Publishing House Case Study

IPC Media is a is a company that produces over 85 iconic brands, with their brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men. which is almost 27 million UK adults. Their online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month.

IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women.

Their men's portfolio (IPC Inspire) comprises a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME. While their mass market women's division (IPC Connect) comprises famous women's weeklies including Look, Now, Chat and Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week and, online, the goodtoknow network. They also produce an upmarket women's division (IPC Southbank) which comprises luxury fashion and beauty brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including woman&home and essentials and home interest brands including Ideal Home, Livingetc and housetohome.

IPC Publishing House would be the best choice if i was to distribute my product. The reasons for this are that, firstly, they do not pubish many magazines similar to my own, The only one which they produce is NME which is a music magazine, however this is the only magazine they publish which is similar to mine so there would not be much competition. Also my magazine would be a new brand and could attract many new readers. Secondly, IPC is a good choice as their target audience is similar to the audience i intend to aim my product at. I did some research on the target audience of NME magazine and i found out that; 70% of the audience readers were male and 30% female, with the average age being 25 years. This tells me that the audience that could buy my magazine would be of similar gender and age.

Audience Profiling

To help me in the planning of my own media product, I researched the demographic data in magazine Media Packs. The information I found was based from statistics on NME magazine which is a Rock/Indie magazine, the same genre as I intend to produce.
Here is the information I found:

NME.COM is Europe's biggest and most viewed music website. It has earned worldwide respect for its rock music news and features, which are updated around the clock. With 1.3 million unique users generating over 13 million page impressions nme.com is the U.K.'s premier music content website. It offers unparalleled access to an affluent young audience and a unique opportunity to communicate with them in an environment that they relate to and return to frequently - 63% visit the site weekly or more frequently*. The nme.com audience is made up of key demographic groups that can be difficult to target through other media: -

65% Male*
50% 16-24*
23% 25-34*
79% ABC1*

Our readers are passionate about music and as a result of their close relationship with the site content they are far more responsive to advertising. Whether they are more positively disposed towards brands that they see as supporting their favourite site or accessing advertising that they see as particularly relevant to them and their lifestyles they are 33% more likely than average to have taken action as a result of seeing an advertisement on the site*.

Advertising Success:
Music may be our readers' passion but they are also keen consumers of films, dvds, concerts, technology and lead exceedingly active social lives. In the last twelve months we have worked successfully with the following brands and advertisers: -
*Source: Forrester 2002

This information helps me to plan how I intend to develop my own product to target this type of reader because it tells me that with 1.3 million unique users nme.com is the U.K.'s premier music content website. It is also Europe's biggest and most viewed music website, this means that there is interest from readers who are not only in the UK. 63% of these readers visit the site weekly or more frequently, with the largest percentage of them being male and between 16-24 years. This information is useful to me as i can now target my product at a similar age group and gender, confidently knowing that it should give me a positive response to my product. I can also add things to my product which will help to attract more of a female audience too as this will make my product even more desirable to readers. This information also tells me that their audience were 33% more likely than average to have taken action as a result of seeing an advertisement on the site. This is good to know as if i include advertisements in my product, the targeted audience could be more responsive than intended.

Drafting Of Music Magazine Pages

Audience Research Results

This graph tells me that my audience is almost evenly split as male and female, although the male number is slightly higher. This tells me that when creating my own music magazine pages I should target my audience as both men and women.




This graph shows me that the majority of the audience is between 16 and 18 years old. However there are small numbers of under 16s and over 18s who took this questionnaire so this shows me that I should aim my magazine pages at 16 to 18 year olds but I should also include information that would be suitable for a slightly older or younger audience too.



This graph tells me that a very small number of the audience do not listen to music. This is ideal as if the audience didn't like music they wouoldn't read a music magazine.






This graph is very interesting as there is no real favour of music within the audience. This is a good thing as it will be easier to attract different groups within the target age group for my magazine pages. I can include information about many different styles of music which can interest a variety of people.




This graph shows me that a large portion of the audience do read music magazines already, therefore it should be a positive response for them to read my magazine.






This graph is also interesting as the audience is very slpit on the types of music magazines that they read, this means that I can include a range of information about different music types within my magazine. However if I was to do the magazine pages on only one type of music this information is clear enough to see that the most popular music type would be rock or house, so I could either do some futher research to find out what the audience would prefer or I could just choose based on the largest number and see from the audience's reaction whether it was successful or not.





This graph shows that the audience are most interested in reading about celebrity information and the newest music releases, so I would consider using these as the main information blocks within my magazine pages.





This graph shows that the audience expects a wide range of things within the magazine and each one mentioned seems quite popular so I could include any of these things within my magazine pages and it should give me a positive response from the target audience.





This graph shows that over half of the audience would buy the magazine weekly. This tells me that if it was popular then i should continue to produce the magazine as the audience would continue to buy it regularly and there would also be the other number of the audience who would still buy the magazine, just not as regularly.




This graph shows me that the majority of the audience would like to see exclusive pictures of celebrities within the magazine therefore I should include a section for this in my magazine pages.






This graph shows me that the majority of the audience would like to see competitions included within the magazine therefore I should include a section for this in my magazine pages. Prizes would be musi related, for example:
-free Cd's
-concert tickets
-music award night tickets
-meet a band/singer
and many more...



This graph shows me that the majority of the audience would like to receive free music related gifts with the magazine therefore I should include this in my magazine pages. I could give away free demo Cd's or newly released artist's merchandise.






This graph shows me that half the audience go to live gigs once a year, two thirds of them go once a month or more and the remaining third never go. This is a good response as it tells me that including gig dates and price information would be useful to the readers.





