What kind of media institution might

distribute your media product and

why?

What is a media institution?A media institution is a non-profit organisation which regulates and distributes

advertising, entertainment and information services.

There are many media institutions in the UK, and some of these include:

TV mediainstitutions

Magazinemediainstitutions

Regulationmedia institutions

Links to magazine institution websites:Bauer: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Future PLC: http://www.futureplc.com/IPC Media: http://www.ipcmedia.com/

I will investigate these three institutions and determine which distributor would be the most appropriate for issuing my magazine.

Bauer, IPC Media & Future PLCBauer Media owns over 80 different magazines with varying genres.

These include magazines such as Closer, Heat, Kerrang!, Q, Horse

Deals, Garden News, Sea Angler, Practical Classics and more.

This institution already publishes one of the UK’s leading rock

magazines (Kerrang!) and therefore this would be a good publisher

to distribute my own magazine because they have plenty of

experience handling this particular genre of magazine. However, I

will have to investigate whether or not I would want to enter into a

publisher who already has such a well-known and liked magazine.

IPC Media owns many different magazines, and some of these include

Marie Claire, Horse and Hound, NME, In Style and Amateur Photographer.

This institution publishes only one major rock/indie magazine and

this is NME. This is a high-profile magazine which from my previous

research I have found brings in a wide audience. This publisher

would be particularly useful to distribute my own magazine because

IPC Media do not have a specific rock/alternative magazine in their

repertoire and so this would be an ideal way of entering the mass

market with a new product.

Future PLC publishes many magazines in the genres of

Games, Technology, Music, Movies and Active. These magazines include

Playstation: Official Magazine, Digital Camera, Metal Hammer and

Cycling Plus.

This institution has a fairly wide range of rock magazines that are

not as popular as the likes of Kerrang! and NME. These are Metal

Hammer, Classic Rock and Rhythm. These seem to cater to less of a

mass market than magazines distributed by the above publishers.

This would be a good way for me to enter a niche market.

How my magazine would fit into the

institutions’ portfolio

My magazine would fit alongside these other rock magazines from

various publishers (including Bauer Media) well because the codes and

conventions I have followed allow the audience to identify the genre of

the magazine.

The publishers I have already mentioned have a selection of rock

magazines within their repertoire which would allow ACID to become

part of an institution which already handles some form of

rock/alternative material. This means that the magazines would be

Comparing PortfoliosI have chosen IPC Media as the best publisher to distribute ACID magazine as they don’t have a specific

rock/alternative magazine already (other than NME which would be classed as rock/indie) and so would

be able to cater to the target audience better and I feel like more time would be able to be spent on my

magazine because the range of magazines isn’t as broad as that of Bauer Media.

These magazines look quite

similar and so my magazine

fits in nicely with the other

rock product that IPC Media

create. However, it is

different enough that the

general market would also

want to buy ACID magazine

and not just NME because

the genre is slightly different

as NME cater to artists such

as Lily Allen and Franz

Ferdinand which are

considered Indie Rock

whereas ACID feature

bands like Fall Out Boy and

You Me At Six

(Rock/Alternative).

Media In Other AreasMany rock magazines and magazines in general have extended their products into other areas. This

is mainly things like online (so websites and forums) and radios/TV channels which show the music

that the magazines features 24 hours a day. This helps to keep the audience interested as the media

takes over young people (as these are the target audience). Things like QR Codes in my magazine

help to promote this as it links to the ACID website for extra content.

RADIO

A radio station is a good way to promote the music that the

magazine has, so ACID RADIO would play artists like You Me At

Six and Fall Out Boy because these are specific to the target

audience. New music would also be played because the audience

enjoy hearing new bands.

ACIDRADIO.CO.UKThis website would be extremely popular as young

people are more likely to go on the internet and enjoy

free content and so this would be a good media to

branch in to.