IPC Case Study

IPC Media

Convergent media -

Convergent media is when more than one media area come together, often in a business relationship but also technologies and genres.

Magazine companies are a good example of this because they do lots of different types of media such as; newspapers & websites. Which all come together to become one whole convergence as they are all different types of media.

Publishing companies -

A Publishing company basically does the printed work of a book or newspaper and all the making of it, it goes through a process copy-editing, graphic design, production and marketing and distribution of newspapers, magazines and books, they also work with the electronic media.

Background information of IPC -

•IPC media publishes a huge range of magazines and websites from many different sectors, they range from; NME, TV times, Marie Claire, golf monthly e.t.c.

•They produce over 85 iconic media brands and online brands sometimes reach 20 million users each month.

•Their most ‘up-market’ women’s division brands are mostly luxury fashion magazines such as ‘Marie Claire’ and ‘InStyle’, more lifestyle type brands would be including ‘woman&home’ and ‘Essentials’.

• Each magazine would rate each person with a class and find out what type of people would most likely read their magazine.

•IPC was originally owned by a management called ‘Cinven’, and used to be a venture capital group, after it was re-bought the company was re-named to IPC media. Sometime later, the company was bought out by a company called ‘Time inc’, which is the magazine publishing subsidiary of ‘Time Warner’. Which is the second largest entertainment company in the world, also the world’s largest media company.

•IPC media have approximately 85 media brands.

•With a wide range of media brands, IPC sell around 350 million copies a year.

•They need to make magazines which are suitable for everyone, they have three

target audiences; Men, mass market women, and up market women.

Readership -

They need to make magazines which are suitable for everyone, they have three target audiences; Men, mass market women, and up market women.

•The men’s portfolio consists of a variety of leisure brands including ‘country life’, ‘Horse and hound’, ‘rugby world’ and ‘Decanter’, also including lifestyle type brands such as ‘Nuts’, ‘Mousebreaker’, and ‘NME’.

•Their mass market women has famous women’s weekly magazines such as ‘Look’, ‘Now’, ‘Chat’ and ‘Woman’. Also, TV type brands including; ‘What’s on TV’, ‘TV times’, ‘TV and satellite week’.

•Up market women’s division contains much more luxury and fashion magazines such as; ‘Marie Claire’ and ‘Instyle’. The more lifestyle types would be ones like ‘Woman&home’ and ‘Essentials’. They even have more home like type magazines called ‘Ideal home’, ‘Livingetc’ and ‘Housetohome’.

•Mass market women are women that prefer magazines that are everyday type magazines and lifestyle, and IPC produce many of these types of magazines which make IPC popular with mass market women, it makes this type of person ideal to IPC. These type of women like to have some ‘me’ time and read the magazines, and they like to indulge in these magazines. They mostly get pleasure and excitement from magazines, these women are the types that are quite middle class.

•Up market women are quite rich and can afford to buy the expensive magazines, such as ‘Vogue’ and ‘OK’ magazines. They like to make their own choices and think about themselves, and how they look and dress. They prefer to be their own person. Up market women tend to rely on magazines and get advice from them, on how to dress and what to be like. Magazines are a treat to them, but they tend to read the magazines to manage daily tasks, not just for relaxing, but for help and advice. Up market women shop online more than mass market women would.

•Young men nowadays are mostly into technology and cars, most expected things you’d think a typical man would like. Technology is a major part of their lives. They like to keep up to date with all the latest technology and technology in the future. When creating a men’s magazine, the company need to know what will draw men in, they need to know what appeals to men and what to put on the front cover in order to attract them. They also need to know what they’re talking about, as men are likely to have a good knowledge of technology, cars and music etc. They need to meet the men’s standards and come to their level.

The NRS (National Readership Survey) -

•The NRS (National Readership Survey) is a company which estimates the readership of most of Britain’s major newspapers and magazines which show the number of audiences they have appealed to. They carry out a survey which find out how many people have bought the magazines and to see how many is sold daily, the survey would show 250 newspapers and magazines, they link with publishers and advertising agencies. The purpose of NRS is to help companies with reliable readership estimations for major magazines and newspapers. They interview around 36,000 adults on a yearly basis and record all the results on a big table.

•It helps publishing companies, as it tells them how many magazines and newspapers that are being sold and who to, and what magazines are the most popular and how many to publish. Because the company doesn’t want to publish too many magazine copies when not needed and not that many are bought from the shops. If a magazine isn’t so popular then not many more will be made, and they can see which ones are the most appealing to people.