Bauer Media Essay

Bauer Media Group

Bauer Media Group is a company that started in Hamburg, Germany during 1875. Since their inception it has been privately owned and managed by the Bauer family. In November 2010, now in it’s fifth generation, Heinz Heinrich’s daughter Yvonne assumed the management of the Group after joining the family business in 2005. Since the early 1980’s publisher Heinz Heinrich Bauer has concentrated on the internationalisation of the media group. Their successful expansion into foreign markets began with the Group’s entry into the US. They have now expanded worldwide and have become New Zealand’s leading magazine publisher, and also currently publishing over 80 magazines in Australia with 45 audited titles selling around 85 copies each year. They now operate in another 15 countries and circulate over 38 million magazines a week. Bauer Media’s portfolio includes printing companies, postal services and services in the fields of distribution, marketing and media sales. The group’s current turnover is stable at more than two billion euro’s. Their portfolio includes some of the longest-running and most successful mastheads in the world and had become one of Europe’s leading media companies over their 138 years of publication.

The Group’s primary goal is to design, create and then sell magazines, but due to immerging technologies such as Netflix, an online television program streamer in which they’ve created  a new ‘binge’ audience. ‘Binge’ audience simply means a person will watch many episodes or even whole television or film series in one sitting, or in a short amount of time. The increase of online audiences has influenced Bauer into launching many magazines and TV shows to online platforms. For example this year they launched their Grazia magazine to TV and online platforms and also making their MOJO magazine available online. Increasing their platform variety allows Bauer Media to reach a wider audience and have more consumers and therefore earn more profit. Having online platforms allows the consumer to view Bauer’s magazines, TV and Radio shows, from anywhere around the world at any time the consumer wants, and it’s available 24 hours a day.

Bauer Media’s first adventure into the UK publishing market was ‘Bella’.  In a £1.14 billion deal with EMAP, Bauer, a company that owns 166 magazines across three continents, acquired the UK’s second biggest consumer magazine and radio group.  Along with this Bauer also purchased teenage rock magazine ‘Kerrang!’ which plunged them into one of the largest UK consumer groups. They immersed themselves into a new market and also acquired the TV channel, the radio station and the online platforms for ‘Kerrang!’ This helped them to become the UK third largest publisher.  In this deal they also bought the consumer magazine title ‘Q’ at the time it was one of the most popular music magazines published monthly in the United Kingdom. In 2008, the same year Bauer bought the magazine, it had launched Q radio as a full service radio station with a complete roster. The radio station is based in Birmingham along with fellow radio station ‘Kerrang!’.

There are many different platforms in which media company’s can launch their products into, such as, Online, TV, Radio and Magazine. The latest figures of Bauer Media Group show that they currently have 88 separate products, of which 77 of them have or include an online platform, whereas there are only 13 products that feature only TV or Magazine platforms. This trend shows that magazine and TV are fading away gradually. Media companies can also categorise their products by types of audience, such as, Age, Gender, Regional/Local/International, Class or Niche/Specialist. Bauer media has many different products for many different audiences; including Women’s magazines such as Take a Break and Grazia. And niche magazines for Fishing and Car enthusiasts such as Angling Times and Classic Cars.

Brand	TV	Online	Radio	Magazine
FHM	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Heat	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kerrang	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kiss	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Magic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MOJO	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Q	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smash Hits	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

This table shows the most popular Bauer brands. This shows that half have a TV platform available but all of the products are available online, through radio and in magazines. This shows that there is still a market for physical copies such as magazines or newspapers.

In January 2011 the media Group’s, Bauer Access will take the form of a series of ‘Open-Access’ sessions. Mainly for the benefit of Bauer’s editors, programmers, advertisers and agencies. They stated at an event named ‘Bauer Live’ that the sessions aimed to show commercial partners ‘The reach, influence, engagement and unique cross-platform offer of the Bauer Media portfolio’.  These sessions are designed to encourage better communications between Bauer and it’s clients.

During 2013 Bauer Media have been under much scrutiny due to recent accusations from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre that their Second World War magazine, Der Landser, has been honouring pro-Nazi troops, who fought during the Second World War. A short statement released by Bauer Media, they explained that they received a letter in which it made allegations about Der Landser editorial stance. Bauer has published Der Landser for 43 but in September 2013 it has announced that they would cease publication of the magazine. Bauer also publishes many other military magazines that have too been accused of legitimising Nazism and glorifying Adolf Hilter, such as Geschichte and Wissen (History and Knowledge) and Militar and Geschichte (Military and History). Along with Der Landser they were cited in a letter sent in February to the German government by Abraham Foxman, director of the US Anti-Defamation League.

These recent allegations, along with their new ventures help shape the company in the public eye. The scrutiny of having to cease publication of one of their longest running magazine will influence the consumer into not buying Bauer products. Whereas opening new sessions where they are able to communicate better with their clients shows they care about how they are perceived to the public.