IPC Case Study, Task Four.

For my task four I am researching IPC Media, using the website www.ipcmedia.com, I will find all about their history as a company, the publications they are associated with, their current portfolio of titles, the structure of their company and what they are currently doing.


IPC Media, what they do and their audience
IPC produces over 60 iconic magazine brands. Two thirds of women in the United Kingdom and 42% of men in the United Kingdom are included within IPC's branding. That is almost 26 million adults within the United Kingdom! IPC also have several online websites linked to their magazine media, these websites collectively reach roughly over 20 million users every single month.

IPC have three main core audiences which they provide to.

Men -
Leisure brands: Country Life, Horse and Hound, Rugby World Lifestyle brands: NUTS, NME .

Mass Market Women -
Current Gossip: Look, Now, Chat, Woman
TV Entertainment: TVTimes, What's on TV, TV and Satellite Weekly, Good to Know Network.

Up Market Women -
Lifestyle brands: Woman and Home, Essential (Home Interest Brands), Ideal Home, Living, House to Home, Marie Claire, Instyle.

IPC Media Divisions
IPC are made up of five media divisions:

Marketforce - The UK's leading newstrade sales and distribution company. Marketing 23% of the total magazine category.

Advertising - IPC Media's advertising allows access to IPC Media's unparalleled range of print and online brands. Leading magazine portfolio reaches 27 million UK adults. 20 million users online every month.

Connect - Magazines read by 49% of mass market women, 8 million.

Inspire - Mens division, 38 brands including Country Life, NME, Nuts and The Field.

Southbank - Upmarket women's division two key markets, Fashion and Women's Lifestyle. (Also they have the Women's Home Interest.)

IPC Media History
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact beginning of IPC Media's publish production. Their international Publishing Co.Ltd was formed in 1963, following the merger of the UK's three leading magazine publishers; 'Georger Newnes', 'Odhams Press' and 'Fleetway Publications'. These three joined together along with Mirror Group to form IPC Media. Five years after IPC Media was formed, in 1968 IPC Magazines was created. The three original magazine companies had their own illustrative history, having being established in 1881, 1890 and 1880. A large number of titles they launched in the late 19th Century are still continuing to be published.

IPC's Media Family tree spans over a 150 year period! On their website they have a full in-depth timeline capturing each of the years: http://www.ipcmedia.com/about/companyhistory/

IPC's Current Portfolio

- 25 Beautiful Homes

- Amateur Gardening

- Amateur Photographer

- Angler's Mail

- Beautiful Kitchens

- Chat

- Chat - It's Fate

- Chat Passion

- Country Homes & Interiors

- Country Life

- Cycle Sport

- Cycling Active

- Cycling Weekly

- Decanter

- Essentials

- European Boat Builder

- Eventing

- Golf Monthly

- Goodtoknow

- Goodtoknow Recipes

- Homes & Gardens

- Horse

- Horse & Hound

- Housetohome

- IBI

- Ideal Home

- InStyle

- Livingetc

- Look

- Marie Claire

- Motor Boat & Yachting

- Motor Boats Monthly

- MBR (Motor Bike Rider)

- Mousebreaker

- NME

- Now

- Nuts

- Pick Me Up

- Practical Boat Owner

- Rugby World

- Shooting Gazette

- Shooting Times & Country Magazine

- Shootinguk

- Soaplife

- Sporting Gun

- Style at Home

- SuperYacht Business

- SuperYacht World

- The Field

- TrustedReviews

- TV & Satellite Week

- TV Easy

- TVTimes

- Uncut

- VolksWorld

- Wallpaper*

- What Digital Camera

- What's on TV

- Woman

- Woman&Home

- Woman's Own

- Woman's Weekly

- World Soccer

- Yachting Monthly

- Yachting World

- YBW.com

Current IPC News
TRUSTEDREVIEWS ANNOUNCES THE BEST TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR

VOTING OPENS FOR THE LEGENDARY NME AWARDS 2012

IPC MEDIA LAUNCHES RESEARCH INTO PREMIUM CONTENT WEBSITES

MARIE CLAIRE REFRESHES MARIECLAIRE.CO.UK

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Questions on IPC Media

What types of magazine and target audiences has IPC been associated with over the years?

They have three main focus groups: Men, Mass Market Women and Up Market Women. They produce magazines such as NME, TV Entertainment and Women & Home.

