'Woman' magazine- Industry

Pages 172-175 summary of the 'pack' for magazines:

• Dual revenue streams: Media products that generate revenue from two different sources (from readers and advertises, for example) are said to have dual revenue streams.
• Horizontal integration: When different companies that produce and sell similar products join together. This facilitates the production and distribution of media products.
• Risk averse: Describes companies that are unwilling to take risks and that avoid wherever possible. This means that they often adhere to an established formula and avoid doing anything different that might have a negative impact on sales.
• Diversification: This involves expanding a company's operations into new or different areas of business.
• Conglomerate: A large organisation that has interests spanning across a number of different businesses or industries. For example, Disney is a media and entertainment conglomerate as it has business interests in several different industries, including film, television, music and radio as well as the theme park industry.
• Vertical integration: A process whereby one company acquires another involved at a different level of the industry. An example of a vertically integrated business would be a production company that owns a distributor or a retailer, or a magazine publisher that owns a printing company.
• Monopoly: A situation in which one company is able to establish total control or dominance within a particular market or industry.
• Oligopoly: A situation in which a small number of powerful companies are able to establish control or dominance within a particular marker or industry.
• Statutory regulation: A system of regulation that is implemented by law. It is often seem to threaten the principles of self-regulation- a system in which media industries assume responsibility for regulating themselves, limiting the need for outside interference. 
• Readership: An estimate of how many readers a publication has. As most publications have more than one reader per copy, the National Readership Survey (NRS) readership estimate is very different from the circulation count.
• Circulation: A count of how many copies of a particular publication are distributed, including subscriptions. Circulation audits are provided by the Adult Bureau of Circulations (ABC).  

• Most magazines have dual revenue streams. This allows them to make the majority of their money through advertising.
• The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and power (Curran and Seaton). Some believe this can have a negative impact on media industries and audiences as it limits variety, creativity and quality as well as choice for consumers. Some argue against this and say major publishers are better equipped to cater for a wide range of audiences.  
• The IPC (International Publishing Corporation) was founded in 1963 following a merger between the Mirror Group which owned a large portfolio of national newspapers, and three of the biggest publishers in the magazine industry.
• Conde Nast was one of the first publishers to launch international editions of its magazines. Conde Nast and the National Magazine Company were competitive publishers, each owned multiple large magazines.
• The government can refer concerns about concentration of ownership to the Competition and Markets Authority.  
• Compared to the 1960s we now have a Editor's code which provides detailed guidance on issues such as accuracy, privacy, harassment and discrimination. Regulators also have to address if images have been altered. Members of the IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) are also required to publish annual statements including any complaints they have received in the past 12 months as well as outlining how they ensure that their journalists and editors comply with the Code.

More on the Industry behind 'Woman' magazine:

·         Published weekly by IPC, 1937 to present.

·         Set edition: 23-29 August 1964.

·         Price: 7d (7 old pennies).

·         Women’s magazines became very popular in the post-war period and, in the 1960s, sales of women’s magazines reached 12 million copies per week. Woman’s sales alone were around 3 million copies per week in 1960.

Current magazine: www.timeincuk.com/brands/woman/

·         ‘Woman’ magazine has competed with ‘Woman’s Own’ and Woman’s Weekly’ for the top selling title. The companies (George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications) later merged to become the IPC. Their sales peaked in about 1959, at about 2.6m, 3.1m and 1.8m each.

·         In 1937 Odhams (now the IPC) opened a printing plant in Watford, Herts with Speedry Gravure Process for colour printing.

·         ‘Woman’ magazine began in June with the low price of 2d for the full colour magazine. Within a year the magazine was selling 500,000 copies weekly.

The IPC (International Publishing Cooperation):

·         http://www.timeincuk.com/about/history/

·         The IPC is a large mainstream organisation as it includes multiple companies put together, this means it can reach a larger audience and gives it more variety/ content that they can produce.

·         The publisher company is a conglomerate as it spreads across other forms of media. Curran and Seaton’s theory suggests that too many conglomerates take away variation and creativity for the readers as they are constantly seeing views from the same company.

·         The publication company also produce newspapers, more than two hundred trade and technical periodicals, and various book publishing interests. They produce almost one hundred consumer magazines.

·         This is significant for the magazine as it allows the company to gain a larger profit and reach a further audience. Being a conglomerate allows the company to have a wider spread over who they influence and the target audiences they reach. This links to Curran and Seaton’s theory.

The History of ‘Woman’:

https://goo.gl/ApRxbD

·         The brand identity of the magazine is evident in the advert through the clear use of the magazine name which establishes the brand. The advert shows the content of the magazine suggesting their target audience and who the magazine is written for.

·         The magazine changed from the 1960s to 80s, the social and cultural context is reflected in the advert by firstly, using an advert which reflects the technological developments of the time. The advert also includes competitions to win a car reflecting the increase in money and industries at the time.

Research task- History of IPC:

https://goo.gl/55AVG2

·         The IPC has more than 50 magazines in its circulation.

·         Some of its most popular titles include: Country Life, Horse and Hound, and Melody Maker.

·         Sales of IPC magazines comprised just over one-third of the £700 million the U.K. spent on consumer titles in 1991.

·         Many of the magazines IPC produces were created through the efforts of three English companies, the George Newnes Company, William Odhams Ltd., and Amalgamated Press, the companies merged in the 1950s to form the IPC.

·         Some effects of the IPC virtual monopoly began to surface in the late 1980s, one measurable outcome following the company's twenty-year dominance was the decline in women's weekly magazine sales. Although many of IPC's women's magazines had been founded in the early 1900s to meet the changing values and needs of its readership, the overall cultural upheaval of the late 1960s and 1970s, and the changing roles of women in particular, probably played a part in the women's magazine market drop.

·         Publishing began to change rapidly in the mid-1980s as various European magazine publishers moved into the U.K. to test their marketing skills in a different venue.

·         Magazine divisions at IPC are divided into four categories. The IPC Weeklies Group produces six leading women's weeklies, two television guides, and a coupon insert published seven times a year. The division sells seven million copies weekly, reaching an audience of 22 million, and employs approximately 500 people. SouthBank Publishing Group, with a staff of 400, produces ten monthly magazines and one bimonthly title in the women's and home sectors. The Holborn Group publishes 19 titles, evenly split between weeklies and monthlies, as well as one bimonthly title for the youth, music, and various niche markets. The Specialist and Leisure Group, with over 200 on staff, produces twelve highly regarded magazines in the weekly and monthly sectors.

·         The ‘cultural upheaval’ and ‘changing role of women’ is evident in the 1960s copy of ‘Woman’ as the magazine clearly reflects what women strived for at the time, for example, makeup tips and wanting to impress their husbands. However there is an indication that time are changing for example, through the Army Corps advert.