Empire Magazine Case Study

Empire
o This is the front cover of Empire Magazine
o It’s published by Bauer Consumer Media
o Empire first started in July 1989
o It’s circulation is 194,016 a month
 Audience

o It is aimed at mainly aimed at men,

aged 17-45
o Empire circulates monthly
 Publisher
o Brands include women's weekly and TV listing
magazines.
 Publisher
o Bauer Consumer Media is a large German publishing company based in
Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company
was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under
management by the Bauer family.
o Bauer has been managed by four generations of the Bauer family.
Originally a small printing house, The Bauer Publishing Group has grown
into a worldwide publishing and media company. It includes 282
magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations.
Bauer started in the UK with the launch of Bella magazine in 1987. Bauer
further expanded in the UK with the purchase of Emap Consumer Media
and Emap Radio in 2008 to become the UK's biggest publishing group.
 Magazine Content
• To me the cover of empire magazine has become a lot more masculine. The colours that are
used are bolder such as the red and yellow as well as using grey and black. On the first
issue, the colours are simple and pale, the brightest colour is the faded red colour. In
comparision with the first issue, the latest cover is very busy. Every space on the front cover
is filled with pictures or text. The main picture also takes up almost all of the space, and
covers part of the title whereas the first issue is very plain and has a lot of space left. Also on
the front cover, the main picture only takes up a small amount of space and doesn’t dominate
the page as much. The titles also don’t stand out as much and are in plain, simple black
writing.

JULY 1989 ISSUE 1 MARCH 2011 ISSUE 261

 Biggest Rival
o The main rival of Empire magazine is Total Film Magazine.
o It is Published by Future Publishing and it’s circulation is 85,031 .
o Its readership profile is
o Future Publishing was sold to Pearson PLC for £52.7m in 1994, but
bought back in 1998.
 In what ways has the magazine become more
than just a magazine?
• Empire magazine’s website offers more than the magazine
would. You can watch trailers on their website for upcoming
and released movies. There is also a daily quiz that changes
each day and relates to a certain actor/actress/director.
• There is also a blog and a forum that editors and readers can
update themselves and discuss topics they think are
important and interesting. The website can also archive
reviews on a much broader range of topics from DVD,
games, TV and soundtracks. In the magazine, only a few
reviews for each topic can be fit in.
• The websites of Empire and Total film magazine are similar.
However, upon first glance, Empire seems tidier and easier
to navigate than total film. Also Empire has more to look at
and read about, and also has a blog, interviews, images and
a daily quiz section. Empire magazine’s website also sticks
to it’s house style with the masculine black, yellow and red
colours. Whereas Total film is plain white and red and
contains too much information to look at on the homepage.

I think Empire would be more successful than Total Film. This

is because empire has been around longer and contains
more features than total film. Empire also has a wider variety
of ways to enjoy the magazine such as subscribing and
buying online or on the apple iPad. Total Film does however
on the homepage advertise following them on facebook,
twitter, youtube, tumblr and digg.com. Total Film is also
advertised to be available on the Apple iPhone.
 The Future
• If I were the editor of Empire, I would make sure that as the
different films came out that the magazine changed with the
genres to keep everyone happy. I would include a really wide
range of genres so that there is something for everyone and vary
them through the months.
• Empire magazine already has a new app for the iPad. You are
also able to subscribe and buy the latest issue online. In the future
I think Empire will be available in all sorts of formats, meaning that
you could have the magazine anywhere, anytime you wanted.