Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences within a media area which you have studied.

The institution Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. H Bauer brands include women's weekly and TV listings magazines; namely Bella, Take a Break, that's life! TV Choice and Total TV Guide as well as a number of puzzle magazines. Bauer Media also owns the two magazines, Grazia and Take a Break and it publishes the magazines for consumers to buy. However, there are issues that are raised by the institution’s need to target their specific audience for Grazia magazine.

 

The media products we have studied are Grazia and Take a Break. Grazia is a fashion magazine aimed at upper-middle class women aged between 20 and 45 years old (A, B, C1). Bauer, market Grazia by praising the magazine and writing things such as, it ‘remains the market-leader’ and ‘GRAZIA transformed the women’s magazine market’. However, Take a Break is a real life magazine aimed at lower-middle class women aged between 25 and 55 years old (C1, C2). The difference in the target audience between the two magazines means that they are distributed differently to fit the lifestyle of the buyers.

Grazia magazine is very reliant on stories that are up to date and current such as, the magazine must keep up to the date with the current trends of shops like Oasis, whereas Take a Break is not as reliant on the latest stories and can feature older stories such as, someone who lost weight a few years ago. Also, Grazia features articles about fashion, celebrities and desirable goods, such as perfume and handbags. Grazia also places images on the front cover of the magazine that are celebrities of a high class and status, evident from the number of Grazia magazines that I have looked at. However, Take a Break features human interest stories, useful articles, reader generated content and ‘weekly shop’ adverts. Also, Take a Break features lots of gossip, horoscopes, dating articles and ‘bizarre’ stories. The images on the front cover also feature celebrities who may have a high celebrity status but may have a bad reputation or are known for the wrong reasons. This is again evident from the number of Take a Break magazines that I have looked at.

The two magazines, Grazia and Take a Break advertise themselves using many different types of technology. They widely use the internet, by posting different adverts on the internet for their magazine and also, with their websites, which are created for the purpose of attracting new consumers. The magazines use twitter and Facebook as well to advertise themselves. The two magazines rely a lot on these forms of technology as they are extremely useful for the advertisement of the magazines.

These different magazines are distributed by following the distribution chain. The magazine will begin at the magazine publisher and then will be sent to the distributor where it will be separated, sent to different wholesalers and then distributed to different shops where it will be sold to consumers.

One of the media products that I have studied in particular is Grazia. Grazia targets its specific audience by running stories about high street fashion, current trends, designer fashion shows and collections and style tips for the readers.

Issues that are raised by the media institution, compromise their ability to target their specific target audience. Although, forty two people work at Grazia and they produce 100 pages a week, Grazia struggle to get enough stories to publish every week in the magazine and have to work to try and find good stories to publish. Also, Grazia struggle to get the exclusive story from designers. They have to use their existing contacts and go out to events, to get more contacts, so that they can get the exclusive stories and gossip. Grazia have to compete with other magazines, such as, Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire to get the stories first. This means that they do things, such as, getting tip offs from people on the street and by phoning contacts to find out all the gossip about celebrities. Grazia have a network of people all around the world, yet it still can be a struggle to find out the gossip. Grazia also, have to contact the lawyers of celebrities to get their approval to run a particular story. This can slow down the publishing process and could also reduce the amount of pages printed in the magazine, if the story is not allowed to be run.

Grazia tries it’s best to overcome these issues and try different things to produce the best outcome. In the Grazia documentary, Grazia are shown to have a professional relationship with designers, such as, Giorgio Armani and they report on his collections and shows, to provide him with the best media coverage. In return he gives Grazia the inside scoop on the major gossip about celebrities and their outfits and also on any details on fashion and collections. 

This is my response to the practice exam question that we were set. I have written an essay discussing the ways in which Grazia and Take a Break are produced and distributed to particular audiences of magazines.