Friday, 19 April 2013

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


Firstly, what is an institution? An institution is a company that disperses a media product for audiences to consume them. There are many different companies which disperse magazines, such as Warners Group Publications plc, Seymour, COMAG etc.



InterMedia is a publisher that distributes many magazines, one of their most popular being Vibe Magazine. This company is unlikely to distribute my magazine as it holds a strong resemblance to Vibe magazine through the layout and genre, as I was influenced by it when producing my own product. InterMedia would not be interested in distributing my magazine, as it is very much like one magazine they already distribute (Vibe). This means it is unlikely they would gain anything from distributing my magazine, as the audience I would be hoping to reach would most likely have already been targeted.
 
 

Conde Nast are a very well known company that publishes one of the biggest, most read and popular magazines available; Vogue. Due to the fact they publish and distribute such a popular magazine shows they have the expertise and experience to popularise a magazine, which is something I would want for my product. On the other hand, Vogue is a fashion magazine, and the company may not have the experience when it comes to distributing music magazines which is something that would be vital to me. Not only does this mean they are probably not the best choice of institution to distribute my magazine, they may not want to distribute it if they feel it isn’t within their area of expertise; if they make an investment in my magazine and chose to distribute it, they could fall short and damage their reputation.
 
 

Another very large publishing company that could possibly distribute my magazine is IPC. They publish a variety of magazines genre i.e. men’s interest, music, TV guides and many more. IPC also publish NME, which is one of the most popular music magazines available. My magazine would be of a whole different genre to those they already distribute, therefore I believe my magazine would be successful if distributed by this institution. On top of this, they have the experience of distributing one of the largest selling music magazines and would most likely have the expertise and knowledge to popularise my product.

Out of these few institutions I have mentioned, I believe IPC would be the best distributor for my magazine. Both my magazine and the company itself would benefit from the distribution of my product; this is because they do not publish a magazine like mine, meaning they can enter into a new music genre market. Having IPC as a distributor will also mean I won’t have any internal competition, as there is not other magazine like mine that they publish or distribute.
Though another thing I should consider, are digital magazine distribution companies. My target audience are young adults; at the ages of 18-28, in this day and age, people are very much in tune with new technology and the internet. The vast majority of my target audience are likely to have electronic devices, such as android and smart phones, where that can access the internet throughout the day and the press of a button. Accounting for this, I believe it would be important for me to consider digital magazine distribution companies- companies such as PixelMags. They are the leading digital magazine distribution company, who offer publishers multiple channels to instantly reach millions of customers. They have a very wide array of clients, ranging from Elle Magazine (a fashion magazine), to Men’s health magazine, to Surfer (a surfing magazine). Due to their clear success and popularity, I think it would benefit my magazine it they were to digitally distribute it, but it may also benefit them as they don’t distribute many/any music based magazines, so they can go into a new market. However, primarily, I think it would be good to have my magazine distributed by them due to the great influence technology and the internet has upon young people- specifically, my target audience.

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