Distribution of magazines

Kerrang:

Kerrang offers a subscription service as their target audience is mainly teenagers. Teenagers tend to want to own have a physical possession of magazines. Furthermore Kerrang also offers posters and free gifts in their magazine. Teenagers like to collect free gifts from magazines and take posters of their favourite bands and stick them up usually. Therefore by including these things in a magazine their target audience would want a physical copy of the magazine rather than having an electronic magazine as they are able to have a physical possession in their hands.

Kerrang does not offer an e-zine version of their magazine. Instead Kerrang owns a website which includes similar content that is included in their magazine however the content available on the website is less in depth than the content in their magazine. This is gives their reader a teaser of the content included in the magazine to make their audience buy their magazine more. Considering their target audience Kerrang does not create an electronic version of their magazine because their target audience mainly wants to own a physical possession of their magazine instead of an electronic version.  Furthermore younger audiences are less likely to read articles on their bands as there are more interested in the free gifts and posters included in a magazine therefore it would be better to have a subscription instead of an electronic version.

The content on Kerrang’s website is slightly different than the content in their magazine. This is because the website is more up to date than the magazine. The magazine is only released once a week whereas the website can be updated whenever there is new content available. The website includes a page where they talk about the magazine and what content is featured in the newest magazine they have released to give the audience a few reasons as to why they should buy their magazine.

Kerrang uses Facebook and Twitter to tweet about new content and the most recently released magazine. They also use social media to interact with their readers. This makes the reader feel more connected to the magazine and that the editors care about their readers. They also gain feedback on their magazines through the use of social media so they know what readers want to see in their magazines, which helps them generate more content for their next magazine. By using social media they are spreading awareness to their fans by connecting to them more and making their content available on different platforms which their target audience uses. 

Q magazine:

Q magazine offers a subscription service. Their target audience is mainly for older people like people in their 30s. Older people tend to want to have a physical version of the magazine as they can read it and pick it up whenever they have time. Furthermore people that are into the genre of Q magazine’s music are more likely to buy a physical copy.

Q magazine does not offer an e-zine version of their magazine mainly because the articles included in their magazine are very wordy. Rather than reading all of this on an online article it would be much better to have a physical copy of the magazine. The articles are quite long so the target audience may want to be able to pick up the magazine whenever they want so they can continue reading it. For example when they are having a coffee break or maybe doing some free time.

The content on Q magazine’s website includes a brief summary about what the most recent magazine includes and what it is about. Also the website does include some voting polls for music awards. The website also includes more competitions whereas the magazine does not include too many competitions. This may be because their target audience is older and by including competition it makes the magazine see slightly childish. There is a track of the day page on their website to provide content for their audience every day. There is quite a large difference from the type of content included on their website compared to the magazine. This shows that their website is aimed at a different audience that is younger.

Q magazine uses a variety of different social media platforms to reach out to more of their readers. Using different platforms they provide different types of content on each platform to meet their reader’s standards. Furthermore by having different types of content they can see what their reader’s like and what they don’t like, which allows them to improve and provide more on the content that they create. For example on YouTube they provide videos of interviews with different artists, whereas on Instagram they post behind the scenes pictures of photoshoots or events. With so much available content on different platforms not only do they gain a wider range of reader’s but they also make their content easily accessible to their audience so that more people can view it.