Industrial Context: Bauer Media

 Bauer Media Group is a German multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Hamburg. It operates worldwide and owns more than 600 magazines, over 400 digital products, and 50 radio and TV stations, as well as print shops, postal, distribution, and marketing services. Bauer has a workforce of approximately 15,000 in 13 countries.

Bauer Media has been managed by five generations of the Bauer family. Originally a small printing house in Germany, Bauer Media Group entered the UK with the launch of Bella magazine in 1987. Under the name of H Bauer Publishing, they became Britain's third-largest publisher. Bauer further expanded in the UK with the purchase of Emap Consumer Media and Emap Radio in 2008.

In the UK, there are two divisions of the Bauer Media Group. The original UK business trades as H Bauer Publishing. Its sister company is known as Bauer Media.

H Bauer Publishing brands include women's weekly and TV listings magazines, namely Bella, Take a Break, that's life!, TV Choice, and Total TV Guide along with several puzzle magazines.

In 1987, Bella was H Bauer's first venture into publishing in the UK. In 1990, H Bauer launched a weekly women's magazine named Take a Break. H Bauer also has a sister title, that's life! that launched in 1995. The H Bauer Publishing brand also includes puzzle magazines that carry the Take a Break name.

1991 saw H Bauer's first TV listings publishing with the launch of TV Quick magazine (before the de-regulation of TV listings in March 1991, BBC listings had been restricted by law to Radio Times and ITV/Channel 4 listings to TV Times). TV Quick ceased publication in July 2010. IN 1999, H Bauer launched TV Choice at a much lower price point than other titles on the market. TV Choice overtook its main competitor in February 20088 audited ABCs and has been the number one weekly newsstand magazine in the UK since. In September 2003, H Bauer launched Total TV Guide to cover the increasing number of programmes available on Freeview and satellite or cable services.

Bauer Media is a multi-platform media group, with locations across the UK. Following their purchase of Emap in 2007, The Bauer Media Group acquired a collection of media brands. This includes heat and Grazia as well as a radio portfolio of national radio brands such as KISS FM UK and Magic, and regional radio brands across major UK cities. In 2013, Bauer Media also acquired the Absolute Radio Group fro Times of India.

Bauer Media also broadcasts TV music channels included The Box TV, in a joint venture with Channel 4. In the UK, Bauer Media is the sister company of H Bauer Publishing, which publishes titles including Take A Break.