and with thelargest sampling exercise in UK magazine history. This magazine is playingon the fact women are stereotypically more emotional than men ‘Pick Me
Up’ . In 2014, IPC became Times Inc ( UK)
2000's
2. Why is it an appropriate publisher?
Times Inc may be an appropriate publisher of a music
magazine as they are well known and have a good reputation.
They have published some of the most successful magazines
in the UK and have been working since the early 1800s. This
means they are very experienced and would know what they
are doing, which is what you would want in a publisher. They
clearly have a lot of practice and are globally known. They
have a lot of advertising powers which would help my
magazine reach a much wider audience, than if the publisher
was less well known and successful.
3.What sorts of genres ofmusic/types of magazines
might they be likely to publish?
Times Inc would be more likely to publish magazine genres that
don’t feature things that may pull their reputation as being
reputable and successful down. These may include smoking,
drinking, drugs and sex. However, they do publish certain ‘lads
mags’ which rely on the said features. Times Inc may be more
drawn towards magazines with more ‘innocent’ themes, such as
cookery and music. I can see on their website that they endorse
plenty of these and many other magazines that follow the trend
of being wholesome and family friendly. So, I feel they may be
more likely to publish genres like fashion, cookery, music and
sport. These have wide audiences and are also popular. In terms
of music genres they may publish, I think they would publish
music genres that are current and modern, as to keep up with
trends and remain relevant.
A Timeline of Bauer Media..
Baeur is predominantly based in Europe, and its headquarters isin Hamburg, Germany. Part of Bauer Media Group, H Bauer
entered the UK scene with Bella magazine in 1987. Bella made asignificant impact on the women's market because it was
new,innovative and appealed to more women than ever. Thecompany gained attention again in 1990 with the launch of Take aBreak magazine. Take a Break was directed towards middle aged
and up women, combining gossip and real life stories withcompetitions and prizes. It soon became leader of its market and
regardless of the strong competition Take a Break hasmaintained its No.1 status, currently selling approximately 800,000copies a week. The 1990's saw H Bauer’s portfolio expand evenmore, with the launch of TVQuick in 1991, that's life! in 1995 andTVChoice in 1999. Together with 23 successful puzzle titles withinthe stable, H Bauer has always had a major presence in the UK
magazine market with a considerable market share.At thebeginning of 2008, Bauer’s reach grew further by acquiring
Emap’s Radio and Consumer Magazine divisions and changedthe name of these new UK businesses to Bauer Media
With the recent addition of the
former Emap Consumer Media
titles, Bauer is now the largest
consumer magazine publishing
company in the UK, playing a
primary role in the Women’s
Weeklies, Women’s Interest,
Women’s Lifestyle, TV Listings,
Puzzles, Men’s Lifestyle, Music &
Film and Specialist magazine
markets.
Why may theybe a better
publisher thanIPC..?
They may be a better possible publisher
than IPC because, just by looking at their
website, I can tell they have a much wider
range of magazines that they support and
publish. This would be useful as they would
be more open to publishing my music
magazine, and would have more
experience than IPC may have. They
support a lot more genres, and their
website showcases this well. It also
communicates with people over a larger
variety of platforms – magazine, radio and
TV. This means it has a much wider reach
than IPC has,which is something you would
prefer in your publisher.