Why might IPC be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine?

IPC already produce the well known music magazine NME. IPC are a hobby and interest focused magazine publishing company and music is considered to be under this category. Along with the general points they also will be able to fund the magazine appropriately and have a long history of working in publications.

What sorts of genres of music/types of magazine might they be likely to publish?

With their expertise in the three target groups they can produce a range of different music magazines. They could focus on a classical to co-incide with their knowledge of an upper class market, they could have a rock or indie based magazine for a modern approach (such as one similar to NME) and they could even produce a younger audience pop magazine as they cater for women and men.

Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?

Bauer own more than 80 media brands. These brands inclued HEAT, GRAZIA, Closer, FHM, Kiss, Q and Kerrang. They focus on radio, music and interest subjects. Bauer would be perfect as with their radio shows and their already produced music based magazines they would be able to find and cater for their target audience professionally and effectively.

Magazines Directed at a Teenage Female Audience, Essay, Task 3.

Cosmo Girl

Magazines directed at a teenage female audience

ELLE Magazine

Teen Vogue

I have looked on the internet for five examples of magazines which their target audience is the teenage girl. There are several key conventions which demonstrate why they are aimed at a female audience, specifically teenagers. These are my five examples:

Cosmo Girl, ELLE Fashion, Teen Vouge, Seventeen and Bliss.

After looking at each of the covers individually you can see several conventions of the teenage girls magazine. Colour, models/stars, Coverlines and content are all very important when it comes to marketing the typical teenage girls magazine.

Starting with the colour scheme I noticed that they all have a very similar palette. Most of these covers are not seasonal or special edition covers so I can display the generic pink tones used. All five of my examples have included at least one shade of the colour pink on their magazines. ELLE, Teen Vouge, Bliss and Seventeen have all chosen a pink tone for the Masthead on the magazine. Cosmo girl used the contrast of black and purple, purple is still a sterotypical girls colour, very rarely do you see a male magazine with soft toned colours. General product sales when related to gender have a strong colour difference; women and girls items are usually soft toned colours such as pinks, yellows and purples wheras men have reds, blues and blacks.

The content and topics within the magazine itself are very important to who your selling your magazine to. On the cover of these examples there is a reoccuring theme of fashion, health, body and the hottest gossip. All these topics are the general idea of what a young teenage girl would be interested in. When you see young girls out and about in the public they are usually sporting the hottest clothes and are sat chatting about their weight at a cafe with a light salad and coffee in hand. 

When it comes to the model on the front of the magazine itsimportant to use someone who is seen as a role model in image and a general inspirational star or model. On the cover of Cosmo girl you have the hugely popular teen actress Emma Watson, she has featured in all of the Harry Potter films as the character of Hermoine. Her character is smart and intellectual much like Emma Watson herself. You wouldn't see Emma in the public spotlight acting crude or misbehaving. This is what the magqazine companys tend to promote young, aspiring teens who are beautiful but do not have a bad public reputation. On the cover of ELLE you see Kristen Stewart from the Twilight franchise, many young teenage girls have Twilight on their bookshelves, so to sell your magazine get whos hot at the moment on your cover. The same goes for Cher on the front of Bliss, many girls watch programs like the X-Factor as it starts gossip and perhaps inspires them to do something like entering the competition themselves.

Seventeen Magazine

When I found the covers for Seventeen and Cosmo girl I deliberately picked two that were not english editions to prove a point. When you still look at the colours and the models on the front you can see that the steryotypical pink colours, role models and the Coverlines are the same. Both Selena and Emma are global stars, so you will need a model on your magazine that is known and is popular by girls internationally instead of perhaps a local role model. Pink shades again appear on both the covers, yellow and purple are still femine colours so there isn't much to go against the point of steryotyping gender colourwise. Taking a look at the Coverlines you can get the genral feel of them being related to the topics discussed earlier. Key words such as 'Amore', 'Look' and 'Food' all echo the previous point of girls gossping about their looks and their eating habits.

Bliss Magazine

What makes these five particualr examples audience as teenage girls is getting hard to distinguish, as many topics grown women talk about younger women are speaking about as well. Its a very controversial issue, many people these days are always panicing about the age of girls and what they are talking about. On the cover of Bliss one of the Coerlines mentions a girl getting risky surgery of a 'boob job' at the age of 16. Magazines are constantly being spoken about when it comes to being an influence on what young girls are talking about. Going back to the topic of having a star and a model on the cover is very controversial. Wen it comes to body weight and looks having a stick thin model in the hottest clothing isnt the most desirable thing that parents want their children to be reading about. The five I have shown as an example dont really have too much problems in the model/stars have used on their covers.

