2. IPC MEDIA
• The British magazine publishing industry in
the mid-1950s was dominated by a handful of
companies, principally the Associated
Newspapers (founded by Lord Harmsworth in
1890), Odhams Press Ltd, George Newnes
Publishers, C. Arthur Pearson, and the Hulton
Press, which fought each other for market
share in a highly competitive marketplace.
• IPC Media Music magazines are dedicated to
music and music cultures featuring many
different famous musicians, but also new
musicians that specialize in certain types of
music. In the majority the music magazines
focus on one genre although as well they do
focus on the closest other music to this
genre which they also include features, up
and coming and profiles on artists. For
example if they choose Rihanna she could be
represented in a pop or an R&B magazine so
she would span across two different genres.
Also each of the different genres of music
attracts certain types of audiences. The
magazines need to relate to the target
audience and this also relates to the whole
content and style of the magazine as well. It
might as well have an age difference for
their audience from Teenagers through to mid-
twenties and also by gender so this is often
a very difficult for magazines to appeal to
their entire readership with exactly what
they want to appear and feature within the
publications. More and more the music
magazines are featured heavily on-line and
through different digital and social media
channels as well, as their target audience
are now choosing multi-media channels to access
information
3. EMAP
• Emap Limited is a British media
company, specialising in the
production of business-to-
business magazines, and the
organisation of business events
and conferences. The company was
once a constituent of the FTSE
100 Index but is now owned by
Apax and Guardian Media Group.
• Smash Hits is Emap’s music
magazine. It is primarily focused
on pop music, and aimed at
children and younger teenagers as
its content is a mixture of very
young pop musical groups,
personas as well as content which
isn’t of a mature nature. It was
published in the United Kingdom
by Emap and ran from 1978 to 2006
and was bi-weekly. It featured
pop music artists, gossip and
fashion that attracted young
girls who liked listening to
current music. Smash Hits and Top
of the Pops were rival magazines
trying to compete for higher
market share at the same defined
audience.
4. BBC MAGAZINES
• BBC Magazines is the magazine publishing
division of BBC Worldwide, the commercial
subsidiary of the British Broadcasting
Corporation.
• Its Hot - Top of The Pops - Classical
Music Magazine The BBC publishes many
different genres of magazines as well as
major websites through their digital
channels as well. There are only a few
magazines that are of the same genre. Top
of the Pops attracts age ranges from 11 up
to 15 years due to the content, music
articles such as ‘Glee’ and ‘X Factor’.
TOTP – affectionately known was launched
in February 1995 and is released in
magazine style monthly, but now has a new
website which is updated every day with
new ‘Today’s News’ section and new
features. The magazine concentrates on
chart music and features and focuses more
on the commercial groups. It was closely
linked to the TV show ‘Top of The Pops’
which was all about the music that was
currently in the charts and everyone who
is into the chart music and that culture.
The magazine and the website also feature
interactive articles and competitions to
win musical related prizes, posters and
pop memorabilia of star personas.
