Institutional Context

Production and Distribution

 

I think IPC Media would be the best company to produce and distribute my magazine because they don't have a magazine like mine and are a successful and experienced company I can rely on. If they are successful, people will buy their magazines. They distribute NME which is a very successful magazine.

 

Stages of Production

 

• Deadlines for when each story must be submitted to the editor.
• Design schedule (graphic designer).
• Editorial board (if there is one) to look over the magazine and add comments.
• Printing deadline.
• Distribution date (sales, marketing, accounts).
• Content plan.
• Detailed plan for each story: Content, Types, modular content (visually pleasing), design mock up, instructions of stories, interviews (journalist, freelance), pictures (photographer).
• Proofread and edit stories.
• Check.

(http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/08/6-steps-for-producing-a-custom-magazine/)

 

How this will effect me

 

I will have to take on all of the roles in italics above, so I will have to expand my skills and will have to be an editor as well as a journalist and a photographer. I'll have to use equipment and software I haven't before and come out of my comfort zone and do jobs I haven't before.

Research

I know someone who used to work in a magazine company so I interviewed her on the different jobs involved and what she did;

After Surveyor magazine, I had also worked on Farmers Weekly doing the same job before I went to Melody Maker. I got upgraded and so took three promotions in a year.

 

I worked on Melody Maker, it was a long time ago, I was about 19 when I started there, I had previously worked on a magazine when I worked there I worked in the department called Print Production. The print production department were at that time divided into areas- classified advertising, and editorial.I worked on the classified advertising side of the mag, during the week the advertsing department would take all the advertising, both from our regular advertisers like the music equipment suppliers, shops etc and the clubs, and venues advertising gigs etc ( one of my jobs was to call the folk clubs and small venues to take the listings for this weeks artists playing at them but the rest of the advertsing was done with the advertising dept and tele sales.

Once a week we would have to go up to Colchester, very early in the morning, I got up at about 5.30am and get the train from Sutton to Liverpool St station and then catch the 7am train to Colchester where the printers were, called QB printers. There we had to check all the galley proofs, it was still hot metal then, so all the men on the compositors benches would make up the pages using slugs, and be able to read the pages upside down and backwards, a pull would be made of each page and we would have to proof read and check that all was correct before the ok was given to print the magazine, sometimes if all this was not finished during the day, we had to stay on until the night shift at the printers came on duty, this was rare but if it happened we slept at the printers and came back the next day.

Towards the end of my time there, there was a 'revolution' in the typesetting and it became computerised, this was a huge deal and not welcomed by all, particularly the many men typestters who had served a seven year apprenticeship to be fully qualified and also well paid, I was the only female there at one time on the floor ( there were secretaries) now with computerisation it meant women like typists with keyboard knowledge could use the new systems coming through.

I suppose some of it has changed but in essence most mags including music ones have a similar structure. You have the editorial dept, that consists of writers/journalists mainly with a few admin staff like secretaries, there is also an advertsing dept where there are tele sales staff taking advertising copy over the phone and by post and by computer. There is a production department where the copy is checked and the print production is overseen both in the office and at the printers. On some mags there will also be a picture library where photos of anything relevent to the magazine will be filed, such as artists, various gigs etc, however this is not always teh case and if photo's are needed they can be bought from photo agencies, also some mags have in house photographers to send out to cover events, but this too is not the usual, and freelance photographers are usually commissioned when needed and the whole magazine is overseen by the Editor. There's also the graphic design department.

There are usually weekly (Monday morning or Friday usually) Editorial meetings to discuss forthcoming magazines and how they are coming along. At the meetings various features will be asigned to particular writers, often record PR companies will send press releases about artists new albums tours etc to promote them and also promotional discs of new albums, singles etc ahead of release in the hope that the magazine will promote their artist and do a feature on them or attend a concert and write up a review on it, free tickets are also sometimes sent for these.

So a feature or cover will be made up of copy written by the writers, with photo's supplied by a picture desk ( if they have one, not all do, I worked on the picture desk on TV Times later on) or by a freelance photographer, or a photo agency, or by the record company, and the layout is put together by the graphic design department (again if they have one, not all do). 

Most magazines have what is called a 'House design' this means that the mag has a defined look. One that uses ceratin sections of the mag for the same sort of content each week (or month) and also the same set of typefaces for body copy, headings etc and of course the Banner heading and strap lines for the cover.

The graphic design department (if they have one) will do the layouts in the house style using both the copy written and photo's, then the editor will look at the layouts either on screen on as a printed layout and approve it or ask for a re design if not happy with it.

On most magazines certain sections have to go to the printers (now done online) almost every day, and then on the press day the final print is made.

Also most magazines have an obituary section in a library of sorts where very famous bods have their career all written up and are updated from time to time, for instance I worked on Melody Maker when John Lennon died and also Bob Marley, both the night before press day, so obits were pulled out and used. Although now there are so many on line sources to use this is less essential now as anyone can google anybody now and get all the info and images they need (much easier than in my day).

Music mags are all aimed at slightly different markets and with differing amounts to spend, and this affects the magazine overall, if it is a large company like IPC, or EMAP they are after market domination and have a lot of in house resources, smaller mags have less and often smaller number of staff who may well have to do more than one defined role on the mag to keep costs down.

*Sidenote* Most mags and newspaper have what is called a 'House Style' (which is a house design) 'House' means the mag really rather than the publishing house (although this is true of DK who do have an overall style for all their books) but House style is different for each mag even within one publishers to give an individual style to each title. #




I learnt from this interview that technology has advanced a lot in the past years, arguably for the better as it has made magazine making much easier and obtaining news stories easily (but making magazines less important as you can look online for the latest news now) but made people redundant. People had many jobs in the magazine industry and took a long time to just publish one magazine. I have also learnt about the different layouts of a magazine ('house design') and the conventions of a magazine.