Bauer Media
Bauer is a large German publishing company which operates in 15 countries worldwide based in Hamburg since 1875. Countries such as America, Germany, Spain Portugal and the United Kingdom are among them. It is a privately owned company and under management of the Bauer family. It produces and distributes many popular magazines and has stakes in television and radio, recently completing the purchase of a consumer magazine division and radio station division of the British company, EMAP. Since then Bauer owns over 200 magazines become the biggest publishing company in the UK as it focuses on mainly on Women’s glossy magazines, Men’s entertainment as well as lifestyles magazines, fitness, and sports magazines.
Bauer currently own different brands in television, radio and magazines which are:
Radio- Magic, Kerrang and Kiss.
Television- Q, 4Music, Kiss TV, Kerrang, Smash hits, Magic and The Box.
Magazines- Kerrang, Mojo and Q
The website for Bauer is
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/
Bauer media is definitely mainstream as well as niche magazines. They have different magazines which show they are versatile with the magazines the produce. Using for an example, heat magazine has many elements to it that interest women from fashion to the latest gossip which brings out the mainstream side to the company as well as their niche magazines such as Kerrang as it focuses mainly on one particular type of genre when it comes to music which is rock. The company has different types of magazine which appeal to all women, men and teenagers. As the company has a lot of women’s magazines such as Closer, more, Grazia and heat magazine, these magazines are most appealing to teenagers from the age range of 18-25. They also have men’s magazines such as Zoo, Empire, FHM are also aimed at younger men from the age range of 18-30 as the have men’s interest such as girls and sports. The brand image for Bauer publishing company is music. If you look at the website you can see that it is based on music and musical instruments. There are a few links between production of the magazine and other media production such as Kerrang! Magazine and they also have a television station and a radio station so this shows that they are an expanded production.
IPC Media
IPC (International Publishing Company UK Ltd) is one of the United Kingdom's leading consumer magazine and digital publishers, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. 85 iconic media brands, with our print brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men –almost 27 million UK adults – while our online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month. Whilst IPC Media (then IPC Magazines) was formed in 1968, the company has five magazine divisions Connect, Inspire, Ignite, Southbank and TX In addition; there is Marketforce, the UK's leading magazine distribution business.
The website for IPC Media is:
http://www.ipcmedia.com/
IPC media publish many magazines which are distributed all over the UK. They have magazines such as women’s weeklies (Now, Look, Nuts and NME.) They have magazines that target audiences for men and women. IPC media distributed mainstream and niche magazines that aimed at all, for example they have Now magazine which is a popular women’s weekly as it has fashion as well as the latest gossip on celebrities and real life stories etc which is mainstream. They have niche magazines such as NME magazine as this is a genre of rock which narrows down the target audience. The target audience is made up of many; they have women’s magazines which are engaging to women of the age range of 18-25, whereas they have men’s magazines such as Nuts magazines which contain girls, cars and sports which interest men from the age range of 18 and over.
BBC Magazines
BBC Magazine is the magazine publishing division of BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The company distributes their magazines all over the UK. They have five main categories for magazines which are Adult, Teen, Pre-teen, Educational and Pre-school. They have 38 magazines under their name such as Top of the pops, Easy cook, Bob the builder, Top Gear: Turbo challenge and Match of the day magazine. BBC magazines are distributed monthly or weekly.
The website is:
www.bbcmagazines.com
BBC magazines are mainly directed at the niche market as majority of their magazines are aimed at a particular topic. For example Easy Cook magazine is only about food and cooking and Top Gear magazine is only about cars and different motors. Even though it is a niche market they also Top Of The Pops which is a teenage magazine but contain the latest gossip as well as music which can be considered a part of the mainstream side of their magazine company. The brand image is very precise to the topic but mostly educational. The target audience is a wide range for all ages which is beneficial for all. This is different from the other publishing companies as the target audiences aren’t split in a way to show men magazines and women magazines its adult magazines in a whole. There are links to some of the production of the magazines to other media productions such as the Top Gear magazine also has its own popular television programme which started the Top Gear magazine.
Development Hell
Development Hell Ltd is an independent media company based in Islington, London. The company currently publishes two magazines which are Mixmag and The Word In April 2009 we acquired DontStayIn.com, the world's biggest clubbing social network.
The website is:
http://www.developmethell.co.uk/
This is a smaller publishing company and they are both magazines are in the niche market as they focus on particular genre of music. The target audience is not very wide as this is mainly aimed at adults. The magazines have their own websites.
Future Publishing
Future Publishing is a media company; in 2006, it was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes over 150 magazines in fields such as games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography. It is an international special-interest media group, founded in 1985 with one magazine, today they have operations in the UK, US and Australia. Future sells nearly 4 million magazines each month.
The website is:
www.futureplc.com
These are the magazines that Future publishing plc produce:
Classic Rock, Classic Prog, Computer Music, Future Music, Guitarist, Guitar Techniques, Metal Hammer, Rhythm, Total Guitar, Guitar Aficionado, Guitar World, Guitar World Legends, Revolver
The links between the music magazine portfolios is that it is all focused on a particular musical instrument which is the guitar so I judge that the magazines are aimed at adults as they contain classical music. Future publishing mainly focus on guitars which allows advertisers to know what exactly they would like to promote on their website. The magazines that they have produced promote other media such as gadgets. The most familiar magazines they have are Guitar legends, Xbox 360: The Official Magazine and Nintendo as the magazines are based n the gadgets which are sold all over the world to all types of people so this will appeal to them and allow them know all the all the latest news on the games that come with the Xbox, Nintendo etc. They magazines are in a niche market as they only focus on a particular topic. For example the Guitar World legends is niche as the magazine only focuses on that particular game and all the information that appeals to their target audience of young boys.
