3. What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

Transcript
Four main companies distribute magazines in the UK, and this is called the oligopoly. The oligopoly consists of IPC Media, Bauer Media Group, Condé Nast and National Magazine Company.

 

 Bauer Media Group owns many forms of media such as radio, TV channels, etc. and also magazines. Bauer publishes magazines such as 'Closer', 'FHM', 'Heat', 'Q' and 'Kerrang!'. I believe Bauer Media could be an appropriate company to distribute my magazine as they do not publish any R&B/Hip Hop based music magazine, which may mean there is space for my magazine in their market .However I strongly believe that the company do not need another music magazine due to their already successful music magazines and therefore will not spend the necessary time on promoting my magazine to make it a success.

 The National Magazine Company publishes mainly fashion related magazines that largely attract women, such as 'Elle', 'Company', and 'Cosmopolitan' etc. Therefore they may not have the knowledge how to attract a male audience to their magazine which would be detrimental in appealing to my target audience of both genders. As they are not experienced in publishing music magazines, there will be less competition amongst the company, giving my new magazine more chance to be a success. However as they do not have much experience in music magazine distribution, they may lack the knowledge on how to promote and distribute my magazine successfully, therefore I do not think the National Magazine Company would be a successful choice for my magazine.

Additionally, I would not want my magazine to be published by a company such as Miller Publishing, as they already distribute 'Vibe which has the same genre of music as OnPoint magazine. This would create a vast amount of competition between my magazine and 'Vibe'- not only due to the similar genre but also the similar appearance and style. This would mean that my magazine would have little chance to stand out, therefore decreasing its popularity and buyers.

IPC Media is a very large publishing company that deals with magazines such as 'Look', 'Nuts', 'Woman’s Weekly', and also NME. IPC is currently the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher. This publisher engages with 66% of UK women and 42% of men. Unlike some companies, they publish a vast variety of magazines from music to fashion to TV. For my magazine to be a success, it is key that the distributor already has knowledge about successfully selling a music magazine. Also, IPC Media creates content not just for magazines but also for moblies devices and web, which is an important factor as social networking is used throughout my magazine.Even though they already have  'NME', a well known music magazine within their company, which could be seen as competition, it would not been seen as a risk as the two magazines focus on different genres of music therefore would not have to compete with each other as both magazines have a contrast in target audience. Due to their large success with NME, it highlights the company as having good experience with distributing music magazine and making them a success -therefore my magazine will have a likelihood of being as high a success as NME.

To conclude out of all the companies mentioned, I believe IPC Media would be most appropriate for distributing my magazine OnPoint due to their great knowledge and already well known success.