Friday, 21 March 2014

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

The kind of distribution company that I would want my magazine to be published by come to quite a lot of options. I have found due to extensive research a number of distribution companies that I feel as though they would be able to distribute my magazine to it's full potential and give it the stand in the magazine community so it has it's own personality. 
The main companies that I have found that would be the best for distributing my magazine would be either: Waddell Media, COMAG Specialist or Bauer Media. These three groups would be beneficial to the growth of my magazine because they all represent magazines that are very up and coming and still in a underground 'niche' market.
However out of these companies the one that strikes the most resonance with me would have to be COMAG Specialist. This is part of the COMAG Distribution company (which is owned by two major magazine publishers, Conde Nast and The National Magazine Company) and COMAG Specialist is the side of the company that pushes new and exciting titles for unique audiences to read. I have found on the COMAG website that it says about itself,

"COMAG Specialist believes that specialist and time-sensitive magazines and newspapers deserve a flexible and creative approach to finding their market, whether the title is specialist in terms of its content, readership or circulation size."

COMAG Specialist also publishes some of the magazines that I have took the most inspiration from, titles such as Clash Magazine and The Wire. Both of these magazines have really influenced the style of my own creation. COMAG as a company has had many years of experience to help it really establish its readership and they have discovered how to reach the intended audience for each magazine.  COMAG Specialist has been going since 1990 and the whole company has been in action since 1977. So they have definitely had experience in reaching the four quadrants and this appeals to me because I do want a very diverse audience for my magazine because I feel as though it is stylistic enough for the older audience, yet it still has playful writing and interesting articles for the younger audience. I like to hope that with this experience that COMAG Specialist would know which audience directly to aim it to and would place it in shops that would allow said audience to get the chance to pick it up.

This institution has already established itself in the media text market, therefore I feel as though even if they already have a number of 'alternative' magazines in their portfolio I still feel that they would utilise that audience that they already have for those publications and transfer that knowledge to my magazine and give it the best possible chance for it's growth.

I am pricing my magazine at £3.50, which is considerably of higher price than other popular music magazines. However I am essentially just taking my price off magazines such as Clash (they price their magazine at £3.99) because they are a good indication of what my target market would pay for a upmarket magazine. COMAG Specialist publish Clash so they now exactly how to get a readership for these good quality magazines. Having it at such a high price as well would give it the credibility that the content inside this magazine would be the best it can be because the money would be going on the development of the magazine from the future issues. I would also include product placement in my magazine, such as the type of adverts that are including in Clash magazine (new albums that are being released and advertisements for films that are coming out - this would be something that I would include in my magazine because I would have a small film/culture section). I would have fashion adverts as well for brands that are of a similar style to my design of the magazine and also the artists included in it. I would include brands such as Pretty Green, Topshop, Urban Outfitters and Vintage stores such as Farah Vintage. Using these types of product placements would allow my target audience to be drawn into my magazine because they are based on things that my market is interested in. Also hopefully COMAG Specialist would be aware of this and they would be used to this style of advertisement and that they would be more willing to being publishing my magazine.

No comments:

Post a Comment