Information on magazine publishers

The magazine industry today is divided into multiple genres, each one being handled by different publishing companies. The consumer magazine market was found in 2008 to be dominated by four major publishers by an independent study. Bauer Publishing being the largest owned 25% of the overall shares in the UK magazine market. Time Warner Group was placed a close second with one fifth, followed by BBC (who were recently bought out by a larger company) and Hearst with just over 7% each. These four publishers along with the smaller groups that make up the rest of the industry produce over 3000 consumer magazine titles, compared to the much less 1300 being printed in 1980.

Bauer Media Group based in Hamburg Germany is now responsible for the production of both ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘Q’ magazines. In 1987 Bauer launched its first publishing venture entitled ‘Bella’, a weekly ‘gossip’ mag aimed at women. Shortly after in 1990 Bauer subsequently launched a similar title in the form of ‘Take a Break’. The company continued to produce a wider variety of publications and has now become the media giant it is today. Bauer now employs a workforce of over 11,000 employees in 17 different countries across the world.