This graph shows me that the larger part of the audience have been to a gig based on recommendations from other music magazines. Therefore, this tells me that it would be a good idea if reviews were included of these gigs, and if dates were included regularly with recommended gigs.




This graph shows me that the majority of the audience have bought Cd's based on recommendations from other music magazines. Therefore, this tells me that it would be a good idea if I included a recommendable Cd list within my pages, showing the magazine's top 10 Cd choices which the audience could buy.




This graph tells me that over half the audience have subscribed to a magazine before, therefore this means if my magazine was to be interesting enough then it could be very successful and get many more subscribers.




This graph shows me that almost 50/50 of the audience have or haven't entered competitions from a magazine, therefore it wouldn't matter too much if I didn't include competitions within my magazine pages because although the audience would like to see them, only about half of the readers would enter them.





This graph tells me that only about a quarter of the audience vote in polls in music magazine, therfore this is obviously not very popular so it wouldn't be bad if there were no polls included in my magazine pages as not many people would vote in them.





This graph shows me that the majority of the audience went to music festivals last year and the average was 3. This tells me that they are popular and any information or coverage about these fistivals would be good if it was included in my magazine pages.




This graph shows me that it is also not so popular for the audience to write into music magazines, however a number of people did so this could be used in my magazine pages for readers to share their views on new music, gigs, or anything else music related. This could also help to promote my magazine sales as more people would recommend it to others to read.




This shows me that all the audience researchers do subscribe to a magazine, although only about half subscribe to music magazines, subscribing seems to be popular amoung the audience, so this tells me that if I can include a wide variety of ideas within my magazine then I could get more subscribers.




This tells me that the majority of the audience prefers to download music rather than buy Cd's. This is a good thing as technology makes it more avaliable these days, however, if it is done illegally it can be harmful to the person. This is why I think it would be a good idea to include a section in my magazine which tells people how to download music safely and easily, I could include a list of safe websites which can be used and reviews of website users themselves which would help the readers to decide what is best for them.

Audience Research Questionnaire

Question 1:
Are you male or female?
-Yes
-No

Question 2:
How old are you?
-under 16
-16 to 18
-18+

Question 3:
Do you listen to music?
-Yes
-No

Question 4
What type of music do you like?
-Rock
-House
-RnB
-Metal
-Pop
-Other

Question 5:
Do you read music magazines?
-Yes
-No

Question 6:
If so, What type of music magazines do you read?
-Rock
-Metal
-Pop
-House
-Other

Question 7:
What do you like to read most about in the magazine?
-Celebrity information
-New music releases
-Music reviews
-Gig dates/information

Question 8:
What would you expect to see in the magazine? (you may choose more than one answer)
-Celebrity information
-New music releases
-Music reviews
-Gig dates/information
-Instrumental lesson information
-Classified ads for band members
-Artist interviews

Question 9:
How often would you buy the magazine?
-Every day
-Once a week
-Once a month
-Once a year

Question 10:
Would you like to see exclusive pictures of celebrity artists in the magazine?
-Yes
-No

Question 11:
Would you like to see competitions included within the magazine? (Prize = backstage concert tickets)
-Yes
-No

Question 12:
Would you like to receive free music related gifts with the magazine?
-Yes
-No

Question 13:
How often do you go to live gigs?
-Once a week
-Once a month
-Once a year
-Never

Question 14:
Have you ever been to a gig based on a recommendation from a music magazine?
-Yes
-No

Question 15:
Have you ever bought Cd's based on a recommendation from a music magazine?
-Yes
-No

Question 16:
Have you ever subscribed to a music magazine?
-Yes
-No

Question 17:
Have you ever entered any competitions from a music magazine?
-Yes
-No

Question 18:
Do you vote in polls in music magazines?
-Yes
-No

Question 19:
How many music festivals did you go to last year?
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-5+

Question 20:
Have you ever written to a music magazine?
-Yes
-No

Question 21:
What other music magazines do you subscribe to?
-NME
-Kerrang
-Smash Hits
-Other

Question 22:
Do you prefer to download music online or buy Cd's?
-Download online
-Buy Cd's

Textual Analysis Of A Music Magazine Double Page Spread

The mise en scene techniques of this
double page consists of:



Props:
In this double page spread, there is more than one photo. The main photo we can see is most probaby a live shot of them performing, so it is certain that band members have props such as guitars. Within the other photos, they have no props but are shown just to be posing. I think this was done deliberately to show that unless they are perfoming they have nothing on them which would send out the wrong message to the readers.

Lighting:
The lighting on the main background picture of the double page spead uses mostly low key lighting and spotlights which light up the band members from different angles. The other pictures also use low key lighting with some natural light which allows emphasis on their faces. The pictures are published in black and white or sepia effects, which makes it hard for the reader to see the different lightings. However, these pictures make the magazine look more interesting and suitable for a music magazine.

Costumes:
The costumes worn by the band members are typical outfits that rock bands would wear. For example; tight trousers, leather jeackets/trousers, waistcoasts and trainers. In one picture, the band members are wearing only trousers and no shirts which was typical of rock bands. In other pictures, they are wearing leather jackets and trousers. Their hair is also the typical style of rock bands. Men had long hair and it was big and scruffy which was popular in the 80's.

NVC:
The Non-verbal communication within these pictures show the band members posing with aggresive expressions on their faces. In other pictures they are posing with straight faces or half smiles which conveys their "coolness" to the audience. In the main picture you can also see the band members playing their instruments, the non-verbal communication in this picture shows that they are really into their music and play aggresively which also makes the audience interested.

Setting:
The setting of the main picture is on a stage somewhere and playing a gig. In other pictures they could be in a studio somewhere posing for pictures. These pictures have been added to show the audience that the band also take pictures within the studios professionally, not only live pictures taken whilst they are performing.