The birth of a magazine: a report from the printing house. Newspaper business plan How to make printed publications popular again

In contact with

Classmates

From this article you will learn

How to create your own magazine
Why you need to create your own journal
What circulation to choose when creating a magazine
Where to order a print of the magazine

For a long time, reading was one of the most common pastimes. However, with the advent of new technologies, live newspapers and magazines have largely faded into the background. Now the Internet has become the main source of current news, knowledge on various topics, entertainment and educational materials. Yet the print media continues to exist. Some people turn to their publications when there is no access to the network, for example, while traveling by plane and train. Others simply prefer sometimes to take a break from the computer and flip through the paper pages. One way or another, the life of printed newspapers and magazines has not yet ended, and in this area you can develop your business. How to create a magazine that will be interesting to the audience and bring profit to the owner, you will learn in this article.

How to Create Your Own Journal from Scratch: 13 Steps (with Pictures)

Step 1. Decide which magazine to create.

To create your own magazine, you first need to decide on a topic. Any printed publication seeks to occupy its niche, find its audience. To do this, it must meet the interests of the selected group of readers and satisfy their needs for information. Another option is the yellow press format. There is no specific topic here, and the audience of such publications is quite wide. To create one issue of such a magazine, you need several sensational materials about the personal lives of stars with unique photographs.

A distinctive feature of the yellow press is, first of all, the absence of a criterion for the reliability of information. The question is whether the publisher plans to create a magazine about the stars and publish only real facts and photographs in it, or he wants to deal with "hot" materials and provocations.

Decide whether you are planning a single magazine or a whole series. If this is a serial publication, all issues should have a common theme.
The name of the journal should, one way or another, correspond to its semantic content, as well as suggest design ideas. As a rule, the name consists of one or two words (TIME, Guardian, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic).
What is the main message of each publication? How can you connect it with the others?
Each issue of the journal may have its own topic, corresponding to its focus. For example, a fashion week for a fashion magazine or organizing a wedding for a woman.
It is important to clearly formulate the theme of each issue or series of issues.
In well-known publications, there were such examples of issue names: "Swimwear" for Sports Illustrated, "Hollywood" for Vanity Fair, "September" for Vogue.

How to create a magazine so that it makes a profit? The publication has only two sources of income: proceeds from the sale of rooms and from advertising that is placed in them. Finding advertisers for a magazine starts with identifying their industry. Your audience should be interested in what you will advertise - then all parties will be successful. For example, fashion magazines rarely offer furniture or household appliances, but cosmetics, clothes and jewelry will do.

To create an effective system of interaction with advertisers, publishers hire special employees. A price list with prices for posting various messages is being developed. Of course, at first you will receive much less for publishing ads than well-known competitors. But if you manage to create a magazine that attracts attention, income will increase over time.

Step 3 Decide how you will write your journal.

To create Science Magazine, entertainment or any other publication, it is important to decide on the method of collecting and combining information. Here are some important aspects:

The publications created with the help of computer programs are the most familiar to people. However, you can design a magazine without using them - this is one of the fashionable print trends. Of course, this will require much more time and effort, and only a fairly experienced person can make this idea a reality.
You can create a log in several programs. The most popular, although quite expensive, is InDesign. In addition to it, InCopy, Quark and some other technical means are used.
The most economical way to create a magazine is with Office Publisher.

Step 4. Find an office and the right employees.

To create glossy magazine, you need a working room for a team of 5 to 10 people. Favorable office location is not the most important criterion, because at first you will mainly drive, and not to you. The equipment will help to arrange the workspace. For a media office, the standard set includes: desks and chairs, telephones, computers, a printer and a fax machine, and various stationery.

It does not matter whether we create a magazine about literature or about fashion, the basis of any publication is professional employees. The chief editor manages everything that happens in the office. The selection of a person for this position should be treated with special attention. He must have extensive media experience and good references.

The editor-in-chief creates and corrects the entire structure of the journal. He decides which articles and how many to place in each issue, in what order to arrange them, which headings to enter or close, which advertisers to cooperate with, etc. He is also responsible for regularly ascertaining the level of demand for the publication, polling readers about its strengths and weaknesses, and changing strategy in accordance with the results. The editor-in-chief should be well aware of modern trends, be aware of new trends and ensure that the journal keeps up with the times.

Not less than important employees are the authors of the articles. Your friends or acquaintances can act as them, they can also be found on ads or among students of humanitarian universities. The author must be able to create unique text, possessing literacy and connectedness, objectively covering the facts, but at the same time conveying the author's individuality.

