Task 5: IPC Media

IPC MEDIA

IPC Media produce over 85 iconic media brands, it’s a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the UK with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies per year.

History of IPC

The history of IPC Media has been quite complicated as there have been a lot of changes to the business to get it to where it is today.

IPC (International Publishing Corporation Ltd) was formed in 1963 by the merge of the UK’s leading magazine publishers – George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications who came together with the Mirror Group to for IPC, 5 years later IPC Magazines were created. The three publishers had been established in 1881, 1890 and 1880 with a number of their titles they launched still being published today. When The Field, 1852 joined in 1994 the family tree reached further back!

In the 1800’s some titles that are still around today which were launched are Country Life, Horse & Hound, Shooting Times, Yachting World, Amateur Gardening, Cycling Weekly, Amateur Photographer and The Railway Magazine (no longer owned by IPC).

In the early 1900’s three more titles were added to IPC, which were Yachting Monthly, Cage Birds (no longer owned by IPC) and Motor Boat. During this time the first of IPC’s four women’s weeklies was launched, called Woman’s Weekly which was launched in 1911, later in the same year Golf Monthly was also released. Homes & Gardens was also launched and was one of the first magazines launched after World War I.

In the 1920’s Ideal Home was launched in opposition to Homes & Gardens and Woman & Home also entered the market.

In the 1930’s the launch of Woman’s Own came out in 1932 and Woman was launched just five years later. Other titles launched in this decade included Caravan, Stamp Magazine and Prediction, all of which are no longer owned by IPC.

In the 1940’s IPC’s women’s weeklies had a big role in keeping up the morale of Britain’s women and supplied them essential information on behalf of the government, many of the Woman covers are regarded as works of art while wartime Woman’s Own covers play the part in rallying woman to the cause.

In the 1950’s New Musical Express was launched in 1952 and TVTimes was launched later on the same decade after the arrival of ITV.

In the 1960’s the rivalling companies Newnes, Fleetway and Odhams Press found themselves all working for the same parent company Ideal Home Homes & Gardens, Woman and Woman’s own to name a few.

In the 1970’s IPC welcomed the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh to its King’s Reach Tower HQ and HRH drops in on Horse & Hound, Country Life, Woman and Woman’s own while Prince Philip makes solo visits to Angler’s Mail and Yachting Monthly. Sporting Gun, Aeroplane monthly and Superbike were also launched in this decade.

In the 1980’s formation with European Magazines Ltd was made and a UK version of Marie Claire was launched in 1988. IPC embarks the biggest sales campaign in history. The launch issue of Essentials is a sell-out and other new IPC titles on the newsstand include 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.

In the 1990’s What’s on TV was launched and IPC Magazines is sold to Cinven for £860m in 1998.

In the 2000’s IPC Magazine is renamed to IPC media, Time Warner acquires IPC media for a cool £1.15bn and ignite! launches nuts as well as other launches being Pick Me Up, TVeasy, goodtoknow, shootinguk, housetohome, trustedreview.com and mousebreaker.

In the 2010’s IPC Media structured around three key audience groups: men, mass-market women and up-market women. IPC also launched Style at Home and goodtoknow Recipes as well as Feelgood games.

§  What types of magazine and target audiences has IPC been associated with over the years?
aIPC has been associated with a variety of magazines which broadens out widely in type. They do are associated often with hobby based magazines which attract audiences which have interests in these types of hobbies, for example Yachting World and Amateur Gardening which would attract audiences interested in these hobbies, most likely of an adult age. The target audience of IPC magazines have changed dramatically over the years, in the beginning middle aged men were the target most of the time and from then on it target hobby based people, which targeted mostly towards sports, cultural interests and photography which is more often men as they are the ones who are mostly involved with these types of interests. However as the years went by the magazine target audiences had an increasing amount of variety as they introduced woman based magazines which targeted middle age woman, from magazines such as Woman's Weekly, Woman & Home and Woman's Own. So now in modern days IPC focuses on both middle aged woman and men as their magazine variety increased.

§  Why might IPC be an appropriate publisher for a new music magazine?
IPC are extremely good at targeting specific audiences as they have done and do a lot of hobby based magazines which sell well to these target audiences, clearly showing that they are very good at selling to their specified target audiences as they do reach out to specific audiences like Woman's Weekly aimed towards middle aged woman and Yachting World aimed at middle aged men, therefore with the opportunity of being able to publish a new music magazine they would most likely be able to fit the target audience in well and therefore sell the magazine well.

§  What sorts of genres of music/types of magazines might they be likely to publish?
I think if they were to publish a music magazine they would be most likely to publish magazines with a specific target audience, for an example a classical magazine like BBC Classical Music Magazine, this would also appeal to a lot of audiences which they already target as it is a genre for more so middle aged woman and men, also IPC are very good at targeting smaller audiences therefore this kind of genre of magazine would be extremely appropriate as the target audience isn't as large as other genres out there.

§  Why might alternative publishers like Bauer be appropriate?
 Bauer may also be appropriate as they are a very successful publishing company with magazines such as FHM and Heat which sell extremely well across the UK and internationally which shows that they are experienced and produce magazines which are vastly popular and sell extremely well therefore they are most likely to have experience in how to reach out to different audiences as well as display different techniques which would attract specific audiences therefore they would most likely be able to publish a music magazine that is well sold and attracts the audience that it is desired to.