MUSIC MAGAZINE INSTITUTIONS

RESEARCH Adriana Uryga

Who are the company? • Bauer is a European-based media company.• Run more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations

around the world.What is their company history? • Founded in Hamburg in 1875, where its headquarters now are. • H Bauer took UK by storm with Bella magazine in 1987.• They gained attention again in 1990 with the launch of Take a Break magazine, which

quickly became a market leader due to the mix of real life stories as well as competitions. • They later published TVQuick in 1991, that's life! in 1995 and TVChoice in 1999.• At the beginning of 2008 Bauer aquired Emap’s Radio and Consumer Magazine divisions,

changing the name of these new UK businesses to Bauer Media.• It is now the largest consumer magazine publishing company in the UK, playing a primary

role in the Women’s Weeklies, Women’s Interest, Women’s Lifestyle, TV Listings, Puzzles, Men’s Lifestyle, Music & Film and Specialist magazine markets.

What publications do they manage?• Music – Kerrang, Mojo, Q.• Cars – AM, car, Car Mechanics, classiccars, Classic Car Weekly, Commercial Fleet, Parker’s,

Practical Classics.• Gardening – Garden Answers, Garden News, LandScape. • Fashion – Grazia, Heat. • Care – Mother&Baby.• Gossip/Entertainment – Closer.

• Kerrang magazine is clearly aimed towards an audience which consists of people who enjoy listening to rock/indie/alternative/pop-punk music, often presenting many artists of those genres.

• The covers will tend to be presented differently depending on who the cover band/artist is, for instance, the cover with Fall Out Boy has each member showing their personalities whilst in the All Time Low cover, they all look rather serious, and seem to be placed in order of who seems to

Publications and Target Audience

be most popular (the lead singer at the front) in order to grab the attention of people familiar with the band.

• Mojo appears to be a magazine aimed clearly at people who are fans of more classical rock and grunge, keeping a similar theme throughout practically all of their covers, most likely maintaining a frequent audience.

• It is most likely aimed at an older demographic as it mainly focuses on music from artists from older generations, as well as keeping to quite a monotonous theme with monochrome, pale, sepia tones and occasional bursts of colour.

Who are the company? • Future PLC is a British media company founded in 1985. • Publishes more than 30 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, films,

photography, and sport.What is their company history? • Founded as Future Publishing in Somerton, Somerset in 1985 by Chris Anderson.• Anderson sold Future to Pearson PLC for £52.7m in 1994, but bought it back in 1998 for

£142m.• 2007 - the State of Texas filed a lawsuit against Future PLC for violating the Children's Online

Privacy Protection Act. It said that the Future PLC owned website GamesRadar, but did not ask for parental consent before asking for personal information of the children.

• It won the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) Consumer Digital Publisher of the Year Award for the third year in a row in 2010.

• It has grown to a portfolio of over 200 print titles, apps, websites and events. What publications do they manage?• Photography - Digital Camera, The Photography Show, Professional Photography. • Music – Guitarist, musicradar., Rhythm. • Film – Total Film, SFX, Crime Scene. • Gaming – gamesradar+, PC Gamer, Edge.• Tech – techradar., T3, Mac Format. • Create and Design – Creative Bloq, Computer Arts, Generate.

Publications and Target Audience• FutureMusic does not seem to have a specific target

audience other than simply fans of music. There are many different genres of music which many different people either like or dislike, so it is not possible to pinpoint music to one genre or theme unless different magazines are made for each. –Different types of music apply to different

people. For instance, older people may prefer things such as classic rock whilst a younger audience may prefer pop music. • FutureMusic can be for anyone who

is really into writing and producing music, or someone who wants to get into it.

• The different selling points provide Future with a wider audience as there are more options to choose from.

• Edge does not seem to have a specific target audience, which is clear as their games range from 3 to 18 rated, which clearly present to quite different demographics. Also, gaming exceeds to an even older audience than just a maximum of 18 years of age, and has a widely spread community.

• The magazines can be appealing to anyone, ranging from people who are into gaming to people who want to get into gaming, perhaps sometimes even parents who would like to be more

aware of the games their children may be playing, or to get ideas for gifts for events such as birthdays or Christmas.