Research of IPC and Bauer

1. Research into music industries
and institutions

2. Q1. What types of magazine and target
audiences has Times Inc (formely IPC) been
associated with over the years?
Q2. Why might Times inc. be an
appropriate publisher for a new music
magazine?
Q3. What sorts of genres of music/types of
magazines might they be likely to publish?

3. Introduction to Times inc.
Time inc. is one of the UK’s most popular publishing companies.
Commonly known as The International Publishing Corporation Ltd, it
was established in 1963 after the UK’s three leading magazine
publishers: George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications,
who came together with The Mirror Group. IPC was created five years
later in 1968. Although, IPC has used there own innovative illustrations
in the 1800s as well like when The Field was launched in 1853 and
joined the IPC in 1994 following the acquisition of Harmsworth
Magazines, it saw the branches of the tree go back further into IPC’s
publishing history.

4. 1800s-1900s-Charge of the Light
Brigade
• The Field launched in 1853.
• Had its own correspondent throughout the Crimean War. This
showed people and other publishing companies that IPC were
prepared to spread world wide.
• On the 18th November 1854, that issue ran a series of personal
narratives of those who took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade.
• Magazines launched in the late 1800s were: Country Life, Horse &
Hound, Shooting Times, Yachting World, Amateur Gardening, Cycling
Weekly, Amateur Photography and The Railway Magazine.
• There were sales promotions for all early IPC titles. These were useful
as they increased the sales as well as the appeal of the magazines.
• 1889- £1 to the reader who could guess the amount of gold and silver
in the Bank of England on a given date.

5. 1920s-1940s
The 1920s
• Odhams released a new monthly, Ideal Home in opposition to
Newnes’ Homes & Gardens. These magazines were aimed at women
who were housewives which reinforces the stereotype of trying to
please the husband.
• The government had promised that they would build new houses and
in 1921, they built 100,00 houses as part of its post-war planning.
• Women & Home entered the market in 1926.
• 1929 was the third birthday of Women & Home and by this point, the
magazine had grown to a mighty 144 pages long, majoring on fiction.

6. 1920s-1940s
The 1930s
• 1932 saw the launch of Woman’s Own.
• This heralded the arrival of one of the IPC’s traditional ‘Big Two’, this
shows us the competitors that IPC were dealing with even though
they were one of the biggest publishing companies out of all of them.
• Newnes promoted its first issue of Woman’s Own with a free cover-
mounted gift.
• Some other titles that were launched in this decade included
Caravan, Stamp magazine and Prediction.

7. 1920s-1940s
The 1940s
This was mainly during the period of the war and one of the main and
only things that happened was the fact that Woman’s Own covers
played their own part in rallying for women and the wartime cause.

8. 1950s-1970s
The 1950s- Music and mergers
• At this point now, the magazine industry were starting to move onto other
genres and magazines, so the publishing companies had to move on with
them.
• In the uproar of the music scene, the magazine that was published to
support this uproar was the New Musical Express, released in 1952. This
was in the era of when the music scene was booming and becoming very
popular.
• IPC were veterans in the publishing field hence the creation of NME.
• NME were the first music magazine to establish the first official UK record
chart. Al Martino’s Here In My Heart topped it. This was mainly a pop music
magazine but also had many other sub genres such as hip-hop, rock etc.
Which essentially widen the branch for there target audience.
• TV Times released its first issue in black and white. In 1989, IPC acquired TV
Times in the run up to the deregulation of the TV listings market.

9. 1950s-1970s
The 1960s
• In 1963, something major happened. This was the formation of the International
Publishing Corporation. This brought together the three rival magazine companies:
Newnes, Fleetway and Odhams Press. In some ways this was a good move for IPC
as this meant that the amount of competitors they had were reduced. This also
meant that some of there target audience would change as well as the other
magazine companies as they all supported/published different magazines.
• Some of the other, traditional competitors, felt that they were all working for the
same company, even though they were still producing there own magazines.
• 1969 saw the birth of a new football weekly- Shoot!
• The idea of this magazine was generated from England’s success in the 1966 World
Cup.
• Other IPC titles making their debut in the 60s included Rugby World, World Soccer,
Angler’s Mail and Family Circle. These are significant times in history where IPC
used certain strategies to make themselves stronger. They also moves on with the
social classes as some of the magazines they released in the 60s were aimed at
more of a working class whereas some of there older magazines were more
suitable for the upper classes.

10. 1950s-1970s
The 1970s
• The Reed Group acquires IPC in 1970 to form the giant global
corporation, Reed International.
• Her Royal Heiness dropped into Horse & Hound , Country Life and
Woman’s Own.
• Prince Phillip made an indvidual visit to Angler’s Mail and Yachting
Monthly.
• Also within this era were the successful launches of Aeroplane
Monthly, Sporting Gun and SuperBike.