It is impossible to prepare a magazine without such an employee as a designer. It depends on him appearance publications, and hence the first impression of him. The designer must:

come up with a cover that can attract the attention of readers;
design a branded design for a magazine;
develop symbols, various design details, etc.

As practice shows, the ability to create a successful magazine half depends on how well the cover design is modeled.

Also, the office definitely needs a secretary, a proofreader, an advertising specialist and some other workers.

Step 5. Calculate the future circulation.

If you want to create a magazine with a circulation of less than 1000 copies, then by law you can not register it. If the circulation is higher, the publication must have a media registration certificate. To receive it, you need to send an application to Roskomnadzor containing information about the journal: title, type, circulation, method of distribution, and much more. You also need a passport of the person who creates the publication, or a copy of the charter legal entity acting as a founder. In addition, the applicant pays the prescribed fee. The term for consideration of such an application is one month.

Step 6. Set deadlines.

It is important not only to know how to create a journal, but also when to release it. Time frames are especially important for those publications whose topics are related to news or topical issues. You need to think through the stages of media preparation and understand whether your magazine will be ready at the appointed time.

Step 7. Let's start writing articles.

Turn to topics that concern you and other editorial staff. Maybe it will actual problems your city or the whole country? Or will interviews with interesting personalities become the basis?
You can create a magazine that includes a literary element in the form short stories. It doesn’t matter if they are based on real events or not, the main thing is an interesting plot and relevance in this concept.
Another genre is poetry. The authors can be both famous poets and the publisher himself and his friends.
To create a magazine that is interesting to the audience, it is reasonable to involve as many people around you as possible in the discussion of topics.

Step 8. Making illustrations.

No matter how important the text component is, it is simply impossible to create a successful edition without illustrations. Now people are increasingly perceiving information visually, and this is of great importance.

You can not do without thematic photos that complement the content. Also useful are photographs with neutral space to create an interesting backdrop for text.
If your state has good photographer, he can lead an entire photojournalism project. It is necessary to choose a topic that is well revealed through visual images, and publish several pictures in each issue.
You can also use other people's pictures with a Creative Commons license. You will not need to pay for them, however, the terms of use sometimes imply a prohibition on modification, a mandatory signature, etc.
How to create a magazine if you don't have the required snapshots? They can be purchased at the so-called stocks. These sites contain a huge number of images, among which you are sure to find something suitable.
You can also create a colorful edition with the help of author's illustrations, if you or your employees have the necessary skills.

Step 9. Preparing the cover of the magazine.

The cover should create intrigue, interest the reader so that he wants to open the publication and study the materials. There are several tricks for this.

Pay special attention to the title of the journal. As a rule, from room to room it is performed in the same style. The title should be understandable, original and memorable and, of course, reflect the thematic direction of the publication.
Traditionally, the title is placed at the top of the cover, in the most prominent place. However, you can create your own layout concept, as, for example, the publishers of Harper's Bazaar did.
Consider what image will be on the cover of the new issue. It should also be attractive and relevant to the proposed theme. Very often a photograph is placed on the cover famous person, the material about which appears in the journal. The format can be different - from hidden shooting to a professional portrait.
You can also put brief explanations about the content of the issue on the cover. You can highlight just the main theme, as TIME does, or go into more detail about a few pieces, like Cosmopolitan. It is important not to overdo it with the amount of text so that the cover you create is not overloaded.

Step 10 Selecting the final look for your magazine.

How to create a magazine that has an attractive and finished look? You need to pay attention to:

Font. It should provide comfortable reading and not strain the eyes, as well as be combined with the overall style. It is important that all fonts used fit together.
paper. First of all, you need to make a choice between a glossy and matte base.
Colors. There are many options here. To save money, some magazines are printed in black and white or a combination of color and black and white printing. However, the most successful editions are produced exclusively in color. The choice depends on financial possibilities and on the direction of the magazine that you want to create.

Step 11. Deciding how to arrange the content.

When thinking about how to create a magazine, we must not forget about the composition. Different mutual arrangement of materials creates a different final product.

A table of contents is often placed at the beginning of the publication. Before it, you can also place several pages with advertising information.
The next element is the colophon. This is information about the journal: title, volume, number, place of publication, list of employees who worked on the issue, etc.
It is also necessary to arrange the articles one after another correctly. Usually the most interesting is placed in the second part of the issue, so that readers can watch it to the end.
You can also play with the design of the back cover. As a rule, it serves as a kind of decoration for the publication: something interesting or funny is placed there, making readers smile. So you can create a memorable

Step 12 Create the layout of the magazine.

