Exemplar essay: Magazine Industry, January 2012 The magazine industry is a volatile one which is highly competitive with some magazines struggling to exist. In order for a magazine to survive it must have a high interest from the target audience. The magazine industry try to get specific as possible in defining their target demographic by using sites such as ACORN and defining their audience demographically and psychographically. For example, the NME’s audience are 71% male with 31% of them being students. The others are mostly ABC1, skilled workers, white collar workers, doctors, lawyers, etc. this means they have a high income which also implies they have a more disposable income. The analysis of their audience goes deeper still. NME know that their audience are technology lovers, who always get the latest gadgets. We can see online from their Media Pack that they are prone to Snickers and Sony Vaio. All this information is very important to advertisers who need to know exactly what ads to put in which as an investment pays off because with NME, advertising income is 200,000 with an internet advertising revenue stream of 170,000. Such a high advertising revenue is necessary in order to fund what readers describe as a magazine which is ‘full of facts and is trustworthy’. The circulation income of the monthly magazine is 300,000 with a cover price of £2.80. But 50% of this goes to wholesalers, distributers and retailers. This is why media conglomerates such as Time Warner own both IPC and Marketforce, the company that owns NME, the second largest in the UK, as well as the distributor. This is called vertical integration and only multinational media conglomerates can do this. This increases the likelihood of survival for NME. However, although the internet and digital use has allowed companies to define their target demographic more accurately, circulation figures dropped hugely from 68,000 to 32,000. However, with the first wave, NME established an early online presence, when Web 2.0 happened, NME already had many consumers aware of their site, displaying successful use of synergy. The site now has 5.1 million hits every page load advertisement, bringing in an income. They also have NME radio and are accessible via many social networking sites. However, the problem with the digital distribution is that the prospect of magazines no longer existing in print form seems to be looming. The only thing maintaining NME’s print form is its high number of repertoire readers and the idea that perhaps because of their tactile quality as well as ‘throw-awayable’ quality will keep the industry going. NME’s competitor is Kerrang but both may experience the same fate as many consumers are becoming ‘prosumers’ meaning that any information they want to find out is likely to be available digitally on the internet, implying that they no longer have to go to a secondary source to find information out about bands for example, they can just go to the band’s MySpace page. Magazines may have to exist purely online, such as musicmagazine.com. However, NME’s use of synergy means their income is higher and their use of cross media convergence – they have NME radio, NME TV, social networking presence, NME.com and promote awards shows in sponsorship of other companies such as Shockwaves. They also merged with Melody Maker. However, the highest circulating magazine is called The Fly with the highest readership however

the magazine is free and gains all its income via advertising. Perhaps this is the future for NME or perhaps a complete online presence. 18/20 Knowledge and understanding 18/20 Application of knowledge to examples 10/10 Terminology