3. What kind of media institutions will distribute your magazine?

To distribute my magazine, there are many institutions we can choose from when making this decision. There are three main ways into publishing, which include Independent Publishing, Major Publishing, and Self-Publishing. When deciding which publishing suits my magazine best, we have to see what publishing is appropriate for my audience, and what would be the best way to gain more audience. Out of the three, Major Publishing puts magazines at more of an advantage, as it helps magazines turn viral quicker, and have more chances of being recognised.

Independent publishers, which are also known as Boutique Publishers, are particularly aimed at small niche audiences. Independent publishers such as Imagem, who distribute Pop and Rock music, including artists such as (Justin Timberlake, Kaiser Chiefs, Vampire Weekend),. However, there are many limitations to independent publishers, such as soon as independent publishers become successful, higher publishers such as the major publishers may over take this, as they have more power over publishing. Also the fact that independent publishers lack help with publishing and creating their magazines, leading there to be less people creating this, so therefore this can be time consuming, and expensive to create magazines.

Major publishers have more power than other publishers, and this is due to the fact that they are able to publish magazines that would be more recognisable to the public. 

There are two main UK publishers that are very successful within the UK. These are ‘EMAP’ and ‘IPC’. These two publishers aim their magazines at both mainstream and niche audiences, and are very successful at publishing in both areas. They have ownership and control over magazines such as the NME, Soaplife, Smash Hits, and Retail Week. Another popular publisher would include one such as Bauer, which is located in many countries as well as the UK. Bauer publish two very popular magazines such as Kerrang and Q. These three publishers are at an advantage, as they publish magazines aimed at both mainstream and niche audiences. This is mainly due to the fact they all have many departments aimed at certain areas in their magazines, which links them to having more resources. EMAP have shown their use of synergy and horizontal integration, as they have created three different companies in order to meet customer’s needs, which include Events and Festivals, Information Services and Publishing. As these three steps are helping towards promoting the magazine and the magazine is helping towards promoting the three steps. IPC and Bauer also have departments that focus on different audiences. This proves that major publishing are more efficient due to their power, publicity, and large departments.

Lastly, Self-Publishing is when you publish the magazine yourself. An example of self-publishing is ‘Sniffin Glue’. This is an example of which we would call Fanzine, which is a more way of self-publishing. Sniffin Glue was created in such a way where it would be originally done on paper, having hand written articles and stuck on images onto the magazine. This gives the magazine a handmade look. Another form of self-publishing called Ezine, which is a more modern form of creating magazines, and is usually done online or through blogging, and can more commonly be seen by being virally advertised. They are also able to be seen across social media. Publishers find self-publishing easy, as it is easy enough to do yourself, and many people use this way of publishing. Self-publishing however puts magazines at a disadvantage, as this makes it difficult for the magazine to reach a large audience. It is also very difficult to make a lot of money out of these magazines, as it is self-published, so you yourself do majority of the work

As research shows, Major Publishing is able to publish their magazines across multimedia platforms, due to the fact they have the resources to have access to promote their magazines across these multimedia platforms, whereas for Self-Publishing and Independent Publishers aren't as powerful as Major, but are also very successful with publishing magazines, and gaining an audience.

I would choose Major Publishing EMAP, and this is due to fact that they are able to make my magazine mainstream, to be appealing not only to my target audience, which is females ages 16-24, but appropriate for all demographics. It would also put my magazine at an advantage as there would be less chance of competition, as EMAP hardly publishes R&B magazines, which would also help me gain a wider audience as it is bring something new to their market. There is also the facts of Major publishing houses are often seen as popular, as they often represent power. This is supported by Karl Marx, who says himself ‘‘Power resides with those who have ownership and control of the means of production and distribution’’. 


However, ways in which I would distribute my magazine, and the different marketing strategies I would use for this to happen would be through my website. By publishing my magazine through my website, this would enable my magazine to be seen by my target audience, and therefore would be well known, leading for my magazine to go viral, as my target audience would share the link to my magazine through different social media’s, such as Facebook and Twitter, which is another source which could distribute my magazine, in order for it to be well known by my intended target audience, and others.