Now you know what kind of magazine you want to create in terms of content and design. The layout software will help you arrange the content on the layout. When preparing a layout, there are a few rules to keep in mind:

Formatting should be the same on all pages. Use a small number of matching fonts, keep borders and numbering in the same places. It is necessary to create a publication that has a holistic style.
Don't forget about pagination.
Make sure the final layout contains an even number of pages. This is important because an odd number will result in a blank sheet.
If you want to create a magazine without using special programs, you need to decide on a method. Whether you print it or write it by hand, how to attach photos, etc.

Step 13. Publishing the magazine.

For beginner publishers, the best way to print media is to contact a print shop. The choice of a company should be taken responsibly, because the quality of your magazine depends on the quality of its work. However, there are a few tips about the characteristics of the publication that everyone should know:

The most convenient for use is a medium-sized magazine. On the one hand, you can place a sufficient amount of text and illustrative materials in it. On the other hand, it will always be convenient to carry even in a small handbag.
Do not make the pages too bright and "glassy". Reflection of light from them makes it difficult to read the magazine and perceive images.
the building should not be too thick. It will be difficult for you to fill a large number of pages with interesting material, and readers will not have time to study them until the next issue.

Correlate the appearance and principle of creating your media with its moral image. So, many readers are sure that the production of glossy magazines harms environment. Accordingly, such a journal on environmental topics will raise a lot of questions. Despite the ability to perform this task without harm to the environment, it is still better to prefer matte paper.
Use promotions such as free transfer copies to libraries. So he knows about you large quantity of people.
How to create a magazine that brings a stable income? A flexible subscription strategy will help. Thanks to her, you will have a permanent group of readers and will be able to communicate with them.
Quark is considered one of the most difficult programs to use, but the wide range of features it provides makes you think about learning it.
To bring your magazine to a wider audience, try self-publishing it.
An introductory page can be placed before the editorial column. Use it to tell about your publication, to create the right impression about how and for whom it works. Try to connect with the audience, pay attention interesting facts etc.
Several programs can be used to create a journal. For example, Text-Edit allows you to quickly and easily prepare and edit articles. You can arrange text and illustrations on the layout using InDesign.
How to create a magazine that is interesting to a large audience? It can be very difficult to achieve this goal right away. It makes more sense to start with a small group of readers whose interests are easier to calculate. It will also save you from the cost of a large circulation, which may not pay off.
To create a successful magazine, you need to establish good relationships with advertisers. To do this, they are provided with a layout of the publication and a price list for advertising. Determination of prices depends on many factors, including circulation, cost of a copy, etc.
Advertising is very important element in the activities of the journal. It is not possible to create a profitable media without promotional materials. Having decided on your target audience, you need to start looking for companies that are interested in reaching out to it. The advertised product should be of interest to those people who will buy your magazine. It is also important to understand how many pages you can give away for advertising. The publisher must know what percentage of all materials it must be in order for the sale of the circulation to be profitable.
Do not believe the belief that the print media is in the decline of its existence. Despite the development of technology, many magazines are still popular among the audience. It is only important to understand what topic will be of interest to readers, what niche you can occupy. To do this, before you create a magazine, you should thoroughly study the market for print publications. It is also important to correctly relate the topic to the format, for example, digital printing or paper is suitable for it.

In contact with

As you know, the editorial office of our magazine is located in Moscow on Polkova Street, not far from the Savelovskaya metro station. This is where editors come up with topics and write articles by tapping on their computer keyboards. However, a magazine that shines with glossy covers and smells of printing ink is born elsewhere.

Three basic methods for printing on paper

In a five-minute walk at a brisk pace from the Pechatniki metro station, inconspicuous buildings are located. The largest printing house in Moscow, Pushkinskaya Ploshchad, is located here, where several dozen monthly and weekly magazines are printed. Including the one you are holding in your hands - "Popular Mechanics". For our anniversary - the 100th issue - we decided to tell how our magazine is printed.

Leave a mark on paper

There are several ways to get an image on paper. Most old way, dating back to the pioneer printer Gutenberg, who invented in the 1440s a method of printing using raised mirrored letters, from which he typed lines, is still used, as in the old days, for printing books - this is the so-called letterpress printing. The parts of the printing plate that apply ink to the paper where the image should be left (they are called printed elements) are made convex, and the blank elements are recesses. Text editions are still printed in this way, especially one-two-color ones - for example, books.

