Process of production of a magazine

Talking about technical skills as well as the process of production of a magazine. Enjoy.

1. PROCESS OF PRODUCTION OF A MUSIC MAGAZINE Tia Jackson, A2 Media Studies

2. DATE OF PRODUCTION The first thing that the magazine producers have to do is set up a date of publication – a date that they will aim for the magazine to be published by to the general public. Once the date is estimated and is planned out - including a time for it to be sent off – they create a schedule that they have to try and stick to, to make sure that the publication is out in time. A schedule is a plan on how they are going to go about the production process and when each stage is going to occur.

3. MANAGING THE SCHEDULE Its essential for the production of the magazine as well as the quality of its manufacture, if the magazine is to reach its deadline then, all staff have to stick to the schedules, times and dates. Schedules will always have a Plan B to the production this is so if something goes wrong or a step in the plan has to be re done or is late, there is still structure – without structure the magazine wouldn’t be completed in time. A correct, efficient schedule is key in meeting the deadline.

4. EDITORIAL & BUDGETARY DECISION The next step that is taken in the production process of a magazine is the editorial decision, the editorial team assemble what topics will cover the front page of the magazine, coming up with new stories, articles, illustrations and photographs that will be featured within the magazine. The team then make the budgetary decisions. Here, they look at the money that is available to them and how they can use as little money as possible to create the best magazine.

5. CONTENT ACQUISITION The content acquisition process is possible the most important step in the whole process, because without content they don’t have a magazine. There is two ways of collecting content for a magazine and that is though in – house staff writers and the second way would be external writers that are commissioned to write on topics. After it gets handed to the graphics and artwork department, the artwork is determined as illustrations and pictures are then added, graphics are the pictures or images that are designed by computer program. As well as a lot of research from journalists or reporters into the topics that are being featured, this can also be done through the internet and databases. Meetings are also arranged with interviewees.

6. SUB-EDITING Sub editing focuses on one major thing; quality control. If the organisation is big enough to have sub editors, then the editor and sub editor both take part in constructing the magazine. Although is the organisation is smaller then there will only be one editor and they will have to do it all themselves. The editors and or sub editors have to; Check for accuracy of all facts and articles Making sure words are spelt correctly Grammar and punctuation is correct Checking all articles follow the house style Working on page layout

7. PAGE LAYOUT In big publications such as music magazines, there is a specific team that specialises on checking and sorting the layout of the magazine. They have to check, typeset and layout various pages and then make the magazine come together as a whole. Whilst preforming this task they use Powerful Desktop Publishing (DTP) programs such as InDesign or Pagemaker to complete the task. Its at this stage that adverts from advertisers are placed into the content.

8. PROOFREADING The editorial department will print out a hardcopy of a magazine for the purse to proofread and to check the layout as well as everything else, they have to make sure that this draft is perfect for destitution. Any mistakes that are spotted are quickly changed on the DTP file, the editorial team keep proofreading until every member is satisfied that there are no mistakes and that all mistakes have been corrected.

9. FILE EMAILED TO PRINTER After proofreading the DTP file of the entire magazine is sent to the printer, then the file is checked that everything is there that needs to be, but before the printing company prints hundreds of thousands of copies, they print a few copies to send back to the organisation to make sure they are happy with the product, if the organisation is satisfied then the printers are given the go ahead to print the hundreds of thousands of copies.

10. DISTRIBUTION The last stage of the process of production for a magazine is the distribution of the product, the printing company after printing all the necessary copies they then package them neatly and send them to a warehouse. From the warehouse, the magazines are then distributed and then sold to the public.