The Process of Magazine Production

Information taken from here

During my research and planning section of my work I decided to look further into the production of magazines themselves. Some of the information of included in the production of magazines I decided to skip such as flat planning as this production technique is designed for companies who are creating magazines and placing adverts in them, as this is my coursework task I can decide on the adverts I am going to use, making flat planning irrelevant. I have chosen this as I can use some the aspects which are used in normal magazine production to base my own production cycle on, this could also make my work look more professional.

Content
This is one of the key parts of the production cycle and is often at the start of the production cycle. The publishers will often host a meeting in which writers and image designers for the magazine will come together in order to brainstorm their ideas on what the magazine will include. There maybe multiple ideas for different content for the magazine but only one them will make it to the magazine. In order for them to decide this many magazines will use content that is important and popular to their target market, however they must also try new techniques and content in order to bring more members to their target market. The magazine company will have to decide on content which is a good medium of the two, it uses content that is popular and may have been in other issues but also has content which is new and exciting to entice non-readers of the magazine.

Research and Writing
This section follows immediately after the content is decided due to tight time schedules within magazine production. Editorial staff will be in charge of arranging meeting with interviewees and also background topic research using the internet and other sources of information. They will do background research to a specific interview/press conference before they attend it. During these interviews the information is taken and written down, then to be checked and then produced into the magazine content.

Sub-editing
Sub-editing takes place normally before the page layout or during the page layout. The editor will come in and make decisions based upon the interest of quality control and to make sure all the text and items within the magazine will be able to be read/makes sense to the readers. The editor will also make sure that everything follows the house style of the magazine and cut down/expand the writing if there is too little/much.

Production
After all of the articles have been written and the editorial staff and layout staff begin to layout the magazine often using programs such as Quark, Pagemaker and InDesign. The layout team will often be under the influence of the art director and the editorial staff will assist in adding the text to the work. Most of the time publication companies will use templates for their magazine in order to save time, these templates will often include all the house style features which the magazine follows.

Proof Reading
One of the final stages of magazine production. Proof reading is the stage where the magazine is read through by editors and other members of staff to make sure that everything is correct. This part is essential for finding any spelling mistakes or misprints which could make the magazine production look tacky. After proof reading any changes made can then be saved and then sent off to printing.

Distribution/Printing
After the production cycle is complete the magazine is sent to the printer to be produced and then distributed.