Gravure printing uses forms in which the printed elements are indentations and the blanks are bulges (in the same plane). After applying the ink to the form and before printing, the ink is removed from the blank elements. Since this method reproduces halftones well, it is used, for example, to obtain printed products with many high-quality full-color illustrations.

Printing methods differ in the configuration of printed and blank elements on printing forms. In letterpress printing, printed elements are located above whitespace. A layer of ink is applied to the printed elements with a roller, which is then transferred to the paper. In the gravure printing method, printed elements are recessed relative to whitespace. The ink is applied to the entire printing plate, and then removed from the blank elements with a squeegee. In this case, the depth of the cells of printed elements can be variable, which makes it possible to reproduce halftones very well. In the flat printing method, blank and printed elements are on the same level, but differ in their wettability. Thus, the ink is retained only on the printed elements, from where it is transferred to the intermediate (offset) cylinder, and then to the paper.

Offset printing is the most common type of flat printing. In this method, the printed and blank elements are on the same level, but differ in wetting characteristics - the printed elements hold the ink, while the blank elements do not. In addition, the offset method refers to indirect printing methods, that is, the image from the printing plate is first transferred to an elastic cylinder, and from there to paper. Currently, the majority of newspapers, magazines and books are printed using the offset method.

Printing revolutions

Almost until the end of the 19th century, printed matter - newspapers and magazines - were produced using letterpress printing technology, with printers manually typing the printed forms in the form of lines letter by letter. In 1884, the American engineer Ottmar Mergenthaler made the second (after Gutenberg) major revolution in printing - he invented the linotype, a line-moulding machine that largely automated the work of typesetters. This technology was used until the middle of the 20th century, but with the advent of offset printing and phototypesetting, it had to make room. The last step towards modern technology for the production of printed publications occurred in the late 1980s - early 1990s - it was the beginning of mass use computer technology in prepress and printing processes.

Now it is simply impossible to imagine an editorial office, a prepress department or a printing house without computers. Meanwhile, back in the 1970s, the creation of journals looked like this in a simplified form: the authors gave their articles in the form of manuscripts to the editorial office, where they were reprinted on typewriters and gave it to the set from which proof prints were made. They were photographed to create an original layout - images on film. This image was projected onto metal plates coated with a photosensitive layer, which were then subjected to chemical etching. As a result of these processes, forms for offset printing were obtained. With the advent of phototypesetting machines, technology became simpler, and when computers took their place on desktops, it took on almost modern look— layout of publications was carried out with the help of computer programs, after which photoforms for making offset printing plates were output on special printers. Now the technology looks even simpler - CTP technology (computer-to-plate, directly from a computer layout to a printed form) is almost universally used.

Plate output devices are specialized laser printers that print not on paper, but on aluminum plates coated with a heat-sensitive substance (in the photo - a blue layer). An infrared laser forms an image by heating a layer, which, under the action of heat, changes its properties. The developer dissolves the exposed areas, forming gaps. Then the plates are dried and fired in a special oven to increase the circulation resistance.

Follow the layout

The current technology in a nutshell looks like this. So that readers can take the magazine in their hands, authors and editors write articles - of course, in in electronic format. Designers turn text and pictures into a layout, which, after verification, is sent directly to the printing house, where it is subjected to input control. After the layout is checked for compliance technical requirements printing house, the output of forms begins. The layout is arranged in a special way - the pages of the corresponding form are printed not one at a time, but at once with whole notebooks (in the case of Popular Mechanics, a notebook is 48 pages, that is, 24 on each side of the sheet), and they need to be arranged so that after printing and folding (folding) they ended up in right order. The layout is also divided by colors in accordance with the CMYK subtractive system adopted in printing (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK - cyan, magenta, yellow, black).

“The output of offset printing forms is, in general, printing a layout on a printer,” explains Maria Kondrashova, head of the technological department of the Pushkinskaya Ploshchad printing complex. “Of course, not ordinary, but special — our printing house uses output devices for this forms of the Kodak Trendsetter family. They print with a resolution of 2400 dpi, but not on paper, but on aluminum plates 0.2-0.3 mm thick with a special heat-sensitive coating. Where the laser beam hits the coating, it heats up and changes its properties. After exposure, the plate is developed by washing off the destroyed coating. Then the forms pass through a special oven for drying and firing, during which the coating is strengthened, and consequently, the life of the printing plates is increased. If the resource of ordinary offset forms is several hundred thousand copies, then those that have been fired can already compete with letterpress forms in this indicator - up to a million or more.

