Research Task Two: Independent Music Magazines.

 An independent print magazine can be identified through being published without the support financially of large corporations or institutions. One feature of independently published magazines, that will be rare in mainstream titles is that independent magazine editorials will be free to experiment; allowing creativity. Though importantly, independent magazines will not be as financially stable as they will be without the media empires support that mainstream titles receive. This brings limitations such as: limited distribution as with a far smaller team may not be able to get their work out to as many people and secondly an independent magazine will be in much more risk of going out of business than one of the big titles. Coming from these independent publishers having a smaller circulation and less money to be able to use. 

Knowing that an independent print magazine is less financially stable compared to its bigger competitors, it should also be noted that an independent print magazine publisher will typically only have a single title compared to the large producers who can afford to keep expanding, having hundreds of titles under their banner. 

The top three biggest magazine publishers in the UK as of 2020 are Bauer Media, Immediate Media Company and Future Publishing Ltd. Together these publishers have a 37% share of their market. With Bauer Media having 80 titles available in the UK, with Immediate Media Company also having around 80 titles of its own and lastly Future Publishing Ltd has at least 50 titles under its umbrella. 

An independent magazine with its freedom is able to focus in on a niche which will only market to a select few people, but in doing so can help to make themselves different to the large mainstream titles, as they will be after the largest possible audience whereas, an independent magazine can build a strong readership in the area it wishes to focus on. 

One genre where many independent magazines focus on is music thanks to the many types of music there are to focus on. Two examples of print magazines which focus on music are The Wire and RnR. 

The wire describes itself as "an independent print and online music magazine covering a wide range of global alternative, underground and experimental musics." Founded in 1982 and at first focused on jazz as their primary music choice to talk about, they have now expanded to talking about a diverse array of music choices, and a sign of them being an independent magazine comes from them having a 7,000 to 20,000 circulation per month and for context the biggest music magazine, also owned by Bauer Media, is Mojo which has an average of 69,284 copies sold per issue. 

RnR are a younger independent magazine founded in 1988 to cover a broad range of music offerings. Though their monthly sales are not a clear number as with Mojo or The Wire, it is safe to say that it is one of the highest selling music magazines in the UK, impressive thanks to it being an independent publisher. Something which differentiates RnR from its competitors is that it offers a free CD with every issue. 

Research Task One : How has the UK consumer magazine industry evolved?

The key detail about the magazine industry is that every graph and figure is going down. This is because of a variety of factors such as the move online and still feeling the effects on the Covid-19 pandemic. Having been for a long time, and still is an important medium, print is in decline both newspapers and magazines and unfortunately for many of these publications subscriptions and releasing digitally are not making up for a drop in sales. 

With advertising in print magazines has also dropped falling 33% from 2019 to 2020, due in part to the pandemic but also being yet to recover from those effects. In 2000 the number of magazines in circulation were 1.6 billion. Last year it was 565 million. Along with a fall in number of titles to choose from. 700 titles reported in 2000 fell to 558 by 2010 and fell further to 241 last year. 

£669 million was spent in 2020 by consumers buying magazines yet was down by half from 2000 when £1.4 billion was spent. This is because a lot of the content magazines have to offer can be now found for free online with visual platforms such as Instagram replacing the need for many of these magazine titles as people are now getting the same content but for free. 

Wanting to survive, many of the once top magazine publications have now diversified to make magazine sales just a small part of their business and not even referring to themselves and magazine companies anymore. 

Magazines focusing on the subject of news account for more than half of subscriptions and this is unlikely to change in the near future, as one of the only magazines to still be remaining a strong sell among consumers. 

Set Brief

  INSTRUCTIONS

I have been given a set brief for your NEA

My NEA must not reproduce an existing media product.

I must work individually on my NEA but others may act in or appear in the production and/or may operate lighting, sound, recording or other equipment under your direction.

Your NEA must only use original footage, images and/or text within your production. You must not use any found images in your NEA production

SET BRIEF : Magazines and online

Requirements of the brief

I work for an independent media production company. I have been given the task of producing the front cover and contents page of the first two editions of a new music magazine that is being launched by an independent publisher and two pages for the working website for the magazine.

The web pages must promote the new magazine to its target audience and enable fans to interact with the content.

Summary of brief requirements:

• Statement of Intent (approx. 500 words)

• Music magazine covers and contents pages: Two pages for each of the first two editions.

• Magazine distribution method: Content must be suitable for retail distribution.

• Number of web pages: One homepage and one linked page.

• Cross media production target audience: A primarily 16–25 year old middle market audience that likes to be entertained.

There must be a clear sense of branding across the two elements of the cross-media production.