Time Warner Inc and NME

‘Time Warner’s takeover of British publisher IPC Media has given the N.M.E brand a new lease of life. Discuss.’

In 2001 Time Warner Inc took over the British company IPC Group Limited. IPC is the United Kingdom’s leading consumer magazine producer, IPC publishes over 100 different brand across the UK and one of these is the NME. NME was launched in 1952 and is believed to be one of the most respected music magazines in the world and helped to champion and publicise some of the greatest names in British rock history.

          

Since Time Warner’s take over of IPC and NME there have been many dramatic changes to the magazine, making it branch out into unknown territory and for it to evolve into something that the company had never seen before.

In 2006, NME finally spread its wings and hit America by storm, NME was already known in America because of its website, NME.COM which was launched in 1996, it was already America’s third most popular music site. This shows that even before Time Warner acquired NME it was big in America, but leading on from that, NME has transformed into a multimedia company. When it first began it was just a magazine, this then led on to becoming a website, radio show and TV channel. But with our new technological advances, NME needed someway to keep up with its modern rivals. So, with the help of Time Warner, NME has managed to go from not just the page but into a physical entity of clubs around the globe. The newest club to be set up is a permanent fixture in New York City in the Gramercy Park Hotel, a building which already has a lot of rock and roll history attached to it, which will host fortnightly events broadcasting the freshest talent on the new music scene.

Due to the company owning the NME brand being taken over by Times Warner it has led the magazine to take leaps of faith knowing that they have some security by being part of such a huge conglomeration. Also being part of this gives the magazine a much wider audience and database of knowledge meaning that it can widen its readership and popularity by advertising in other Time Warner publishing’s. This has helped NME to expand and break free of the restraints of just being with IPC Media who were not necessarily financially stable enough to allow NME to take risks that they might not recover from.

Furthering themselves again in keeping up with the newest technologies is the NME app. NME was the first music magazine to get an app in the iStore which was helped from its backing of global oligopoly, Time Warner Inc. With this new app, NME has been revived from a dying magazine that in hardback form wasn’t selling as well as it used to, into a new modern popular source for the latest music news from any available point. NME’s target market is able to access NME news in a variety of ways which makes NME one of the most easily accessible reliable music news sources. Readers are able to get their information from the internet, from the tv, from the radio, from the magazine or from an app, which can all be accessed from many of today’s Smartphones which means that NME has been given a new lease of life in that they are now able, with financial security and stability, to tread out into the unknown to keep up with our ever evolving technological world.

Magazine Industry - 3 point analysis

'The magazine industry has survived the coming of the digital age because it has been able to exploit technological advances. Indeed, it has always done so throughout its long history.' 






The word magazine describes branded, edited content often supported by advertising or sponsorship and delivered in print or other forms. Traditionally, magazines have been printed periodicals which are most commonly published weekly, monthly, or quarterly. These may be supported by printed one-off supplements and annual directories. Increasingly, magazines exist online where content is available through websites or in digital editions, or delivered by email as an electronic newsletter. Many magazines brands also deliver tailored information services to the audiences. Magazines brands also engage with their audiences face-to-face by organising exhibitions, conferences and other events. 
            The magazine industry has always been up with technological advancements such as the use of photoshop and airbrushing models. If you look at the history of magazines they have always kept up with technological advances. As soon as something new develops, the magazine industry uses this to their advantage. Example the ability to use more advanced technical photography i.e. images going from black and white to coloured and they can be edited. Magazines use these advances to exploit them, for example fairly recently magazines have become available on the internet, this could be seen as a abad thing, as readers could argue there is no point in purchasing the magazine if they can simply read the information it entails online. However instead magazines and exploited this fact by revealing only snippets of their magazine which in turn encourages their audience to buy the real thing because they are intrigued to read the rest. As well as encouraging regulars it could also persuade those that have never bought that particular magazine before to buy it. 


In conclusion, diversifying isn't a choice that magazines companies can make, it is necessity for them in order to keep the company afloat and information relevant to their audience. Magazines have done this well throughout their history and will continue to do so in the future. Hopefully this means that magazines will always be current and upcoming. Because of this the demand for magazines will always be strong and ongoing. 

IPC Media

'Why did IPC Media have cause to be optimistic about their business prospects in 2006?'

IPC Media had a prosperous year in 2005 in which they had 3 major launches. One of these, TV Easy, was the first compact paid-for weekly TV listings magazine in Britain, it was also backed by a £10 million marketing investment. Another of their major launches was the unveiling of a new generation real life weekly for women called Pick Me Up. The launch was backed by a £6 million marketing investment and had the largest sampling exercise in UK magazine history.
    IPC Media is owned by Time Warner Inc, in 2005 Time Warner acquired the 15 titles of Grupo Editoral Expansion, Mexico's second largest magazine publisher. The deal was worth $60-$65 million. 
  With all these successes in 2005 it would have left IPC Media very optimistic about their prosperity in 2006.