When considering which institution will
distribute my magazine, there are many options I could take. The majority of
distribution companies come under one of these three categories: Major
publishing, Independent publishing and Self-publishing. I researched into these
categories to see which would suit my magazine best to create the correct mode
of address for my audience.
I feel the best kind of media institution to
distribute my media product would be a major publisher such as IPC or Hearst.
As my magazine is a feminine twist on the popular magazine NME, a publishing
company with the same knowledge and networks as the NME would be ideal. The
publishing company for the NME is IPC who also distribute many other successful
titles such as Look and Nuts.
However, I also explored the idea of
distributing my magazine through boutique publishers to target a more specific
section of my demographic. I looked into companies such as Zest who distribute
their only magazine ‘Absolutely’ to AB households in upmarket destinations
around London. I also researched into Stack, a boutique company that
specialises in individual magazines for very niche audiences. Stack distribute
magazines such as Little White Lies and Huck which are known in their line of
work as being new and innovative with their design and article choices. 
I also researched into self-publishing which is
exactly what it states in the name. This is where people publish their own work
independently, without the help of major publishing houses or even
boutique/independent publishing houses. There are two general types of
self-publishing which include a fanzine and an ezine. A fanzine is a more
traditional form of self-publishing, originally done on paper with hand-written
articles and amateur photography pasted in the pages. ‘Sniffin Glue’ is one of
the most famous fanzines and was very popular among punk/rock culture in the
1970s due to its ‘do it yourself’ attitude. Moving into modern day, an ezine is
an online method of self-publishing in the form of a directory or a blog. There
are no limitations to self-publishing and, if by word of mouth your magazine
travels, it can be quite successful. However, it does solely depend on word of
mouth and networking to make your magazine a success as there is no funding,
little resources and therefore has less chance of reaching a larger audience. Another point to consider is the efficiency of the publishing houses vertical and horizontal integration. This is where a publishing house has access to advertise your media product on a wide range of media platforms. The bigger the publishing house, the more platforms they have access to. For instance, IPC is a subsidiary of Time Inc which is also a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner. This means that they get a lot of funding and coverage to promote their magazine amongst many groups of people.
Although I want to make my magazine individual
and appealing to my demographic, I am also aware that codes and conventions are
important for my demographic to stay familiarised with my magazine. My target
audience is derived from girls who read the NME and other music magazines aimed
at men as there are no such magazines aimed at girls. To make the jump from the
set codes and conventions of the NME etc to a boutique and individualised way
of design would be too far out of my demographics comfort zone. Additionally,
although my audience like to believe they are open to new and exciting ways of
publishing, they are also young and have been almost programmed by media’s
codes and conventions to like things designed in a certain way. Due to this I will be using a
major publishing company such as IPC to distribute my magazine.
No comments:
Post a Comment