For the Love of Print
Making magazines is a creative endeavor like no other. If you know, you know. A small band of industry veterans has set out to capture that essence—the pure … magic?, the vexing challenges, the uncertain future—in a popular podcast that’s documenting the industry and looking to what may lie ahead.
By Sean Plottner
Whatever happened to the magazine business?
Its golden age came and went during the latter part of the 20th century, opening in the 1960s and closing out with two decades of nonstop flourish and creativity in the 1980s and 1990s, when megapublishers such as Time Inc. and Hearst Magazines and Condé Nast ruled the newsstand. The best magazines monitored the pulse of our culture, created communities, and innovated relentlessly. They were the original influencers.
Today the huge circulations, familiar brands, billions of ad dollars, celebrity editors, and inventive magazine-making that only print enables have all slipped under the surface. Print-based purveyors of the culture have given way to technology. The ugly phrase “content creation” has wormed its way into the vernacular, shoving “magazine making” aside. Digital rules. Is this all the fault of a guy named Jobs? Did the magazine behemoths contribute to their own demise by failing spectacularly at monetizing and planning their digital futures?
Yes and yes. Yet, as the podcast Print is Dead (Long Live Print!) reveals, the answers are far more complicated—and intriguing.
Supercharge Your Socials
Use these tips to increase your magazine’s social media reach and engagement.
By Cassandra J. Sproles
I had been out of college for two decades by the time I began working on my master’s degree in the fall of 2020 at the University of Tennessee, where I also work as executive editor of the alumni magazine and on the university’s main social media team.
WAIT! Don’t leave yet!
This isn’t a story about how I persisted through the pandemic to earn a graduate degree after being out of school for so long. This is a story about how I used what I was learning in my strategic and digital communications program to be a better magazine editor, make my work more valuable to my managers and, most importantly, get more eyes on our stories and important messages.
Design: Is There Such a Thing as Plug-and-Play?
What happens when an art director goes to implement a packaged redesign …on the oldest magazine in North America? Consultant and art director Carol Moskot shares her uniquely inside view.
By Carol Moskot
Five years ago, I hopped on a plane to my hometown of Toronto for a meeting with the editors of the 190-year-old United Church Observer, North America’s longest continuously published magazine. I was there to discuss their plans to rebrand.
Editor and publisher Jocelyn Bell and consultant Sharon McAuley had written a roadmap for repositioning the magazine, and I was submitting a proposal to produce a visual redesign that would reflect this new direction. If awarded the work, I would supply a complete redesign “package” that would be implemented by an as-yet-hired art director (and one-person art department). My 16-page proposal outlined my process and approach in three phases: discovery, design, and development. Shortly after the meeting, I was selected for the job.
Fall 2024 / Winter 2025 Departments
Press Check: The Last Step—and Opportunity—On the Way to Print
Have you ever wondered whether you should “go on press check” at your printer? And, if you’ve never gone before, what you’d look for when arriving press-side?
Technology has advanced so much that a press check is certainly not required to ensure a quality and color-accurate product. But, it can be a great learning experience for people unfamiliar with the printing process. And for designers and art directors schooled in color, it’s an opportunity to weigh in on the final color for your print project. We asked folks on both sides of the web offset printing equation (press checkers and press operators) for their perspectives on press checks and how to make them most fruitful.
Launching a New Title … Inside an Existing One
By Julie Craven Wagner
It should come as no surprise that the staff at Cape Cod Life Publications enjoys a certain lifestyle that matches well with the brand of the company. With our flagship title, Cape Cod LIFE, we are all fiercely committed to celebrating and protecting the fragile environment that inspires and energizes us every day. Our popular and highly acclaimed Cape Cod HOME product showcases the history and beauty that is found at every turn across our region. And Cape Cod ART provides the perfect intersection for unique and talented interpretation of the special place we all choose to call home.
It was an easy decision to add a new magazine to our portfolio, Cape Cod DOG, an idea that was universally endorsed by everyone as soon as they learned of it. We know that dogs occupy a special place in the lives of most residents and visitors and that they are alongside for many of their owners’ Cape Cod adventures. We were certain we could identify, craft, and share stories that would appeal to dog lovers, regardless of their connection or proximity to Cape Cod. What we didn’t know was whether our vision would resonate with advertising supporters.
Cool Cover
By Kris Cambra & Kelly McMurray
Our collaboration always begins with a predesign meeting where- in our editorial team presents the issue’s stories to our creative team in an unstructured, ‘here’s the cool stuff we’ve learned’ style to get creative inspiration flowing. For this cover story, the writer explained that there’s so much about RNA that scientists don’t know—how could we convey this sense of missing information to the reader?
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