IPC Media

IPC Media (formerly known as International Publishing Corporation) is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, founded in 1958. The company is considered a very successful organisation, selling over 350 million copies each year. IPC owns over 60 media brands, creating content in print, online, mobile, tablets and events. Its audience - over 26 million UK adults - is made up of two thirds of women and over 40% of men in the country. 

Above is a wide selection of brands that IPC Media own, including genres of music, leisure, fitness, style, cooking, lifestyle and animals. To me, this shows that IPC is an extremely successful company that is intelligent enough to invest in many different styles of magazines. In addition, it shows that they have many different editors for each magazine that must know what they are talking about. 
This is proven with its own quote from its website:

"IPC Media is committed to working in partnership with its consumers, advertisers, business partners and employees to deliver exceptional value, service, innovation and creativity."

Numerous magazines have recently celebrated "birthdays" after impressive periods of longetivity. In October 2012, magazine, 'Woman's Own' celebrated its 80th birthday since being launched in 1932.  Woman’s Own has proved to be highly successful, connecting with its target audience of the more mature woman, with stars including Margaret Thatcher and Madonna appearing as cover stars. To celebrate the birthday, the first edition of Woman’s Own was made available as a digital magazine. 

Woman's Own publishing director, Roger Cummings, spoke of the magazine's journey saying, "The brand has re-launched the magazine, developed a standalone website and launched an optimised mobile site. And now it celebrates its 80th birthday. To toast its heritage in such a modern, forward-thinking way, the birthday issue and digital extensions epitomise everything that the loyal, Woman’s Own audience stand for. They are passionate about getting the best out of life, love to celebrate and most importantly, know how to have fun with friends and family”.

IPC Media would be an appropriate publisher for a new magazine as the company specializes in a variety of different genres across their magazines that remain current in the time period. Therefore, creating a new music magazine would not be a particularly difficult task. In addition to this point, they could easily create any genre of music magazine they could find experts for. 

Representations in teen girl magazines

These magazines are all aimed primarily at young teenage girls. They portray this targeted audience in many ways displayed on the front covers of their publications. One way in which they intend to lube these girls up into buying their magazine is by using feminine and girly colors. As apposed to magazines for the more mature lady, magazines for young girls use much brighter and eye-catching tones, mainly the bold "bubblegum" pink. Each of these covers use a recurring main image: a young, attractive and current female celebrity in the public eye. They do this to attempt the reader to aspire to be like these celebrities, tempting them to buy the magazine as they 'i love boys' think that if they do, they will find out secrets to make them look like these attractive women. Also present on all five of these covers are images of clothes and captions about style and fashion. These clothes, like the colors used on the magazines, are bright and girly and are linked well with the target audience. On most of these covers, a price is usually associated with the clothes that uses words to make these seem good value such as "only" and "under". These words also connect with the target audience as it is thought that girls are always looking for good deals or a bargain.

These magazines may have a negative effect on its readers as there is no real message to them about being comfortable with themselves as they are. This is displayed by using "made-up" women with lots of make-up and perfect bodies that younger girls do not yet have necessarily. There are no images present of natural women that are referred to as "real" or that are slightly bigger-looking in size. This can further lead to its readers developing eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Another negative effect of thse types of magazines is that many of the stories inside are purely fictional and rumours, encouraging its readers that this information is fact. To its young readers, it tells them that it is okay to twist the truth and also believe everything they read in the media. Furtheremore, it introduces stories of unfaithfullness in relationships, sexual ways of dressing/revealing outfits that young girls may want to copy. This is a problem as young girls should know how to mature steadily and not before they have grown into their bodies correctly.

On the other hand, these magazines can also have a positive effect for its readers. If girls see clothes that they like that they then go out and find themselves, they will feel good about themselves and feel like a celebrity. It will result in its audience having more confidence, which is considered important in the present day as many girls in the target audience's age range are bullied and feel body-concious. Another point to make is that girls like discovering secrets of celebrity's looks, and will feel happy if - in their mind - they can emulate these. Also, the magazine as a whole is good entertainment for girls as they like to read about popular celebrity gossip stories that everyone is talking about. In addition, it is a good social benefit that gives its readers something to discuss with eachother around their friends.





I believe that magazine publishers should accept responsibility for the effects that their magazines have on its audience of teenage girls. I think this because they are an extremely powerful group of people who are well aware of what is needed in order for these girls to buy these magazines. If they are presenting ever magazine cover with a "perfect" looking celebrity, they are making girls feel that they need to be perfect and look like these celebrities who are most likely airbrushed and edited in the images used. Stories in the media are constantly arising of the issue of eating disorders that girls take on from feeling that they are too fat and not like celebrities seen in these magazines. Therefore, the publishers of these magazines should be held responsible for not using "real" women that will makes girls feel much better about themselves. Also, if these magazines give advice on topics such as how to deal with relationships, girls will most definitely use this in their lives as they believe in magazines. 

If I became an editor of one of these magazines, I would most definitely use more "real" looking female celebrities that its readers could relate to as I believe it is extremely unhealthy and wrong using perfect images of these women. I would make sure that everything written is encouraging to girls. I would not put any stories into the magazine that highlighted rumors that led to nowhere, for example: celebrity cheating, appearance enhancing such as boob jobs and face-lifts, as this just encourages its readers to make up rumors themselves and again not feel happy with themselves as they naturally are. I would keep the style part of the magazine in as there is no negative effects of this. I would make sure the clothes were affordable to its target audience. I would not include any headlines or stories of how to lose weight or get a better body in any way, as this just gives the impression that people who would read the magazine are only girls who are unhappy with the way they look, and that would not be my idea of a magazine purpose.

Magazine Cover Analysis 2

The target audience for Soaplife magazine is generally "Women aged 15-34 who watch multiple soaps". The cover appeals to this niche as women like drama and the text and images used show this very deeply. Every separate story on the page is linked with text that concludes with an exclamation mark that creates this tension and drama that attracts women. The cover illustrates various text colors and sizes that break the page up and make it more interesting. The page is very bright and colorful that is usually associated with femininity. Throughout the page, in each picture a male and female is shown in a type of relationship, mostly sexual, traditionally appealing to women as they are expected to like reading about relationships and gossip magazines.  Two images also show this of couples kissing which presents sexuality, again attracting women's eyes. Phrases such as "Love", "Marry Me!", "New Lover" and "It's ON again!" can all be connected to femininity in some way, all  sexually related. The most eye-catching word is "Love" as it is the biggest and is put in red in the centre of the page, which is the first thing the eye is drawn into. The cover appears highly un-organized and messy-looking, showing there is a lot going on, appealing to its target audience of multiple soap-watchers. "2 weeks revealed" is used well as readers want to be informed about stories in soaps and are re-assured to buy the magazine when these stories are said to be revealed inside. The price is also connected to its audience's age-range of 15-34 year olds, as older women are expected to have earned more money and subscribe to higher-priced, more professional magazines, whereas younger women usually buy cheap magazines as they are thought to not have as much money in their lives as they grow up, struggling with jobs, loans, university fees and socializing/shopping.

Magazine Cover Analysis

Men's Magazine Example:

  

The target audience for GQ magazine is generally 21-35 year old males. The cover has attempted to appeal to them by using one of the most famous women in the world, Rihanna. They have done this as they think it will appeal to males in the public as she is considered extremely sexual and attractive, an attribute seen by the singer's appearance. Also, the singer is within the age range of the magazine's target audience which some men may find compelling to purchase. It uses very bold but sophisticated colours of red and black to create te sense of danger and love. The white background is used well to create a neutral tone and base for the striking colours against it. The magazine informs readers in regards to sex life, style, lifestyle and food, etc. The cover draws the viewer into the image by using 3D font that creates lots of depth to the magazine. The text is shown organized to the left and right of the image, again giving the impression it is a sophisticated publication. The text included uses the word "men" multiple times, suggesting it features masculine based topics within. The logo of the magazine is slightly hidden by the cover star, making the cover seem, again, more three dimensional and realistic. The cover uses men's terminology with words such as "Tech", "Sport", "Business" and "Politics", terms associated with masculinity. "One Man's Battle To Build The New World Trade Centre" is a good phrase used as it is again identified with men as feeling empowered and building, which is also related to the male niche.

Women's Magazine Example:

The target audience for Marie Claire magazine is generally 25-39 year old females. It is interesting to see how this women-based magazine has used Rihanna again for their cover, but have used other effects to create different outcomes. For example, the text used is much more feminine being pink and black, and also matching with the singer's outfit. Also, the colors used appear much softer to the eye compared to the men's magazine, which is very striking and harsh. The two covers both appear very simplistic. Like GQ, Marie Claire position the text to the left and right to appear organized. However, similar to GQ, it uses various fonts which juxtapose this opinion, making the magazine seem fun and modern at the same time. On the magazine's cover, the logo is this time positioned in front of the cover image, giving the impression that the women's magazine is more professional and cares about its name more than the men's. Claire uses typical women's terminology such as "Glamour", "Love", "Christmas In Style"and "Hottest Party Fashion, Sexy Make-up & Fabulous Hair". These words are thought to be more associated with women than men, so appeals to its target audience well. Other phrases also connect to femininity well. Rihanna's quote "I smile for real now" appears much more ladylike, being presumed it is about relationships and not just appearance and sex featured in GQ's main title. Also: "237 Xmas Gift Ideas" is used accurately, as it is a well known fact that women shop more than men, especially around the christmas times.

Magazine Design A-Z Terminology

airbrush: To retouch photographic images with dye sprayed from a small, high-pressure gun. Similar retouching can be performed digitally with the use of image-manipulation software.

bar code: A series of vertical lines that identify the magazine, the magazine's publisher, and the magazine's price.

clean copy: Copy that is ready to be typeset, or copy that has already been typeset and contains no further corrections.

dummy: A preliminary layout showing the size, shape, form, and general style of a printed piece, including folds.

editor in chief: The top editor at a magazine or book publisher responsible for all editorial decisions. 

flush: To align text or images along one edge of a page layout.

grayscale: The range of gray tones between black and white as displayed on a monitor or in an image. Black and white photos are typiclly refered to as grayscale.

hard copy: The tangible output, usually on laser paper or photographic paper, from an electronic file. 

inside back cover: The opposite side of the back cover in a magazine, booklet, or brochure. Also refered to as Cover 3.

justified: Text in which both the right and left margins are aligned.

keyline: Artwork for offset reproduction that shows outlines indicating the exact shape, position, and size of halftone elements and line sketches.

landscape: An image or page that is horizontally oriented, as opposed to portrait, which is vertically oriented.

manuscript: The raw copy for a book or magazine article (either handwritten or computer-generated) before it is edited and typeset.

news release: An announcement of a new book or a new product sent to a news organization for publication.

orphan: The end of a paragraph or beginning of a column of text that is undesirably short:a single, short word or the end of a hyphenated word.

page layout: The assembly of the elements on a page, including text and graphics. Also called page composition or page makeup.

quick printer: A vendor that supplies printed materials to consumers and business, specializing in simple print runs of 10,000 or less.

rasterization: The process of converting mathematical and digital information into a series of dots using an imagesetter for the purpose of producing film negatives or positives.

serif:The small strokes at the end of the main strokes of letterforms.

trim mark: Vertical or horizontal lines placed outside the margins of a page to indicate where the paper should be cut. Also called crop marks.

upload: To send a file to another computer, as opposed to download, which means to retrieve a file from another computer.

vector-based: Graphics defined by groups of lines, circles, text, and other objects, as opposed to bitmapped graphics, which are defined by pixels. Also called object-oriented graphics.

watermark: A design that is subtly impressed on a sheet of paper by raising the pattern of the dandy roll during papermaking.

x-height: The height of a lowercase "x" in a particular typeface. 

yellow: One of the subtractive primaries (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) used in four-color process inks.

Task 1: Getting to know Blogger

Things you can do with Blogger

• Publish own posts from computer, tablet, phone etc

• Add images, videos, links, documents

• Change the layout of your blog by using various templates, colors, text

• Earn money by posting high-quality original content, creating adverts using Google.

• Subscribe to other blogs, with other blogs being able to subscribe to you.

• You can also create 'Team Blogs' which can be set up with more than one user on Blogger. This is helpful when put into groups for coursework as work is easily added and viewable from all team members.

How I think Blogger will be useful for my coursework

• I think Blogger will be easier for my coursework as I will not have to carry around papers and books, instead all of my work is stored in this blog, which is easily accessible from home and from school, making it easy to add to whenever I want. Blogger is also available on mobile phones which makes it extremely easy to add posts on the go spontaneously. I also prefer typing and using a computer instead of pen and paper, as I believe I work harder and faster with modern technology which I spend most of my time using anyway.