1. History and development
IPC Media is a British magazine publishing industry that was set up in mid- 1950s that was
dominated by a handful of companies mainly by the Associated Newspapers, which was founded by
Lord Harmsworth in 1980. Publishers C. Arthur Pearson and Hulton Press fought each other for a
market share in a highly competitive marketplace. In 1958 Cecil Harmsworth King chairman of a
newspaper group which included the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Pictorial which, is now the Sunday
Mirror, made an offer for Amalgamated Press, the offer was accept in January 1959. He was
appointed chairman and within a few months changed its name to Fleetway Publications, Ltd after
the name of its headquarters, Fleetway House in London’s Farringdon Street
Important Dates
In 1989 IPC acquired TV Times and in the early 1990s IPC launched Loaded which began a wave
of what was known a “lads mags”.
In 1991 Egmont UK bought Fleetway merging it with their own comics publishing operation,
London’s Editions, to form Fleetway Editions.
In 2009 the company’s chief executive was replaced from Sylvia Auton who had run it from 2001 to
Evelyn Webster.
In April 2012 IPC Media won an award for Best Production Team of the Year at the Professional
Publishers Association Production and Environment Awards 2012.
Company size
IPC Media has over 60 iconic brands.
IPC Media engages with 26 million of UK adult- two thirds of women and over 40 percent of men.
IPC Media has an award winning portfolio reaching over 25 million users each month.
Target Audience
IPC Media has a very wide target audience but I feel that these types of magazine that have
been published by this company are aimed at older adults rather than teenagers. However,
there seem to be more magazines available for men than women. For the age range I would say
people in the early twenties to people in their late seventies, which is a similar age range to the
Bauer Media Company’s target age. The IPC Media Company does a lot of different genres of
magazine in order to attract their target audience, this is making them a very successful
publishing company as they know their target audience very well and they know what magazines
will appeal to that specific target audience of people and how to get them to buy the magazines
that they are publishing.
IPC Media’s website http://www.timeincuk.com/brands/ Telephone number 020 3148 5000
IPC Media publishing Brands
IPC Media groups its current titles under three magazine
divisions in order to focus on the core audience.
Connect- Targeting the mass market for women
Teen Now
Woman’s Own
Pick Me up Chat Passion
What’s On TV?
Soap Life
TV easy
Southbank- Targeting upmarket women
Look
Woman & Home
Ideal Home
Homes and Gardens
25 Beautiful Homes
Style at Home
Wallpaper
Inspire- Targeting the market for men
Country Life
The Fields
Shooting Time
Horse and Hounds
HORSE
Motor Boats Monthly
Rugby World
World Soccer
Golf Monthly
Golf Monthly
New Musical Express (NME)
Cycling Weekly
VolksWorld
When I am thinking about what company I want to choose to publish my magazine, I need to think which company
has the best range of magazines aimed at my target audience. When I am publishing my magazine I will think very
carefully about the target audience that the IPC media Company aims at. However the IPC Media Company does not
have the same target audience that I am aiming at, this may cause a problem as my magazine may not get the
publicity that it needs in order to get the sales and the audience I want. Between these two companies I would pick
the Bauer Media Company to publish my magazine as it has the best target audience for my magazine.