IPC Case Study

IPC Media

What types of magazine and target audiences has IPC been associated with over the years?

This is an extract from the IPC website it explains that they have a diverse selection on magazines and have a main focus on the three main core audiences which are men, mass-market women and upmarket women.

‘’IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults – while our websites collectively reach over 20 million users every month.

IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass-market women and upmarket women.’’

They have provided magazines for NME which is a very popular magazine for teenagers, Amateur Gardening which is obviously for people interested in gardening and even world soccer which are targeted for men who are interested in a football, this proves that IPC publish a huge variety of magazines and don’t have a particular target audience just lots of different ones.

Why might IPC be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine?

As IPC is the publisher of NME magazine who are extremely successful and popular it might have a good recognition if they’re the same publishers as NME magazine. It will also widen the target audience of IPC current target audience’s.  IPC is also very successful and creditable so it will have a good name behind the magazine and be very professional.

What sorts of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish?

On the website IPC say all there main target audiences this includes; Mass Market Mums, Young Women, Young Men, Upmarket Women, Upmarket Men and Adults 35+. So I think it would be appropriate if these new music magazines fitted into the target audiences of those people such as for appealing to young women they could create a magazine which is about ‘Pop music’ that is extremely general and popular which would be successful to sell in a magazine. They could also create a magazine about older/classic more rock favourites that would appeal to the adults 35+ group as there aren’t a lot of magazines like it and this target audience might find this kind of magazine more appealing as they can relate to it more.

Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?

Bauer publishing would also be appropriate because they have already published successful and popular magazines, which will give a positive recognition towards the magazine.

Preliminary Task: Brief

The preliminary exercise we have been set is to produce a front cover of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid out text and a masthead. So the people I will be aiming my magazine is obviously going to be college students, male or female and doing any subject, The magazine will be quite vibrant and eye-catching so its appealing for students, but still making sure that the colors and font both appeal to males and females.

My magazine will be about college life, talking about general college information, it will contain articles that students have written about various subjects like for example "tips on keeping your coursework sorted and not to fall behind on deadlines", there will also be reviews on trips, clubs and lots more.
The typical content would be about life at college, new facilities and keeping people up to date with whats going on around college. I have a few ideas for the cover lines, such as quoting things from inside the magazine like - "Taking media was the best decision I have ever made in my life!" which could appeal to people as they will want to read more and encourage more people to buy the magazine.
Some more cover line ideas are things such as:-
                                              Second years- freshers advice of how to survive around South Downs
                                              New facilities at The Coffee House
                                              Travel & Tourism - "Thorpe Park was amazing!"
and more things like this.

The title I have decided for my magazine is - College Life, I think its simple and effective as its very self explanatory on what is included in the magazine itself. I had some other ideas such as "South Downs Life" and "SDC Weekly" but I don't think those ideas I had were so interesting, the name ''college life'' could give people a feeling that the magazine is quite general instead of particularly talking about South Downs College.

With the font, Its very hard to pick something that is appealing for both sexes and for the college age group. I think the color im going to use will either be red or white with a black outline. I think these colors are unisex and makes it more of general teenage magazine instead of targeting individual target audiences. For the main masthead I think i'm going to use a front called 'Stencil' Its very bold and eye catching and suits a younger audience. I haven't chosen what I want to use for the cover lines yet but I want them to be bold but quite a simple font too.

Im not sure wether I want to use a tagline yet, so I will decide if it looks good when the magazine cover is coming together. But a few ideas I had for a tagline is - ''Everything you need to know about South Downs'' or ''Life at college has just become a whole lot easier" but I will make my decision further on in the process of making my magazine.

As the magazine is a college magazine it will only be published throughout the academic year and it will be released weekly so the information is up to date and current. The cover will change through seasonal changes for example in december the color theme might change to christmas like colors like reds, greens and golds and the image on the front will relate to a christmas or december, Also there will be a change in the genre of cover lines for example in december as cover line might be - " How to dress up warm for winter and still look great".

The kind of image I will put on the magazine will vary each week, but mainly will be students around South Downs using the facilities or sitting in the campus, The students will either be on there own or in groups again it will vary throughout the weeks. I will get my image in the college day, ask one of my friends (students) to pose for the photo or do a natural photo of the surroundings.
The magazine dimensions of the cover will be 8x11 which is the standard size for a magazine.

Withe the content page I want to keep it quite simple and not to busy, There wont be that many images on the content page but the images that are included will be subject specific towards the college life magazine, the color scheme will be a variation of colors, there will be a mixture of reds, grey and blacks.

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

Magazines are extremely popular for teenage girls and all the teen magazines out there are extremely similar the content usually consists of make-up, clothes, boys and celebrities. I don't think the age range varies at all for this kind of genre of magazine, its purely 13-17 year olds (depending on the magazine type) and has very similar codes and conventions.

The first magazine i'm going to analyze is Seventeen magazine this is a very stereotypical teen magazine, the colors a very vibrant and mainly consists of lots of pinks.
The main image is Beyonce who is a very good role model for teenage girls, her facial expressions is showing she's happy which suggests this magazine is fun and entertaining to read.

The typical conventions of this genre of magazine is very big bold sub-titles, very eye catching and appealing. Its very busy compared to magazines like Vogue which are more plain, simple and professional.

The teenage magazines also consists of lots of Puffs which stand out and make the magazine cover more fun, another typical convention is the amount of content on the magazine cover it has a lot of text which appeals to teenage girls such as 'How to get the perfect hair!' and similar stuff which make the readers want to read the magazine and figure out how to get 'the perfect hair', this is a good advantage as the magazine will be popular as lots of girl will buy the magazine as they want to read whats inside.













Another typical convention of a magazine is theres a lot of titles which advertise boys, the magazine usually contain posters and interviews with 'teenage heartthrobs' for example on the magazine cover to the right 'Bliss' has articles about Robert Paterson and JLS - These current popular young men have an attraction to teenage girls so this can be another typical convention because girls will always buy the magazine if it has something there interested in. This could be a negative thing, the essay question is saying about social ramifications and sexualizing young girls, the 'advertisement' of men could suggest that teenage girls think they have to be interested in boys at a young age and it becomes more of a pressure for girls to impress boys, this introduces the use of make-up and grown up clothes and it almost may seem that they feel like they have to look like the cover girl which is clearly a lot older than they are. This can start some debates about teenage magazines giving the wrong message to young girls that they have to be something there not, buy putting a lot of make up on, buying the latest clothes and accessorizing which could have a very negative effect for the parents and elder people in our society and could almost be a danger as men may think they are older than they already are.
But then you could argue that magazines wouldn't sell if they didn't have current and new information in it and wouldn't be appealing for young girls.

Another social ramifications that could occur from Teenage magazines is the use of wording on magazines like  'Cosmo Girl!' magazine to my left says ''50 Ways to get sexy hair!'' most parents or guardians wouldn't want there children to have the image of being 'sexy' and most people will say this is a wrong way to appeal to girls in a magazine I agree with this to some extent but I think its good for girls to be introduced to more mature things in a good and fun way instead of finding out about these stuff in any other way.










I think these types of magazines are very successful with there target audiences but they have caused some social ramifications which could in future effect there sales in the magazine, depending on the age group and how old they are thinking 'teenagers' are I think its good to introduce mature and grown up themes into teenagers life but with moderation, I think with most of these magazines say a lot about 'ex-boyfriends' and having a 'hot body' when this could not be good for such young people to be learning about. So I think there should be a balance of what is appropriate to teenagers and a clear difference between adult magazines and teenage magazines. The cover image should always be a respectable women who are successful, have had experience in life or good role models for teenage girls.