UNPLUGGED
Production Research
Magazine Costs
I'm When deciding the cost of my magazine, it is very important to research into certain areas such as target audience and what is affordable for them, and whether it should come out monthly or weekly. The pricing of my magazine is important in order to ensure that a profit is made. From my research I found We Love Pop sells at £2.99 and Top of the Pops sells at £2.20. The We Love Pop magazine and Top of the Pops magazine are published monthly, this suggests that the magazines would be more expensive; for example the same price as the Q magazine which cost £3.99 to purchase. However, the magazines only cost £2.99 and £2.20 to purchase connoting that the readers of the magazines would have less money than that of the people purchasing the Q magazine, which we know is true as We Love Pop and Top of the Pops magazine are targeted at a demographic of young teenage girls. The length of time between the magazines release dates and the cost of the magazine suggests that the We Love Pop magazine and Top of the Pops magazine will obviously be of better quality for readers. This appeals to readers as if they pay a lot for a magazine, then they expect good quality for what they pay. In addition, the fact that the We Love Pop magazine and Top of the Pops magazine is published monthly tells us that the articles that are present within the magazine are more generalised articles, which reflect on the exploits from the previous month.
I have decided that my magazine should be a monthly magazine as it is less of a commitment for readers and would prevent them from getting bored, and also would be less expensive for printing. However I would make my magazine more affordable to encourage buyers at a price of about £2.50.
I have decided to aim my magazine at a female market more than a male, therefore I must think about age range, and what my age group could afford. Since I decided to create a pop genre, I feel the best target audience would be between the ages of 14-18 as this magazine would be affordable and suited to them.
Magazine Insitutions
IPC Media stands for International Publishing Company (subsidiary of Time Inc) and is one of the UK's leading publishing and digital publishers, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.
"Our 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. Our mass market women's division (IPC Connect) comprises famous women's weeklies including Look, Now, Chatand Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week and, online, thegoodtoknow network."
Looking at the quote from ICP above, the music magazine (NME) is placed within the male portfolio. When looking at the Woman's division it is generally about fashion and gossip and not especially music; therefore if I would like to produce a magazine aimed at females,which would mean I would have to include on other features such as fashion and gossip as well as music to make it mostly appealing to women. IPC Media does not publish children's magazines and does not memtion about music magazines aimed at teenagers therfore this would be a gap in the market for my music magazine.
Hearst is another publishing company however this mainly supports women's magazines. Like ICP Media, there are no music focused magazine's within their portfolio, whcih could open up a gap in the market. ."Hearst completes UK portion of global deal with Lagardère SCANatMag & Hachette Filipacchi UK unite as Hearst Magazines UK. The portfolio comprises 22 magazines and 21 digital properties. Our reach extends to 32% of UK adults and 46% of UK women."
Bauer Media is german publishing company and operqates in 15 companies worlwide and is privately owned by the Bauer family. It is the leading consumer magazine publisher in the UK and publishes popular magazines such as Kerrang, Mojo and Q, and it adevertised as a mens magazine.
Along with the previous two examples above, Bauer media is specific to a male audience and therefore shows that there is a gap in the market for a female or teenage orientated magazine.