From these five examples you get a good feel for how the teenage magazine industry sell their magazines. Colour, topic and star/models are all very important when selling the magazines. Basically anyone who follows a lose stereotypical format can create or design a young teenage girls magazine.

Magazines & Audiences, Magazine Analysis, Task Two.

Empire Magazine - 2010 - TRON

Empire is a british film magazine, which is published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. The first issue was released in July 1989 and is still being produced today. It is the biggest selling film magazine in Britain, outselling its market rival Total Film. Empire's audience is the generic film fan, the edition I have picked to analyse is one of the TRON edition covers. This cover features the main protagonist Sam Flynn the son of Kevin Flynn the main protagonist in the original TRON movie.

There are several clear indicators as to why movie goers are the target of this edition of the magazine. This particular issue also appeals to fans of the TRON franchise and comic con attendants. Here is my breakdown of the magazine.

Two different versions of the Empire Masthead, one they did for the TRON edition the other is their standard.

Starting with the masthead, I included the original which is a generic magazine big bold font type. The TRON edition changes two things with the masthead.

1 - The font type is still big and bold yet it isn't in the standard red colour its been changed to fit the TRON franchise. Within TRON franchise they have a neon coloured font type, this reflects the theme of the movie. Having EMPIRE echo this font type and neon glow it will be familiar to the fans of TRON. The masthead isn't effected in its power to draw in the audience of the EMPIRE readers, it makes it a collectable a piece of special edition merchandise for both regular readers of EMPIRE and the TRON fans.

The TRON type face.

2 - Sam Flynn the actors image overlaps the EMPIRE masthead. I have noticed that this effectively does two things to the magazine. It draws in more attention to the actor and the TRON franchise as people will want to collect it for his image. EMPIRE magazine, being around for a long time and being as strong as it is, have the confidence to cover their masthead slightly and know that their readers can still recognise who they are and will still purchase their magazine and not another competitors.

I have noticed that EMPIRE magazine have used this several times.

The TRON edition I have chosen has a very minimalistic feel to it, their more usual covers have far more coverlines and several contain a few smaller images. When looking at the Blockbuster issue you can see the difference in contents on the front. The audience is more direct and key on the TRON edition wheras the Blockbuster issue is marketing to a much wider film going audience.

Having very few coverlines highlights how they are trying to draw in their target reading audience. They want them to focus on the very key elements of Comic-Con, Superheroes and TRON Legacy. The three key points are all linked as the cast of TRON Legacy attended Comic-Con to promote the film and franchise.  The listed 'Plus' giving incite into the rest of the magazine is all Superhero related.

The exclusivity of the TRON movie and EMPIRE is a huge point of interest to the intended buyer of the magazine. The whole cover shouts exclusive and important, it displays character shots, the name of the film and the fact that EMPIRE has a World Exclusive about the TRON film. To film goers and Comic-Con fans alike a sneak preview of the next biggest film or part of a well loved franchise is huge. This desirableness is key in selling and marketing a magazine.

When purchasing a magazine it is important to be able to trust the information you are getting. Online people are more willing to believe that the information could be false, a rumour. When you are producing a magazine you are given the trust in to determining what is true and what is rumour. EMPIRE are proud of their achievements as a magazine and often show this by using badges and the selling line. I have featured below the badge used on the front of this issue of the magazine. Having displaying the information of 'MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR 2010' means it is a magazine with a great reputation and has a strong reading audience. This gives new readers more reason to grab this issue.

Even though this issue is clearly based around TRON, EMPIRE still need to bring back their previous buyers. Alongside the clear Comic-Con and Superhero linked theme, they include several names of directors and producers which as they are well known names within the film world it will encourage fans of those names to also buy the magazine. Under the names of Spielberg, Cameron and Zemeckis it shows how they will in their article discuss the future of movies. New technology and film is very important for movie watchers and is always in the spotlight, to feature such a controversial topic of 'revealing the future' of movies is another hook for the magazine to entice readers into buying. 

