Evaluation Activity 3

Question:

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

The magazine industry is currently dominated by the three big publishers; "Bauer Consumer Media", "IPC Media" and "Channelfly Enterprises" according to statistics from "ABC". 

The statistics show the following figures in the year 2011 from ABC:

• The Fly free ( Channelfly Enterprises Ltd ) : 100,574 ; -0.4%
• Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
• Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
• Classic Rock ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 62,354 ; -7.9%
• Uncut ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 62,305 ; -14.2%
• The Stool Pigeon free ( Junko Partners Publishing ) : 53,676 ; N/A
• Properganda free ( Proper Music Distribution ) : 46,542 ; N/A
• Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
• DIY Magazine free ( RWD Creative Media Limited ) : 36,801 ; N/A
• Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 35,259 ; -15.7%
• New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%
• Hot Press ( Osnovina Ltd ) : 17,688 ; -0.2%

As you can see from the statistics, the sales are falling by large percentages even for the biggest magazine's such as Q and NME. There could be many reasons for this such as:

• Technology- The technology has developed rapidly over the last decade which gave people access to technology that they never had before such as; personal smartphones, tablets, personal computing devices, and many more. This allows people the freedom to carry content on their mobile phones such as apps to keep notes of their appointments etc which reduced the need of having a diary which was a double win for the user as they got an app to keep appointments in as well as not pay for a diary. Simple things like this lead onto the reduction in need of having traditional things such as diary, printout newspapers, printout magazines.
• Internet- The most crucial part of technology that allowed this was, the internet. The internet allowed them to access the content they have to pay to use for free online which was better for the consumers but for the publishers it wasn't. Since the birth of the internet, the rate of piracy has gone up which lead onto the loss of money for publishers in most media publishing industry especially the music and film industry.
• Economy- The economy plays a part in the fall in sales in the magazine. Due to the recession that the world is in, most people have less disposable income so people choose to spend the disposable income they have on other things such as clothing instead of purchasing magazines.This factor alone causes a fall in the magazine industry sales.
• Magazine websites- There are numerous websites setup by publishers for their magazines. Examples are NME, Q, and Vibe. These websites give users access to articles, news, and other content which would be featured in the actual printout of the magazines for FREE. Due to the fact its free and its easier to access and navigate through.

 Even thought these factprs cause a fall in sales numbers, there are still sales because:

• Physicality- Some people still like the physicality of the printout magazines so they like to buy the actual magazine and read it as it feels more natural. This is the case with most people and people in their old age like the physicality instead of reading off a screen. 
• Knowledge- Some people still lack in computer knowledge so they wouldn't know how to access the internet and look at magazine's online so they still buy the printout magazine. Most people like this tend to be the older people because they would be the sort of people who didn't use the computer/internet much as both of those facilities were in their introduction stages and not many people had access to it in their day.
• Collections- Some people have collections of magazines so they would buy and keep all of the magazine editions that they can get. The people who do this tend to be a bit older also they do this for the self satisfaction of having all editions of one magazine but others just collect it to sell when to others as collections later in life.

My magazine 

 
As you already know my magazine is a Hip-Hop/Rap magazine aimed at the urban audience. My magazine is published weekly, contains 60 pages and is priced at £2.50.

Bauer Media who publish their magazine's on a monthly and weekly basis at a similar price would most likely publish my media product because they would need something new to help bring their sales back up again. Bauer's weekly magazine is Kerrang and it is aimed at the Emo social group whereas my magazine is aimed at a different target audience which is the urban social group and since my magazine is published on a weekly basis( It'd help improve their revenue ) they'd be likely to publish my magazine.

 As you can see my magazine fits into the Bauer Media group house style in all of their magazines of having a logo and having red in their magazines.