Media Evaluation

Question 3 - what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Conde Nast

At the beginning of the project, we did a case study on publisher companies. This took longer than I predicted to research as I didn’t want to choose a company that already had a magazine like mine as that would create competition within titles. When looking at companies I wanted to find one which would benefit from my magazine as well as me. There were a lot of aspects to look at such as audience, financial, encouraging subscriptions to the magazine, where would I want my magazine to be distributed; new agents, supermarkets, stations, Internet etc.

Firstly I chose to Conde Nast publishers. This company where based in the UK with little magazines, their magazine had very similar aspects as mine but it wasn’t exactly the same, they were interested in culture which would be important to my magazine. This type of interested, allowed me to know that they would be interested in publishing my magazine as my magazine wasn’t just about music but culture as well. I think that this would benefit them because they would be used to selling something along the lines, so they won’t feel overwhelmed with new techniques.

A reason I choose to use this company was because of the effects it would have on the audience, benefiting me as well as them too. GQ the magazine that they publish is involved in celebrities (culture) policies, fashion, living, sport, travel etc. My magazine would link into this publishing easy allowing my magazine a solid audience straight away. But although my magazine would get an audience straight away, there were some differences between my target audience and GQ’s audience already. This would beneficial towards Conde Nast because my target audience included teenagers, as well as young people like them.  This would allow them to widen their audience as well as not changing their own personal style.

Another reason for my chose of publishing companies was the financial benefits for both me and the company. My magazine would be distributed through a monthly subscription. I think this is a good way to see the profit made because it would be in a monthly statement. Also a monthly subscription allows the company to see their stable audience and also going in to some research on them; improving the magazine and increasing the profit made. This would benefit both me and the company as it allows us to know work on situations needed though out.

The way my magazine would be distributed would be a main factor on why I chose this company as well. Although I already said I wanted to a monthly subscription, the place would be key factor for example the typical traditional places would be newsagents, stations, shops etc. But because of my target audience and research found on the company and its already existing magazine I would want to make my magazine more available for my target audience, making the audience widen benefiting me and the company. I would want my magazine to be distributed though schools, colleges and universities because this is my target audience, as well as youth clubs and the Internet. A place which would not be known for distributing magazine would be a club; I would like my magazine to be distributed there because of the audience I want to attract. For all of the places which aren’t common, I would distribute a free copy on a busy night. Although bars and clubs are places people wouldn’t want to read a magazine, timing would be key factor for this distributing skill. For some people if they get a magazine for free they would put it away as a lot of people go by “love freebies” although this would be risk it would be targeting my audience perfectly.