EMPIRE magazine have used the layout and the content to draw in the readers, using the TRON release as a huge boost to their target audience and linking TRON with similar themes such as Superheroes draws in readers even more. The use of subtle and few coverlines gives the feel of mystery and exclusivity, especially when it comes to the future of movies and the main world exclusive on TRON Legacy.

Magazines & Audiences, Magazine Terminology, Task Two.

As I will be eventually creating my own magazine front cover it is best to gather as much information I can on how to create an eye-catching, bold and 'snazzy' cover of my own. I have already started brainstorming ideas of what could go where and what main headlines I can include. I cannot however jump straight into creating one without some sort of layout to follow, otherwise the results could be a complete eyesore!

I have constructed myself a listed glossary of key terms and information to check off for when I come to creating my own.

MASTHEAD - The Masthead of the magazine is the most important part, your readers need to see exactly what magazine they are buying. When coming to design a Masthead it should be clear to read and the colour scheme should be carefully chosen. It is no good someone coming into a shop and looking to buy a 'Cosmopolitan' and walking out with some strange mens magazine, not sure if they would be too happy! Basically the Masthead is the visual branding of the magazine.

- Empire Magazine, note how bold the Masthead is!

DATELINE - Dateline is always important, one example is how collectors need to know what issue to talk about. How many times have you heard "Oh did you see what happened in issue 89? The one where Batman did this?" If you haven't heard this very much you might not know me personally but its a great example... Anyway the Dateline is the month, year and date of the publication. With the majority of most magazines they release their issue a whole month before, so they will release the January issue in December. It is also usually located above the barcode or in its own special area.

On this example the Dateline is near the Masthead.

MAIN IMAGE - On the majority of magazine covers you will find they have one huge central image which can either have one or two mini images surrounding. The central image is key to a magazine as it draws the target audience in. You certainly wouldn't have a photograph of a lion on the front cover of a women's magazine it would just create confusion and probably wouldn't sell very well. The models focus is usually looking straight forward out into the target audience, using direct eye contact to grab their attention.

The Main image features Selena Gomez

MODEL CREDIT - It is very unusual for the model to be given credit on the front of a magazine, this information is usually listed in the Contents section of the magazine.

COVERLINES - Coverlines are distributed around the main image, they are written in a smaller font than the Masthead and usually in a different style. The job of a Coverline is to give you snippets of information contained within the magazine. 

A coverline from Empire magazine advertising Thor

MAIN COVERLINE - The main coverline is the largest text on the front of the magazine next to the Masthead. It is designed to be eye catching and attention grabbing. It will usually take up about a quarter of the magazine cover. The basic layout for the Main Coverline is for it to be written in three layers, each a different colour. These colours will also usually reflect the Dateline, for example the October issue will be shades of oranges and browns.

Coverline featuring Inception from Empire Magazine

LEFT THIRD - In Western countries the left third is a vital selling tool for selling magazines in shops. Where most of the time, due to the way the shelving is arranged, the title must be clear and easy to read and easily distinguishable when put next to another magazine that may have a similar theme or colour scheme.

In this pile of magazines can you spot similarities which could confuse?

                        BARCODE - The barcode is a standard barcode used by most retailers. 

SELLING LINE - The short sharp description of the title's main marketing point. As an example it could be 'The World's No:1 Magazine for Men!" or it could set out its editorial philosophy.

THE WORLD'S BIGGEST MOVIE MAGAZINE - Empire Magazine

BUMPER ISSUE - Another technique to encourage people to buy, it bigs up the amount of pages and stories the issue is containing. Perhaps its a one off thing that they do? They may release only a 74 page magazine but for a special holiday like Christmas they will have a 102 page special.

Empire Magazines Harry Potter Bumper Issue

FREE PULL-OUT - A free pull-out is several or a double page spread which usually has a poster printed across them.

A series of fold-out posters given away as free pull-outs

BADGE - A small circular badge object on the front of the magazine, often displaying extra attention grabbing information.

This badge advertises  - THE MOVIE EVENT OF 2010

FONT - A set of type characters, numbers and punctuation marks, in one face and size. 

BASE LINE - An imaginary line where a line of text would sit upon.

I added the red lines from a clipping of Empire Magazine to demonstrate a Base Line

BI-WEEKLY - A magazine published every two weeks or twice a month.

WHITE SPACE - The use of space around headlines or images for design purpose.

The white space draws the attention to the actors and type on the front of the magazine.