Bharat SainiLast Updated on November 14, 2022 by Bharat Saini
For years, media experts have been declaring that “print is dead”. They say that the online world with free-to-access news has made newspapers and magazines redundant. This has been the received wisdom for over a decade now, but print media still persists and, in some cases, is actually growing in popularity. If you’re looking to capitalize on the public’s search for a new form of the magazine in the old form of print media, then this article is for you. Read on to learn how to produce a brand new magazine.
Make a Plan
Magazines really need to include only two things: text and images. These are relatively easy to compile on your own, though the more expertise you bring onto your team, the better you’ll be able to impress people with your new-look magazine. The most important skills that you can bring on to your team are digital magazine design skills. Think here of Adobe InDesign and other similar programs. You’ll also want an editor to bring all the content within the magazine together, though this could of course be yourself, and someone who you can rely on to format images to make them look beautiful.
Content
Your plan should involve everyone who’ll be working on your magazine and whether you’ll be paying them for their services. It should also involve a content plan, which is essentially a wireframe idea of how the magazine will look when it’s finalized and what you’d like to include on its pages. Usually, this means selecting a theme and trying to stick to it, ordering your pages so that the reader has several interesting and exciting features on similar topics as they flick through the magazine. The choice is entirely up to you and your new team of creatives.
Making Money
Not all magazines need to make money. You might simply create one through a labor of love, with no intention to drive a profit and make your magazine into a sustainable business. For those who are attempting to make a profit out of their magazine though, there are two ways to go about this. The first is by selling the magazine for just over what you think the magazine will cost to produce. The second is to bring in advertisers, who you can sell page-spreads so that they can promote their goods. Local magazines should advertise local brands, larger-scale ones should look to larger brands.
Printing Right
After you’ve designed your magazine and you’ve found the right printer for your run, it’ll be time to go for a prototype print to see if you have all the colors perfectly rendered in the first print run. Talk to your printing partner about how you can use the printer to ensure that the colors of your magazine are looking as good as they can and that you’re able to print hundreds of the same magazine without any issues. These tips for large format printers will help you find the right printer for your magazine in case you’re worried that the printing firm you’ve selected won’t be any good.
Making a magazine is remarkably easy in today’s world, so long as you have the skills and the enthusiasm to get things over the line.
