Bauer

Bauer is responsible for the publication of around 150 magazines in the UK, including Kerrang, Mojo and Take a Break. They make both niche and mainstream magazines. For example. 'eat in' is a magzine based on one topic which is food and cooking, and 'Take a Break' is a mainstream magazine about celebrities and current affairs. Some of the other magazines they publish are:

• Bella


• Spirit & Destiny


• TV choice


• Take a Break Puzzle Magazine


• that's life
  

The target audience of their magazines are usually women and teens. It is unlikely that a man aged 40 would buy Spirit & Destiny on a regular basis, whereas a woman aged 40 is more likely to. Bauer also have ownership of 40 radio stations. These include

• Kiss FM


• Magic


• North West Radio


• Kerrang Radio

And a few Music Television channels including:

• 4 music


• The box


• Hits


• Kerrang

Their brand image is...

IPC

IPC media plays a major part within the British publishing world. They also produce both niche and mainstream magazines, but mostly mainstream. For example they have magazines on weddings and gardening and tV, as well as ones on general life & current affairs. They publish around 80 magazines, some of them being:

• Marie Claire


• Loaded


• What's on Tv
  
• In style


• Ideal home
  
• Now


• Nuts


• Rugby world


• Look

The target audience for their magazines are mixed both men and women, and probably ranging from the age of about 16 for certain magazines such as Now and Look. Over 44% of men and nearly 2 in every 3 read an IPC magazine. One of IPC's digital properties is NME which is the third largest commercial website in the UK.

BBC magazines

BBC produce many magazines as well as TV stations and Radio stations. They produce niche magazines which fall under specific catergories such as:

• Childrens


• Food


• Home & Garden


• History


• Music


• Puzzles


• Motoring


• Science & Nature


• TV


• Sports

They have a mixture of target audiences because they have so many different catergories of magazine. For example, they have magazines about Gardening and food which will generally be meant for women and magazines about motoring and sports which will be mostly aimed at men. however, BBC do not produce many childrens magazines. They own 12 BBc Radio stations:

• BBC Radio 1-7


• BBC 1XTRA


• BBC Radio


• BBC Radio Nations & Local


• BBc World Service

BBC also own many TV channels, and are one of the leading publishing companies in the UK. They are key players in magazine publishing, as well as on TV and on the Radio.

Magazine Covers

When publishing a magazine, the editors main consern is what's on the cover. Editors spend 50% of their time worrying about what is on the cover of the magazine. The front cover is so important to them because it is the first thing that the readers see. It determines how good it is and what is inside it; it is what sells the magazine. The cover has to draw in the target audience and make them want to buy it.

The editor makes sure that Kerrang ! cover appeals to the whole of it's readership by covering four or five different types of music such as rock, pop, indie and punk. The magazine is aimed at teenagers from the sges of about 13-18. Four times a year Kerrang! have a cover-mounted CD, which is a free CD on the front cover. This is part of a promotional offer followed by posters, stickers and calindars in the next issues. These rapidly increase sales and more people are likely to buy it. A cover-mounted CD can not be on every issue because from then it will always be expected and sales will not rise, they will just stay at a constant level. They are also very expensive and time consuming. Mixmag features a CD on their issues and this does not help sales.

The two most important areas on a magazine front cover are the Logo (title) and the sweet spot at the side of the page. Well established magazines such as Cosmopolitan or HFM do not need to show their titles as much because it is easy to spot the magazine without seeing the full title. Most magazines to their best to ensure that their front covers are reassuring, but different.