3. What kind of media institution will distribute your media product?

There are a variety of institutions to choose from when considering the distribution of my magazine. However, the majority are categorised into these three: Major publishing, Independent publishing and Self-publishing . In researching the three I found that they're strengths and weakness would have to first be weighed up, and only then could I decide which would suit my magazine the most and represent its audience the best.

Major publishing houses are quite popular due to their influence

and power; this is better summed up within Karl Marx's theory of capitalism, who stated that: 'Power resides with those who have ownership and control of the means of production and distribution'. In researching, I found that within the UK there are two major publishing houses: EMAP (East Midland Allied Press) and IPC (International Publishing Corporation). Both are extremely renowned and specialise in magazines aimed at mainstream as well as niche audiences', retaining ownership of such magazines as: Marie Claire, NME, Wallpaper*, InStyle, Yachting World, Country Life, Soaplife and Amateur Photographer.

However, there is another very influential, major publishing house: Bauer Media Group, a multimedia company which although is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany; operates in 15 different countries worldwide and publishes famous music magazines Q and Kerrang. Major publishing houses such as; EMAP, IPC and Bauer are quite versatile and therefore are able to publish magazines aimed at both mainstream and niche audiences; as they have various departments dedicated to the specific areas in each magazine, resulting in them having more resources. In fact EMAP, have recently created three separate operating companies to focus on customer needs in separate market areas; these included: Events and Festivals, Information Services and Publishing -which ultimately also suggests their move towards horizontal integration and the use of synergy, as their magazines promote their festivals and events, and their festivals and events promote their magazines. IPC also have focused departments, concentrating on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women; and Bauer has completely branched out, fulfilling the needs of all by obtaining 20 different dedicated departments, ranging from women/men's lifestyle or entertainment, to sports (from gardening, football, golf and motoring) to pets, radio and even charities. Major publishing houses are more affective and efficient because of their large marketing department. However, due to major publishing houses mass variety of magazines, as IPC media itself produces 60 iconic media brands, it may be more difficult trying to convince them to take a risk on a magazine that is in competition with any existing products.

Independent Publishing Houses are also known as Boutique Publishers and generally focus on (high end) magazines for niche audiences'. Independent publishers such as; 'The Church of London' who distributes 'Little White Lies' (a unique film magazine) and 'Huck' (a lifestyle magazine rooted in surf, skate and snowboarding) lack in resources as they do not have enough team members dedicated to help, therefore more time and money is needed and spent. They rely heavily on the internet and what social media offers, such as; viral marketing and 'word of mouth'. Independent publishing houses sometimes only help titles within their early stages; as usually if they start a title and it becomes successful enough to be recognised, major publishing houses may make an offer and take over the operation.

Self-publishing , is exactly that. It is the act of publishing ones own work independently of an established publishing house. There are two examples of this: a fanzine and an ezine. A fanzine is a more traditional form of self-publishing and was originally done on paper, having hand written articles and sticking pictures onto the spread. 'Sniffin' glue' was a popular fanzine and shows the traditional features which are previously described. Ezine on the other hand is a more modern adaptation as it consists of online publishing, usually a directory or blog. Self-publishing is easy enough that it can be done yourself. However, it does not have enough resources and no funding, therefore it has less chance of reaching a large audience. It also does not recieve any revenue, unless they were to generate money by advertising, or having people pay for a subscription (a pay wall) for their editions. Something which has been done by the times online recently, however it is still very difficult to attain a revenue.  

All publishing houses aim to use synergy (something which is explored in more detail in question 5) as they understand the way in which audiences are fragmented and know that by using the internet they are able to reach their audience, and at the same time popularise their magazine sales. Due to the resources major publishing houses have access to; they are able to promote their magazines on a range of multimedia platforms, and unlike Independent and Self-publishing houses; the resources, influence and money that major publishing houses have, allow them to gain far more awareness. For instance, Bauer publishing houses have taken into account fragmentation of audiences and in trying to maintain their brand awareness they branched out into T.V -4Music, KissTV, Smash Hits TV- and radio -Bauer Radio.Major publishing houses use synergy in the attempt to defragment the audience and create successful and enduring magazines. The effect of synergy is immense, IPC demonstrating this, as their websites collectively reach over 20 million users every month, largely the NME, which is the most visited music website in Europe. 

I would definitely choose the major publishing house EMAP to publish my magazine. This is due to the fact that they specialise in mainstream magazines and have the resources to help it come to its full potential; I also noticed that there was a gap in their market for a pop/r&b magazine and so they may be more successful in selling a magazine that has the unique combination of the two most popular music genres and less chance of competition.