After all these processes, a temporary protective coating is applied to the form, which is washed off before printing (it is necessary to protect the forms from dust and dirt before printing). In order to prepare the plates for printing, it remains only to bend and perforate the edges of the plates - for these fasteners, the forms will be attached to the cylinder of the printing machine.

From form to paper

Finished forms installed in a Heidelberg Sunday 4000 web printing machine, on which our magazine is printed. Each plate is placed in the appropriate section, according to the number of colors used - black, cyan, magenta and yellow, in this order printing takes place (the form is automatically installed on the printing cylinder).

And then the machine is started - the paper tape begins to unwind from the roll, passing through the printing sections. The scoreboard above the machine shows the print speed - about 12,000 prints (each of them is a notebook, that is, 48 pages, 24 on one side of the sheet, 24 on the other) per hour. But this is only the beginning: since the colors are printed sequentially, they must be matched exactly, otherwise, instead of full-color quality illustrations, we will see something washed out with color borders in the magazine. To prevent this from happening, the machine is equipped feedback- paper, after paint is applied to it, passes through a spectrophotometer (scanner that measures the intensity of colors). On the margins of the paper there are special signs - color scales and marks for positioning. By measuring their position and intensity, the computer generates signals for the control system, which shifts the printing forms in the corresponding sections in one direction or another and, if necessary, changes the ink supply.

The initial setting of the position of the forms (preparation) in a fully automatic mode takes about 10-15 minutes, while the machine manages to print about 3,500 notebooks - and all of them are sent for processing after grinding in huge shredders and pressing. When the quality of the resulting prints reaches the required level, the print speed is increased - in normal mode it is about 70,000 prints per hour. Printing goes almost non-stop, many necessary technological operations (for example, washing offset cylinders) are carried out directly "on the go" so as not to knock down the settings - only at a reduced speed (defective notebooks are again sent for recycling). All this happens automatically, although if necessary, an operator can intervene in the process, observing the print performance and deviations of various parameters from the set values on the control monitors. But the need for such an intervention rarely arises.

Climate control

Print quality depends on many factors, not the least of which is ambient humidity (paper behaves differently with different moisture content). Therefore, in the workshops of Pushkin Square, where printing machines are installed, you can see air humidifiers. Small discs, similar to outlandish UFOs, “hover” in orderly rows under the ceiling, throwing out jets of the smallest water dust. They can be turned on automatically or manually.

Since the printing speed is high, the ink does not have time to dry naturally, so the paper passes through the drying section, and then through the folding machine, which folds - folding the sheet so that after cutting the order of the pages in the notebook is correct. The machine is also equipped with a spine gluing and three-sided trimming system so that it can produce finished 48-page editions or 32-page stapled editions. But in the case of Popular Mechanics, this does not apply, since the magazine consists of several notebooks and, in addition, different paper and a separate process are used for the cover.

An offset printing machine consists of several colorful sections, each of which is responsible for printing in its own color: four main printing presses - CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK - cyan, magenta, yellow, black), as well as additional ones - non-standard colors such as gold or silver, UV inks, etc. Ink from a plate cylinder with a printed form is transferred first to an intermediate offset cylinder made of elastic material, which gave the name to the method (from the English offset - displacement, shift), and then from the offset cylinder to paper.

Goods face

The cover, without any doubt, is the face of the magazine, and its printing is worth mentioning separately. For the cover, thicker and heavier paper is used, folded into stacks of sheets. Therefore, a sheet-fed press from the Heidelberg Speedmaster family is used here. The principle of printing it is the same as that of roll printing, the only difference is in paper - it no longer runs through the printed sections as a continuous tape, but is fed by a special device that grabs the sheets with suction cups. This is a slower process - maximum speed printing is about 16,000 prints per hour. On a sheet of such paper, four sets of Popular Mechanics covers are printed simultaneously (on both sides).

“Many magazines varnish their covers,” says Maria Kondrashova. “Therefore, the machine has a varnishing section with a dryer. In addition, we have several machines that allow us to print not four colors, but five or six, that is, using one or two additional non-standard colors from the Pantone catalog or, for example, silver, gold.” One of the notebooks in the April 2008 issue of Popular Mechanics was printed in a similar way (although not in Pushkinskaya Square) - it used fluorescent paint as an additional one, which glowed under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.

