Institution/Publisher research

The publishers of a magazine are the people that make the magazine available to the public for example making sure that it is available to purchase at stores. They also control marketing and advertising of the magazine.The concentration of media ownership is very apparent in the magazine industry as many magazines are owned by the same publisher for example IPC Media own a vast range of magazines ranging from the "indie" rock magazine "NME" to women's magazine such as "Look" and men's magazines such as "Nuts". The fact that NME is owned by a massive coorperation shows that it probably does not have the integrity it claims to as it designed to appeal to a large audience and it's key function is to make money. The NME is the same formula used for every other music magazine, but disguised to seem original, independant and exciting. Organising the company in this way ensures that IPC Media has all areas of msinstream media covered. Independant publishers distribute there magazines on a much smaller scale but appeal to their non-mainstream audiences by selling their magazines in "cooler" places such as music shops, independant book shops etc.

The publisher of XXL Magazine is Harris Publications, a smaller publisher that publishes only a few other magazines that could appeal to the same target audience of young men, an automative mmagazine, basketball magazine etc. Harris Publications strategy is to appeal to a specific target audience and be the leader in that market.

I would have my magazine be published by an independant magazine publisher and sell it in shops such as HMV and Face the music so that the music fans will see it as something real and cool.