AS Level Media Studies:

Research and PlanningPublishing Houses

Why do you need to do this task?

• Firstly, you need to think about the magazine you are producing as though you are making it in the real world, for a real target audience, for a real market, rather than treat it like a coursework production or a magazine that you want to make.

Why do you need to do this task?

• With this in mind, you need to know about the world of publishing: who makes what, where from, who for, for how long, to what profit etc.

• Looking at publishing houses will help you to understand where and how the magazine you produce would fit into the publishing world.

Why do you need to do this task?

• When you have looked at who publishes the magazines we read, it may help you to identify where there is a gap in the market and you might like to take this opportunity to fill it!

What should you research?

• Magazines they publish• Market share• Brand identity (if any)• Profits• Company size – also think globally?• Web details• History and development• Important moments• Location and base(s)

How should you present your findings?

• Not by copying and pasting from Wikipedia!• Access their own website, see what their

‘mission statement’ is, look at what the website teaches you and make notes: perhaps even screen shot it and annotate in PowerPoint.

• Keep it readable: massive chunks of text are not interesting or encouraging!

• Make it lively – images, colours etc…