11. 1980s-2000s
The 1980s
• IPC announce the creation of European Magazines Ltd. This shows
that IPC are prepared to work harder to increase there audience but
it also widens there target audience so that they can find out more
about what people like to publish magazines that may interest other
target audiences.
• The IPC Editorial Awards are introduced, now a key event in the
company calendar. This was ultimately crediting the editors of the
magazine and awarding them which would hopefully encourage them
to go onto further ventures with other magazines.
• Then had the biggest sales campaign in history.
• The first ad featured ‘Four of Britain’s Most Influential People’.
• Six issues launched in France as avantages in conjunction with
Groupe Marie Claire.

12. 1980s-2000s
• New IPC titles included 4x4, Eventing, Chat, Mizz, Motor Caravan
Magazine, Wedding & Home, Country Homes & Interiors, Classic
Boat, Model Collector, Motor Boats Monthly, Practical Parenting,
VolksWorld and Bird Keeper.
The 1990s
• Deregulation of TV listings market .
• What’s on TV goes on to become the UK’s best-selling magazine, a
position it still enjoys today.
• Loaded is released. It opens up a whole new market and spawns
countless clones. This shows us that they are again, widening there
market, but now in the field of age, which is probably one of the
biggest markets in the world.
• IPC acquire Here! from Gruner & Jahr and merge into Now, launched
in 1996.

13. 1980s-2000s
• NME became first major UK music magazine to have its own website-
nme.com. This was mainly created to enhance the popularity of the
magazine.
• This was predicted to be the Europe’s most popular website.
• IPC magazines sold to Cinven for £860m in 1998.
• This was the largest management buyout in UK history.
• There was also the formation of five limited companies based on the
former publishing groups- IPC Connect, IPC SouthBank, IPC tx, IPC
ignite! and IPC Country and Leisure.
The 2000s
• World’s first men’s weekly magazine, in January 2004. Since making
Loaded for young men, I believe that this was a bold move from IPC
as it signified the fact that they wanted to stretch out to other
markets which in this case were the older generation.

14. 1980s-2000s
• This whole process was backed by an £8m marketing investment. This
was the biggest creation/launch in IPC’s history.
• They moved to a new HQ in 2007 which was situated next to the Tate
Modern.
• IPC unveiled a new generation Real Life weekly for women.
• Pick Me Up in January 2005.
• Backed by a £6m marketing investment and had the largest sampling
exercise in UK magazine history.
• IPC tx unveils TVeasy in April 2005.
• In February 2007, IPC Connect launches Look.
• IPC Media develops some great new digital media.
• In November 2007, IPC Inspire acquires TrustedReviews.com
• IPC Ignite acquires Mousebreaker in June 2008.

15. 1980s-2000s
The 2010s
• In January 2010, IPC Media is restructured around 3 key target
audiences: Men, mass-market, women and up-market women.
• IPC launches 2 new monthly magazines- Style at home and
goodtoknow recipes.
• In June 2011, IPC Connect releases a major new brand- Feelgood
games.
• In June 2014, Connect, Inspire and SouthBank all united together as
one IPC.
• In September 2014, IPC Media was renamed to become Time inc.
(UK) Ltd.

16. Q4. Why might alternative publishers
like Bauer be appropriate?
One reason for choosing Bauer is that they have been in the publishing field for
a long time, since 1875. There claim to fame was the entry to the US market
and the creation of Heat magazine. Another reason for choosing Bauer over
Times inc. is that they have the experience in overseas market, like the US,
which is a very large market, and to sell into this market is quite rare as only
companies from within the US usually go onto publish and make magazines.
As a company Bauer have a very different audience to Times inc. as when
they were IPC, they aimed some magazines at upper classes whereas one of
Bauer’s first magazines was a free radio magazine which is one of the
differences in class. Another difference is that in 2014, Bauer crated new
online markets which were introduced for young women which was one of
there main segments in there target audience. Finally, Bauer, I’d say are
more of a modern magazine and I have many points to follow up this
statement. In some of the new magazines that have innovated in the past
five years, they have aimed for these magazines to be directed at both
young and trend conscious groups/people. This shows the interaction that
they have with the younger generation and how they can encourage them
to read there magazines with the content that they include in the
magazines they release.

17. Which one is best?
Overall, I believe that Time inc. Would be more suited to my
magazine than Bauer. The reason for this is that I believe
that IPC have had more experience with music magazines
in there history with the introduction of the New Musical
Express which was, and still is one of the most popular
music magazines in Europe. Another reason for my choice
is that overall in there history, IPC, now known as Times inc.
have created and published many magazines in there
history unlike Bauer who have mainly specialised in other
parts of media as well as magazines, but, IPC mainly
focused no magazines which meant that this was always
going to be there main focus.