Institutional Research

Institution describes the organisation or conglomerate of people that are responsible for the publication of a particular piece of media. Magazines are created by businesses seeking to generate a profit by selling their magazine to a particular genre of people. Once the audience is interested in the magazine create the institution attempts to expand. It can do this in three ways, conglomeration, expansion and diversification. The media institution is huge. There are currently 2471 consumer magazines in the UK across a wide range of genres. Readers spend on average £1.46 billion a year on consumer magazines making it a viable and successful market.

Conglomeration describes the coming together of different subsidiary groups working together in order to be more productive and potentially create a higher quality magazine. It is usually seen as a cost effective move for an institution as a conglomeration shares the same production methods, distributing methods and also the same building.
Expansion describes the buyout of a particular successful magazine that will easily and successfully fit into a subsidiary collection of genres that the institution owns. The original owner of the magazine usually benefits well as the buyout is usually high, obviously depending on the success of the magazine already. The owner can make a decision to still work on the magazine as there own however it simply makes it easier in terms of production and distribution as it it now become part of the institution, where the only real difference in magazine production is the content. Any addition to the current institution adds to the value of said institution.
Diversification describes the changes made to the product line, decommissioning and introduction of new magazines and the institution's attempt to produce magazine production into genres it currently has no influence over. It does this in order to gain a more diverse and overall larger target audience.

IPC Media are the leading consumer magazine and digital publishers in the UK. They publish magazines from a wide range of genres, from indie music magazines such as NME to woman's lifestyle magazines such as Now weekly. The are also responsible for publishing newspapers such as The People and The Sun. The company is divided into 3 main sub headings in which similar genre magazines fit into. Connect is responsible for the publication of mass woman weekly magazines. Southbank is responsible for the publication for upmarket woman weekly magazines such as Marie Claire. Inspire, responsible for the publication of men's weekly magazines such as The Field and Rugby Weekly.

Bauer Media Group is a large German publishing company, headquartered in hamburg. Primarily they publish woman's weekly magazines and also television listing magazines. Popular brand that are owned  by Bauer Media Group include Bella, Take a break and other popular television listing magazines. Popular Bauer media brands include Q magazine and Kerrang! It also has influence and involvement in the radio and television industry.

I think that my magazine would work well as part of Bauer Media Group as it fits a gap between two magazines they already have control over. My magazine is not as edgy as Kerrang which already appeals to a much younger target audience however it is not as classy and sophisticated as Q magazine which obviously has a much older target audience, my magazine would effectively fill the gap between the two magazines as it is both edgy and sophisticated in style and of the same genre. As part of Bauer Media Group my magazine may also gain leads in Television and Radio.

Reference for statistics: Brad & ABC