Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why

Chloe Spears

The Production Process

Producing my media product would go through a production and publication phase, which follows 5 main steps: • Thinking up ideas, what will the magazine look like? What genre? It's audience and what content there will be in it.• Research current oppositions and products already on the market - how are they similar to my media product and how/why are they successful? Who are their audience/layout/design/what appeals• Produce flat plans as a visual aid as to what the product will look like - easier during production process• Constructing the product on an industrial size• Distributing the product to either a large or niche audience - depending on the target audience for my product - is it commercial or independent?

Publishing Regarding my magazines target audience to be young

‘scenesters’ and ‘indie kids’ my audience is very similar to magazines such as Kerrang! And RockSound which are distributed to be mainstream, rather than niche. Therefore, my product would be likely to be distributed commercially to a wide audience, by publishing companies such as Beaur Media Group which similar magazines (Kerrang, Q and Empire) and Sonic Publishing (RockSound) of my my product’s music genre are published with. Mainly their products are distributed to be mainstream and target a larger and wider audience but are still niche in terms of age and stereotypes. With a larger target audience, these products are distributed to larger retailers, such as WHSmiths, selected HMV stores and Supermarkets.

Who would distribute• Beaur Media Group publish Kerrang! Magazine, along with this Kerrang! Radio and

Kerrang! TV channel which collectively publicize and broadcast the main rock/pop genre towards their young ‘indie’ target audience. By having such a vast selection of interactive media, along with a online website and social networking sites, the publishers sufficiently manage to reach Kerrang!’s audience with content that specialize in the genre of music. By knowing the magazines audience’s well, it allows the publishing company to produce products they know will satisfy it’s readers and will sell, bringing in stronger and higher revenue to continue and re-invest back into production.

• My product is largely similar to Kerrang!, as it follows the conventions of the music genre and targets a similar audience, which would be helpful for Beaur to use techniques from publishing Kerrang and apply them to my product. Although Beaur’s reputation is strong and high and range from fashion to music genres, producing a similar magazine to a current product wouldn’t be too risky as it contributes further to a diverse range of products to it’s audiences. This is an important factor during distributing, to ensure that my product is produced to the highest possible standard and that the distributors are a reliable source,

• During production of my product, Beaur’s tactics into familiarizing and specializing in their magazine’s audience’s would benefit my magazine massively and would gradually and commercially increase the audience size of my magazine. It would also design and construct a product that would appeal to my audience to ensure sales and popularity with the new magazine and it’s audience.

VOLUME MAGAZINE

Advertising my product• Products such as Kerrang are advertised through its

corresponding TV channel, online website, social networking sites, tour posters and on the radio. RockSound is similarly advertised online through social networking such as Facebook and Twitter. Regarding their audience, this is an effective way of reaching them as these agents of advertising are most popular with it’s target audience age and hobbies. This is also a way of advertising to a larger commercial and mainstream audience, as most young people will regularly use these sites or see the advertisements.

• For my product, my audience is also mainstream, therefore these advertising strategies would be easy to apply to my product. Using Facebook and Twitter to advertise are usually free and target my audience directly, as they are currently the most popular ways of communicating and advertising online. I would also apply for my magazine to be advertised commercially on TV, preferably on music channels such as Kerrang TV, Lava, Scuzz or MTV.

Distributing my product Distributing my product to a larger mainstream

audience, it would be more suitable to distribute my magazines to stores such as; WHSmiths, HMV (to fit genre), TESCO, ASDA + other supermarkets and most local newsagents. I would also provide a subscription service online and from copies of the magazine via post, which would allow loyal and regular readers to own every issue and it would be delivered to their house, rather than purchasing it from a retailer. Although, this would be more costly to the customer as posting and packaging cost’s would be appropriate.

The change and emergence of web 2.0 will make it a lot easier for my product to be distributed and advertised online, from online advertising agencies that could be ‘add ons’ to websites and pages of rock/pop/alternative clothing websites or music stores or and reach a larger audience within the genre.