Evaluation Question 3 What kind of media institutions

might distribute your media product and why?

Angelique De Raffaele

The Production Process 1. First I had to come up with ideas for my magazines such as • What will it look like?• The genre I will specifically focus on.• The kinds of artists that would be included in the magazine.• The audience I will be targeting • What contents and features it will acquire

2. I then research existing magazines already on the market that are within the similar genre and target audience and analyzed how they are similar to my product I am about to create. To do so I :

• evaluated what the professional products have to be successful.• Who they are target to be their audience?• Their layout and design.• The language and contents with in their magazines.• Features that make the magazine appealing.

3. Thirdly I produced a flat pan as a visual representation of what I aspire my product to look like. This includes a colour scheme, positioning of features and general idea of the photography and text included. This help to ease the production process.

4. Then I went onto constructing my product on an industrial size -• Using photography• Constructing with Photoshop / In design tools

5. Then distributing to a commercial or independent market depending on the target audience as its either to a large or niche audience

I followed these five steps taking me from production to publishing phases to create me media product.

Publishing

As the genre and target audience of my magazine are both focused on ‘Indie ‘I found that the magazine that is most similar is NME. NME is distributed to a main stream audience rather than niche and sold in stores nation wide. Therefore, my product would be suited to be distributed commercially to a wide male and female audience by publishers alike those of NME; IPC Media which even thought only obtain NME and Uncut for music magazines ; both the genres are similar to my magazine’s genre and target similar age groups and stereotypes of people. Also other publishers such as Bauer Media Group who publish music magazines such as Kerrang, Empire and Q don’t have as much of a similar genre as NME as they are more focused on established mainstream bands who sell to a main stream, wide ranging audience, however their expertise can still apply as their current magazines are successful. With a large audience products can be sold in larger retailers such as supermarkets, WHSmiths and HMV stores.

Who would distribute?

•IPC Media already publish magazines of a similar genre and to a similar target audience, for example NME and Uncut which are currently successful and well established. As NME reaches such a vast audience through medias such as the internet and social networking sufficiently to their target audience with content to the specialized genre they are interested in.•As my magazine is widely similar to NME magazine in genre and target audience IPC Media’s expertise and technique in making NME successful could therefore be easily applied in publishing my product. As IPC media’s reputation is strong and high in many genres of magazines ranging from celebrity/fashion to sports and TV producing a product which is similar to a current one wouldn’t be a risky move as it can only further add content to their diverse and wide ranging products to their audience. And as mine targets a niche audience as well this will only help in increasing their audience.•Their magazines such as NME have a successful reputation in the music industry as NME also promotes the artists they focus on at tents in well established and popular festivals nation wide. This is also an important factor when distributing my product to ensure all measuring are taken that its done to a high standard and that the distributor are a reliable source.•During production of my product IPC Media would therefore be able to use their current techniques in familiarizing and creating a product specific to an audience, this would therefore be beneficial to my product and would then increase the audience size of my magazine. They would also be able to get involved in the design and construct of my product to make it more appealing to my audience to ensure good sales and popularity of my magazine.

Advertising my Product

Products such as NME magazine are advertised through their corresponding radio station, TV channel, online website, videos, mobile apps, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This has show to be an effective way in reaching their audience as these agents in advertising prove to be popular with their audiences age and interests. These are also effective tools in reaching a large commercial and mainstream audience as most young adults would regularly use these sites and then therefore see them advertised.

As my audience are mainly mainstream these advertising strategies could be easily applied to my product as even a niche audience would regularly use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, in addition these websites are free to use and advertise to an audience directly as they are currently the most popular strategy of advertising and communicating to a large audience online. I would also like my product to be advertised on popular music channels on TV such as NME TV , Lava and Scuzz.

Distributing

To distribute my product to a large mainstream audience it seem like a suitable option to opt for retailers such as WHSmiths, selected HMV stores, large super markets such as Tesco and ASDA and smaller shops such as newsagents and small record shops to reach a niche audience. There will also be a subscription service available online, within copies of the magazine and other magazines published my IPC Media as it allows loyal customers to receive every issue delivered straight to their door without having to go to a retailers. Also this would be a more cost efficient option as a usual deal is offered with a subscription which again would help in advertising the product.

The revolutionizing change in the emerge of Web 2.0 will ease the process of having my magazine advertised and distributed online, from online advertising agencies that could be ‘add-ons’ to websites of indie/rock clothing websites or music stores and reach a large audience within the genre. Also my magazine could also be distributed on new apps allowing to read magazines straight from the internet on new technologies such as iPads or iPhones which would again make it even easier to make my product popular to a large audience.