Evaluation Question 3

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

One of the existing Punk Rock/Rock magazines I looked at to help me create my magazine was a magazine called 'Kerrang!' which is the same genre as my magazine and includes the same type of features that my magazine has. As my magazine is similar to 'Kerrang!' in some ways, it means I may be able to get publishers and distributors that work with the 'Kerrang!' magazine. The publisher for this magazine is a company based in Germany called Bauer Media Group. This group is quite commonly known and releases a variety of different magazines from different genres and it is not all just about Rock music. On top of that, this company also creates cooking, TV and lifestyle magazines which means they are popular and well known. Using this company for my publishers and distributors would be beneficial because, as they are well known it means they are successful and they will get a lot of sales - meaning my magazine would produce a large amount of sales and would become successful. It could also be a disadvantage too, this is because my magazine is very similar to 'Kerrang!' magazine, which means there could be competition between the two magazines and because 'Kerrang!' has been in the industry for a lot longer than my magazine, people will want to keep reading the same magazine they have been reading for years and may not want to pick up a new magazine and see what is inside of it.  

When it came to deciding what company I wanted to publish and distribute my magazine, I knew that I did not want Bauer, but I would want something similar to this company. For example, NME's publisher and distributor is called IPC. I eventually came to a decision after a while and I was deciding between the independent publishers called 'Blaze Publishing' and the independent publishers called 'Freeway Press Inc' which produce the original magazine 'Rock Sound' which I used to help me create my magazine. The publisher and distributor I decided to go with was 'Freeway Press Inc'.

I decided to go with the publisher and distributor 'Freeway Press Inc' because I am familiar with one of the magazines that this company sells and it is the same genre as my magazine, so this would be helpful. I would like this publisher to distribute my magazine because I know they have some experience as they have sold the magazine 'Rock Sound' which is quite well known, meaning this publisher may help my magazine become popular and well known. Furthermore, there are many different advantages of having this publisher for my magazine. One of the benefits is that this publisher mainly sells music magazines, which means there will be a variety of music fans that will already be buying their magazines and they also sell a lot of Rock magazines which is also advantageous because there will already be readers who are fans of Punk Rock and Rock music.

The reason I decided not to use the 'Bauer Media Group' was because they sell more than just music magazines which means they will have a wide variety of readers, but because they sell so many different magazines some people may avoid that there is a Rock magazine that is trying to be sold. Using 'Freeway Press Inc' was beneficial because the company is aimed at one age group and appeals to only certain types of people which means the company will fully concentrate on trying to promote a certain genre rather than having to concentrate on lots of other things as well. 'Blaze Publishing' was another one of the publishers I was thinking of working with, but I decided not to use them because they are not very popular which meant I was unsure if they would be able to do the things that I would want them to be able to do. Although 'Freeway Press Inc' is not that popular, they have still published some popular magazines which have done well, so I know that this company would be able to do the things I would want them to do.


'Rock Sound' is a successful Punk Rock/Rock music magazine that is published by 'Freeway Press Inc'. Here is some information about this magazine:

Here are some statistics for this magazine that my magazine may hopefully be able to achieve when I work with 'Freeway Press Inc':

 

Some magazine companies have allowed their magazines to be digitalised, meaning the reader would be able to read their magazine anywhere on their tablets. Nowadays, consumers are more likely to buy digital copies of CD's rather than physical copies, but when it comes to magazines people are more likely to buy the physical copy as there are often prizes and free items inside the magazine, but if you bought a digital version of the magazine then you would not be able to get those prizes. From this I have concluded that my company will make digitalised versions of my magazine, but most of the money will be spend on creating physical copies as more of these are frequently sold. I have decided this because in the future people may begin to want to read magazines digitally and our companies will be one of the companies that already have digital copies of our magazine - so we may earn more money at this time. On top of that, my company will also get a larger income as we will have different ways of selling my product (synergy) meaning there will be a larger mass audience.