Competition

I have decided my music magazine will be a national magazine, so I will need to look into other national magazine competitors which could have a negative input onto my production as my own might not be as popular as my competitors.

Billboard
Billboard is an entertainment media brand owned by The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, and publishes news, video, opinion, reviews, events and style. It is known for music charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, tracking the most popular songs and albums in different genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows.

This could be an issue for my production as Billboard has a very wide fan base and is obviously very popular. In 2015, Billboard magazine received a total audience of 115,000 people worldwide, reaching both genders, but males significantly more as 77% of the readers are male but only 22% female. The magazine consists of various content, and the first page of the magazine highlighting the top songs before leading to the rest of the chart. Other content also includes; a look at the week's headlines and happenings, the 'pulse' of music right now including industry gossip and a look who's saying what in music, style, and features including exclusive interviews and profiles featuring beautiful original photography as well as reviews and charts.

I understand that it will be an issue against this competitor as of it being highly successful already, however, through various strategies I will be able to overcome this obstacle. For example, I will meet all my expectations I think my audience needs, such as finding out what matters to my audience the most in a magazine. Is it lower price, more flexibility, the latest products featured? I will give my audience good reasons to by my magazine compared to my competitors by making my magazine stand out and be different through differentiation.

We would compete through various factors such as the price our magazines, as a lower price seems to be for advertising for a audience, especially a young audience who are mostly unemployed. Another factor our magazines will compete with would be the development of codes and conventions of a typical magazine. While having similar content in the magazine, my magazine will have more content which will keep my target audience more interested than a magazine with less content. I could also offer freebies, which Billboard doesn't do for its audience, however, this will be attracting for my audience if I offered them, for example free posters. I think this will be more suited for my audience too, as well as it will being more attracting maybe gathering a bigger audience.

The front cover of Billboard is very varied, as one issue is brightly coloured while the next would be black and white. However, with my magazine, my front cover will constantly be brightly coloured which I think will be more noticeable to my audience as well as attracting. This will also give the audience a sense of confidence in the magazine, with a continued colourful front page which can easily be seen. Not only will it constantly be a bright and colourful, but my magazine will also feature exclusive material which Billboard will not have, which should attract a larger audience than my targeted audience.