Magazines use either symbiotic or synergistic links to distributors to distribute the magazine to stores and retailers throughout the country and world. Depending on the type of magazine and the target audience, the way in which they distribute the magazine may be different whether they use a mainstream or independent distributor.
Mainstream magazines such as Kerrang use one of the 4 main distributors (Marketforce, Frontline,Comag and Seymour) with networks to distribute their magazines to major retail outlets and online platforms. Frontline is one of these who sells and distributes over 160 of their shareholders publisher magazine titles which includes 58 of the top 200 selling in the UK. They are able to supply 480 million copies of the magazines to distribute to over 55000 retail outlets. The objective of Frontline is to give the best chance of selling the magazines at the lowest price possible.
The scale is alot larger than those of a independent supplier. This is the process in which they work:
Publisher ---> Distributor ---> Wholesaler ---> Retailer ---> Consumer
(Bbc, Haymarket) (Frontline, (60 whole sale. ( Asda, WHS, (You)
Seymor, comag) ie Smiths) tesco- 55000)
One Magzine frontline distribute with a synergistic link to the publisher Bauer is the magazine Q. They recall that this magazine is the biggest selling monthly music magazine with an audience of passionate, engaged and open minded music fans who are open to continually discover new msuic. The main social group for Q is males, with a staggering 75% of the audience being male and 25% female.
My magazine is not mainstream, so this is not the distribution technique I would use to distribute my magazine. I will use an independent distribtor to distribte the magazine I have created to certain shops. My magazine is aimed at B, higher-class audiences who tend to shop at the more expensive places such as Waitrose. Therefore there is no need for my magazine to be advertised in places such as Tesco or Asda becase my target audience will not pick these types of shops as their first choice.
An example of an independent distibted magazine is Vice which is a high class magazine of which the audience is young adults ages 18-23 with 38% of the audience falling into this category, 36% in 24-29, 16% in 30-35 and under 18 only 8%. This shows that the magazine is more suited to a younger audience. The is hardly any difference in the gender audience with 49 % being female and 51% being male which shows it is more or less a unisex magazine aimed at both genders. Dominantly it is aimed at people who love music.
An Independent distributor strategy is different to mainstream ones because these magazine may only be available in certain stores accross the ountry. For example, Vice is only found in stores in 10 cities/towns across Britain, the nearest to us being in Birmingham. This means that the reader has to be really commited to the magazine to go over to Birmingham to buy the latest isse or any of the other 9 cities accross the country.
I have chosen to use an independent strategy because my magazine is for an up-market audience who will not be seen shopping in some of the stores which most mainstream magazines are sold in. Also as it is up-market it should be treasured and commited people to the magazine and the genre would take time to go and buy the latest issue, which is why I propose that it is only sold it certain stores, much like Vice magazine. I will distribute my magazine to higher-class shops such as waitrose and certain music shops around the country.
The platforms I will use is the paper copy of the magazine and the website where you can order/subscribe to the magazine for it to be sent to your door. I will not be have an online version as this could make it become mainstream if people start to read it online as it will be too easy to access for mainstreamers.
The distribution strategy will not come cheaply. As I have decided that my magazine should only be sold in certain shops, it will only attract the audience who are really interested in the genre and the upper-class audience. This involves using no real advertisement to ensure that it does not become mainstream and is kept to inspirers and traditionalists. The profit will come to how much my target audience like the magazine and how successful it is without any real advertisement.
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