Case Study

Vibe & Bauer Media Case Study

Vibe is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down production in Summer 2009, Vibe was purchased by the private equity investment fund Intermedia Partners and is now issued semi-monthly with double covers, with a larger online presence. The magazine's target demographic is predominantly young, urban followers of hip-hop culture. In 2014, the magazine moved online-only.

The magazine owed its success to featuring a broader range of interests than its closest competitors The Source and XXL which focus more narrowly on rap music, or the rock and pop-centric

Is a European-based media company, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany that manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines such as “Men’s Fitness”, “heat”, “NME” and much more. They also have over 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the world. The portfolio includes print shops, postal, distribution and marketing services- this means that they are a cross media platform. Bauer Media Group has a workforce of approximately 11,000 employees in 17 countries including Hamburg, USA and the UK.

Bauer Media Group entered the US market in 1981 with the launch of Woman's World magazine. Today, Bauer Media Group USA has a portfolio of 13 magazines, 5 special interest publications and 16 websites across several distinct consumer segments: celebrity/entertainment, women’s, teen and science/technology.

Bauer Media is a multi-platform media group, with locations across the UK. Following their purchase of Emap in 2007. The Bauer Media Group acquired a collection of media brands. This includes heat and Grazia as well as a radio portfolio of national radio brands such as KISS FM UK and Magic, and regional radio brands across major UK cities. In 2013, Bauer Media also acquired the Absolute Radio Group from Times of India

In 1989, the company introduced its second publication, First for Women, a women's magazine. Alliance for Audited Media reports that Woman's World and First for Women are the #1 and #2 selling magazines at retail, respectively.

The company's popular teen brands include Twist, launched in 1997; J-14, launched in 1999; M, launched in 2000; Girls' World; launched in 2013, and Animal Tales, launched in 2014. J-14 ranks in the top five media brands for social media presence among all publishers according to Shareable, a social media research company

This is changed as the group acquired Australian magazine publisher, ACP Magazines from a London-based private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners, in 2012. That increased the company’s turnover to more than €2 billion.

In comparison to Bauer Media, Quincy Jones launched Vibe in 1993, in partnership with Time Inc. Originally, the publication had been called Volume before co-founding editor, Scott Poulson-Bryant gave it the name Vibe. Though hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons was rumored to be an initial partner, publisher Len Burnett revealed in a March 2007 interview that Simmons clashed with Editor-in-chief Jonathan Van Meter. Miller Publishing bought Vibe in 1996, and shortly afterward bought Spin. Private equity firm, The Wicks Group, bought the magazine in 2006.

On June 30, 2009, it was announced that Vibe was shutting its doors and ceasing publication immediately. This might be due to the loss the company must have gone through as sales were not successful. This is due to the lack of distribution and the difficulty for customers to purchase a magazine as they were sold as hard copies leading to low circulation.

On April 25, 2013 it was announced that Vibe Magazine along with Vibe.com and VibeVixen.com had been sold to Spin Media for an undisclosed sum. Spin Media was thought likely to shut down Vibe's print magazine by the end of 2013, which a representative stating: "We’re still trying to find a print model that makes economic sense in the digital age. Instead, they cut the magazine's frequency to quarterly.

The reason for this is because the company must have used market research in order to realize how fast technology is becoming bigger within the societies. Using the internet to distribute the magazine will benefit the company as well as the customers as it is easy access for everyone. This resulted in improved purchases, leading the magazine to have a total circulation of 301,408.

Bauer media is an example of a conglomerate. A conglomerate is one company that owns and runs a lot of companies in various media sectors such as distribution, production & marketing. This shows the effect ownership can have on a range of products available to the audience as if the company wasn’t a conglomerate, it wouldn’t have the money needed to create other brands e.g Sky.

Bauer Media has an impact upon the range of products available to audiences in the media, is because they use the technique Vertical integration. This is when an institution owns shares or each part of the production, marketing, distribution and exhibition processes. An example is seen is when they collaborated with “Coldplay”

One of Britain’s biggest bands, Coldplay, are set to collaborate with Bauer Media Group to stage an intimate gig at the London Palladium next month.  The collaboration marks a first for Bauer with live music feeds and more exclusive content set to be leveraged right the way across the group’s multiplatform brands spanning radio, magazine media, digital and TV.

Similarly, Vibe magazine are always collaborating with famous artists such as Trey Songz in order to help them spread the news that their new single has been released, as well as using them on front covers in order for customers and fans to buy the magazine.

Bauer Media Group has a 50% stake in the British television company Box Television, the other half owned by Channel 4. Box Television acts as the content subsidiary that produces several popular music television channels, which include:

·         4Music

·         The Box

·         Heat

·         Kerrang!

·         Kiss

·         Magic

·         Smash Hits

These channels are only available in the UK which is a downside as it is not accessable to other countries therefore they are making less money. However, by just having it in the UK makes competition less therefore other companies cannot copy. Audiences access these channels through the radio in their cars, online, on their phones, apps etc. This means it is easy to access for people.  

The roles and responsibilities when putting magazines together:

Ø  Administration

Ø  finance

Ø  advertising

Ø  broadcasting

Ø  charity

Ø  commercial

Ø  digital

Ø  editing

Ø  IT

Ø  Journalist

Ø  Logistics

Ø  Management

Ø  Marketing

Ø  Planning

Ø  Production

Ø  Programing

Ø  Retail

Ø  Sales

These roles are very important and they require a good knowledge about business as well as being able to do market research in order to see what is trending. Being able to think outside the box and figure out ways to get customers to buy their products, this is done by meeting the needs. Most of these roles comes from the internal environment of the business industry therefore they are important for the company, this means they would need to be trained as well as having real life experience and knowledge.