Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

It is well known that the most common way of advertising and distributing magazines are in shops such as WHSmith, which have proven very successful for many different varieties of magazines. However, the only way potential readers would be able to see the various magazines is if they actually walk into the shop, and with internet shopping becoming a very rapidly growing industry, I have decided that the internet and social networking sites in particular is the way to go. If I was to advertise my magazine on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram, then the amount of people who see it would be much more than if my magazine was just on a shop shelf, especially as recent studies have shown that more than 250 million tweets are made per day, and over 800 million updates on Facebook! It was also shown that 18-25 year olds spent up to 8 hours a day on the social networking sites, and considering this is very close to my target audience, I think it’s safe to say that they would definitely come across an advertisement for my magazine! The fact that I have included a ‘hashtag’ in the name of my magazine ties in perfectly with the idea of mainly advertising my magazine on the internet, as it has the potential to become a ‘Trending Topic’ on Twitter, meaning that millions of people would see it. Another advantage of using a hashtag and advertising on the internet, means that it has the potential to turn into a brand, as people would simply see the name ‘#beat.’ And want to find out more. During my research, I also found out that many magazines are also starting to put additional content onto their social networking profiles for each issue, therefore encouraging readers to visit their page, which could lead to their friends seeing it and so on. Obviously I would still need to actually sell my magazines in shops, but I love the idea of doing all the advertising and branding on the internet.