Drafts

Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Technologies

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

After researching into all the major publishers, I have decided to publish my magazine independently. First of all, I looked at the benefits of distributing my magazine through big companies such as IPC and Bauer, they offer a high platform for my magazine to start publishing at and would allow me time to build my product from scratch, would give a lot of financial backing and can allow me to invest in technology. However, this does not necessarily guarantee me full editorial control over my product. Because of this, I have chosen to publish my magazine independently. I also have to consider what publishers would be interested in my product being as it is such a different product to every other music magazine being published by UK publishers and being published by an overseas corporation could be tough to keep regular involvement with your publishers and could result in frequent flights for meetings. This could however be tackled with the growing importance of the internet, as Skype calls and emails can allow me to keep in touch with my publishers on a regular basis.

The advantages of publishing my magazine independently are that I am in full control of the product and so can moderate the content, who I feature in my magazine and advertisements; this would be good because I can keep the magazine the same as it progresses. Independent publishing is also appealing to a lot of people in my target audience because many young people now want to support their ‘local scene’ and people who are self-employed rather than big corporations. Independent publishing is great for my magazine’s reputation as well as being a great marketing technique when aided by social networking. The disadvantages of independent publishing are that I have to fund the whole production and I need to make sure that I am financially stable enough to do so, because if I am not I will not get as much time as I would if I had the backing of a major publisher. I also won’t have the platform that major publishers provide in the way of publishing, I will have to deal with where and how I distribute my magazine, I will not be able to walk into WH Smiths for example and sell my magazine there if I am working on it alone.

If I was to distribute my product through a major publishing institution there would be a lot of benefits. I would be fully supported financially and would be able to afford technology that I may not have been able to on my own without any backing that would maximise my magazine’s production and would buy me time to build as the pressure of succeeding straight away is not as crucial. Getting my magazine into the major retail spaces such as WH Smiths would not be an issue, this gives my magazine a platform and enables it to mix in with other music magazines, offering a wider audience as it is given more publicity and distribution from the off, Bauer, one of the most influential publishers as an example reach over 19 million people across their different platforms. There is also the link between major national publishers and distribution company Marketforce (UK) which can maximise shelf space, this connection however only applies to magazines which are likely to be commercially successful instantly. The problems with being published by a major publisher is that I will not be guaranteed 100% creative control over my product, there could be disagreements over what can or cannot feature in my magazine and I could also be forced to feature content I might not want to and this would be frustrating for me as it is my magazine, I want to control what I do and don’t put in my magazine and I want to reach to my specific target audience, not display to an audience with interests I am not passionate about. There is also an added pressure to succeed long term because if the product doesn’t sell as expected and the publisher of my magazine starts to lose money because of this, they could decide to drop my magazine and stop publishing it all together. 

How did you address/attract your audience?