Evaluation Question 3 What kind of media institution

might distribute your media product and why?

Production Process

• There is a production process to go through when producing a magazine:

• Think up a concept for a magazine (including genre, audience and content).

• Research current products that are similar to yours and look at what is good about them and what makes them successful, or unsuccessful and who their audience are.

• Create flat plans for your product, making it easier to visualise as well as making the actual production stage simpler.

• Construct the product.

• Distribute the product through a distributer, depending on your target audience.

Publishing and Distribution• As my target audience are young ‘indie’ people between around the ages 15 –

25, my magazines target audience are similar to that of Q, Kerrang! and NME, which are sold by mainstream distributers rather than sold to a niche market. I would expect a publishing company such as Bauer media, which distributes Kerrang! and Q to advertise my product, these magazines are quite similar to mine however are not exactly the same so I think Bauer media would take my magazine on and distribute it. I didn’t chose a niche distributer as I believe the artists featured in my product would be too mainstream and the people that niche distributers would normally sell too wouldn’t buy my product. Bauer medias products are sold to wide, commercial audiences yet are still relatively niche in terms of stereotypes and age, so my magazine will fit in well. My product will be sold to a wide market, in supermarkets such as Tesco's. As my audience attend festivals my magazine will also be available to buy at summer festivals such as Reading and Leeds.

Distribution

• As Bauer Media already work with both Q and Kerrang! they have a very large target audience already. Kerrang! has its own TV and Radio channel and Q its own Radio channel. I think that Q and Kerrang work together well as they target similar age ranges but different types of people for example, Kerrang focuses more around Rock and Q around Indie music. I believe that my target audience is around the same age range of these magazine, possibly a bit younger but it would fit in well with Bauer media as my product focuses on the Indie Rock genre, allowing the distributer to widen its audience even more as it doesn’t have a magazine dedicated to this genre yet they know my target audience well so would know the best ways to advertise and sell my product, allowing for maximum profit. The company has a good reputation, distributing over 80 magazine, not all of them being music related, so know many different audiences, this is important as it is clear that they work well with both mainstream and niche markets, my product is more mainstream however.

Advertising My Product

• Products like Q are advertised through its own radio channel and Kerrang! through its own TV/Radio channel, Kerrang! also has a annual tour each year which also allows for advertisement of its magazine. Social networking is also used to advertise as the target audience of these magazines are of the age that are most likely to use Twitter and Facebook etc. so the magazines have their own page dedicated to their magazines, as well as Bauer Media having their own page, to advertise and occasionally have competitions and other things to attract people to their products. Social networking is effective as people that don’t often buy their magazines are able to see advertisements as they use these sites regularly, so this can allow their audience to grow.

• Classic Rock, the other magazine I focused on in my research, has a much higher age range in their target audience and do not have any dedicated TV or Radio channels, they rely on their loyal audience to buy their products and occasionally put advertisements on music channels and in other magazines. They are less likely to use social media to try and gain readers as they know their audience is older and more sophisticated and that they will probably not use social media as much as a younger audience would.

• As my audience is mainstream, for my product I will use advertising strategies similar to that of Kerrang! and Q. I will use Facebook and Twitter as these are free of charge and allow me to target my audience directly as well as expand at the same time. I would also try to advertise my product on TV on channels such as MTV. My audience enjoy music, gigs and festivals so I would ensure that my magazine was sold at festivals such as Glastonbury and advertised at gigs that they are likely to attend.

Distributing My Product• I want to distribute my product to a large

mainstream audience so I believe selling it in supermarket chains such as Tesco and Asda (that stock large amounts of music magazines) as well as WHSmith and smaller, local newsagents would be the best way to sell it. I will also offer a subscription, which will be delivered by post, which is advertised on my contents page of my magazine, this will allow people to save money when purchasing the product (as subscription is usually cheaper/has an offer) as well as making it easier for them.

• With the recent emergence of web 2.0 it is much easier for audiences to buy and find information about products online as well as being able to be mailed to them, it also makes advertising a lot easier, using web advertisements and social networking.