AOB 5 Distribution and Ownership (Music Press)

NME is owned and distributed by IPC Media, which is in turn owned by Time Inc. At the top of the chain is Time Warner which owns all of these companies. As of mid-2010, Time Warner was the second biggest media and entertainment conglomerate and the worlds largest media conglomerate. Time Warner has many subsidiaries such as New Line Cinema, Time Inc., HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, TheWB.com, Warner Bros., Kids' WB, Cartoon Network,Boomerang, Adult Swim, CNN, DC Comics, Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios and Castle Rock Entertainment. 

Other magazines that IPC publish: 

Amateur Gardening
Rugby World
Golf Monthly
Nuts
What Digital Camera
World Soccer
Yachting Monthly

Handout

- 1991: America Online formed, immediately became one of America's major Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
- 1995: bought out CompuServe, later Netscape became a subsidiary of AOL
- Warner Brothers was one of the five major film studios which dominated Hollywood
- As the system began to collapse, Warner expanded into music and television to create a corporation known as Warner Communications
- 1989: Waner Communication merged with Time Incorporated 
- 1996 - Time Warner underwent another merger with Turner Broadcasting which owned CNN and TCM. 
- AOL's merger with Time Warner was seen as the ideal combination of technology (AOL) and content (Time Warner)

BBC News

- Together AOL and Time Warner would form "The world's first fully integrated media and communications company for the internet century" 
- It was supposedly a merger of equals, however Steve Case of AOL was clearly the senior partner as he embraced Gerald Levin, chairman of Gerald Levin, in front of crowds of excited reporters.
- AOL may have built a large audience of internet users but they proved to be fickle as the years went by
- Time Warner had a collection of old media companies but they struggled to adapt to the online world
- It was Google, not AOL, which changed the world


Why would the audience buy the NME when they could just look at the NME website?

The website requires an internet connection and not everybody has a smartphone to look at the website on the go and some may not even have internet connection at home. Also some people simply prefer to read a standard magazine than a computer or phone screen. The magazine and the website cater to different needs. This is because, unlike magazines like Grazia, there is very little crossover between people who buy the magazine and look at the website.