Evaluation- 3. Media Institutions and Distributing my Media Product

While my audience is a smaller, slightly niche market, the two largest metal magazines (Kerrang and Metal Hammer) are both published by large media companies. So to compete with similar magazines, going the route of using a large conglomerate such as Future publishing would give enough distribution. However, as Future already publishes Metal Hammer, it would be unlikely to publish a second metal magazine.

I don't believe the audience is niche enough to warrant using a smaller independent distribution company as this would limit the scale on which it could be accessed.

I can justify using a conglomeration as the majority of magazines owned through these have a wide multi-platform position. It comes almost as standard these days that every magazine has some sort of website. Many brands owned by Bauer Media use multi-platform consumption to appeal to as wide as audience as possible. By using outlets such as TV, radio, and the web to open up the brand to a larger audience. As my audience is a teen audience, they will already be exposed to these mediums, especially the web.

It is also worth mentioning that by using a company such as Bauer to distribute would give widespread exposure for the magazine. This would allow the magazine to be sold in newsagents, larger stores such as WHSmith, to even supermarkets. This leads to a much higher audience, but also would increase quality control on the magazine. As the copies printed would increase, so would the pressure for higher sales to make profit increase. However, the magazine may have to compromise to meet certain standards, which my target audience would see as "selling out", or changing for more profit. So it is a double sided sword that would affect for the audience views the way the magazine is produced.