Assembling on a conveyor

The last step in creating our magazine is the assembly itself. On the line of glueless binding, a special machine folds notebooks in the right order, cuts and glues at a speed of about 8,000 copies per hour. The path from the layout to the finished magazine takes Popular Mechanics about a week.

Advertising supplements and booklets, if necessary, are inserted into the magazine on the copy packaging line, after which the finished magazines are wrapped in film and stacked in packs. True, according to Maria Kondrashova, the machine has its limitations - it can place attachments either under the first page of the cover or in a random place inside the magazine. If it is necessary to make an investment on a specific page, robots are powerless here - only manual labor can solve this problem.

There is a small nuance in the printing business - the demand for it is decreasing from year to year. But it cannot be said that journals are completely out of date. After all, it was once said that with the advent of the Internet, books can disappear, but in reality everything happens the other way around: books against the backdrop of a chaotic Internet become only more relevant.

Create your own journal: instructions for beginners, tips and secrets

Magazines, unlike newspapers and books, are close to life. Magazine content has always worn practical: were stored in stacks in cabinets, interesting pictures and articles were cut out, constantly passed from hand to hand. How much has the picture changed? Does it make sense to create your own magazine and even make money on it?

To get an answer to such questions, you must first decide on your proposal: what format will the magazine be? Are there analogues on the market? What will be valuable in it that is not in other publications? How will the content be generated? If there are concrete answers to these and other additional questions, then it is definitely worth starting a business.

If the question of how to create your own journal is relevant, then you should pay attention to the areas of work that will constantly accompany the future edition. It is divided into three:

Conceptual part.
Technical questions.
Sales.

This rule applies to everything whether it is a paper publication or electronic journal. Let's consider each direction in detail.

Concept

This is the first step towards creating your own edition. It is necessary to decide what the pages of the publication will tell their readers about? What is the submission format? The magazine can be informational or advertising in nature, it can contain a broad or narrow topic.

In order to create your journal and make it readable, here are some tips for the conceptual part:

You should choose a specific topic than write about everything. It is better to choose an exclusive niche where there is an opportunity to provide narrowly focused and deep materials. If you choose the “a little about everything” system, then there will be no difference from ordinary newspapers. Yes, and the creative staff will constantly dissipate their potential for collecting and processing information instead of creative implementation in one area.
If the magazine is of an advertising nature, then you should take care of the share useful content, which does not aim to sell anything. The reader should understand that he is interested not only in his purchasing power, but also in other problems. We create a magazine cover taking into account such factors.
Choice of serious subjects. Producing a magazine for women, for men, or for mothers is conceptually not difficult at all. Here, the whole relationship with the reader is built on the level of "you have a problem - we have a solution." Another issue is a specialized thematic magazine. For example, topics can be technical (computers are available), religious, medical, and so on. The point is that people have no time to go to libraries, and the need for serious information is always relevant. In order to create your own magazine in this role, of course, you will need work and potential.

Technical questions

Here it is useful to consider two options. When everything is clear with the concept, you can implement the magazine in electronic or paper form. It all depends on features target audience. For example, young people under the age of 30 practically do not buy printed publications, but prefer to read everything on the Internet. For them, the question of what kind of magazine to create and where to sell it is not relevant.

If it's about age category plus 55-60, then the opposite is true - people buy newspapers and magazines in the old fashioned way. The best option is a combination of a printed edition with an electronic format.

In the first case, the layout of the magazine is required. This process requires active participation professional designer, artist, editor and proofreader. It is good if in the early stages a novice publisher can handle such types of work himself.

If we are talking about how to create your own magazine and its electronic format, then here, depending on the distribution option, a print layout or a reformatted version can be used. Electronic version may be in the form of a website, blog, downloadable file or in another form. In any case, it is important to take care of the support of the mobile format. This issue is also within the scope technical specialists.

Sales

In the chain of analysis of questions about how to create an electronic magazine or a paper publication, the question of sales has every right to be in the first position. It is a sad sight when the circulation is printed, the money is spent, the labor is invested - and there is no one to read.

The print market is a pretty tough environment. No wonder they say that the printed edition lives one day. per century information technologies the lifetime of storage media has been further reduced. Therefore, sales must be arranged in such a way that the entire print run is distributed to the points of sale on the day of release from the printing house.

The next task number one will also be exactly this. If the circulation remains on the second or third day, then there is practically no chance of selling it. From this follows the next point in the plan - marketing strategy.

