Question 3

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

As Bauer is the publisher of Q, this is why I would choose it as the publisher of my music magazine, as I already applied quite a few of Q's layout and techniques to attract my target audience.

Despite this, I would also choose Bauer as it is they are a division of the largest, privately owned publishing group in Europe, which has grown to become a global media empire, owning 80 brands and 230 magazine in 15 different countries. Through this, I consider my magazine's association with this publisher to be beneficial as it would grow through their success and global recognition.

Bauer has demonstrated their power in the media industry through the acquisition of Emap in 2008 and all the brands and platforms it entails, gaining Bauer Media in the process.

Bauer Media also publicises other platforms, such as magazines and radio mainly. This would support my magazine in using these platforms to advertise the magazine brand and gain popularity.

As well as this, since the most recognisable magazines are published by Bauer and their success has generally grown since their establishment, it is difficult to perceive any other publisher as being more beneficial to a highly positive outcome.

It could be fair to say that this is partially a result of their dedicated focus to connecting with their target audience. This can be done through the layout, images (the models and representation), language and platforms such as the internet and television (Bauer's 'Box Television'). This appeals to the technophiles of the media's audience, that is growing more everyday through technology's greater influence over our daily lives, especially the lives of the younger generation. From this, Bauer has introduced technological platforms for it's most successful brands as a way of maintaining it's appeal to it's target audience, who generally tend to be the teen/young adults. This is why I made sure to include the aspect of the online site of my brand 'AMPlified' within my magazine, which was www.amplified.co.uk, as I too share this target audience age.

Bauer's brands are distributed by Frontline, which was formed by Emap in 1986 to handle their demands of an expanding circulation, yet now distributes Bauer Media, since Bauer's aforementioned acquisition of Emap. However, Bauer was already involved with Frontline since 2005.

Front line has also acquired many other partners, such as Haymarket and BBC, since it was created, making the company bigger. Overall Frontline distributes 160 magazines, and from this, is the most successful distributor in the UK. It's main job is to maximise the sales in the most cost effective way and use sophisticated software that ensures the right magazines and the right amount of copies are getting to the right shops.

Therefore, I would use Frontline as the distributor for my brand, not only as it distribute Bauer which owns Q which I used a considerable amount in analysing techniques for my own production, but also as it's success would hopefully raise of my magazine.

The only possible negative of Frontline, is that it is under threat of going bust as less and less people want magazines on paper because of the increase in popularity of technology and the competition of free magazines, such as fanzines like The Fly, who may force big brands to downgrade their magazines to become free and exist off advertisers. This means that publishers will not need a distribution company, meaning that the jobs of the employees of Frontline are in danger. However, the elderly audience generally still prefer the old fashioned paper copies, suggesting that this may still allow the paper copies of magazines to continue to be sold for a while longer which will keep the distributors in business in the meantime. Although, this is true for all distributors of magazines, therefore Frontline is still the best to choose, as as a result of it's higher success, it may mean that it may sustain itself longer than other less popular distributors.

Supply Chain