3. What kind of media institution will distribute your media product?

When thinking about distributing my media product, there are three types of publishers/publishing I should consider, these are; major publishers, independent publishers and self-publishing. In this essay I shall be looking at the advantages and disadvantages of the three choices and deciding which method will be best suited to my magazine and its audience.

Major Publishers are at the top of the distribution hierarchy, they have the most power in the distribution of magazines. They fit into Karl Marx’s theory of capitalism which is “power resides with those who have ownership and control of the means of production and distribution.” Major publishers have the most money thus meaning they have more control over making and selling magazines as they can afford to pay for things such as adverts and “prime selling spots” on magazine racks. Major publishers do not specialise in any one ‘genre’ of magazine and mainly produce magazines for large audiences, with few magazines targeted at niche audiences. The two major publishers in the UK are EMAP and IPC. EMAP, (East Midland Allied Press) specialise in “business-to-business” magazines and currently publish magazines such as Architectural Review and Retail Week. They currently do not produce a music magazine but in the past published pop magazine Smash Hits. IPC media are the largest UK publisher, selling 350 million copies yearly. IPC media publish magazines such as Marie Claire and NME. The main advantage of using major publishers is the access to resources. Major publishers have the most money and control over advertising and publishing so it would be able to produce and distribute my magazine to a high standard easily. The main disadvantage of using major publishers is that it publishes many other magazines and my magazine could get lost among the many. Also, major publishers work to a very high standard but they won’t share the passion for my magazine and wouldn’t put as much “heart” into producing it. Another major publisher I should consider is Bauer Media Group. Bauer are a publishing/broadcasting company stationed in Germany that operates in 15 countries worldwide. Bauer currently publish the music magazines ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘Q.’ The reason I should consider Bauer is because they have a 50% stake in all British music TV channels so it would be easy for me to get my magazine set up with a TV channel, this would be considered horizontal integration and would act as advertisement for my magazine. 

Independent Publishers are referred to as boutique publishers and generally make very high quality magazines for smaller niche audiences. An example of this is ‘The Church of London’ who are an independent creative agency. ‘The Church of London’ like most independent publishers specialise in only one or two high quality magazines for niche audiences. An example of an independently published magazine is ‘Little White Lies’, a unique, high-quality movie magazine. Independent publishers lack the funds and power that major publishers have but through the proliferation of hardware this is not such a big problem, as there are very cheap and effective ways of marketing media products using social networks and the internet. The main advantage of using independent publishing is that my magazine will receive a lot of time and attention as the company is only producing one or two other magazines, so my magazine will be very high-quality and will be finished with a lot of flair. The main disadvantage of independent publishing is that my magazine will not receive a lot of advertisement; it will solely rely on methods such as viral marketing through social networks and word of mouth to gain an audience.

Self-Publishing is just publishing something yourself. Self-publishing is publishing a magazine yourself without using a publishing house; this is commonly done through the use of blogs and E-Zines. The most common form of self-publishing is fan-zines and e-zines. Fan-zines are the traditional example of self-publishing, this is when someone is so passionate about a very specific thing such as a football team or particular music genre that they handwrite their own magazine on paper, photocopy it and give it away/sell it at a very low price. An example of that is the punk-rock music magazine “Sniffin’ Glue.” Sniffin’ Glue was a monthly magazine started by Mark Perry in 1976. It was hand written and sold on in niche record stores. An E-zine is a modern approach to this and is usually in blog form. The main advantage of self-publishing is that it is very easy to do yourself, and seeing as you’re the one making the magazine, you can make all of the decisions and design choices yourself. The main disadvantage of self-publishing is that it is very difficult to reach an audience, completely relying on word of mouth to market it.

I believe that a major publisher would be the best choice for my magazine. If I could have any publisher to publish my magazine I would pick EMAP to publish my magazine as they currently lack a music magazine. I would have preferred to use the publishers IPC or Bauer but they both currently have music magazines with a similar demographic to mine so picking EMAP allows me to compete against magazines such as ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘NME.’