Magazine Production Companies + Summarised Codes and Conventions // Entertainment Magazines

Companies such as, Meredith Corporation, Bauer Media Group, Future PLC and Reach PLC produce and distribute Entertainment Magazines. A Conglomerate is a large corporation which is a combination of multiple businesses operating in different industries, an example of this is Meredith Corporation, Bauer Media Group. It seems the newspaper/magazine production market is an oligopoly, as it is shared and dominated by a small amount of large sellers, this means there is less competition in this field. For example, Reach PLC publishes the 'Daily Mirror,' 'The Sunday People', the 'Sunday Mirror' and the 'Scottish Sunday Mail'. The Bauer Media Group publishes the Entertainment Magazines, 'Heat' Magazine, 'Empire' Magazine and 'Take5' Magazine.

The Bauer Media Group, headquartered in Germany, manages more than 600 magazines, 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the globe. It is currently Europe's largest magazine publisher, including niche magazines (for example, Soaps in Depth, which was created in 1997 and provides for fans of American television soaps such as 'The Young and The Restless ', meaning they may be able to access exclusive information on the upcoming episodes or background information of their favourite programme.) It manages the Entertainment Magazines, 'Heat', 'Empire Magazine' and 'TV Choice' Magazine. It is today Britain's biggest magazines publisher as it currently holds 40 million users accessing its brands globally, as said on its website (https://www.bauermedia.co.uk/about/our-company.) It is diversified into other forms of media such as radio stations. It owns London dance radio station 'Kiss FM', which and today operates 70 commercial, local, digital and national British stations, e.g. 'Absolute Radio' and 'Magic'. It is a growing company, an example of this is in 2018 it acquired the radio station 'Jazz FM' , meaning it will pull in more users of its products by attracting fans of different music genres and in February 2016, 'Kiss' branched out with 'KISS STORY' broadcasting on-air in Norway.

Also the magazine publishing media company, 'Reach PLC', which was formally known as 'Trinity Mirror' between 1999 and 2018, is a British owned newspaper publisher. The company publishes 240 regional newspapers including the 'Daily Mirror', 'The Sunday People' and the 'Scottish Sunday Mail'. These papers have been popular and read by many middle class workers on the way to work, for example, or just as a source of worldwide information for many people across the UK. For example, the 'Daily Mirror' was created in 1903 and is an informational tabloid newspaper, which is released daily as the title suggests and has a sister paper released on a Sunday, 'the Sunday Mirror'. In the spring of 2018 'Trinity Mirror' decided to rebrand itself as 'Reach PLC.'

Meredith Corporation is an American Media Conglomerate, which covers many aspects of the media, for example it owns magazines, television and radio stations. It publishes one of the main Entertainment Magazines, Entertainment Weekly. It is released monthly and was released its first issue in February 1990. Since then it has gained awards such as the 'GLAAD Media Donahue' and 'Thomas Award'. It also owns magazines such as the Entertainment magazine 'People' and also branches out into other genres such as health and nichè well being magazines, 'Health' and 'Eating Well' and interior design and lifestyle magazines, e.g. 'Martha Stewart Living', 'Real Simple' and 'Traditional Home'. It is diversifies as it also different forms of media, it creates radio, Broadway theatre and television. An example of this is its broadcasting division owns 15 television stations, e.g. Tennessee in America's WSMV- TV, which owns the tv channels, Digital channel 10 and Virtual channel 4,  channel 4 contains broadcasted weather updates and news to the people of Nashville.

'Future PLC' or 'Future Publishing' is a British conglomerate established in 1985, it covers a wide range of different magazine types, publishing 78 magazines as well as over 530 book-azines yearly based on video games, entertainment and many more themes and genres. It publishes the Entertainment Magazine, Total Film in which its first issue was released in February 1997, it is published 13 times a year (monthly) and can both be found printed and interactive to access on iPad edition. It was founded by Chris Anderson and holds 56 events all around the world, including award ceremonies, according to its website, (https://www.futureplc.com/who-we-are), it attracts 'over 152K attendees worldwide'.  An example of this is the 'Music Week Awards 2019' and 'The Video Show'. It owns magazines such as the technology magazine 'What Hi-Fi?', the gaming magazine 'Playstation Official Magazine' and 'Guitarist' Magazine.

Codes and Conventions of the typical Magazine Cover- A Summary:

• A large strap-line, which is eye-catching and stands out clearly to a reader, explaining who the celebrity, artist or actors are if the reader is not already aware and why they are presented on the cover of the magazine for that month or what the main topic or theme of the magazine is in the issue.
• Two to five sell lines which give the reader an idea about what they will find in the magazine, this encourages monthly readers and new readers to buy the magazine, especially if one of their favourite artists or a film they are interested in watching in the cinema is presented or if there is an exclusive interview they would not want to miss out on.
• A large photo covering much of the cover of a popular and well known actors, celebrities or artists, this photo may cover the title of the magazine, making it obvious to the reader the company are aware that their magazine will be easily recognised through the font and a few letters showing them which magazine they are reading.
• Often a reader may find the price of the magazine and the date and year the magazine was released on the cover, this is usually found on magazines such as Vogue.
• If there is a free gift there may be information on what the gift is attached to the magazine on the cover and which brand it is.
• Often the head of the model covers the masthead/title of the magazine, as if the magazine is well known the reader would recognise its title without needing all the letters of its name. The magazine company are aware of this.
• There is usually a colour scheme to the cover as well as on a contents, which is between 2-5 colours. For example, Vanity Fair used black, red and white on the cover above.

Magazine Contents Conventions- A Summary:

• The contents may state once again to the reader which month's issue they have bought and are currently reading. Also often the name of the magazine is presented to the reader to remind them which magazine contains the exciting content they are about to read, meaning they may purchase the magazine again if they enjoyed reading it.
• A photo of a well known celebrity or singer in which the reader may recognise and so may want to find out more about what they have been up to or if they are not aware of who they are they may flick to the page number stated on the contents near the photo to find more information about them and which sector of society they specialise in. Often this celebrity will use direct address to catch the reader's attention.
• The magazine's website address may be presented to the reader (e.g. www.glamour.com) so the reader can enter possible competitions presented in the magazine or find out more about the magazine itself, online.
• The contents usually state 2-5 different sections of the magazine which are included to inform the reader of what they will find inside the issue, it may also encourage the reader to read the magazine further straight after flicking to the contents if they find a page of interest shown. Also contents pages usually give reader information on which pages numbers they can find the magazine's interesting interviews or exclusives.
• Large numbers may be presented to the reader on either the cover or the contents page, for example above on the Marie Claire magazine contents the large number '101' ideas is shown to the reader so it seems the magazine pages are jam packed with exciting content and features. '101 ideas' seems very impressive and the reader maybe eager to discover what the magazine companies ideas are and why they have chosen them.