Looking at Bauer as a dominating company, it is redeemable to say that they have control over the UK's main advertising market. It is a German multinational cross media company and it is also independent. It has a different range of magazines, including home style and music magazines which will be my main focus. There are several different types of magazines they produce in the music category and these are: Empire, Kerrang, Mojo and Q. These are all very well known music magazines and with the help from Bauer advertising, magazines are able to meet their demographic audience in the form of an "imaginary entity" as Ien Ang suggests. The typical audience for these magazines are between ages of 16-24 and possibly 25-34 (such as Q magazine which is sophisticated with regards to age compared to Kerrang). The demographic audience for these magazines are specifically younger audiences, and with the help of the mass of the readership, including the consumers, Bauer and other companies can charge more for advertising because it is impeccable that they will be present due to the fact that all magazines are funded mainly from the advertising and in essence, an album review and artist review is essentially an advertisement because they are promoting them in order to attract the customers to buy and for them to pass the magazine on to other friends and people who are likely to read it - this is known as readership.
“Bauer Verlagsgruppe is managed by four generations of the Bauer family. The Bauer Publishing Group has grown into a worldwide publishing company. The Bauer Publishing Group comprises 238 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations.”
Resource taken from Wikipedia.org – Bauer Media Company
The main music magazine that is published in the UK by Bauer is Q, Q was first published in 1986. I will now briefly discuss the history of Q, and its success. Accordingly, the magazine Q was to be named “cue” as in after the act of cueing a record to play but the name was changed so that it wouldn’t be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Q also is an usual letter and is the most intriguing of the alphabet so as consumers we may tend to be attracted to Q, through the letter itself and the graphological elements of the logo.
As you can see from the image, the colours red and white have connotations of anger, purity and this contrast is used to draw the demographic and readership through the stereotypical use of colours and the font. It also uses a backdrop shadow on the letter Q, so that it stands out on the red on the logo itself. Q is mainly an indie rock magazine but with new talent such as Lady GaGa, they are reaping even more new members of their demographic audience because more and more people are becoming to like different styles of music. Q’s target audience is around 16-34 and is a mainstream audience. Their audience would more than likely be male however there are female readers who will buy Q.Q is the biggest selling monthly magazine that belongs to Bauer. It features massively famous stars, including bands which would appeal to an older aged group. Q uses synergy to sell through areas such as the music channel, radio station and website. It even has its own awards! They make a great deal of money through advertising through companies such as amazon.co.uk and play.com.
The magazine costs £3.90 which is quite pricey but because Q is mainstream, audiences will buy the media product. They may even lose out on circulation costs because I have even myself bought it and given it away free for other people to read. This may ultimately mean however that there are potential Q customers. The total average net circulation per issue in the UK alone is around 80,000. This proves that Q is a very successful music magazine that England likes to purchase.
Kerrang:
Kerrang is mainly a rock magazine, writing about bands such as Iron Maiden and Metallica. The name Kerrang! Is a connotation of a cymbal on a drum kit. This is referred to as onomatopoeia. This is used because it makes the magazine sound more interesting and appealing. It was first published June 6, 1981. Kerrang started with a niche audience, but are now more prominent with a wider ranging audience of ages 16-24. This is because not many people were interested in the music, but it now features different styles including rock-rap. It only costs £2.20 to buy and Kerrang also works through synergy. There is a radio, website and music channel. Kerrang have a very clever system that is called “fly text” this is where Kerrang sends text messages to the subscribers/fans telling them when and where their favourite bands are playing. The total average net circulation per issue in the UK is around 50,000. These figures display that Kerrang is a successful magazine despite its audience being one demographic entity.
IPC Media
IPC Media is a UK based magazine publisher company. They are very popular, with around 26 million adults reading an IPC produced magazine. It produces magazine genres such as Hair, Music, Gossip, sport and many more. IPC also hold digital properties, such as internet websites matching the magazines, so people can read about their magazines online. This process is named synergy, as it advertises both its magazines and its websites. IPC Media is part of a conglomerate, as it is owned by Time Inc, part of Time Warner Inc. the IPC business is split into five different sections: IPC connect, IPC inspire, IPC ignite, IPC Southbank and IPC TX. IPC employs around 2,200 people using their qualities to help expand the business.
NME
NME is one of the biggest, most popular selling music magazines today. It is a music magazine which is mainstream but has elements of indie music compared to other genres. It is only £2.20 to buy and its demographic audience is aged 16-24, possibly younger. This is because usually, younger adults or teens are more into contemporary music compared to older audiences so younger people are more inclined to buy the media product. Because it’s rather cheap too, there really is no competition for a similar based media product. The magazine has a weekly circulation figure of 74,000 people which is evidence of their success. The weekly readership for NME is around 400,000 which again is evidence of their success. They also use the synergy process such as their website which advertise both the magazine and website.
Bibliography:
Wikipedia.org - Bauer Media Company
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