Marketing

Pledge successful business- high sales. Sales will be when a potential client knows about our offer. This will only help marketing. Ideally, marketing promotions on your magazine should start long before the first issue comes out.

Internet. Thematic resources, sites with high traffic and social networks.
Printable advertisement. There is no prohibition to advertise your magazine in other magazines, at the same time it will be possible to find out the cost of advertising from competitors in order to set an attractive price yourself.
Advertising on TV or radio.

Periodicity

The question of how to create a journal requires the study of this issue from all sides. Periodicity is important for the publisher himself: he must have time to prepare full content a new issue, organize the work of the team to fill out the magazine every time at the same time interval and have time to prepare money for printing, which is important.

There are magazines that are printed weekly. Most come out once a month. There are even those that come out once a year or once a quarter. It all depends on the subject matter of the magazine. Also, the magazine is distinguished by a solid amount of information, which is unlikely to be mastered by any of the readers in a week. From this point of view, rarer publications are perceived by readers as normal.

Monetization

The goal of any business is profit. Such a creative process as publishing your own magazine is no exception. There are several ways to earn from your publication:

Placement of advertising.
Image materials to order.
Sales proceeds.

At first, it may be more difficult to place ads, as a business needs a solid audience. But if you publish interesting things in your magazine, useful materials and sell it where the target audience has a chance to see it, then advertising indicators will also reach a new level.

What to focus on?

It is assumed that the novice publisher has the necessary amount of money for printing. This allows him not to be scattered on heterogeneous work, but to focus on the creative part of his publication. It is important not only to attract the attention of potential readers, but also to make sure that it is bought.

If one edition sells well, then it should be remembered that another can also be sold in the same way, because a good, informative issue will itself serve as an advertisement for future issues. For the electronic format, it is also necessary to continuously look for the best ways to market and improve the existing ones.

Conclusion

At the first stage, difficulties, blockages, delays from the schedule or other unforeseen problems are possible. Almost all publishers go through this. Each of them learns from mistakes, from their own and others' experience.

Errors can affect not only spelling in the text. They can be phrased as "failed to create log file" - technical plan or "low sales figures" - of a marketing nature. You need to learn how to eliminate them in a timely manner and carry your bright idea to the masses until it has forgotten how to read.

In recent years, the paper press is giving way to online media more and more positions: the circulation of magazines and newspapers is falling, and the high cost of "paper" makes it less and less attractive in the eyes of investors compared to online periodicals. In search of a way out, paper publications are beginning to master modern technologies - in order to at least fight off claims of archaism. At the end of April, the American newspaper The New York Times introduced its own application for glasses Google Glass - it will read articles aloud to the user. Other print media, in an attempt to retain the reader, resort to "augmented reality", "digital watermarking" and "video on paper" technologies.

Actually, very little is known about The New York Times application for Google Glass. The newspaper was the first media outlet to agree on cooperation with Google and their "computer of the future", and in general one of the first companies working in this direction. In addition to it, applications are being developed, in particular, for Gmail, Evernote notebook, Skitch, a drawing exchange service, and a client social network Path. It is also interesting that The New York Times was the first application for Google Glass, developed by a third-party manufacturer, and not by Google itself.

Google Glass users (the company has already sold about a thousand pairs of glasses to developers for testing) can install the newspaper app by giving it access to their Google account. The news application will set the agenda for the user, selecting the main events and notifying him of breaking news. Announcement of material from brief description will be displayed on the glasses screen - with a nod of the head, a Google Glass user can ask to read any article aloud to him.

Despite the fact that The New York Times is consistently among the top three most read newspapers in the United States, the publication has long been betting on digital content - this is evidenced by the fact that the NYT website, with more than 30 million unique visitors per month, is the most popular news portal in America. Hence the understandable mutual interest of the publication in Google with its high-tech glasses.

However, not only developers of various mobile devices are interested in cooperation with the press, but also advertisers, for whom "paper" is still a valuable advertising space. So, Microsoft proved that not only glasses, but also an ordinary magazine can be turned into an innovative device if desired. The company built a Wi-Fi router into the May issue of Forbes - a palm-sized device was placed in cardboard packaging inside a magazine. After activation, the router can distribute the Internet to five devices via the US network. mobile operator T Mobile. It charges through the Mini-USB port - charging lasts for three hours. The router for Forbes readers was developed as part of advertising campaign Microsoft Office 365 cloud service.

