Thursday, 17 December 2009

Institution

Publishing is the act of creating a piece of literature in order for the information conatined to be made available for the public to view. The way in which the Publishing industry is organised today is a problem. It is similar to that of the music industry. A small number of companies control a very large number of magazines. By doing this, it means that the amount of choice available is limited. Also, the style in which magazines are made is repeated and copied across to other magazines. A prime example of this is from the publishing group Bauer. Two magazines made by the company are TV Choice and TV Quick. These two magazines are almost identical on first look and contain very similar stories.
Another way this is evidenced is through the publishing group IPC media. There most popular magazine is the NME, however, this is not all they produce. Whilst being reknowned for owning one of the UK's most popular music magazines, this group produce magazines for almost any reader. Ranging from "What's on TV" to "Rugby World" even to "Practical Boat Owner". This shows just how large publishing companies such as IPC media have become. Also, it shows the problem at hand. Tehse corporations are controlling almost every well read magazines available, making it impossible for indie magazines to survive. The large companies have the money to get interviews, travel to far locations for holiday magazines and produce thousands of copies of the magazines they create.
The consequences of this Publishing structure are already evident. It is causing the magazines that we read to become generic advertisement ridden creations. Due to the publishing companies becoming so large and owning so many magazines, they are more interested in profitability rather then originality.
I would prefer my magazine to be published by a mainstrem publisher. I know that this could cause a lot of advertisement to be added to my magazine, but it will allow for mass appeal as well as a far larger production possibility. Being as how I would have control of the magazine, I would be able to control its appearance and therefore stop it from becoming generic.

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Main Production Planning: Initial Ideas Collage


Here is a collage of images and fonts that could possibly be used for my magazine. They also connote the general atmosphere my magazine will have as well as the styles that will be used.