Media Institution Research...

Over the years magazine has become an ever popular way to connect with audiences, with the purpose of educating and entertaining. There are now many major magazine publishing companies (independent and conglomerate) that create magazines with a plethora of genres, to cater for mass and niche audiences.

One of the largest magazine publishing companies today, is Bauer Media, which is owned by Bauer Media Group (which is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group). They publish and own over 300 magazines in 15 different countries.

This company owns magazines across a wide variety of genres, including: Women’s Magazines (Grazia), Men’s Magazines (FHM, ZOO) and a variety of more niche subjects like photography and gardening. They also produce many music magazines, for example: Mojo, Q, and Kerrang!

 What does Mojo, Q and Kerrang! offer?

Mojo has a website in which readers of the magazine can look at, to find out more information. They also have a blog with lots of extra content. A subscription service is also available, but only for print copies (no digital subscriptions).

Q also has a website, where you can find out extra content, sign up for their newsletter, or browse available tickets for upcoming music events. They also offer a print only subscription service. However Q also has a TV Channel.

Kerrang! is readily available through its website, twitter or facebook. They also have a TV channel and radio show.

Another relatively large company s IPC Media, who like Bauer, create a wide range of magazines, including well known and more obscure magazines (Marie Claire, Pick Me Up!, Super Yacht World, and Decanter). 

They also own NME magazine.

NME has been published every week for 61 years.  They connect with their readers via printed magazine and their website (NME.com) which is the biggest standalone music magazine website with over 7 million users each month. They offer a subscription service for both print and digital editions.

Another publishing company is Future Plc (and their headquarters are based in Bath).

They own a variety of magazines within the UK, in categories of technology, creative, sports, entertainment, and music.

The music magazines they own include: Computer Music, Future Music, Guitar Techniques, Guitarist, Rhythm, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, and Total Guitar. However they also publish Guitarist in Australia.

Pretty much all of these magazines have a print and digital edition subscription service, accompanies by a website, and links via twitter and facebook.

Future manages to sell over 2.2 million magazines each month and they deliver over 100 digital editions.

Finally there is Emap Media, which is a private publishing company. They don’t create any music magazines now, however they ran Smash Hits! pop magazine from 1978 – 2006. Smash Hits, had a TV channel, website, and digital radio station, which survived the demise of the magazine.