A similar technique was used in Entertainment Weekly: in 2012, the television network The CW placed its advertisement in the publication in the form of an LCD screen. In real time, a stream of Twitter messages about the company's new series was displayed on the screen and videos about telenovelas were shown. Journalists from Mashable opened the page with the screen and found out that the motherboard of an outdated smartphone connected to 3G and a battery are sewn into it. Employees of the technology portal even managed to enter the menu of this phone and make a call from it.

However, the new idea of The CW television network, in fact, can only be called the introduction of a stream of tweets into the magazine - the very technology of "video on paper" (Video-In-Print) has been used in the United States for several years now. And the trend was set by the same Entertainment Weekly magazine - in 2009, the CBS television company, together with the beverage manufacturer Pepsi, placed a special advertising tab in it. From the video screen built into the page, the characters of the television series "The Big Bang Theory" addressed the reader. The innovative Pepsi and CBS ads went on to win the Cannes Lions Grand Prix in the Print category.

Video-In-Print technology came to Russia in November 2010, when an advertising Martini Gold appeared in Vogue magazine. After some time, video ads appeared in magazine Playboy, however, in general, this expensive technology (however, the advertiser bears the cost) has not yet taken root in the Russian media.

While the primary use of Video-In-Print is still in advertising, advances in technology have allowed magazines to start using video as an adjunct to content as well. For example, the sports magazine Sports Illustrated in 2012 used the technology of “digital watermarking” (“digital watermarking”) to present its own video materials. The principle of its operation is similar to QR codes - with the difference that the "watermarks" on the magazine page are invisible, in contrast to the conspicuous black and white QR squares. By installing the required application, a Sports Illustrated reader could point their smartphone camera, for example, at the image of an American football player on a specially marked page and watch a video from a photo session. The same technique was used in the magazine to advertise the new Toyota - in the video, a young man talked about the advantages of the car.

The technology of "digital watermarking" was first used by the magazine's publishers in a special edition - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. True, instead of an athlete, the reader could watch a video with models in swimsuits.

Another popular innovation for magazines with large advertising sections was another iteration of the "shop on the couch" - the ability to make purchases at the touch of a button. To do this, just download a special application and point your smartphone camera at the image desired product in edition. In 2011, for example, such an issue was published by AHAlife, a homewares magazine.

In November 2012, the American men's magazine Esquire also presented its interactive version with online shopping. The app, developed by Netpage, also allowed the user to save articles and photos to their phone and share content they liked without going to the magazine's website. In fact, Esquire introduced one of the most convenient options for integrating print and online media, thus paving the way for the survival of the paper press.

Esquire magazine, however, has always been distinguished by special attention to technical innovations. So, back in 2008, the publication presented a cover using electronic ink - the words “The 21st century begins now” appeared and disappeared on it. Inside, the same technology "moved" the cars on the advertising strips.

In 2009, Esquire presented an issue with another popular technology - “augmented reality” (“augmented reality”). Bringing the magazine to the computer camera, the reader could see Robert Downey Jr. "revived" - he was conducting a virtual tour of the innovative issue. Inside the magazine, Hollywood actors, including Jeremy Renner and Michael Stuhlbarg, in an original fashion section, changed clothes depending on weather conditions, and actress Gillian Jacobs from the series "Community" in one of the most famous columns of Esquire told a joke.

The technology of "augmented reality" was also used by other print media. The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung used it in its magazine supplement in 2010. In “augmented reality”, the actress on the cover of the magazine began to move and smile, and inside the issue, the winner of Eurovision 2010 Lena Meyer-Landrut began to “talk” like comic book characters. In one of the materials devoted to how the Bavarians feel about Germany's bid for the 2018 Olympics, a local farmer looked at his field - when he got into "augmented reality" the same field became car parking.

In April 2013, Britain's The Independent became the first newspaper in the world to use "augmented reality", proving that this technology is not the prerogative of glossy magazines alone. Readers who installed the Blippar app on their smartphones got access to additional materials- for example, to photo galleries, breaking news on the topics of the issue and the forum where they could comment on this or that material. As noted in the project description, Independent+ helps to “build bridges between news on paper and on the Internet.”

Despite the growing popularity modern technologies in the paper press, not all publications can afford such experiments because of their high cost. However, those who can afford it, as a rule, produce such interactive projects in a limited edition. However, the desire of various newspapers and magazines to diversify their content, making it more attractive and convenient for the reader, certainly shows that the paper press is not yet ready to come to terms with forecasts of its imminent death and intends to fight for its rights.