Question 3 - Publishing
I would be most likely to publish my work with IPC publications because there is not any other magazines with a similar content and audience, the closest magazine would be NME however my magazine is more like a glossy magazine, it will be thicker than NME with more of an emphasis on the art and fashion as well as the music. Condé Nast features a lot of magazines that could be seen as rivals to my own magazine; magazines about culture, music, fashion, lifestyle, film and art. Such magazines are; W, Vogue, Love and WWD so by publishing with IPC I would be competing with similar magazines but with a competing publisher so it makes sense to go with a publisher who already competes with the other big firms. However if I chose to go with a magazine who already had a magazine with a similar audience then there would be less attention focused on the marketing of my magazine.
However the big issue with publishing with a big company is the censored ‘editorial independence, as the content and photography in my magazine is likely to be liberal and artistic, perhaps candid and experimental I might face interference from my publisher if they have many magazines with completely different target audiences and my magazine is drawn into a controversy due to the content of it, they might be weary that the entire company may be implicated if there were to be any questions raised about what is featured in my magazine. However England is increasingly free thinking so much of what is printed should not offend anyone and I think my need for distribution is greater than my need to send an over the top political message.
In terms of distribution it is important that I am able to publish my magazine across the country and hopefully across the pond, because it is a magazine that can appeal to so many minority groups in so many places. With money coming in from advertising with a big publishing firm I will be able to print and distributed my magazine a lot further than If I had decided to self-publish or go with a much smaller publisher I might not be able to do this.
I think it will be a good idea to be published by a big company, as my magazine has emphasis on fashion we would be able to use big advertisers in the magazine e.g. Westwood, McQueen, Chanel, and smaller brands like Deisel, Unconditional and Orschelle Read. These advertisers are perfect for my magazine because some of them will be which the student proportion of my target audience would be interested in buying and those of my target audience who do not necessarily have the money spend on high end designers, however those that do’s needs are being reached through the use of couture brands. Advertisers are important for big successful magazines to make money, but it terms of my audience and selling my magazine, there will be synergy between them as it is good for my magazine to be associated with big brands and it is good for the brands to have advertising space in the front of my magazine. And it is often magazines that are part of big companies that feature the most prestigious designers and products. Also it is key that I am reaching both males and females, lots of these sorts of magazines are aimed at females solely so I think it would be filling a niche market where men’s and women’s clothes can be advertised and marketed alongside each other, for example Vivienne Westwood’s campaigns regularly feature men and women modelling clothes alongside each other because she does not focus on one more than the other. Like Westwood many designers are spreading their collections across both sexes so there should be a magazine that can cater for both of them.
This picture was supplied by a friend of mine and former Westwood model Tilly who can be seen in the green dress in the picture below, she told me how Westwood was trying to push the men’s line.