NEA Task 4 : Research Into An Existing Bauer Film Magazine (Empire)

The film magazine 'Empire' produced by Bauer Media Group is the UK's most popular magazine. They describe themselves as the 'worlds most influential film and entertainment brand'. The brand owns a variety of sectors including a print magazine, podcast, digital edition, website and live event strand. Empire collaborates with the largest film studios, distributors and global filmmakers and create content which is incomparable to other film magazine brands. They interview world famous celebrities like Tom Cruise and shoot clips with renowned actors such as Ryan Reynolds to gain access to the media industry. Empire also works with incredible writers, valuable critics, photographers and talented illustrators to publish premium content and connect with the audience.

Statistics reveal that the Empire's readership is predominantly male with them taking up three quarters of overall readers. The demographic of their audience ranges from 18-40 year olds, who are currently in employment and have received a high level of education and acquired a university degree. Empire's readers are time poor but like to use cinema as a sense of escapism. Audiences now have access to cinematic content 24/7 whether that be accessing it through a mobile device or through their laptop. 

Empire's award winning digital edition enables the print magazine to come to life, it is enhanced with video content and pages with animations created by their design team. Their podcast is a hit too, they have an average of 51,000 downloads every week, featuring news content, answering readers queries and interviewing weekly guests. Additionally the brand hosts live events throughout the entirety of the year. Their most famous event being the Empire Awards show in 2018 which made front page news. 

Empire's target audience differs to the one of my set brief. Empire's audience has a broader age demographic, their readers age from 18-40 years old. Whereas the one in the set brief is primarily 16-25 year old. This is significant as the set brief readership is more likely to not be in full time employment and instead part time or none at all, which is different to Empire's readership as majority of the audience are employed. The set brief target audience is a middle and upmarket media literate audience whereas Empire's is only upmarket.