WHY ‘ EMPIRE ’

AND NOT ‘TOTAL FILM’?BY ISHLA OWUSU

EMPIREEMPIRE IS A BRITISH FILM MAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY BAUER CONSUMER MEDIA. FROM THE FIRST ISSUE IN JULY 1989, THE MAGAZINE WAS EDITED BY BARRY MCILHENEY AND PUBLISHED BY EMAP. BAUER PURCHASED EMAP CONSUMER MEDIA IN EARLY 2008. IT IS THE BIGGEST SELLING FILM MAGAZINE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IS ALSO PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, TURKEY, RUSSIA, AND PORTUGAL. EMPIRE ORGANISES THE ANNUAL EMPIRE AWARDS WHICH WERE SPONSORED BY SONY ERICSSON, AND FROM 2009 SPONSORED BY JAMESON.

EMPIREAFTER 25 YEARS OF BEING THE WORLD’S BEST MOVIE MAGAZINE, EMPIRE IS NOW THE BIGGEST MOVIE MAGAZINE IN THE WORLD. THIS INTERNATIONAL DOMINATION – OUTSELLING ALL ITS RIVALS GLOBALLY BY AN AVERAGE OF 2 TO 1 – IS DOWN TO EMPIRE’S CONTINUED COMMITMENT TO DELIVERING MOVIE FANS THE GREATEST MONTHLY EXPERIENCE, TELLING THEM WHICH MOVIES TO GET EXCITED ABOUT AND WHY.

EMPIREEMPIRE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN AUSTRALIA, TURKEY AND RUSSIA, ALSO MAKING IT AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST SELLING MOVIE MAGAZINE. THE FEATURE ARTICLES ARE USUALLY MAINSTREAM FILMS HOWEVER, THEY DO REVIEW ART FILMS AS WELL. THEY INTERVIEW CELEBRITIES ON THEIR ROLES IN FILMS AND IDENTIFY HOW THEY ARE IN TOUCH WITH REALITY. IN EACH EDITION, THERE IS SOMETHING CALLED A ‘SPINE QUOTE’ – THE CHALLENGE IS TO WORK OUT WHAT FILM THE QUOTE IS FROM. THIS ENGAGES THE AUDIENCE AND MAKES THEM WANT TO READ MORE.

WE CHOSE EMPIRE MAGAZINE AS IT HAS A LARGER BASE WITHIN THE UK SO MOST OF THOSE IN THE UK WOULD BE LIKELY TO SUPPORT US AS WE ARE BRITISH CREATORS. THEIR AUDIENCES RANGE FROM A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS SO ESSENTIALLY, OUR PRODUCT WOULD BE VIEWED BY THOSE FROM OUR TARGET AUDIENCE. AS OTHER AGE GROUPS ARE OPEN TO READ THE MAGAZINES, WE HAD TO MAKE SURE THAT THERE WAS NO EXPLICIT MATERIAL (VIOLENCE AND STRONGE LANGUAGE) IN OUR MAGAZINE.