Question 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

At first the my magazine would be published indepantly as the magazine is new and wouldn’t really have much interest from a big publishing house, but possible after building up the reputation of the magazine you could possible sell it to ICP.

The pros of going with a big publishing company:

• Exposure - Magazines under a large name often get huge exposure in comparison to going self-published.
• Advice - Large companies often know the tricks of the trade and will often advise their magazine editors on which techniques and trends are best suited for their genre. Going independently often is a case of trial and error.
• Funding - Independent magazines often find it difficult to pay expenses to distribute, making it difficult to expand. It isn't unfamiliar for a company to loan money in trade for shares.
• Connections - The greater the company the more likely they are intimate within the music industry. Big named bands are much easier to get an interview with when you have the right connections.
• Manufacture & Distribution - Similar to connections, companies will almost certainly have in-house printing & manufacture as well as contracts with large suppliers such as WHSmith.

The cons of going with a big company:

• Ownership - With a company there is likely a feeling of lost ownership & control; the magazine loses it's independence.
• Profit - The Company would have a large percentage of the magazines stock, hence they receive a considerably larger percentage of profit.

If a self published magazine wanted to have a wide distribution as a benefit of the big company but doesn’t want to lose the editorial independence its comes down to this, you become a part of the big publishers company and be a part of a successful magazine which is supported by big names or do it yourself, the only problem is some big company published magazine have brands behind them, e.g. Kerrang is supported by Relentless energy drink, smaller magazines that don’t have the connections and a wide distribution will struggle against these branded magazine giant that are out there so it’s down to the person making the choice.

Kerrang is the magazine I used mainly for inspiration and looked into a lot, and their synergy is huge and growing, they have a extremely successful radio station, TV channel, magazine and online magazine as well as their website all because its genre specific and gives the audience what it wants, but the power of having those things, makes the magazines name huge due to having a wide spread media. And because the name is huge they can sponsor annual tours, become a part of festivals, which creates the cyclical effect, the more they do with what they have, the more they do for publicity the more publicity they have the more they can do within the company.