What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

One of the biggest magazine publishing firms in the UK is IPC media. They publish over 85 different magazine of all different genre and they reach almost two thirds of the female population and 44% of the male population in the UK. That is almost 27 million UK adults reading a magazine published by ICP media. This shows that there is a lot of money to be made in the magazine business.

The way IPC media split their audience up is very interesting. They group the male audience as a whole. Suggesting that the average male reader would read something like Horse and Hound as well as Nuts. In contrast with this the female audience is split into two different categories; mass market division and upmarket division. The magazines aimed at the mass market woman would be comprised of woman’s weekly magazines such as; Look, Now and ‘Woman’ and also TV entertainment brands such as TV times. However, the upmarket division would be comprised of luxury fashion brands such as Marie Claire and InStyle. It also includes lifestyle brands including ‘Woman&Home’ and ‘Essentials’.

These 3 main sections are also broken up into smaller sections named: IPC Advertising, IPC Connect, IPC Inspire, MarketForce and IPC Southbank. IPC Advertising offers “IPC’s unparalleled range of print and online brands. IPC connect’s brands have a “powerful reach” with its magazines read by 53% of all mass market women (10 million women) while its digital brand reaches a further 2.4 million mass market women. IPC Inspire is IPC’s men’s division. With over 55 brands it “covers a huge spectrum of interests”. This includes brands such as Country Life, Nuts and NME. Marketforce is the UK's leading newstrade sales and distribution company marketing a total of 23% of the total magazine category. IPC Southbank covers the whole of the upmarket women’s division focusing on two key genres; Lifestyle and Home interest. “Southbank is home to some of the most iconic magazine brands in publishing”.    

I think IPC would be a good choice of distributer for my magazine as there is a gap in the market for the modern rock/punk rock genre of magazine. Bauer, another large distribution company is already distributing Kerrang! which is a very similar magazine to mine that aims for a similar age group and sub-genre. The advantage of distributing through such a large organisation is that my magazine could be distributed nationwide all across the UK. If I went with a smaller organisation I may only be able to distribute it within the local area.